The Charlotte News
Saturday, June 2, 1956
TWO EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Algiers that two French divisions had backed up jet dive bombers in a furious battle this date to wipe out a big Algerian rebel force trapped in the "Gates of Iron" triangle in the desolate Biban Mountains. The French claimed that the rebels had already lost 400 men, 290 of whom had been killed and 110 taken prisoner, in the largest single encounter of the 18-month Algerian uprising. Military dispatches had disclosed that an infantry division had been thrown in to support a crack mechanized division and to contain rebel units desperately striving to break out of encirclement. Artillery and planes had blasted at the rebels within the triangle in eastern Algeria, lying southwest of Bougie and along the Soumman Valley where French settlers repeatedly had been attacked by strong rebel raids. The mechanized division had launched its offensive on Wednesday on the western edge of the triangle and French officers said that the division was performing "superbly". It had been originally trained on the NATO defense line in Germany to operate in small detachments during an atomic war, and officers said that the training had been excellent for the fast-moving engagements of the Algerian war. If the French took command of the area, they would command the southern rim of the valley on the outskirts of the rebel-held Grand Kayblie. In the Constantine area, French forces had moved against a rebel group near Mila and reported that they had killed 30 rebels. In Algiers, police had raided the homes of known Communists and leaders of the National Algerian Movement, reportedly picking up 30 Communists and MNA leaders. The Arabs had staged a general strike the previous day in Casbah, the native quarter of Algiers, in protest against the French effort.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, had heard the previous day from North Carolina State Attorney General William B. Rodman, Jr., as one of about 75 opposition witnesses speaking against passage of the civil rights measures presently pending, with the next hearing tentatively set for the following Friday, consistent with the pattern of the Committee holding one hearing per week on civil rights legislation. Mr. Rodman had told the Committee the previous day that he opposed all Federal civil rights measures, not only those requested by the Administration but also those previously introduced by Northern Democrats. Robert Young, staff counsel for the Committee, said that eight or nine Southern state attorneys general were scheduled to testify against the pending measures and that Mr. Rodman had been the first of them, with one or more set to be heard the following Friday. About an equal number of Southern Senators and twice as many House members had asked also to be heard, as had former Governors Herman Talmadge of Georgia and James Byrnes of South Carolina, plus several other Southerners, comprising about 75 witnesses in all. If the Committee concluded the hearings and recommended legislation before the end of the session, there still remained looming the prospect of a Southern filibuster in the Senate. The Administration had submitted to Congress its proposal in April, calling for the appointment of a civil rights commission, the establishment of a civil rights division within the Justice Department and increased powers for the Attorney General to enforce civil rights. A measure embodying those proposals had won the approval of the House Judiciary Committee and was presently pending before the Rules Committee, awaiting clearance for floor action.
In Montgomery, Ala., White Citizens Council leaders applauded a temporary injunction which had been granted the previous day to prevent operation of the NAACP in the state of Alabama.
Senator Estes Kefauver and Adlai Stevenson entered the last weekend of campaigning before Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary in California, with Senator Kefauver continuing to criticize Mr. Stevenson, accusing him of double talk on civil rights. He said in San Francisco that Mr. Stevenson had been pictured in the Florida primary campaign as a "moderate" on racial integration but that during the California campaign, he was being put forward as a "civil rights crusader". He said that Mr. Stevenson's "civil rights equivocation has made it all but impossible for the big delegations of New York and Michigan—yes, and a large section of Illinois, now—to support him at the convention." Mr. Stevenson said that he was "not interested in dealing in personalities" and gave only slight notice to the criticism by Senator Kefauver, instead reserving his efforts against the Administration. He had previously responded to criticism by Senator Kefauver on the issue of civil rights by saying that he supported the Brown v. Board of Education decision as the law of the land and that he believed in its implementation by moderate, non-forceful means. The winner of the primary would receive all 68 votes from the California delegation to the August convention, the largest single delegation vote except for New York.
The President would be unopposed in the Republican California primary, which would send 70 Republican delegates to the convention, also in August in San Francisco. The previous day, Vice-President Nixon asked that Republican voters not write in his name on their ballots in the California primary, as they might wind up invalidating the ballots under California law.
In Kansas City, at the closing session of the Southern Baptist Convention this date, Clifton Allen of Nashville, editorial secretary of the Baptist Sunday School Board, stated in a speech that moral corruption had enveloped "a large segment of American life." He called for all members of the denomination, its churches and agencies to further the SBC's "crusade for Christian morality." He expressed his gravest concern for "what is taking place in the prevailing tone of American life," that "moral character has dropped to a dangerous level due to lust for money, sex indulgence, and low ideals of integrity and purity." He said that "Christians are in danger of corruption by a philosophy of self-expression, self-indulgence, and naturalism… Something serious has happened to the moral fiber of our generation because we have neglected the moral imperatives in the Ten Commandments." He urged a return to New Testament teachings, saying that "too many Christians have become guilty of profanity, jealousy, adultery, dishonesty, slander, and addiction to strong drink." He stated further: "Children must learn the meaning of right and wrong. Young people must be inspired by the ideals of moral excellence. Mature men and women must learn anew the demand for self-control and self-sacrifice…" The session concluded the four-day meeting, with many of the 12,000 delegates having already departed for home. The business of the convention had been completed the previous day by choosing Louisville as the site of the 1959 convention, Chicago having already been chosen as the site for the 1957 meeting and Houston for the 1958 convention.
In Houston, Jesse Jones, 82, a Tennessee farm boy who had built one of the nation's largest fortunes despite having only a fifth grade education, had died. He had been Secretary of Commerce during World War II in the Roosevelt Administration and had headed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for 13 years, loaning over 50 billion dollars in the process. He had served under Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover and Roosevelt. He had been the first citizen of Houston, then the South's largest city, having built up its skyline, owning 35 buildings ranging up to 37 stories in height. He had been publisher of the Houston Chronicle and owned three of the largest hotels. Current Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks said that Mr. Jones had been an outstanding example of the business statesman. Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas said that he had caught the early vision of Texas and "was part of it and of us." Former Texas Governor W. P. Hobby, chairman of the board of the Houston Post, said that he was "the number one citizen of Houston and one of the greatest of Americans." Mr. Jones had extensive property holdings in New York City, Fort Worth, Dallas and Memphis. His Houston Endowment Corp. had provided millions to educational, medical and charitable institutions. He had brought the 1928 Democratic convention to Houston by issuing a blank check after San Francisco had offered $200,000 for the purpose. On March 28, he had undergone surgery for a kidney blockage and had reentered the hospital on May 9, being critically ill for about ten days. After his parents had died when he was young, he came to Texas during his late teens. He had resigned as Secretary of Commerce and as head of the RFC in 1945 after a dispute with Vice-President Henry Wallace during FDR's third term prior to 1945. In 1917, President Wilson had drafted him to head the department of military relief of the American Red Cross, and President Hoover had named him to the RFC board in 1932, FDR having made him chairman of the Board in 1933 and appointed him to be Secretary of Commerce in 1940.
In Pittsburgh, a high school chemistry teacher, Lon Coburn, who had started more than 300 of his pupils on science and engineering careers, was about to receive the first honorary master's degree ever bestowed by the Carnegie Institute of Technology. At age 60, he had been a public school teacher for 34 years and found science and the teaching of science intensely interesting, having been teaching chemistry at the same high school for the prior 24 years, during which he had begun a special qualitative analysis course in 1933 for pupils who showed scientific potential.
In Columbia, the South Carolina General Assembly would meet in its sixth special session in 42 years the following Monday for the purpose of paving the way for a new 100 million dollar industry, that of the new paper mill of the British-owned Bowaters Southern Paper Corp. The Legislature had to alter an 1896 law limiting alien land ownership to 500 acres, with Bowaters intending to use much more than that acreage for its mill on the Catawba River in York County. The length of the special session was unpredictable, but leaders planned to make every effort to keep it to a single week.
In Charlotte, authorization of the public sale of the Alexander Graham Junior High School property as the site for the proposed new YMCA building, might be presented at the City School Board meeting the following Wednesday.
Near Atlanta, two men had rescued a dog trapped on Stone Mountain the previous day, descending by rope about 750 feet to reach the animal. A store owner who specialized in rescues from the mountain had worked alongside a member of the the DeKalb County Police to rescue the dog, which had slipped and fallen until caught by an iron stake left by workers carving the cliff years earlier, preventing it from falling 350 feet below. The dog appeared badly shaken and was taken to the Atlanta Humane Society for treatment. (Unless the mountain has embedded itself into the earth by about 300 feet over the last 67 years, someone misstated the elevations, as the top of the mountain is only 825 feet above ground level. Perhaps, they were measuring in dog feet.)
On the editorial page, "'The Goodliest Land under the Cope of Heaven' Offers a New Challenge" suggests that to the recent high school graduate, the present times might seem full of chaos, but what that graduate and his generation mistook for chaos were "bits of vital, concrete reality as flavorful and orderly as a symphony by Beethoven."
It regards the present times as being more exciting than frenzied, days of decision, rich in opportunity and adventure. There were complicated problems to be solved and questions to be answered, while "living in a state with Jim Crow on its conscience and segregation in its heart. North Carolina doesn't know if it can preserve segregation and preserve the public schools at the same time."
It was also concerned about the low per capita income in the state but was searching for a way to improve its economic position.
The state's growing pains were immense, impacting labor, management and the ordinary consumer. It needed more diversification in industry, more roads and schools, with new interest in social progress and governmental reform, with increasing numbers of people seeking to translate attitudes into action.
There was plenty of frustration over undone deeds and thwarted desires, but frustration was not always unhealthy, especially if it bred impatience resulting in renewed effort.
But beneath that frustration, there was a steady thrust toward progress, and the state was rapidly moving forward, with machines helping and atomic power providing promise. Clay roads had been replaced by concrete and rustic shacks and eroded fields, by painted farmhouses and well-manicured crop lands. Modern factories with modern tools had replaced the sweatshops of earlier times and production had been increased with new markets stimulated.
North Carolina playwright Paul Green had spoken to the graduates of 1954, saying: "Now is the best of all times to be alive in the world, the best time to be born, to be young, to be growing up and reaching ahead. And in this mighty adventure in the 20th century, North Carolina is taking her inspiring part. And our citizens, especially the young, now have a chance for creative and abundant living the like of which their parents and grandparents never had…" He had gone on to say that there was plenty of opportunity within the 50,000 square miles of open space in the state, "rich and mellow and fruitful and waiting to be made into an earthly garden" amid a mild climate, with plentiful rainfall and "clay and wood and stone … all around with which to build our habitations and homes." There were lakes, running creeks and rivers plus forested abundance "for all uses and joy and recreation."
It concludes that the state was still what Richard Hakluyt, (albeit actually apparently derived from a letter to Mr. Hakluyt from Ralph Lane, who made the early, unsuccessful attempt at colonization of the Raleigh colony on Roanoke Island, then proclaimed "Virginia" by Queen Elizabeth), had called it centuries earlier, in his book regarding North Carolina's location in the new world, "The goodliest land under the cope of heaven."
"But it can, and will, be goodlier still. For today's youth, there is so much to do—and so much time."
Well, as long as the youth do not go around talking about the state in such arcane comparative adverbial valuations as "goodlier" and "goodliest", in which case people from the North and elsewhere might think the person a bit daft, even bereft of very much formal education. But, Virginia, dare dispute it.
"The Queen City Can Take a Bow" finds it gratifying that the community had responded to the campaign to raise two million dollars for construction of a new Central YMCA building, finding it a badge of honor for the citizenry, as the present building, erected in 1906, was so woefully inadequate for a city the size of Charlotte. It lists the people who were largely responsible for the successful fund-raising campaign.
A piece from the Atlantic Monthly, titled "Cartoonists and the Atomic Age", indicates that in the previous half-century, cartoon symbols had been in a state of flux, that under the prod of science, several treasured and hard-won symbols had been discarded, such as the cartoon symbol for great wealth and plutocracy. "Some years ago, the nabobs, the robber barons, the vested financial interests were portrayed as porcine individuals, silk hatted, bulb nosed, wing collared, sphere bellied", wearing "dollar signed vests around their uninhibited equators, and watch chains thick enough to secure anchors swung around their fourth buttons." (The writer must have recently been playing Monopoly.)
But now, the affluent were depicted
in a homburg for which the wearer may have spent $200 but appeared in
a cartoon as indistinct from a $10 homburg worn by the honest
laboring man on lodge nights
To make up for the loss of the
cartoon version of the wealthy had come the atom, but no one knew
what an atom looked like. (Herblock did
No longer did the convict wear horizontally striped garb, as the sociologists had eliminated that caricature, and no longer was the tough guy characterized by the broken nose and the beetling brow, something which the plastic surgeons had eliminated. Even the images of pigs feeding at a trough to show rapacity were disappearing as pigs were not being bred for fat any longer and pork chops were becoming leaner.
With the exception of some obdurate
members of the Amish, chin whiskers were relics of the past, and so
Uncle Sam ought be updated to eliminate his goatee. Likewise, striped
pants with the strap under the arch and the beaver
Drew Pearson tells of new Secretary of Interior Fred Seaton being one of the best men whom the President could have appointed for that position, the appointment possibly resulting in a complete change in the so-called Administration "giveaway" policy regarding Federal lands for private use. But tempers had flared privately among the Old Guard Republicans at the news of the appointment, the opposition not having been personal but embracing the entire Eisenhower policy on tidelands oil, public power, natural gas, wildlife refuges and Hell's Canyon, as Mr. Seaton had been opposed to giving tidelands oil to the states when he was in the Senate and could reverse Eisenhower policies as Secretary of the Interior. Mr. Seaton had served in the Senate to complete the unexpired term of the late Senator Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska, and during that time it had become known that he would not vote with the Gulf states and various Republican Senators to provide tidelands oil to Texas, Louisiana and California, causing dismay and indignation among the gas-oil lobby during the closing days of the Truman Administration when Senators were being polled in an effort to override the expected veto by President Truman. At that time, Governor Allen Shivers of Texas had called on Governor Val Peterson of Nebraska, who had appointed Mr. Seaton to the Senate, urging that he persuade the new Senator to vote for tidelands oil, to which the Governor declined, saying that he had no control over the Senator's vote. Later, Senator Seaton and his wife were in Germany where they were adopting two children at the time the tidelands oil debate started early in 1952, but he had rushed back in time to record his vote against the bill.
Mr. Seaton was a Midwest, small-town newspaper publisher who understood people as well as politics. Through his friend, Kansas Senator Frank Carlson, he had gotten to know General Eisenhower during the 1952 campaign and had become one of his close advisers, and a liberal adviser, joining the group who wanted to oust Senator Richard Nixon from the ticket after his $18,000 personal expense fund collected by wealthy supporters had been revealed in September, 1952.
Mr. Seaton had also sought to persuade Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon not to bolt the Republican Party in the 1952 election and had helped to persuade the sometimes nervous candidate Eisenhower that the press would not bite him. After the 1952 election, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of Defense for the purpose of assisting the unsure hand in public relations of Secretary Charles E. Wilson, who had come to the position as the head of General Motors. In that job and later as a member of the White House staff, Mr. Seaton had handled delicate political problems, having urged the firing of RNC chairman Wesley Roberts when the latter had been revealed as a Kansas lobbyist, had been delegated to fire Ed Mansure as head of the General Services Administration, and was also assigned the task of smoothing out the problem between the Administration and the farmers in the Midwest, having been sent to Des Moines to persuade five Midwestern Republican Governors not to criticize the Administration on its farm policies.
Mr. Pearson concludes that Mr. Seaton's policies as Secretary of Interior ought be exactly opposite those of former Secretary Douglas McKay, who had resigned to run for the Senate in Oregon against Senator Morse.
Stewart Alsop tells of the defeat of Senator Estes Kefauver by Adlai Stevenson in the Florida Democratic presidential primary having been devastating to the nomination hopes of Senator Kefauver, even though the defeat had been by a narrow margin. While the California primary was still to occur on June 5, it was difficult to see how Senator Kefauver could recover.
During the final days of the Florida race, he had made a decision to play rough, previously having made "simple, earnest, cliché-ridden speeches", shaking thousands of hands each day "with automaton-like efficiency". But on the Wednesday prior to the Tuesday primary vote, while he did not appear tough, he was tough nevertheless, accusing Mr. Stevenson in all of his speeches, "more in sorrow than in anger", of vetoing an inadequate pension for the "aged and blind" during his time as Governor of Illinois. That Wednesday night during a television appearance, he used an old political trick favored by Senator McCarthy, brandishing papers which he contended proved his charges. He subsequently charged that Mr. Stevenson had represented RCA before the Supreme Court and thus favored monopoly, that six Florida Congressmen, whose support Senator Kefauver had solicited, had "ganged up" on the Senator when they announced for Mr. Stevenson. Regardless of how mild the manner of delivery by Senator Kefauver, it was "rough stuff" and the Senator knew it.
He must have known that the old-age pension legislation which Governor Stevenson had vetoed had been passed by a Republican-controlled Legislature as a "political trap" for the Governor, as indicated by the Chicago Sun-Times. He also must have known that the Legislature had provided no revenue for the increase and that, according to the Sun-Times, it had taken "rare political courage and honesty" for Governor Stevenson to veto that measure. Mr. Alsop suggests that if Senator Kefauver did not know those facts, it could have been only because he made a conscious effort not to become aware of them. As a shrewd and experienced politician, he must also have known the risks he was taking in adopting such tactics, guaranteed to infuriate the supporters of Mr. Stevenson and of the candidate himself.
Regardless of what would occur in California, Mr. Stevenson was now assured of a large and loyal bloc at the convention in August, whereas if Senator Kefauver had not decided to play rough, he might have hoped to inherit an important portion of the Stevenson delegates if the latter did not win on the first ballot. But now that hope was dead. One Stevenson intimate, when asked whether Mr. Stevenson might consent to run with the Senator if necessary for the nomination, replied "never, never, never". Mr. Stevenson's managers could be counted on now to do everything humanly possible to deny the Senator a place on the ticket. (Of course, Mr. Stevenson, after throwing the question of the vice-presidential running mate open to the convention because he was a repeat nominee, would wind up with Senator Kefauver as his running mate, after a narrow win by the latter over Senator John F. Kennedy.)
Mr. Alsop indicates that the Northern liberal groups who still exercised great power at the Democratic conventions, had always been less than enthusiastic about Senator Kefauver, though somewhat illogically as the Senator had a near perfect liberal voting record and in the past had shown real courage, especially on civil liberties issues. But because of his tactics in Florida, liberals would have a logical reason for opposing him at the convention, as would the professional politicians, who had been even cooler to the Senator's national prospects.
He indicates that, conceivably, the Senator might be able to fight his way to a place on the ticket, as long as the ticket would be headed by Governor Averell Harriman of New York, for example, as within that camp, the Senator was favored as the vice-presidential running mate. But he concludes that the apathetic Florida voters, in defeating the Senator by a narrow margin, had hurt him very badly, and in his desperate effort to win, the Senator had hurt himself even more.
A letter writer from Rock Hill, S.C., finds that the newsprint mill to be located in the community would be welcomed by the local citizenry, but wonders, given the British employers, whether it might give rise to changes in verbal and written communication in the area, finding it disconcerting that the language might undergo alteration unless there would be rapid assimilation of the foreigners. He asks that readers scan a full-page ad which appeared in the April 25 issue of Punch over the signature of the Bowaters Paper Corp., Ltd., the British company which was establishing the mill, reading: "The words go out in polyglot profusion. Translated in language and form, they appear as printed on a newspaper. Paper is an impartial recorder. It takes the news of a world conference, the football results, the names of ladies who served tea in the village hall and makes history of them all. But paper does more, even, than that. In magazines and books it entertains and instructs. Converted into its many other forms, paper protects your groceries, brings supplies as safely to farmers, takes precious goods abroad, wraps up sweets for the children. Timber—the raw material of all these varied products—appears in the home in other guises; in kitchen fitments as hardboard, on the dressing-table as face tissue. On a world front, Bowaters are making an increasing contribution to people's knowledge, health and general contentment. The harvest of the forest is given many forms by Bowaters." He suggests that with such advertising copy, the locals would have to watch themselves, lest they start drinking tea rather than cola, "and an unthinkable steady diet of Noel Coward instead of Arthur Smith."
Beyond perhaps the opening sentence of the ad, there appears little which distinguishes it from ordinary ads one might find for any other local business, and so perhaps the letter writer exaggerates a wee bit. Moreover, "Bowaters are" appears incorrect if the name of the firm is Bowaters. The English are not the ultimate arbiters, necessarily, of correct English.
A letter from the chairman of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Safety Check Committee thanks the newspaper for its cooperation in promoting the effort for ensuring safety of automobiles on the streets and highways of the community.
A letter writer asserts that unity among Democrats in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, rather than the recent friction, would be more salutary. He comments that the write-in campaign for November for Ed O'Herron for State Representative was not necessarily a good thing and urges voters to "shuffle the cards and get rid of some of the two spots." He goes on with his card analogy, to what end not being very clear, except to re-examine the wisdom of voting in a write-in campaign for Mr. O'Herron and to say that he wanted no deuces in the deck.
Get rid of the Jokers first.
A letter writer finds it a shame that some of the ministers in the city were speaking against the program of having Bible instruction in the public schools as part of an hour of optional study. He says that having been a student of the Bible in a public school, he could provide witness to the fact that it was taught as it read and not as a certain sect or denomination would believe it to read, and so thinks it good to have the training available in the schools.
A letter writer warns by the authority of God's word that if one rejected God's Son as the redeemer and Saviour, the person would be forever and eternally lost, as God had offered pardon to everyone who would repent of sin and believe in Jesus as the Saviour, citing John 3:16. "If you die and go to hell, it is not because God sent you there. It is because you would not receive Jesus as your pardon and Saviour."
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.