The Charlotte News
Tuesday, May 22, 1956
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that two Senate committees planned separate investigations of the dispute between the armed services over their roles in war. Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson had sought to head off any such inquiry at a press conference the previous day, at which he had been flanked by the civilian and uniformed chiefs of the various services, all seeking to play down the seriousness of the squabble. Senator Dennis Chavez of New Mexico had announced that his Appropriations subcommittee would make a study of the disagreement over basic defense policy. Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri said that his Armed Services subcommittee would also go into the matter, focusing on guided missiles and air power. He said that the Army, Navy and Air Force would be called upon to testify "as to their positions in the missile field," that they would go into the Navy's role in the field of air power, including "both its primary and secondary missions." Controversies within the armed services revolved primarily around the roles of the Army and Air Force in ground-to-air and medium-range missiles, and the air power roles of the Air Force and the Navy. Senator Symington said that his subcommittee had already received in executive session hundreds of pages of testimony regarding the mission of the Air Force in the field of manned aircraft and guided missiles, and that further testimony would be taken on the position of the three services regarding missile technology.
A majority of the House Judiciary Committee had endorsed the Administration's civil rights bill this date as an effort toward "the great American ideal of equality under law." But seven members from the South, six of whom were Democrats and one a Republican from Virginia, denounced the bill as "absolutely shocking", saying it posed a "Frankenstein" threat against state and local governments. The majority and minority reports reflected deep divisions regarding the civil rights issue, with the minority report having been made public the previous day. The civil rights bill, drawing more than usual attention during the election year, had been approved by the 32-member Committee on April 25, but the vote had not been announced at that time. The measure still awaited clearance by the House Rules Committee, and whether it would be sent to the floor and win passage remained to be seen. But even if so, it was believed unlikely to withstand a Southern filibuster in the Senate, which had doomed civil rights bills in the past.
A compromise farm bill carrying a proposed 1.2 billion dollar soil bank plan had been approved this date by a joint conference committee seeking to reconcile the Senate and House bills. Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana said that the biggest trade in reaching the compromise was that the Senate had dropped its provision that the soil bank need not be put into operation during the current year and the House had agreed to take the Senate's feed grain provisions, after the House had voted for higher price supports for feed grains than had the Senate. Senator Ellender said that everything had been harmonious in the session of the conference committee and that all confreres had already signed the report, that he hoped to obtain Senate approval later in the day if he could bring it up by unanimous consent. He said that he did not think anything in the present bill would cause the President to veto it. Previously, the President had vetoed a farm bill on April 16, with his principal objection having been the junking of the Administration's flexible price supports. The five points of agreement thus far are listed.
Julian Scheer of The News reports of a write-in campaign shaping up for the November general election for a State House of Representatives seat, with a wave of sentiment in favor of Edward O'Herron, who had gone to the House in 1955 but was not running for another term, now gaining momentum as another movement sought to defeat Representative Jack Love.
J. A. Daily of The News reports that Charlotte's wholesale and retail trade had been alerted this date about a strongly advancing movement in coffee prices which likely would soon increase the cost of the product to Charlotte consumers, that trade reports had said that an epidemic of jitters regarding coffee prices had developed a few weeks earlier in Brazil and now had spread over most of the world's coffee trade centers, especially in New York.
Emery Wister of The News tells of a great expansion of the Charlotte Ordnance Missile Plant, both in money to be spent and the number of employees, having been promised this date by Frank Higgins, Assistant Secretary of the Army, the principal speaker at the dedication of the plant. He had not said exactly what the expansion would entail, but made it clear that it would be carried out "as techniques improve" and demand increased. He pointed out that North Carolina was one of the boom states in the field of guided missiles, with 16 million dollars to be spent modernizing and expanding a plant in Burlington where parts for the Nike missile were being made. The Nike would also be produced at the Charlotte plant. Mr. Higgins said that it was the best ground-to-air missile at present and brushed aside rumors that another missile would be made in Charlotte.
In Matthews, two residents had been
victims of a flim-flam artist the previous day, one indicating that a
man who had given his address as Monroe had offered to sell him a
truck-load of dirt for four dollars, but claimed that his truck had
broken down south of Matthews and that he needed the four dollars in
advance to repair the truck before delivery of the dirt. The victim
of the swindle gave the man a five-dollar bill as he had no change,
and it was the last he had seen of him. County Police discovered that
there had also been a second victim of the dirt-man, who had given
him four dollars for the load of dirt after hearing the same story.
Well, what are you going to do with four dollars worth of dirt
anyway? Who are you burying?
In Charlotte, the previous night, a
cigar was being smoked while the smoker's car was being refueled at a
service station when a fire broke out. A bystander who sought to
extinguish the flames had been rushed to Memorial Hospital after
being overcome by extinguisher fumes, being held at the hospital for
observation and treatment. The cigar smoker, owner of a 1951
Cadillac, had apparently started the fire while an attendant was
pumping gas at the Gentry Esso Service Station, with both the
Cadillac and the gas pump being damaged by the blaze. An engine
company and a ladder company, as well as men from another engine
company, had responded to the alarm. What happened to the Mercury?
How about the Oldsmobile? The Buick, the Plymouth?
In Shelbyville, Ky., when a State Policeman had arrested a young motorist going 70 mph near the town, he found that the speeding car had been in second gear.
In Charlotte, parental problems had come early to three-year old Ronnie. When he got his month-old black and white kitten, no one knew it was not weaned, and so Ronnie was feeding the kitten several times a day with a baby bottle, while placing it in the bathtub at night. Ronnie had decided to call the kitten "Toppy", until he decided that it was actually a male and so settled on "Harry". His mother, however, said that they did not know which sex it was. But Ronnie could not care less.
On the editorial page, "Invest in Youth and Charlotte's Future" urges contribution to the public phase of the two million dollar campaign opening this night for a new Central YMCA Building. The Charlotte YMCA had served the community since 1874 and larger facilities would make possible doing so into the future. The present building housing the Y had been opened in 1906 and had seen its day and served its purpose, having been designed for a city of less than 30,000 in population, now unable to serve one of more than 155,000.
The new building would become more important to the city as a community center, and it indicates that a contribution to the building fund campaign would be an investment in both the city's youth and community progress.
"A Tar Heel Prophet—With Honor" indicates that the state was not one which customarily reserved for its great men a special measure of passionate interest and devotion while they were alive, that eminence was acknowledged coolly.
But an exception was the previous weekend Chapel Hill ceremony to unveil a portrait of Frank Porter Graham, former president of the Consolidated University and former Senator and U.N. envoy. There had been an outpouring of adoration for the "rumpled little man who has done so much for so many." He had said afterward that it was almost like being present at his own funeral.
The tribute had not been a sign-off
but only a bookmark placed in a volume of achievements. The praise it
had heard for him had been rich and well-deserved. What it remembered
most among the plaudits was that he had tried very hard to make
America a place "where democracy is achieved without vulgarity,
difference without hate, where the majority is without tyranny, and
the minority without fear, where the least of these our brethren have
freedom to struggle for freedom
"The Passing of the Last Victorian" indicates that the death of Max Beerbohm in Rapallo had come as a rude shock, as he had represented the last literary link with the Victorian era, and was, insofar as English literature, the Last Victorian.
He was an essayist, a critic and a caricaturist of rare talent, and it was difficult to believe that his most famous work, Zuleika Dobson, had been written more than 40 years earlier.
But fate was fickle and despite his literary gifts, he would likely be remembered most as a sketchpad satirist. His best-known drawing showed one of the "rare, the rather awful visits of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, to Windsor Castle", the Prince having been made to stand in the corner by an obviously displeased Queen Victoria.
It finds that it was true that his writing had been dated and belonged to the past, but as Bertrand Russell had once observed, it was not to condemn him but to condemn the present.
Mr. Beerbohm had said: "My
gifts are small. I've used them very well and discreetly, never
straining them, and the result is that I have made a charming little
reputation
It concludes that in an era of literary blockbusters, it should be pardoned for yearning for a few more "charming little reputations."
"A Monster for the Turn of a Screw" finds that movie columnists were not giving the robots a fair shake, giving them only reluctant, passing notice.
It ventures that robots, if maintained in casts and out of projection booths, could be made to fulfill the movies' promise to make themselves better than ever, as their great box office potential had been scarcely touched.
Robby
The editorialist remembers when movie monsters would raise the hair on the back of the neck, while Robby, through the turn of the screw, could have made the viewer choke on popcorn. It believes Hollywood ought pay more attention to the horrible possibilities it had in robots, as it was already "vastly supplied with well-mannered mediocrities."
It indicates that its concern with
keeping robots from the projection booths
It adds as an asterisk that Robby was assumed to be male in the absence of measurements.
A piece from the Green Bay (Wisc.) Press-Gazette, titled "Lucky Russian Farmers!" tells of the Kremlin having another great idea, wanting every Russian to work harder, particularly the farmers, to produce more and thus convince the downtrodden workers of the capitalist states that they had better go over to the Communist system. The appeal had been addressed to the farmers to increase food production so that industrial workers could be better fed and thus produce more goods, especially agricultural machinery, which would in turn help produce more food.
It finds it a lovely thought and probably impressive to every American worker whose output had increased tremendously despite shortened hours and less physical wear and tear.
"If the patriotic and profitless Russian farmers on their collective farms come through as demanded, they may even give their Soviet overlords a king-size capitalist headache—trying to figure out what to do with surpluses."
Drew Pearson discusses the Texas Democratic delegation to the convention in the wake of the forces of Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn having trounced Governor Allan Shivers and his supporters in the recent state conventions. Though the vote against the Governor had been hailed as a vote of confidence for Senator Johnson, the favorite son now of Texas, there had been some significant backstage factors which could cause ripples of dissent, which was why the astute Senator had flown back to Texas. Actually, the vote at the state conventions had been more a victory for Speaker Rayburn than anyone else, as the latter had never wavered in his opposition to Governor Shivers, while Senator Johnson had.
In 1952, at the national convention in Chicago, Governor Shivers had given his word to Speaker Rayburn that if given a seat at the convention, he would support the Democratic ticket, Senator Johnson having ushered him in to meet with Speaker Rayburn. But Governor Shivers had broken his word and bolted for General Eisenhower, and Speaker Rayburn had never forgiven him for it, would have nothing more to do with him. During the 1952 fall campaign, Mr. Rayburn had stumped Texas relentlessly for Governor Stevenson while Senator Johnson largely remained aloof, making only one speech for the ticket via Lady Bird Johnson's radio station.
The likable Senator Johnson, who tried to get along with everyone, still remained a friend to Governor Shivers. During the Southern Governors' Conference in Florida in 1954, Governor Shivers had a secret talk with his fellow Dixiecrat, Governor James Byrnes of South Carolina, in which Governor Shivers proposed that the South support Senator Johnson in 1956 as its favorite son. But Governor Byrnes referred to Senator Johnson as "an upstart and whipper-snapper" and would have none of it. When Governor Shivers came to Washington for the national Governors' Conference of 1954, Senator Johnson had arranged a breakfast for him with Congressman Rayburn, but the latter would still have nothing to do with him.
Senator Johnson and Governor Shivers had worked on a lot of things together, including the selection of Lt. Governor Ben Ramsey as Democratic national committeeman. It had not been surprising, therefore, when Senator Johnson sought to patch up a compromise with Governor Shivers before the recent Texas state conventions. Few people had known it, but he had even proposed that Governor Shivers be a delegate to the Chicago convention in August, but Speaker Rayburn had refused to go along.
At an April meeting at the Johnson ranch, the Senator had a conference with Rayburn loyalists, the Democratic advisory committee which had held the party together for three years, and made a bargain regarding what would happen if the loyalists won, with the agreement having been that the Democratic Party officers had to sign a new pledge to support the party and that old officers who had not been loyal had to go, and also that the Democratic caucuses of each Congressional district would select its delegates to the Chicago convention without outside interference or dictation. But shortly after the victory, it had become evident that Senator Johnson did not agree with what had previously been agreed, that his leaders had demanded the right to veto any delegate not personally acceptable and wanted to retain some of the old Shivercrats in key positions, though requiring them to take a new pledge of loyalty.
Senator Johnson had also proposed that the wife of former Congressman Lloyd Bentsen—future Senator and vice-presidential running mate to Governor Michael Dukakis in 1988, Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton Administration—would become a national committeewoman even though she had supported General Eisenhower in 1952 and despite her family having arranged a $425,000 land deal profit for Governor Shivers. If she turned out not acceptable, Senator Johnson favored Mrs. Max Brooks, who had also refused to support Adlai Stevenson in 1952.
A letter writer finds the recent letter from Rock Hill, criticizing the Charlotte Opera Association's performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, to have been worthy of the conservative columnist Westbrook Pegler criticizing Carl Sandburg. He suggests sardonically that if Charlotte was to invite the Met to perform annually, Charlotte should also house the Metropolitan Museum of Art instead of the Mint Museum, that Macy's should replace Belk's, that the Waldorf-Astoria should be substituted for the Barringer Hotel, that Madison Ave. should take the site of Tryon St., and that the Cathedral of St. John the Divine should replace the First Presbyterian Church. He suggests that were the heinous philosophy to be carried out, no artist would dare paint for want of the artistry of Leonardo da Vinci. "As for me, I will bite my fingernails down so far that I shall be unable to turn the pages of the program put out by the Rock Hill Opera Co."
A letter writer from Concord responds to the same letter writer, finding that he had made two valid points, one being that there was no good reason why Charlotte should not have an annual visit from the Metropolitan Opera and, second, that if the critics, in their use of superlatives regarding the local production, meant a favorable comparison with the Met, they had kidded no one who was also at all knowledgeable of opera. But he finds the writer to have put on such a gratuitous display of erudition that he smacked of being a musical snob whose chief concern was to have himself recognized as a connoisseur. He suggests letting him go to Atlanta or New York to preen himself, that his criticism of local performances was misdirected, as it should be aimed toward the betterment of such efforts.
A letter writer wants to keep Judge Campbell on the Superior Court, finding that his past record would stand the test and that he was an able judge.
A letter writer salutes the anonymous painter who had put up the sign on Camp Greene Avenue reading, "Unsafe For Traffic", indicates that he was sorry he could not claim authorship.
A letter writer says that it was certain that constitutional government would never be restored under the present two-party system and that the only hope for the country was to elect a third party. He believes that a third party would rid the country of Communists "instead of appointing them to positions of trust in our government."
But once the third party becomes entrenched, don't you know that the whole cycle will just start over again and you will bemoan that party and ask for a fourth? then a fifth, then a sixth, until finally it is France…
A letter writer suggests that the newspaper print the coming election ticket at present instead of waiting until election day.
The editors note that the reader should see page 1-B.
A letter writer praises the Democrats of Mecklenburg County who had voted wisely in selecting W. M. Nicholson as the chairman of the executive committee, Nell Gatling as the vice-chairman, and Charles Evans as secretary, finding each fine, able and well-qualified.
A letter writer expresses enjoyment of the recent editorial, "No More Doubts about the Skyscraper", referring to the larger peep holes placed in the fencing around the new Wachovia Building site, to enable people to see that it was actually coming to be.
We avoid comment about those who may have been assiduously following the development of the new Wachovia Building in Winston-Salem as it came to be, circa 1995.
A letter writer from Matthews says that he had attended the confirmation service at Temple Beth-El on May 15 and that during the service he constantly heard the wail of sirens and roar of motorcycles chasing speeders on Providence Road, with the police waiting until they were directly in front of the Temple to pull them over. He believes that if the police had any sense of reasoning, they would have been able to tell that a religious service was taking place. He does not condemn them for catching speeders but does condemn them for rudely interrupting the service. He thinks an apology was in order, saying that he was not a member of that Temple and was not Jewish but would feel that way had he been attending any sacred service.
A letter writer from New York says that thousands of youngsters needed good, used clothing, and as national sponsor and a board member of the Save the Children Federation, appeals to people to contribute clean, wearable clothing to help needy children and adults, providing the address of the Federation in Knoxville, Tenn.
A letter writer seeks to interest readers in Flag Day, coming on June 14, during which display of the American flag and other patriotic activities would be appreciated.
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.