The Charlotte News
Wednesday, June 27, 1956
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the nation's three big steel firms this date had placed a new contract proposal before the United Steelworkers union in an effort to obviate an industry-wide strike set for midnight the following Saturday, with no immediate information as to what the new proposal contained, believed to call for a three-year contract with an hourly pay raise of a dime per hour for the first year. A previous industry proposal, which had called for a five-year contract with a 7.5 cents per hour increase in pay the first year, had been rejected by the union as unsatisfactory. Negotiators for the three major steel firms and the union displayed great amiability as they went into the current date's session, at which the new terms were suggested, the negotiators having posed together for photographs while smiling. One of the firms had announced that it would start banking furnaces this night at Gary, Ind., and the following day in the Pittsburgh area, in preparation for the possibility of a strike, and other major producers were expected to follow suit, though described as a purely precautionary measure to prevent cooling damage to the furnaces. The existing contract, with a two-year term, would expire at midnight Saturday, and the union had authorized a strike of 650,000 workers at that time if no new agreement was reached in the meantime. It was believed that in the informal talks of the previous day, the company negotiators might have been provided indications that the union would be willing to make concessions to avert a costly strike.
In New York, a 46-year old man, a male nurse who pleaded guilty to having performed a fatal abortion on a 20-year old woman and disposed of her dismembered body in garbage cans, had been sentenced this date to between 7 1/2 and 20 years in prison, with his co-defendant, the young woman's boyfriend, who proceeded through trial and was convicted, having been sentenced the previous day to between 7 1/2 and 15 years. The man who had performed the abortion had interrupted his trial to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter and testified for the prosecution, with the co-defendant having been found responsible by the court for inducing the woman to undergo the abortion. The defendant who pleaded guilty testified that the abortion was performed on the woman in her boyfriend's apartment the previous Christmas Eve and that when she had died, the two men had dismembered her body, wrapped the pieces in Christmas wrapping paper and placed them in trash baskets in upper Manhattan. No trace of the body had ever been found.
At Columbus, N.C., it was reported that a Polk County grand jury had indicted six participants in a drag race with inciting a riot, a felony punishable by a maximum of ten years in prison, with the grand jury recommending that the cases be prosecuted "to the letter of the law". The sheriff said that he was preparing warrants for other members of the crowd of 50 to 75 men who had rushed three officers and had to be held off at gunpoint, with those warrants to charge inciting a riot. The sheriff had been slightly injured in a scuffle with one of the men, and he said the crowd also attempted to overturn a patrol car occupied by three officers. The incident had occurred when the officers had gone to the rural Mill Springs section early the prior Sunday to break up a drag race on a public road. The solicitor said that the cases probably would be tried during the August term of court.
At Parris Island, S.C., it was reported that military search parties had sped to nearby Pritchard's Island to check on a reported plane crash this date, but found that the wreckage there was about five years old and discovered nothing to confirm earlier reports that a twin-engine plane with one wing on fire had been seen in a tidal inlet on the island prior to dawn.
Julian Scheer of The News tells of City Council member Claude Albea having presented a practical chapter in the life of a politician this date, telling the world, in effect, that everyone wanted a job. Mayor Pro Tem Jim Smith, in a pre-City Council session, had produced a letter from Police Chief Frank Littlejohn supporting the appointment of a police captain as a supplementary constable of Charlotte Township, stating that the City Council had the authority to appoint such a constable, noting that there were presently five magistrates and one constable in the Township, insufficient to take care of the numerous cases arising in the magistrates' courts. Mr. Smith had moved for the appointment of the supplementary constable, which was then seconded, but another member of the Council, Steve Dellinger, said he was for it if it was legal, but that there should not be any particular man named, as he had a man of his own for the position, whereupon another member of the Council added that he did, too. Mr. Albea then interjected that he did not have a candidate but could find one right quick, at which point the discussion ended without action. Mr. Scheer also notes that it was recommended at the Council meeting this date that July 4 be designated as a holiday for City employees in observance of the "Signing of the Declaration of Independence", which Mr. Scheer notes alluded to the Mecklenburg Declaration, not the one in Philadelphia. But that one purportedly was signed on May 20, 1775. What gives?
Emery Wister of The News reports of a new network of roads and superhighways to be North Carolina's share of the 32.9 billion dollar highway bill just passed by Congress, according to A. H. Graham, chairman of the North Carolina State Highway Commission. Of the 216.5 million dollars allocated to the state, funds for paving of the Highway 29 bypass around Charlotte would be included, with no delay foreseen in that project, anticipated to reach completion by early 1958. Mr. Graham knew of no other projects in the Charlotte area which would come from the new bill, most of which would pay for a 41,000-mile superhighway network to link most state capitals and major cities of the nation.
The new bill might provide a boost to the proposed five-million dollar grade separation program for Charlotte, with Representative Charles Jonas having said this date that an attempt would be made to amend the bill after it had been signed into law by the President, making the Charlotte program eligible for funding.
Charles Kuralt of The News reports on the local 11th postwar Soap Box Derby, with 130 cars competing, speeding down Hawthorne Lane Extension during the afternoon, with the winner of the 11-12 year old class meeting the winner of the 13-15 year old class for the overall crown. WAYS radio station was broadcasting portions of the race all afternoon. The first place winner would receive two $100 savings bonds, an electric polisher, the trophy and a forthcoming trip to the national competition in Akron, O. The runner-up would receive a $100 savings bond, and other prizes would also be awarded at a banquet following the race.
City traffic engineer Herman Hoose had won the Oil Can Trophy race preliminary to the Derby, but was disqualified by the judges for a "traffic violation". Stock car driver Bunk Moore, who had finished second, was declared the winner, and Sandy Grady of The News, the previous year's winner, finished a poor third. Miss Charlotte, Martha Randall, presented the trophy to Mr. Hoose anyway and also provided him a kiss on the cheek.
In Chicago, a 36-year old Texas man was being held by police for questioning this date in connection with a small arsenal found in his car. The man had explained to detectives that the weapons, including a .44-caliber revolver with 100 bullets, a tear gas gun with three shells, 11 daggers, and three switchblade knives, and assorted burglary tools, including lock-picking tools and a lock puller, were part of his hobby, that the guns were used for shooting and the daggers and knives to amuse himself, and that he was also studying locksmithing. When asked about the tear gas gun, he said that he liked to watch people cry. The police had stopped him when they noticed he was wearing a suit too tight for him, which he explained he had gotten from his uncle, that it was the first time he had put it on and was planning to change it in the car. He was being held on an open charge. He said he had been a medical secretary in a Dallas hospital and had been in Chicago for only three weeks.
Not on the front page, Elvis
Presley, who had appeared in Charlotte at the Carolina Theater in February, was back the
previous night for a return engagement, this time at the Coliseum
after his rapid rise to popularity among the teenagers across the
nation in the interim, thanks to radio and television, as reported on an inside page, with more
elaborate treatment
The Observer also tells of it being round-up
Julian Scheer, in his News column, tells of George Hamilton IV having landed a recording
On the editorial page, "Futility: The Winner and Still Champ" finds that the skirmish over Little Hope Creek had been won by futility, which had also won the fight for water safety on the Catawba River. Its official name was "Do Nothing", having won a million battles with big and little governments across the nation, appearing locally to thrive within the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners.
The smelly creek, rife with industrial waste, which ran through two nice neighborhoods, had not found a solution, as had not the recklessness of some boaters on the Catawba River, absent a river patrol, both for want of State legislative authorization. The County Commission had the best of intentions but lacked authority in the case of Little Hope Creek, one of several such problems which had developed as growth continued. The County had to resort to Raleigh for authority in any form and the Legislature would not meet in regular session until the following January. It urges that it was not too early, however, for the Commission to contemplate growth of the community with an eye toward equipping itself with the additional authority it needed.
"Cyclops of the Parlor Is a Teacher" provides a memo to Dr. A. J. Stoddard of the Fund for the Advancement of Education, who had asked why educational television could not get off the ground in Charlotte, answering that it was because of an official feebleness of understanding and enthusiasm, that Charlotte was somewhat different from most communities of the nation reluctant to exploit fully a potentially powerful teaching tool, with the timidity, a few notable exceptions notwithstanding, being nationwide.
Leland Hazard, president of the first community-sponsored educational television station, WQED in western Pennsylvania, had foreseen five implications of educational television, lower cost of education for taxpayers, maintaining educational pace with the explosion of the population, multiplication of the influence of great teachers, more economical design of school housing, and effective adult education.
Television was not a panacea, only an aid, and had serious disadvantages, including the lack of personal contact with the teacher, the give-and-take of questions and answers, and the absence of video know-how on the part of some teachers, but those drawbacks assumed less importance with proper supervision.
According to the National Citizens Council for Better Schools, educational television was being utilized in several areas, such as in Pittsburgh, where fifth grade television classes were present in more than 40 schools, teaching reading and arithmetic, with French also being taught successfully as a non-credit course, the following year, more than 100 schools being expected to take part in physics classes via video. In Washington County in Maryland, an experimental program for setting up a countywide closed-circuit television system for all 46 schools was underway. Mr. Hazard's "High School of the Air" had been quite successful in Pennsylvania, and the previous summer, certain high school students had been allowed to take special cram courses via video for subjects they had failed the previous semester, with 265 students having taken the State-prescribed examinations later, 78 percent of whom had passed. Some areas, such as the District of Columbia, had reported less than great success, but the defects were remediable.
Much work remained to be done and techniques needed to be sharpened, but it finds that it was a tool aching to be used and would be a shame to keep it on the shelf.
"A Little Primping on the Potomac" indicates that the Administration would not let Congress see the minutes of its Cabinet meetings but that the door was open to a friendly reporter who might write an admiring book about the President and his buddies. It was why Senator McCarthy was upset, saying that Congress ought "punish" Administration officials if they did not confess to rank hypocrisy.
It suggests that the Administration needed to confess to double-talk about as much as it needed squirrel chasers on the White House grounds, that while it was obvious that it was guilty as charged, so had been all other Administrations since that of George Washington. For instance, former President Truman had allowed John Hersey, the novelist, to sit in on secret Administration meetings and President Roosevelt had given Arthur Krock of the New York Times access to a Cabinet meeting full of State Department reports.
The general impression had been created that the current Administration would run the Government with old sayings, cute slogans and prayer meetings, but the Government had not run very well until the Administration resorted to the old tools of politics, including the art of hypocrisy, with the original Eisenhower "crusade" having been stored away for some time.
It indicates that punishment was no cure for such hypocrisy, that there was no cure for the self-esteem of politicians, which extended from the executive branch into Congress, though it would be somewhat "more palatable if there was a little less piety in the pose."
A piece from the Christian Science Monitor, titled "Prosperity Is Our Greatest Test", suggests that there was one penalty after another which people had to pay for having prosperity, as the managing editor of Harper's, Russell Lynes, had recently made clear, saying that there was something to be said for depressions, droughts, floods and wars, even if bread lines, broken families and the terror of not having a job did not recommend them. But he found that the climate which hard times produced was "in many respects more productive than prosperity—more interesting, more lively, more thoughtful…"
He had recalled that during the Depression, if one worried, "it was about essentials, not frippery… People were more friendly, less suspicious of each other, went out of their ways to help… The survival of everybody is equally important. We finally learn that there are no human expendables… The problem becomes … how to restore personal well-being and dignity." He had questioned whether the sense of community had quickly been forgotten, including respect for other people's ideas and the humility which came from being a part of all humanity.
It indicates that it should be questioned whether it was only through wars and calamities that a society found its better self and rose to it, wondering whether there was a "'moral equivalent'" to war, positing that anyone who was honest knew that there was, that Calvin Coolidge had been right in saying that a nation faced its greatest tests in prosperity. A person being honest knew that the very time to think about "moral equivalents" was when everything counseled that it was not necessary.
Drew Pearson indicates that it had not been mentioned in the Atomic Energy Commission's report on radiation, but television sets might emit harmful radiation, acknowledged but not advertised within the television industry. Black-and-white picture tubes produced "soft" X-ray radiation through the faceplate, such soft rays being the worst type because they were absorbed by the body, though dissipating readily and not dangerous except at close range, with experts contending that three feet was a safe viewing distance for television without incurring such risk of harmful radiation. But the larger the television set, the greater the danger. RCA had issued a handbook for television repairmen, warning that X-ray radiation was produced by the 21-inch tube when operated at its normal ultor value. The danger was significant enough to require adoption of safety measures for television receivers, including shielding as that provided by a 1/4 inch thick sheet of safety glass in front of the faceplate. The handbook warned that when the tube was being serviced outside of the cabinet, it should never be operated without requiring adequate X-ray shielding in front of the faceplate. Large-screen projection tubes, such as those used in theaters to show televised fights, could emit dangerous amounts of radiation and the audience was usually protected by lead plates or other barriers. A large dose of X-ray radiation absorbed by the body over a long period of time could produce such harmful effects as cataracts, malignant tumors and even leukemia. Ordinary commercial television receivers, however, were not likely to cause any of those results, though possibly adding to the body's X-ray intake. The primary danger to the average television viewer would come from a set in need of repair. As a precaution, children ought be kept from sitting too close to the set. Mr. Pearson notes that many television plant employees carried Geiger meters to measure the radiation and warn them of overexposure.
Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson, given to gaffes, had attended a ceremony on Capitol Hill recently, honoring Congressman Dewey Short of Missouri. At one point, Mr. Wilson had started naming his predecessors in the office, mentioning Secretaries James Forrestal and George Marshall, but was unable to recall the others, saying, "Oh well, they were Democrats anyhow." Both House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Representative Carl Vinson of Georgia, the latter having considerable veto power over Mr. Wilson as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said nothing, as the way they looked at Mr. Wilson had been quite enough.
Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin, loyal Republican, was not the only Senate Republican being threatened with a purge because he was supporting the President's foreign aid program. Equally loyal Senator George Bender of Ohio had been threatened with the same fate. Senator Bender already had the Republican nomination, unlike Senator Wiley who was having to run against an opponent in the primary. But Senator Bender's fellow Republican, Senator John W. Bricker of Ohio, was so furious with his colleague for supporting the Eisenhower foreign policy that he appeared ready to provide secret, perhaps even open, support for Senator Bender's opponent, Governor Frank Lausche, a Democrat. The latter, aware of the growing division among the Ohio Republicans, was coyly playing along with it by getting more conservative in every speech, already so conservative that he had alienated nearly all of the Democratic organization support he had ever had, figuring, however, that Senator Bricker and such influential newspapers as the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Columbus Dispatch would provide him as many Republican votes as he had received in 1952 when he had substantially defeated Charles Taft, brother of the late Senator Robert Taft, by 571,000 votes while the President had carried Ohio by 496,000.
Mr. Pearson concludes that if the President wondered why he found it so difficult to obtain votes from Republican Senators, the retribution being threatened against Senator Bender as well as Senator Wiley, two of his staunchest supporters, might enlighten him.
Doris Fleeson, in Atlantic City at the Governors Conference, tells of William Blair of Chicago, chief aide to Adlai Stevenson and aspirant to becoming White House chief of staff, being a center of attention among the press present. He would this night telephone Mr. Stevenson of his initial impressions of the conference, which would be that Republicans would not be making much news at the conference, that they still believed they could not win without the President at the top of the ballot and so professed to accept RNC chairman Leonard Hall's assurance that the 1952 ticket would repeat, even if the most recent illness of the President had them privately uneasy, with Governor Goodwin Knight of California still sharpening his knife for Vice-President Nixon in the event of a tie. Governor Knight had let it be known that he, Mr. Nixon and Senate Minority Leader William Knowland had each selected a third of the California delegation to the convention, with Mr. Nixon having allowed Murray Chotiner, the Vice-President's campaign manager who was in trouble with the McClellan committee regarding tax cases he had handled for suspicious characters, and Kyle Palmer, choose his third. Mr. Hall had said that the Republicans would not use Mr. Chotiner to educate their workers after that news had broken. But Senator McClellan had other dope on Mr. Chotiner and there would be additional hearings and stories to remind people that he was Mr. Nixon's crony and had chosen his delegates for the Republican convention.
Democrats appeared to want to play their cards close to their chest, Mr. Blair's report would go on, and friends had warned that it would be this way and not to try any fancy footwork in public. "We'll just have to depend on our all-outers to beat the drums for us." Ms. Fleeson notes that the group of friends included Governors Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut, LeRoy Collins of Florida, Orville Freeman of Minnesota, John Simms of New Mexico, Luther Hodges of North Carolina, Dennis Roberts of Rhode Island, and George Leader of Pennsylvania, though the latter was currently in Israel.
Mr. Blair would also report that Mr. Stevenson might have the support of a majority of the 27 Democratic governors, but a majority of that majority might be Southerners, which would not be so good, as the press was working hard to tell the world about the North-South split on civil rights. He would also inform that thus far Governor Averell Harriman of New York had ducked, saying he was going south to meet all of those friends he had made through Union Pacific's subsidiaries there and there was likely no need to worry, but he had hired a large and competent staff. Governor G. Mennen Williams of Michigan had gotten smart, saying that he would fight for principle on civil rights and was handing out a powerful Michigan declaration to guide the platform committee, but denied he was leading any blocs which wanted to start a civil war and force the South to secede, and did not know of any, was also willing to keep the word "force" out of the civil rights plank. Some reporters were even calling him a moderate, such that Mr. Blair wondered whether he wanted to be on the ticket as the vice-presidential nominee.
Another thing he would relate was that Governor John Bell Timmerman, Jr., of South Carolina had come in late and jumped on the unity bandwagon, telling reporters that he had never threatened to bolt but just wanted the South considered, that the only way to deal with a mule was to get its attention first, that he was going ahead with some "explorations", but at least his hot blood seemed cooler.
He would conclude that there was no one present but the moderates, but it was still early and the reporters were just getting up steam.
Ms. Fleeson concludes that it would be the end of the news from "Blair Crossroads" for the first day, but that the following day could be different, as Governor A. B. "Happy" Chandler of Kentucky had arrived and he was meeting with the press, too.
The Congressional Quarterly suggests that former Washington Senator Harry Cain and an obscure employee of the Food and Drug Administration, Kendrick Cole, might prove responsible for knocking out the "security risks" issue from the 1956 campaign. Mr. Cain had for 18 months voiced the strongest criticism of the Administration's program as the President's appointee to the Subversive Activities Control Board, but he had been consigned to the Administration's doghouse by chief of staff Sherman Adams for not playing on the team. He had finally gotten to see the President on June 8, and, according to Mr. Cain, the President had been impressed by his arguments.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, in a 6 to 3 decision issued June 11, had determined that Mr. Cole, as an employee suspended from a "non-sensitive job" in a "non-sensitive agency", was wrongfully fired under the provisions of the security program, prompting Attorney General Herbert Brownell to order Government agencies to restore to duty 17 employees currently suspended from such non-sensitive jobs, and to withhold any further firings of such workers "pending further study" of the decision.
It added up to an opportunity for the Administration to take the initiative and revise the security program to blunt the Democratic attack against it. In 1954, Vice-President Nixon had led the Republican Congressional campaign with the repeated claim that the Administration had removed from the Federal payroll "thousands of Communists, perverts and other security risks," prompting Democrats to charge Mr. Nixon with playing a "numbers game" by suggesting that all "security risks" were tainted with subversion. Most political observers, however, conceded that the charges were effective and the President had congratulated Mr. Nixon for his role—notwithstanding the fact that the Republicans had lost control of both houses to the Democrats. Some Democrats, as well as Republicans, were enthusiastic supporters of the Administration's program, under which the term "security risk" was applied to all persons whose employment by the Government was not "clearly consistent" with the national security, including misfits, liars and perverts, as well as traitors.
But following the Cole decision, bills to circumvent the ruling had been introduced by Senators Karl Mundt of South Dakota, Edward Martin of Pennsylvania, Norris Cotton of New Hampshire, Knowland of California, McCarthy of Wisconsin, and James Eastland of Mississippi, the latter a Democrat and chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee. A similar bill had been introduced in the House by Democratic Representative Francis Walter, chairman of HUAC. Thus, an Administration decision to liberalize the security program would run into almost certain opposition from key legislators of both parties and would deprive Republicans as well as Democrats of a strong campaign issue.
The piece concludes that the factors might persuade the Administration to sit tight and do nothing or adopt only minor revisions of the program, with the additional fact that the Commission on Government Security, set up a year earlier to survey the entire security field, had just asked Congress to extend the deadline for its report another six months, until June, 1957, having also suggested such a do-nothing or limited course by the Administration.
A letter writer finds it pleasing to consider that people who wrote to newspapers were impatient about the ill behavior of their fellows and interested in the immediate betterment of mankind, but finds it disturbing to read that they proposed improvement through faith, "the blind and superstitious belief in gods. If these people secure happiness by canting chants and prayers at bedtime and on Sunday mornings they are surely to be envied, and the blissful immortal life which they imagine should be admired as honest and beautiful child-like fantasy." He finds that when they attempted to impose on human relations with each other, they were either uneducated or lazy, that if people truly wanted the world to become more harmonious, he recommends that they take up the study of science or philosophy, or the arts in their more learned forms. He suggests that while the million Billy Grahams were "ranting about what a perfect world the gods have made, people are freezing to death in the regions that, somehow, were made a little too chilly and having sunstroke in the regions that were, somehow, made a little too warm. Science doesn't rant but it has tried to show people how to keep from freezing and having sunstroke and philosophy has tried to show men how to know themselves well enough that they would stop their killings and robbings. Still we have freezings and sunstrokes, killings and robbings, and faith in the gods. "
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