The Charlotte News
Saturday, May 19, 1956
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Portland, Ore., that Adlai Stevenson had built a commanding lead over Senator Estes Kefauver this date in a write-in campaign to help Mr. Stevenson's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. The President, running unopposed on the Republican ballot in the previous day's primary, had received a strong endorsement from Republican voters, who had also endorsed, in an unexpectedly strong write-in campaign, the renomination of Vice-President Nixon. The primary had also set the stage for a fall clash between Republican nominee Douglas McKay, who had been Secretary of Interior during the current Administration, and incumbent Senator Wayne Morse, a sharp critic of the Administration and Mr. McKay's tenure as Secretary. About 60 percent of the majority Democrats who had gone to the polls had indicated a choice for the presidency, with no names on the ballot and both Mr. Stevenson and Senator Kefauver having campaigned for write-in support. At stake were 16 delegates to the Democratic national convention. After 63 percent of the state's 2,519 precincts had reported, Mr. Stevenson was in front of Senator Kefauver by more than 9,000 votes of the 57,000 write-in ballots tabulated. The President, whose name appeared on the ballot, had received 88 percent of the Republican vote, while Mr. Nixon's write-in vote was at 20 percent of the total vote, with 23,164, compared to 100,822 for the President. At stake on the Republican side were 18 delegates to the convention. In 1952, General Eisenhower had received a major boost in Oregon by winning 153,000 votes over Governor Earl Warren, who polled 37,000 votes. Senator Kefauver had won the Democratic primary in 1952, unchallenged, receiving 128,000 votes. The President had won the general election in Oregon in 1952 with 420,815 votes to 270,579 for Governor Stevenson. The state only recently had shifted to favor Democratic registration by a margin of 13,000. The heaviest voting had occurred in the Senate primary, where Senator Morse, running as a Democrat for the first time, had tallied a large vote, 85,500, to 18,000 for his nearest competitor. Mr. McKay led his closest competitor by 57,500 to 44,000.
Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson this date had provided his qualified approval to the new farm bill passed by the Senate the previous night, saying that the bill was "rather complicated, with a number of amendments" and he had not yet had the opportunity to study each in detail, but that a quick check of the bill indicated that, overall, it had been much improved insofar as the Department of Agriculture was concerned. Department experts were reported to be going over the measure item by item to see if any new problems had been created. The Secretary listed the soil bank, sought by the President, the compromise feed grain amendment and the elimination of wheat marketing quota penalties for farmers who used all wheat produced for feed and seed on their own farms, as among the "highly constructive" provisions of the new bill. Senators who had vigorously opposed some provisions of the measure as it had been passed by the House were also supportive of the new bill and Senate leaders expressed the hope that it would become law by the following week, without further controversy.
In Seoul, South Korea, Government leaders denied this date published reports that the entire Cabinet of President Syngman Rhee and many Administration liberal party leaders would resign because of the large opposition vote in an election the prior Tuesday. President Rhee conceded that a bitter political opponent had defeated his hand-picked candidate for the vice-presidency. He said that since the people's will had been expressed in the election, he would carry out his duty in accordance with that will. Two Seoul newspapers, which had been critical of the President's Administration but were not considered opposition newspapers, had carried reports of an en masse resignation. One newspaper said that party leaders were embarrassed that the President had polled only 52 percent of the Presidential vote when they had predicted 80 percent. One spokesman for the Government said that while the Cabinet would not resign immediately, it probably would submit resignations when the President began his third term, to give him a free hand to form a new Administration, which the spokesman said was customary everywhere.
Marine reserves and National Guardsmen staged a mock battle at the Naval Shell Depot near Charlotte this date, in honor of Armed Forces Day. Using small arms, mortars, machine guns, howitzers and other weapons, the men stormed a fortified position held by a mythical defender. Approximately 200 men had participated in the exercise.
Emery Wister of The News suggests that consumers might not have to pay an extra penny per pack for cigarettes, after all. The American Tobacco Co., one of the nation's largest manufacturers of cigarettes, had said this date that there would be no increase in prices on their products. Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. had announced the previous day a price hike of 45 cents per thousand cigarettes, a nine-cent increase on cartons and a penny on the price of a pack. The price for standard brands in cigarette machines was 23 cents per pack. Consumers purchasing L & M brands would have to pay a penny more.
Charles Kuralt of The News tells of pine trees growing everywhere in the Carolinas, that in Mecklenburg County, farmers and landowners had planted 214,000 pine seedlings during the previous planting season, more than ever before. A district forester had said that the farmers were aware of all of the paper mills that were coming to the area, such that the demand for pine seedlings had been surprising during the previous two years. The demand in Mecklenburg had come from high school 4-H Club members, farmers, city dwellers who wanted their rural landholdings to be productive, and from Duke Power Co., which wanted to protect the watersheds around its lakes, all wanting to sell their pines to paper mills sometime in the future. One real estate entrepreneur had planted 5,000 seedlings during the current year on five acres of his farm, paying $3.50 per thousand for the seedlings, which came from the State nursery and were sold to him at cost, costing him about $60 to plant them. The Federal Government would pay him eight dollars per acre under its conservation aid program, with the total cost per acre being about $7.50. In 15 to 20 years, at the time of the first thinning, he would get back more than his original investment. He could expect to thin out about ten cords of pulpwood per acre with the first thinning, and present prices from the paper mills ran about three dollars per cord. In the meantime, there would be no overhead and no work. Thinning time came about every five years after the trees had reached a diameter of eight inches, and he could expect six or seven thinnings with a profit between $100 and $150 per thinning. By then, the remaining trees, about 250 per acre, would be lumber-sized and if he had planted trees every ten years or so, he could expect a never-ending source of income from his five acres, which, until the current year, had just been lying fallow, costing him taxes. One farmer was living off the income from 50 acres of pines which he had planted in 1936 and the trees he had planted since. If the President's soil bank proposal passed Congress, hundreds of acres would be pulled out of farm crop production, and in many cases, they would be used for pines as there was no surplus of pines. The farm agent ordered trees, delivered them and gave hints on how to plant them. A transplanting machine donated by the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce was at the disposal of the landowners, and on fairly level land, would plant seven acres of seedlings per day. Since 1939, Duke Power had an extensive forestry management program in the county and all over the area. The chief forester watched over 225,000 acres of pine trees for Duke, to keep silt from washing into the Duke-owned lakes.
In Cleveland, a robber and a patrolman had died in a burst of gunfire near the Public Square this date, and a detective had been fatally injured. A store detective for a department store had been taken to the hospital with chest wounds and his death had been reported a few minutes later. Scores of clerks, customers and shoppers witnessed portions of the running gun battle, having begun in a dime store. The police officer had been shot in the heart by the robber at that point, and a clerk was reported to have received a head injury. The gunman ran out of the store and into the public square entrance of the department store, there shooting the store detective as he ran after the robber. The robber then ran from the department store and turned eastward, where he was shot and killed.
In Buena Vista, Colo., it was reported that Elijah, a snowbound horse, was still wandering somewhere on the Collegiate range west of the town, with two Buena Vista brothers having set out early this date in an effort to locate him. The horse had disappeared from his mountain fastness 12,000 feet high on the Continental Divide a couple of weeks earlier, presumably to forage for fresh grass at lower levels as the spring sun melted the deep snow. Now that the thaw had set in, the two brothers had planned to ride horseback up Cottonwood Trail in search of the big horse, named after the Biblical prophet who had been fed by ravens.
In Paterson, N.J., the case of the stolen mailbox had been solved, found in the post office. A resident had phoned police that someone in a car had stopped and taken the mailbox, providing the license number. Police learned that the box had been picked up to be replaced by a new red, white and blue one.
In Blacksburg, Va., a woman wanted to know the altitude of the town, and was informed it was about 2,000 feet, to which she responded by asking whether the person was sure that it was not 5,000 feet, and when told it was 2,000 for sure, she stated, "Then something else must be wrong with my cake."
On the editorial page, "Armed Forces Day: A Debt Overdue" finds that adulation in war and indifference in peace was a public attitude toward military men which had plagued poets for centuries, as well as the warrior. Not until recent times had the peacetime serviceman been accorded society's ordinary courtesies, earlier held to be a loafer and a laggard, avoiding responsibilities and civilian opportunity.
The change in public perception had occurred because peacetime had changed from idyllic periods to years of constant caution, such that the thoughtful citizen now saw that men and women in uniform who could only watch and wait were as much a shield and protector as those who stormed the trenches in France and pillboxes on Iwo Jima. No one knew when peace would end.
The current weaponry of science had armed the serviceman with might, but did not provide the morale which bound men and machines together as effective fighting forces. Morale was left for the public to provide and it could not be provided fully with taxes to buy weapons, having to come also from public interest and esteem for the men and women of the armed forces.
It suggests that Armed Forces Day this date provided an opportunity for all citizens to reflect on the debt of affection and gratitude owed to the men and women of the services, a debt which could be paid only in continuing installments of support and encouragement for the services.
"The Vanishing Impulse Toward Unity" indicates that as the fear of war had grown less, the impulse toward unity had dried up, as indicated by Marquis Childs. It finds that he had accurately summed up the sad state of NATO at present.
Despite current efforts to try to develop the political potentiality of NATO, it was becoming increasingly obvious that the alliance had failed to take the bold steps necessary for unity and cohesion to make postwar Europe a strong force politically and economically. Britain steadily had refused to join in European economic cooperation and U.S. immigration and tariff policies had caused a depressing effect. The French continued to go their own way in struggling to hold their overseas possessions against the tide of nationalism.
The lesson learned reluctantly was one of the oldest in power politics, that the cementing fear of a common enemy was what made alliances invaluable in time of war, and that when the danger of a common enemy was removed, the only real danger left was from one's allies, causing the rise of the Me First! principle on a global scale.
"The Year There Was No Spring" suggests that 20 years hence, someone would talk to their grandson about 1956 having been the year with no spring, all while the country had a Secretary of State who was always flying off to far away places, then would return, get on television and radio and talk about wars and alliances, while never having said anything about there having been no spring.
There had been a President people called Ike, getting over his health issues after a heart attack, and there had been much ado about whether he would run again. There had been a "smooth talker named Nixon" who wanted to run with him, and in the relating of the time to the grandson, the grandfather would likely not remember whether he ran again or not. "Anyway, being in the spotlight like that, they both had plenty of opportunity to comment on winter turning into summer, leaving spring out."
It says that another fellow would disappoint the grandfather in the retelling, "Stevens, or Stevenson maybe", "a real good talker, and I kept expecting him to say something. But a lot of folks thought he talked too pretty, and I guess the politicians convinced him he oughtn't to talk about spring being left out."
"That's about all there was to it, boy. One day it was cold and the next day it was hot as blue blazes. People just didn't say much about it, but it was something, boy. It was the longest summer there ever was."
"Woodpeckers, Candidates & Utility Poles" asks how a political candidate was like a woodpecker and how those noisy birds were unalike, a riddle posed to the writer recently, producing the conclusion that they were alike in that both fouled up utility poles and trees, with the woodpecker drilling and the candidate tacking up unscenic pictures of himself along the roadside. The difference between the two, it guesses, was that woodpeckers had to peck, while politicians hammered up their posters in obedience to a bad habit they could correct.
It concludes by wondering whether that was the answer.
A piece from the Carlsbad (N.M.) Current-Argus, titled "Days of Yore", tells of Sears, Roebuck & Co. presently distributing to twenty libraries across the country microfilms of every page of every catalogue they had issued from 1888 to the present, making a fascinating contribution to future historians. The first set of films, consisting of 51 rolls, depicting 140,000 catalogue pages and 64 years of varying tastes and prices, had been given to the Library of Congress, which considered it "highly important Americana".
For decades, the catalogues had been sent free to anyone who wanted one and could be found in all rural homes, stimulating the desire to buy everything contained therein, while also highly educational to read. Young persons might wonder why a 1907 catalogue covered 31 pages with picture data about saddles and harnesses, why silk stockings, rather than nylon, had first been listed in 1912 with the warning that they were delicate and ought be treated carefully, why a man's suit had cost only $11 and a five-piece parlor suite, only $23.
Housewives
The big mail order firms no longer distributed their catalogues generally, as the printing cost could run up to three dollars per copy. The average rural dweller was now only minutes away from retail stores which sold everything the person could want. Yet, sociologists someday might look upon those films and make remarks about men's dress shirts once being priced at 50 cents.
It does not point out that there was a time, from 1908 through 1937, when a person could order their entire house from Sears.
Drew Pearson tells of Congressman Victor Wickersham of Oklahoma complaining that Congressional salaries were too low to live on, while amazing his colleagues as well as Washington realtors by the way he was able to accumulate profits, appearing to know in advance where the Government was going to place new buildings and having a knack for acquiring real estate for next to nothing. He had acquired 882.5 acres of land adjacent to the Everglades National Park in southern Florida without having to pay anything for it. He had heard that a constituent in Oklahoma had left 17,650 acres near the Everglades when he died and so Mr. Wickersham had made a deal with the man's widow and two of his daughters to take an option to purchase it at $10 per acre, a total of $176,500, a bargain since oil had been discovered in and around the area. Mr. Wickersham had then gotten some other realtors together and sold them 90 percent of the land for 100 percent of what it had cost him, in return for which he retained 5 percent or 882.5 acres as his fee. Others had put up the money for the deal while Mr. Wickersham got the land for free.
He had also acquired 376 acres on the Potomac River, which the Geological Survey now wanted, had bought eight acres near Colorado Springs, where the Air Force Academy was being located, had negotiated for land in Virginia near the CIA building, and owned two tracts of land in western Maryland between the proposed Geological Survey site and the new Atomic Energy Commission building.
Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson had vacillated between wanting to sell the cotton surplus and not selling it, then promising to sell it, then withdrawing it, all causing irritation to Congressman Jamie Whitten of Mississippi, which he had expressed at a subcommittee hearing called after Congress had learned that the Secretary had refused to sell 628 bales of cotton after receiving foreign offers for it which Mr. Benson considered too low. Mr. Whitten indicated that the failure to sell had forced drastic slashes in cotton acreage, with the result that 55,000 families had been forced off of their farms while foreign countries were expanding their acreage at American expense.
Marquis Childs tells of tourists going abroad, both in terms of raw numbers and money spent, in new record numbers during the year, being induced by low fares to Europe and South America and appealing ads, plus quick travel by air. In 1929, the peak travel year prior to World War II, 517,000 Americans had traveled abroad and spent 693 million dollars. By comparison, in 1954, the most recent full year available, the number had been 912,000 Americans, spending 1.35 billion. But on the basis of the half-year estimate available for 1955, 514,000 Americans had spent 705 million dollars, when extrapolated to the full year, double that of 1929, while the population had increased by roughly one-third.
There were indications that there was still more such tourist travel to come. Recently, North American Airlines, which had pioneered domestic air coach service and had been struggling to enter the scheduled market, as opposed to the non-scheduled service, had applied to the Civil Aeronautics Board for a permit to fly from Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York to Luxembourg for a one-way tourist fare of between $145 and $158. Typical one-way tourist fare to Paris was presently $310, and so the North American proposal had a dramatic effect on the air industry. Both TWA and Pan Am then announced that they would ask the International Air Transport Association to sanction lower fares for certain types of service.
Luxembourg had previously not had direct service from the U.S. and so was quite happy at the prospect, and the Luxembourg Government had proposed that a bilateral agreement be negotiated which would permit a Luxembourg airline to come to the U.S. Luxembourg had one of the best airports in Europe.
The key to overseas fares was in the International Air Transport Association, to which the airlines of every country belonged. The director of the Association, William Percival Hildreth, had recently appeared before a House subcommittee looking into the cartel-monopoly aspects of air rate-making. He had been asked why it was possible to fly air coach from New York to Los Angeles, about 2,500 miles, for $80, while the New York to Paris flight, about 3,200 miles, cost $310. Mr. Childs reproduces the exchange with Representative James Quigley of Pennsylvania, in which Mr. Hildreth had stated that the answer was that the terrific U.S. developments in air travel had produced a wonderful thing, which he hoped Europe could match, and wanted a chance. Mr. Quigley wanted to know if there was suddenly a loss of expertise when they got out over the Atlantic, to which Mr. Hildreth had replied that it was not the case and that it was not quite a fair question, because in the U.S., in domestic flights, there was only one currency, one control, and an enlightened one, with which to deal, while on the Atlantic, there were many nationalities involved and some governments wanted their small airlines flying for the national prestige, resulting in less efficiency. The members of the subcommittee were not satisfied with the explanation that rates had to be high for the benefit of the Swiss, Swedes, Spanish, Italians and French.
Senators who were interrogating members of the CAB were also not satisfied with their replies at an appropriations hearing. Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine wanted to know why there should be so many obstacles in the way of granting North American's application to fly at the reduced rate to Luxembourg, expressing that CAB members seemed more interested in the airline companies than in the traveling public. Senator Edward Thye of Minnesota wanted to know why it should cost more than twice as much to fly over the Atlantic as over land.
The pressure to reduce fares on routes both at home and abroad would become irresistible in view of fairly exclusive evidence that it was not the cost factor which kept them where they were, that despite the growth of the past decade, a revolution in travel was taking place. A new type of steamship was being designed which would provide minimum service for a five or six-day crossing to Europe at a one-way cost which might be as low as between $125 and $140. Thus, the tour of Europe was no longer for the privileged few of wealth, having become available to literally millions of Americans.
Robert C. Ruark tells of returning back home after an absence of six months, finding it strange. A pipe had burst and flooded his dining room and thieves had broken in and taken a few odd bits and pieces, while a record winter had wrecked the garden and ruined the trees. The big dog had gotten into a bad fight and nearly killed another dog, causing problems with the owner of the other dog and a large veterinary bill. The little dog had become so fat that she was bigger than the big dog and the big dog was about to become a father again, producing more mouths to feed and rug-cleaning bills.
He had forgotten where everything was in his house, could not find his shirts, socks or handkerchiefs, and found that someone had organized his books so that he could not find anything to read within six feet of where he had last seen it. There was a six-foot stack of magazines which he was sure he would never have time to read and there was a six-foot stack of correspondence he was sure he would never find time to answer. There was a six-foot stack of writing yet undone and he suggests that he had better get started on it before he started hearing from the bank manager.
The family had also traded in the
car and in place of the rusty, trusty old friend, there was a
chromium, gleaming monster about the size of the Queen Elizabeth,
so grand that he was afraid to drive
The dining room was torn up for repairs and someone had built a garage in the back which seemed bigger than the house, required for the large new car.
Nevertheless, he finds homecoming to be a joyous thing, with the dog sprawled happily in the doorway for him to trip over, with his wife happy because the traveler would have to untire himself and get back to his battered Underwood typewriter.
He had only one thing triumphant to report, that he was the only semi-literate person in the world who had not written a line about Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco, recently married.
A letter writer from Asheville thanks God for Billy Graham, indicating that he had noticed that during his nationwide "Hour of Decision" broadcast from Richmond recently, he had defended and encouraged the youth of Charlotte in their recent Youth Crusade, sponsored by Charlotte teenagers. He had also noticed that a resulting upswing of religious interest on the Myers Park High School campus had brought some protest against "religious fervor" and emotionalism. Rev. Graham, in referring to letters to the editor in the local newspapers, said that some parents were protesting because they were afraid that their children were becoming emotionally involved, and yet the parents had let their children watch emotion-packed television shows. The writer adds that youth was surrounded by emotional situations and that they might become emotionally involved in things that were bad, such as sex, teenage gangs, drag racing, speeding, and even murder. He suggests that youth was a time of high emotion and one could not take their emotions away, that they should be emotional, otherwise they might not be youth. But the emotionalism should be turned toward productive channels. He salutes youth for Christ and calls on all Christians of the area to pray for their cause.
A letter from Kidd Brewer in Raleigh, candidate for the lieutenant gubernatorial nomination, says that hundreds of persons held in the prisons could be released and rehabilitated by organizing big brother movements under the sponsorship of church and civic groups, and he indicates that if elected, he would cooperate with the Governor in promoting necessary legislation needed to deal with all prison problems.
A letter from the assistant superintendent of Charlotte City Schools expresses his appreciation to the newspaper for the help in making the Music Festival the success it had been.
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