The Charlotte News
Tuesday, May 15, 1956
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Secretary of State Dulles had said this date that Russia's proposed armed forces cut by 1.2 million men within the ensuing year would not appreciably alter Soviet military power but that the U.S. welcomed it, provided it indicated a policy of abstaining from the use of violence in international relations. He told a press conference that the men were to be taken out of uniform, according to an announcement from Moscow the previous day, but might readily be transferred to the manufacture of nuclear weapons, and that therefore the announcement did not provide a basis for reducing U.S. armed strength. He said that the U.S. had cut its forces by more than 9 million men since World War II, from a level of 12.3 million to less than 3 million. He said that the U.S. welcomed the intention to reduce forces in Russia if it proved to be evidence of an intent to forgo the use of force in international affairs, but found that the obvious explanation for it was the need for greater manpower in industry and agriculture. He said that the Soviets had been badly overextended because they had been trying to build up general industry, produce new weapons, cope with an agricultural crisis and develop a foreign aid program. The easiest place they could cut would be in manpower of the armed forces. A reporter had said that the Secretary appeared to imply that he would rather see the manpower continued in uniform, as Mr. Dulles had said that he would rather have the Russians standing around doing guard duty than making atomic bombs.
Senator Walter George of Georgia, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he thought the Russian announcement was possibly encouraging and that it "ought not to be hastily dismissed without careful evaluation." Senator Alexander Smith of New Jersey said in a separate interview that he favored a "wait and see" attitude until it could be determined if Russia was really sincere.
Two Air Force leaders testified this date that the reduction in Russian military forces would not reduce Soviet air-atomic power or the means of increasing it. Secretary of the Air Force Donald Quarles and Air Force chief of staff, General Nathan Twining, told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that the country ought exercise the greatest caution toward changing any of its plans as a result of the announcement, with Secretary Quarles indicating that apparently only 30,000 of the announced Soviet reduction were in airborne divisions. Senator Dennis Chavez of New Mexico, chairman of the subcommittee, asked whether the Soviet announcement would make any change in Air Force requests for funds for the ensuing fiscal year, and the answer was no. General Twining said that the requested 16.5 billion dollars for the ensuing year was an "austere budget" for the Air Force and that more money could be spent. He said it would result in having "137 wings onboard although some facilities will be short but the wings will be there in position." He said that initial Air Force requests had been about 20 billion dollars, but that it had been trimmed with an understanding that the request for the 1958 fiscal year would be larger.
The Federal Reserve Board had set early 1957 as a target date for completion of the study of consumer installment credit, the survey intended to help determine whether standby credit controls would be needed.
In New Haven, Conn., a 24-year old railroad brakeman who had been awarded $90,000 by a jury in Federal District Court for injuries received while working on the New Haven Railroad, was upset that the Supreme Court, which had upheld the award the previous fall, had reversed itself and sent the suit back to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The man had already been paid the money and had spent a large portion of it. He said that he had three children and had bought a piece of property and was building a nominally priced house on it for about $12,000, that he had paid all of his bills, amounting to about $20,000, and had purchased a station wagon and even a suit of clothes for himself. As he talked to a reporter on the telephone, a woman in the background at his home began to sob, and he described her as his wife and that he would have to hang up. The Supreme Court had decided 5 to 4 the previous day, in a per curiam decision, to remand the case, after having upheld the Distrct Court decision by the same vote the previous fall, with Justice Sherman Minton having changed his mind in the interim. The four Justices in the minority, with Justice Hugo Black writing the dissent, joined by Chief Justice Earl Warren, and Justices William O. Douglas and Tom Clark, protested reopening the case and remanding it, arguing that there ought to be finality. The man had been injured by a truck which had started up suddenly while he was flagging traffic behind a stalled train, claiming that he had been told to work in a dangerous place without being warned. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals had reversed the award, but the Supreme Court the previous fall had upheld it. In March, the railroad had asked the Court to remand the case for consideration of a single point, whether the trial judge had properly admitted evidence of previous accidents at the location where the plaintiff had been injured. The Court had ruled that it considered its original order erroneous and so recalled it in the interests of fairness. The four Justices in the minority in the previous decision had actually only included Justice Stanley Reed as the lone dissenter, with Justices Felix Frankfurter, Harold Burton and John Harlan having said they would have denied certiorari.
In Jakarta, Indonesia, police this date announced that an overloaded motor launch had capsized in the Java Sea and that 73 persons, including many women and children, had been drowned. The boat had been carrying 91 persons on a holiday excursion, and police said they were holding the captain of the launch and two crew members for questioning.
Near Jeffersonville, Ind., a private plane had crashed on a farm, killing at least five passengers.
In Asheville, a prison sentence of five years was imposed in Federal District Court this date on a 34-year old man who was a former cashier of a bank in Marshall, after he entered a plea of guilty to embezzlement and making false entries in the bank's books, totaling $92,000. The judge consolidated all counts for judgment and said he did not know how much was missing from the bank, that the Government said it was nearly $100,000, while the defense maintained that it was a comparatively small amount.
In Gastonia, N.C., a preliminary hearing would be held the following Friday for two married men from Gastonia, charged with raping a 16-year old Gastonia High School girl.
In Charlotte, a 26-year old woman from Spartanburg, S.C., had testified that she made from $500 to $1,000 per week as a prostitute in Charlotte. She was found guilty of prostitution and conspiracy to commit prostitution, but the judge continued prayer for judgment in the cases until the following Tuesday. She was being held under $2,500 bond, awaiting trial of two hotel bellboys who were charged with conspiracy and soliciting for a prostitute. A detective told the judge that the woman never filled dates for less than $10 and often charged $100 for an evening, but the judge said that he believed she was bragging about making $100 dates in Charlotte.
In Charlotte, a man free on a suspended sentence since the middle of April had fallen behind on payments in his fines and might be called to return to court, with records showing that he had made a $100 payment on a fine due May 7, but Domestic Relations Court files showed that he had made only two of the $30 per week payments ordered for the support of his children since the middle of March, when the payments were to begin. He had been sentenced, along with a woman, to a year in jail on April 9 for fornication and adultery, with the sentence having been suspended by the judge several days later, on condition that the defendant pay a $200 fine, $100 at that time and the balance by May 7. He had paid $100 plus $29 in costs on April 18, but had made no further payments. The assistant solicitor said that he was prepared to issue a capias order directing the man to appear in court.
Also in Charlotte, not even the new public address system, with improved acoustics in City Recorder's Court, was good enough for a Furrtown resident, who was in court during the morning. While a case was being tried, the man stood up from his seat in the courtroom audience and said: "Judge, how 'bout askin' 'em to speak up a little louder? We can't hear too good back here." The judge had the bailiff remove the man to a cell in the jail until his own case was called, the trial of an assault charge based on an allegation by his sister.
Charles Kuralt of The News finds that the "old pine tree is in for its biggest boom in history", that Carolina farmers were rushing to help fill the voracious demand of the paper industry by planting millions of acres of trees. In Lancaster County, S.C., just across the Catawba River from where a company had indicated it would build a huge paper mill, a soil conservationist had unfilled orders for more than half a million pine seedlings, indicating that the paper company had stirred up much interest and that every day he saw farmers who wanted to start planting pines. More than 100 million seedlings would be planted in the Carolinas during the year, many of them on deserted acreage which once had been devoted to cotton and corn. According to Chemical Week magazine, the already impossible demand for wood would be doubled by 1975, and in much of the South, wood meant pine trees, with the South already having gained predominance in the paper industry. Pine trees had been fairly important in the Carolinas for centuries, first used for naval stores, including turpentine, pitch and tar, and later for lumber and furniture manufacturing. What was new was the upsurge in "scientific" pine crops, a development encouraged by farm agents, based on a "cut-a-tree, plant-a-tree" system, plus the use of good farming methods. Riegel Paper Corp., one of the nation's largest, was building a 14 million dollar addition to its large operations in Acme, near Wilmington. Expansion had been so persistent that a new project was begun before the previous one was completed. International Paper was negotiating in Raleigh for a million dollar site to build paper cartons. Halifax Paper at Roanoke Rapids was building a three million dollar addition to its large plant there. West Virginia Pulp & Paper was expanding its large operation in Charleston, S.C., by about 20 million dollars, and was putting in a pine tree nursery near Charleston to produce 20 million seedlings per year. Champion Paper & Fiber was expanding at Canton. Hinde & Dausch Paper had recently opened a large industrial paperboard producing plant at Gastonia. National Container Corp. had announced a development program which would affect its plants in Salisbury and Rock Hill,. S.C. And that's the way it was…
Emery Wister of The News tells of it being the first day of summer, regardless of what the calendar said, that ice cream, soft drinks and air conditioning sales had hit a new high as the temperature had risen the previous day to over 95, breaking a 65-year record for the date, set in 1881, with soft drink and ice cream sales hitting a new high for the year. He reports that the heat did not impact skaters at the Charlotte Coliseum, where ice-making machinery reduced the temperature to 65, with the manager saying they had 133 people skating on the ice the previous day. It could have become a little thin though.
On the editorial page, "The Two Pawns Are out of Jail" tells of the release from jail of the two boys, ages 13 and 15, who had been declared "incorrigible" by the Juvenile Court and had been illegally placed in jail by Police Chief Frank Littlejohn after they been returned from the State training home for lack of room.
It finds something farcical about the whole idea of two such young boys being declared "incorrigible" to the extent that they had to be locked away in a jail with adult criminals. After two weeks of incarceration, the chief had devised a system of supervision, which he believed would keep the boys out of trouble, amounting to parole. There was no more discussion of keeping them in jail until a detention home was provided in the community or space made available in a State institution.
It finds that the community could be grateful. There was nothing new about the cases of the two boys, but facts and figures alone did not argue well, finding that there had to be drama, a furor, heroes and villains before many would listen to facts and figures. So, it finds, there had been a little drama, with the detention home on the way, the State's failure to meet its responsibility to provide adequate training school facilities having been spotlighted, and the boys having served as pawns of publicity, now released. It suggests that it was one way of getting attention focused on an avoided problem and that constructive action would hopefully result. But, it concludes, no one could be proud.
"Toward a New Vitality in Politics" indicates that political pundits searching for a "lesson" in the results of the previous Saturday's county Democratic convention might have overlooked the obvious, that more important than the momentary fight for the party chairmanship, in which W. M. Nicholson had defeated Linn Garibaldi, had been the liveliness of the entire meeting.
It indicates that it was not necessarily the end of party unity, as had suggested its favorite ward heeler, that unity had its limitations and that there had been a time when the Democratic Party in Mecklenburg County had assumed corpse-like attitudes while being unified. It finds that vitality was the magic ingredient, and that was what rank-and-file Democrats were demonstrating at present, an indication that possibly the party's general membership actually cared about its leadership.
It suggests that a rejuvenation of interest was healthy not only for the Democrats but that it could affect the entire political atmosphere, replacing old cobwebs with fresh awareness about government. It concludes that it was a crucial year politically in the county and that the more awareness, the better.
"Club for Pols" tells of an honor roll to be created for citizens who helped clean the air pollution problem, and it had formed a fraternity for them, called the Chlorophyll Club, open to all officials of all governments, including the U.N., who would help to "sweeten the breath of Sugar Creek" in Charlotte.
"A Familiar Shoe, Ready For Dropping" indicates that the President had faced new criticism regarding the Administration's security program by indicating that over the previous three years, great progress had been made to assure that the security investigations were not only in the best interests and protection of the Government, but that they took into account the justice and rights of individuals.
It finds that there was some justification for the President's pride in accomplishment, that improvements had been made and agency heads had announced a number of important rule changes of late. But it also finds that the "cult of secret informers" still remained, that it was still possible for an employee under suspicion to be refused the due process right to face his accuser. When the Atomic Energy System had revised its security rules the previous week, it had decreed that secret informers be thoroughly questioned by the hearing boards, but could still not be confronted by the accused. As to other witnesses, the boards merely "encouraged" calling them for confrontation and cross-examination.
The publicity of the courtroom, it finds, was still the best protection of individual liberty, and the right to confront and cross-examine accusing witnesses ought be available to everyone. While progress had been made in the Federal security program, it wonders when the Government would drop the other shoe.
A piece from the Birmingham News, titled "Who's Got That Equator?" indicates that the Army map service scientists had come up with something new to upset the settled state of affairs it remembered dearly, having concluded that the earth's equatorial circumference was half a mile less than it had been thought on the basis of the most recent previous computations, which dated back to 1909.
It wonders what had happened to the half mile and why 47 years had elapsed without a correction of the error. The equator ran through Sumatra and Borneo, a wide part of the Pacific, through Ecuador, Colombia, edging Peru, through Brazil, a narrow chunk of the Atlantic, through French Equatorial Africa, the Belgian Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Italian Somaliland, into the Indian Ocean, and back to Borneo.
It dismisses the idea that a half mile of the equator could have evaporated, but accepts that in jungle areas in 1909, someone might have skipped hacking through the undergrowth to lay the equator down neatly, resulting in an extra half mile.
It also finds that the line had passed through Mau Mau country and that perhaps the native rebels had used part of it for nefarious purposes, that anything might have occurred in Borneo, but that since it only passed through two major cities, Singapore and Quito, Ecuador, its suspicions were aroused regarding those two places, as in the dark of night, where people were clustered closely together, anything could occur. It suggests that somewhere in the back rooms of Quito or Singapore, there was a half mile of neatly coiled equator awaiting being peddled at black market prices.
Drew Pearson indicates that Representative Victor Wickersham of Oklahoma, who had made more money in real estate than most people made from oil in Oklahoma, was worried about Mr. Pearson's investigation of his latest deal, and had his friends publish an account of how he was making $185,000 by selling land indirectly to the Government. But he had not revealed all of the story, which included many real estate transactions, some with the Government, "being the good fairy to the poverty-stricken Congressman who came to rich Washington from poor Oklahoma complaining that a Congressman's salary was too meager to live on." In his Congressional biography, he said that he was "reared on a cotton, wheat and dairy farm." Mr. Pearson suggests that he ought be made secretary of the treasury if having been on the farm enabled him to make money in Washington. He had placed his 70-year old father on the Government payroll as a watchman and elevator operator at the Library of Congress, and had operated a used car lot on a rent-free Congressional parking lot, participated in a half-million dollar land option involving an Air Force installation in southern Maryland, acquired 882.5 acres on the edge of the Everglades National Park in Florida without costing him anything, had obtained land in the vicinity of the Air Force Academy in Colorado, and had now bought and sold within a year a parcel of land on which the Geological Survey wanted to build a huge laboratory.
Mr. Pearson indicates that it was not known where he obtained his magic touch or how he knew in advance that Government installations would be built in certain places, all of which the column had been investigating when the Congressman had his friends publish the story of his latest land deal. He provides the real story behind it, that for some time, the Geological Survey had been looking at a site near Great Falls on the Potomac River, which it considered ideal for its hydrological laboratory, needing to be near a river. It found that it could be acquired at $600 to $800 per acre, but red tape had held up the deal. Meanwhile, Congressman Wickersham asked the agency to inform him of its plans and recommendations for future building, with which it complied, showing him a map of possible locations for the new laboratory, a map which was confidential.
It was illegal for a Congressman to sell land to the Government, to prevent members of Congress from using inside tips to become land speculators.
The Geological Survey, itself, could not purchase the land, which was done by the General Services Administration, usually following the recommendations of the agency wanting the land.
At the end of May, 1955, Mr. Wickersham had bought the desired site, something over 367 acres for $242,500, deeded to his wife. On March 14, 1956, he had sold all of it except 10 acres to a Michigan contractor for $427,500, realizing a profit of $185,000. It would have been a violation of the law for the Congressman to have sold the land to the Government directly, but the Michigan contractor had found out from Mr. Wickersham, though denying it, that the Government wanted the land, or he would not have paid such a high price.
Mr. Pearson concludes that since speculators had beaten the Government to the punch and doubled the price, the GSA and Geological Survey had three alternatives, to acquire land elsewhere, to pay high prices by meeting the inflated price of Mr. Wickersham and the contractor, or condemn the land and fix a fair price under the Fifth Amendment. He suggests that GSA would probably adopt the latter course, and that if the land in question were acquired through condemnation, it would bring only about half of what the contractor had paid for it, in which case he would get stuck with the loss.
But Congressman Wickersham already had obtained his $185,000 profit. He notes that Mr. Wickersham was reported ready to build a home on the ten acres he had retained and expected to retire from Congress during the current year, which Mr. Pearson says he could afford to do.
A letter from former Charlotte Mayor Herbert Baxter, now a member of the City Council, indicates that those who sought to plan and promote the city felt the facts on any subject ought be expressed in an open meeting by those affected by the change, and expresses the hope that the Mayor and Council would agree to the "town meeting" plan of dissemination of information regarding the extension of the city limits, rather than a forceful procedure through State legislation. He indicates that he believed in home rule for Charlotte's problems and that an informed public was the American way of life. He thanks the newspaper for its second complimentary editorial on the "town meeting" idea.
A letter writer wishes to express his agreement with the people of the county, to whom a previous letter writer of May 10 had referred, concerning the undemocratic zoning methods used by the City-County Planning Commission and the City Council. The letter writer had said that some people appeared to believe that there was something wrong in the City Government, this writer indicating that the recent denial of a request of residents in the Coliseum area bore out that belief. She refers to a request for a change from a residential to business zoning classification in two blocks of Independence Boulevard next to the Coliseum, Ovens Auditorium, and the Coliseum Motor Court, two blocks from a shopping center and directly in front of a huge parking lot. She say that as residents of that area and as city taxpayers, they had been denied their request for reclassification because the Planning Commission felt that Independence Boulevard was not ready for the change from residential to business zoning, which she thinks did not suggest a fair or impartial City Government.
A letter writer thinks that modern psychology, with its false premises of "'self-expression'" for children, was now resulting in teenagers expressing themselves "in vile sins and crimes beyond description". He finds the churches failing to preach God's Word to the mothers, fathers and children of the country, while a social gospel was being preached from most pulpits. "The fruitage of this evil is selfish, sinful, pleasure-seeking." He finds mothers and grandmothers gadding about in the wee hours of the morning, smoking and carousing in bacchanalian revelry. "As we sow, so shall we reap." He says that modern education had departed from God, that evolution "(the foundation of speculative, theoretic, guesswork science)" had supplanted faith in the Bible account of creation, that there were many atheistic and communistic-inspired school and college professors undermining faith of the boys and girls. He finds that there were many "so-called men of God" in the pulpits who were aware of the evil in their denominational colleges and seminaries, but failed to sound any warning, imperiling their denominations. He thinks that education "gone haywire" was the greatest curse in the country at present, and that a pastor who knew the teaching of God's Word and willfully condoned that evil was a traitor to the cause of Christ and to the best interests of his country.
A letter writer from Pittsboro agrees with a previous letter writer that the voters of the state ought vote a segregation ticket, but disagrees with his assessment of responsibility for the racial dilemma. He says that since the campaign of 1900 through 1933, the racial problem had not been accentuated in the state. He finds that more violent deaths were suffered in New York City every year than in the entire South of 50 million people, that racial prejudice abounded throughout the country, but that political capital could be made out of that which prevailed in the South. He finds that revival of racial prejudice in the country had coincided with the advent of the New Deal in 1933, that FDR and his family were as much responsible for it as any group in the country. "They took the Negro in as racial equals and emphasized their concept of racial relations throughout the three terms he was in the White House. Truman followed suit, and with added emphasis on civil rights. He appointed the famous Civil Rights Commission, on which was a native of your city. True, Eisenhower appointed Warren and Harlan to the Supreme Court, but Roosevelt and Truman had loaded it with "like uplifting and crusading New and Fair Deal disciples." "It's ironical in the extreme, but the South has just about got what it asked for." He indicates that President Eisenhower was "just a New and Fair Deal apostle wrapped in a Republican mantle."
A letter from the vice-president of the Seaboard Region of Hadassah thanks the newspaper for excellent publicity given them during their recent conference, and particularly expresses gratitude to Jeep Hunter for his kindness and patience.
A letter writer says that cultural music in the city had received a severe blow from the announcement of Melvin Sipe's departure from the city, saying that he knew he spoke for many musicians when he said he would be missed, not only for his outstanding musicianship and interpretation, but also for his temperament, attitude and general understanding of musicians, both the professional and semi-professional, that he had demonstrated patience, perseverance and know-how, to help advance the Charlotte Opera Association to its present enviable position. He congratulates him on his new position, while hoping that it would not be too long until he would return to his many friends and associates in Charlotte.
A letter writer says that labor did not admire the spot which Arthur Goodman, candidate for the local Superior Court judgeship, had chosen to put them in. He does not explain, with any more than generalizations, what exactly he means, but concludes by urging people to vote for the winner in the primary.
A letter writer from Nashville says that when "Dixie" was played, the listener had to stand, and also when "Yankee Doodle" was played, because they were Americans. She thinks that someday soon some songwriter would have the foresight to combine the two songs and it would be a hit of the generation. She suggests that there were 48 states in the nation, each equally important to the "family circle" and that pride should be taken in the entire family.
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