The Charlotte News
Tuesday, June 19, 1956
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President remained mum on his intentions whether or not, in light of his recent attack of ileitis, to continue his run for re-election. Senator John W. Bricker of Ohio had said this date that he expected the President to indicate that there was no change in his plans. The President remained hospitalized, recuperating from the June 9 surgery, with an earlier medical report predicting his release perhaps by the end of the current week. Vice-President Nixon had met with the President the previous day, but had told reporters that there was no political discussion, later imparting to an audience in Annapolis, Md., that the President would be out of the hospital soon, "fit to carry the burdens of the hardest job in the world."
The President had put in the better
part of an hour this date working on White House business, in
conjunction with chief of staff Sherman Adams, signing four bills. He
had also spent time chuckling over a booklet of photographs of his
eight-year old grandson, David, playing golf, a booklet prepared by
the White House News Photographers Association, including captions as
though written by young David, in actuality provided by the
Associated Press. The President the previous day and again this
morning had for breakfast two soft-boiled eggs, one slice of whole
wheat toast with honey, and a cup of tea. He had a half-glass of skim
milk the previous day. Presumably, an English muffin or a coffee roll might have substituted
RNC chairman Leonard Hall had told reporters in Hartford, Conn., that the Republicans were going ahead with their convention plans on the assumption that the President would be the candidate. Senator Andrew Schoeppel of Kansas, chairman of the Republican Senatorial campaign committee, said that he believed the chances were good that the Republicans could pick up a Senate seat in Kentucky and regain control of the chamber, indicating that Democrats in Kentucky were disturbed over the candidacy of Thruston Morton, running against incumbent Senator Earle Clements.
Governor Averell Harriman of New York was predicted to be the nominee of the Democrats by former DNC chairman Frank McKinney. But in Chicago, a poll taken by the Associated Press of Illinois Democratic delegates to the convention showed that Adlai Stevenson was their top choice, with 37 of the 78 polled having responded, giving Senator Stuart Symington the second most votes.
Democratic members of the House Government Operations Committee this date alleged "political and private influence" in a 43 million dollar Government nickel plant expansion project, while Republicans on the Committee rejected the charges, accusing the majority of "an amazing suppression of evidence". The Committee issued a split report regarding a subcommittee inquiry into contracts which had been awarded in connection with the expansion of a large nickel production plant in Cuba. The subcommittee chairman, Representative Jack Brooks of Texas, accused the Justice Department of maintaining in secret some microfilm records of private files which might have pointed to further irregularities in the expansion program. The Department had said that it was holding on to those files while it conducted its own investigation of the matter. The three Republicans on the eight-member subcommittee demanded that further hearings occur before such "sweeping conclusions" were made. The Democrats charged that there had been a loss of 6.5 million dollars worth of nickel output because of delays which were the result of "political favoritism", and that there appeared to be perjured testimony concerning a "lush brokerage fee" for a Chicago insurance agency headed by Republican friends of Edmund Mansure, at the time head of the General Services Administration, having resigned the previous February while the investigation was proceeding, indicating as his reason that he wanted to attend to personal obligations. The expansion project had begun in 1954 with a construction subcontract held jointly, providing for a half-million dollars for each of two firms.
In London, Britain told the U.S. this date that it was shocked at the bombing which had killed U.S. Vice-Consul William Botelar in Cyprus the prior Saturday, and extended condolences to his family through British Ambassador to the U.S. Roger Makins. The bomb attack had occurred in a Nicosia restaurant and British security forces had arrested three youths soon afterward. Three other civilian radio employees of the State Department were also injured in the bombing.
In Montgomery, Ala., the Reverend U. J. Fields had withdrawn his charges of misconduct by leaders of the Montgomery bus boycott the previous night, saying that he had "no evidence" for the charges which he had made a week earlier, apologizing for his statement, indicating that it had been made "in anger and passion". The meeting before which he offered the apology had voted to accept his apology, after the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., had urged doing so. Reverend Fields said that he had not questioned the leadership of the boycott by Reverend King because "I feel that his integrity is beyond question." Reverend Fields had been voted out of his pulpit after he had made the charges.
In Poteau, Okla., police had grabbed a former convict off of a bus early this date and held him for the slaying of a young Tulsa minister who had given him a ride. The undersheriff had said that the suspect had admitted the slaying of the 24-year old assistant pastor. The pastor of the church said that the victim often picked up hitchhikers and tried to tell them about Jesus. The man had been captured after a day-long manhunt through the mountains in southeastern Oklahoma.
In Laurinburg, N.C., it was reported that thieves had stolen more than $2,000 from a safe in the Scotland County Superior Court Clerk's office the previous night, with the clerk indicating that all of the missing money was in currency, with silver, checks and several pistols left untouched. The burglary was accomplished by entering the first floor through breaking glass in a door, with the clerk indicating that he had left the safe so that it could be opened by turning it only to the last number of the combination. The loss was covered by insurance. Sounds fishy, maybe an inside job.
In Winston-Salem, Piedmont Airlines, which had a terminal in Charlotte, announced this date that it had ordered 12 Fairchild prop-jet transport planes at a cost of eight million dollars, and had optioned 12 other similar aircraft. The president of Piedmont and the president of Fairchild Engine Aircraft Corp. agreed that the deal would result "in a new era for air transportation at the many cities in a seven-state area served by Piedmont Airlines." The Rolls-Royce Dart prop-jet engines were rated at more than 1,700 horsepower each and provided a steady flow of power with vibration practically eliminated. They had better be concerned about better instructions for the inebriated regarding the doors of the aircraft, distinguishing the exits from the restroom entrances.
Dick Young of The News tells of a multi-million dollar relocation project for Highway 21 South from Charlotte to Pineville set to start the following spring, according to the State Highway commissioner James Hardison.
Mr. Young also reports that parking would be banned in Charlotte during morning and afternoon peak hours on midtown Trade and Tryon Streets beginning in the week of July 1.
John Borchert of The News tells of the mercury dropping into the 60's and 70's this date based, according to the Weather Bureau, on a "stationary" front which had approached from the north, ending 11 straight days of sweltering temperatures above 90 and four straight days of 94 or higher.
In Charlotte, there would be ice skating on the new Coliseum floor during the summer, but no one was sure for how long. The next date for use of the Coliseum in a way which would necessitate melting of the ice was not until September 14, when a competitive truck "roadeo" would begin, and then would be frozen again about two weeks later when the Ice Capades would come to town on September 30.
On the editorial page, "Carrying Tar Heel Humility Too Far" indicates that North Carolina had long been known as a "vale of humility between two mountains of conceit", those being Virginia and South Carolina. It indicates that if the generalization was galling, it was the state's own fault, for every time it tried to brag, it wound up knocking itself for a loop.
The state talked with quiet pride about its "Variety Vacationland", as set forth in the new North Carolina Guide, from which it quotes. But when the North Carolina Bar Association wanted to hold its meeting, it went to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, and when State and county officials wanted to hold a conference, they went to Virginia Beach. Other North Carolina organizations followed suit.
It indicates that it had nothing against South Carolina or Virginia resorts, and that North Carolina "wonders" could sometimes be better equipped for luxurious habitation, but finds it mostly deficient in merchandising. "It's just that somebody living in this vale of humility is not promoting our own wonders with enough persuasive vigor."
"The Commission Was Too Apologetic" finds that the County Commission had been overly submissive after first objecting to the establishment of a paper manufacturing plant in neighboring York County, S.C., having first voted to propose to Governor Luther Hodges that he do everything within his power to prevent it from being established so that the inevitable odor from the plant would not wind up pervading Mecklenburg County, but then suddenly reversing course and stating its apologies to South Carolina for having made the suggestion.
It indicates that the Commission had no information on which to base their protest and therefore could not defend it, reason enough for the withdrawal, but not for such an extreme exercise in expressed regret, that they should not have protested in the first place without substantial basis, as there had been no attempt to determine any harm the plant might actually cause to Mecklenburg. It is happy that the Commission was big enough to confess the mistake, but that as long as its intent was to protect the county and its residents, it had no reason to issue such an apology.
"Add Chin Straps to Judicial Robes" indicates that the request by North Carolina lawyers that Superior Court judges begin wearing judicial robes reflected a love of tradition, precedence and symbolism, but also demonstrated a certain timidity and weakness of purpose, as the lawyers had not mentioned a return to periwigs and coifs or silk tied under the chin, or other such attire worn by judges of the Crown during colonial times. Thus, it finds, the State Bar Association was actually not proposing better-dressed judges but half-dressed judges.
Policemen, servicemen, clergymen and hotel doormen all had uniforms and so there was no reason why judges ought not have them also.
But if the lawyers wanted to return to the aristocratic trappings which had been scorned by Thomas Jefferson and other leaders at the founding, it advises that they go all the way, that if a robe imparted dignity, a skullcap would give double measure. It agrees with a writer in the Tulsa Tribune, who had said that "a few yards of black cloth cannot in themselves make a judicial giant out of a pigmy." It also agrees with the advice of Judge Jerome Frank: "Unfrock the judge, have him dress like ordinary men, become in appearance like his fellows, and he may well be inclined to talk and write more comprehensibly."
"Kudos for a Few Ill-Chosen Words" provides a list of "Statements Better Left Unstated" and suggests it would start a club, the Silence-Is-Golden Society, reserving memberships for people who said things one could despise on first hearing without intimate knowledge of the subject matter.
It provides four such awards, one to White House press secretary James Hagerty, who, while the President was still convalescing in Walter Reed Army Hospital, had said, "I don't think the President is sick." It provides another to Senator Estes Kefauver, who, after criticizing Adlai Stevenson across the country, had shrugged it off with the statement, "I just got mad and lost my head." A third award is given to Assistant Secretary of the Interior Felix Wormser, who, in the face of 10,969 small business failures the previous year, had said: "There are business failures even in times of great prosperity. It is part and parcel of our American way of life under which our country has grown strong. I do not think we want it any different." It provides its final award of the week to whoever locally had said, "The Rozzelle's Ferry Bridge will be completed in March 1956."
Its only regret was that the society was not activated in time to offer awards to Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson for his comments regarding what was good for bird dogs, and Presidential assistant Howard Pyle, who had talked about "the right to suffer". It indicates that as for the others, they had at least enlivened a predominantly melancholy season with their few ill-chosen words which might yet be satisfactorily forgotten.
A piece from the Raleigh News & Observer, titled "An Aspirin Tablet on Saturday", tells of going to town on Saturday.
Drew Pearson indicates that Secretary of State Dulles had told the President that by the following winter, he wanted to retire from his position as he was very tired. The White House prediction was that Mr. Dulles would obtain the next Supreme Court vacancy, but that posed a problem, as Attorney General Herbert Brownell also wanted a place on the Court, though, notes Mr. Pearson, the latter would probably have a tough problem in getting confirmed by the Senate. Former Governor Thomas Dewey also wanted to be appointed to the Court. But all were from New York and thus could not be appointed even if three vacancies arose, as the President had already appointed one New Yorker, John Harlan, who had been recommended by Mr. Dewey and was doing a fine job.
The inside reason that the President's brother, Milton, had resigned as president of Penn State, was not to take a government job but to campaign for the President, a decision made before the President's recent attack of ileitis, as Milton Eisenhower had assumed that his brother would need someone to make speeches for him and did not want to do so on the university's time or get the institution mixed up in politics. Increasingly, Republicans were looking to Milton Eisenhower as a potential replacement for his brother, should the latter drop out of the race. But RNC chairman Leonard Hall grumbled that he was not really a Republican.
Air Force officers were urging that the draft be abolished, arguing within the Pentagon that the three services could presently recruit all of the men they needed.
Former Governor Dewey was building up a terrific law practice, now that he was the closest private attorney to the President. His latest clients were Pan American Airways and Eastern Air lines.
Although Mamie Eisenhower was confident that her husband would recover from his recent illness, she was more opposed than ever to his running again, realizing, however, that it was a decision he would have to make.
The British Embassy had cabled London that it was presently uncertain as to whether the President would run again, that until the President, himself, stated that he would do so, the British Government should not make any long-range plans which depended on President Eisenhower.
The first important job being handled by new Secretary of Interior Fred Seaton was the problem of converting saltwater to fresh water, a study started under former Secretary Oscar Chapman, but allowed to languish under the immediately prior Secretary, Douglas McKay. Secretary Seaton believed that if scientists could develop a cheap method of desalinization, huge areas of the world, including New Mexico, Nevada and the Sahara Desert could be made to blossom.
Vice-President Nixon was incidentally converting the children of staunch Democrats to the Republican Party, being so nice to neighborhood kids that when they came over to play with his children, they went home telling their Democratic parents that they had become Republicans.
Playwright Arthur Miller, friend of Marilyn Monroe and author of "The Crucible", the story of Salem witch-burning, would, during the current week, testify before HUAC, thanks to the "witch-burning tactics" of the Committee's new counsel, Richard Arens, who would grill Mr. Miller, determined to obtain more headlines for the Committee, knowing that big Hollywood names linked to beautiful actresses was one way to do so.
The Congressional Quarterly examines the "right-to-work" issue, ignored by Congress for the previous four years, but which was certain to be debated during the coming political campaigns, with the controversy surrounding the "right-to-work" laws enacted by 18 states prohibiting "union shop" contracts, requiring an employee to join a union to keep his or her job. Such contracts were permitted by Taft-Hartley, which also allowed states to ban the union shops.
The Supreme Court, on the prior May 21, had decided that state right-to-work laws did not apply to railroad unions, controlled by the Railway Labor Act rather than Taft-Hartley. It did not interfere with the application of state laws to other industries.
About two dozen bills had been introduced in the current Congress to revoke Taft-Hartley authorization for right-to-work laws, but the Senate and House Labor Committees had not held any hearings on those bills.
The President had recommended changes in Taft-Hartley, but none of those recommendations involved the right-to-work aspect.
Opposing pressure groups had turned their attention from the current Congress to the forthcoming presidential and Congressional campaigns. Supporters of the right-to-work laws indicated that compulsory unionism was destructive of individual freedom, that Americans should have the right to join unions but should not be compelled to do so. They claimed that it would lead otherwise to a "socialist labor dictatorship". Opponents argued that since unions were required by law to represent all workers in a unit, whether or not members of unions, the right to work was really a right to a free ride for the worker who wanted the benefits of union representation without the obligations of union membership, that the real purpose of the laws was not to protect individual freedom, but rather to hamper union organizing efforts and destroy union security in already organized plants.
The top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, Adlai Stevenson, Senator Estes Kefauver and Governor Averell Harriman, all had come out against the right-to-work laws, with Senator Kefauver stating that they bred strife and confusion, while Mr. Stevenson labeled them "misnamed and undemocratic".
The Republican position on the laws was not yet clear. Secretary of Labor James Mitchell had told the CIO in 1954 that he categorically opposed such laws, and had reminded another union the prior May that the 18 states with those laws were represented in Congress by 114 Democrats and only 37 Republicans. It lists the 18 states, which included all Southern states, plus Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah.
Robert C. Ruark, in Palamos, Spain, indicates that he loved ballplayers and had since his youth. He comments on a piece in Collier's by Duke Snider, who had a positive talent for striking out in World Series games and appeared to him to be the most ill-used athlete ever. The only thing Mr. Snider did not like about baseball were the managers, the fans, the reporters and opposing pitchers. He also did not like travel, did not like the food he had to eat when he traveled, but did like the money he received. The title of the piece was "I Play Baseball for Money, Not Fun". He complained that he had to spend his life away from his wife, that his manager was little less than a beast, that he choked up in the clutch, that fans were horrible, and that the sportswriters were all against him. But he concluded that he knew no other way to earn $50,000 per year or he would look for it.
Mr. Ruark says that he had not encountered such a perfect type of ballplayer since the old days, that he had spent years trying to understand ballplayers and finally decided to give up sports writing and leave it to Ring Lardner, "the only man who ever approached a true knowledge of the business." He says that he had never known a pitcher who would not knock down his mother if his earned-run average were at stake. He had likewise never known a hitter who did not criticize the Louisville Slugger Co., and had known very few who had ever realized how lucky they were not to have to earn a living from behind a plough. They worked six months per year, hunted and fished, signed testimonials, while playing a sport "so infantile the players still wear short pants, identifying them as boys. They are largely absent of thought, or they wouldn't need managers."
Yet, he found them still complaining, as they always had, which was why he appreciated Mr. Snider, as he was a ballplayer all the way and would still be good as a partner to the mule. "The mule, naturally, would be referred to as the brain."
A letter writer from Great Falls, S.C., indicates that if the average people understood the value of having the voting privilege for candidates of their own choice without fear of violent reactions, they would have responded by putting more effort in voting on election days. He says he prefers to vote Democratic, while not believing the politicians from the party were any different from those of the Republican Party, that the difference was only in the parties themselves, with the Democrats representing the greatest majority of the people from all classes, whereas the Republicans represented the select few, those with money, discriminating against the poor. He indicates that during the 20 years of the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations, no matter what had occurred, it was the President who was always held accountable, whether right or wrong, but that under the Eisenhower Administration, no matter what had occurred, it was one of the Cabinet members who was held accountable for problems, but never the President. He indicates that it was why he would always vote for a Democratic administration and a Democratic Congress.
A letter writer comments on a report on June 2 regarding a man who had offered to allow use of his private sewer line to industrial plants to alleviate the problem of the industrial waste odor emanating from Little Hope Creek. The writer finds the offer to have reflected a civic-minded citizen who would be doing a favor to the residents of the area while saving the industries in question the cost of building their own sewer line. He trusts that the plants would accept the offer.
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