The Charlotte News
Friday, June 29, 1956
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Berlin that a workers' uprising in Poznan, Poland, had resulted in the deaths of 38 persons and the wounding of 270, the uprising having been crushed this date and the industrial city reported back to normal. In the West, diplomats speculated what the effect would be on the Soviet campaign to downgrade Stalin and ease the grip on the Soviet satellites. Western businessmen in the city attending a big trade fair had been amazed eyewitnesses to the violent outburst which had begun early in the morning and had evidently continued all of the previous day. Solid lines of marchers 20 abreast waved banners demanding "bread", swarming through the streets, capturing and burning secret police headquarters, liberating prisoners, attacking Communist Party headquarters, destroying the jamming station which interfered with Western broadcasts, and raising a white flag over City Hall. The businessmen said that bullets had been fired at the workers, that jet fighters had flown overhead and that a tight curfew had been imposed on the city by Polish authorities. A West German correspondent reported that Polish soldiers had fired machineguns into the crowd and one Polish soldier who had refused to fire on his fellow countrymen had been shot by a Polish officer. At noon, military help had been requested and suddenly, T-34 tanks and armored cars had rolled through the streets toward the market square and closed all main traffic arteries. Antiaircraft guns had taken up positions on the main city squares, with the first shots from machineguns fired shortly afterward, prompting women and children to flee to their homes and side streets, while the workers tightened their ranks, locked arms and began marching toward the soldiers, at which point the officers ordered them to shoot, with the first victim then having been killed. The angry mob had torn branches from trees and rushed again against the military, shouting their demands for freedom. In some instances, troops and police had failed to take action against the demonstrators and had even given up their arms to them. Some of the marchers, armed, returned the fire of the troops and on one occasion captured some of the tanks. At least 30,000 persons were reported to have participated in the march, which had begun by overturning cars.
The President this date signed the 33 billion dollar highway construction bill, setting in motion the Government's biggest peacetime spending program, designed to give the nation a 41,000-mile system of superhighways linking every state with modern, controlled access roads, most of which would be of four lanes or more. Before the new highways would be built, motorists would begin to feel the effect of the new taxes to help pay for them, which would begin to take effect on Sunday at the start of the new fiscal year, the biggest of which to be a penny increase in the Federal gasoline tax to three cents per gallon. It was anticipated that it would be the summer of 1958 before any appreciable portion of the new highway system would be completed.
In New York, negotiating teams trying to work out a solution to the dispute between the steel companies and the United Steel Workers union to avoid a strike at midnight Saturday, when the current contract would expire, had concluded another session this date without indication of progress, though arranging for continued efforts. The president of the union, David McDonald, and chief industry negotiator, John Stephens, had said only that they would continue to keep in touch and would probably meet later this date or the following day. Mr. McDonald then attended a meeting of the union's executive board. Neither side would indicate whether any reply had been made to an invitation extended by Mr. McDonald the previous night to leading executives of 12 steel firms to meet him this date. He had sent individual telegrams to each after Admiral Ben Moreell, chairman of the board of Jones & Laughlin, had said in a television speech that men of good will could reach a settlement. If not resolved, some 650,000 steel workers would go on strike.
J. A. Daily of The News reports that conditions closely approaching chaos in the steel trade of the Carolinas and in the heavy engineering division of the construction industry would inevitably follow a prolonged strike by the nation's steel workers, according to representatives of the steel trade in the Charlotte area, who viewed the situation with considerable concern.
The manager of the Charlotte Ordnance Missile Plant is shown in a photograph smiling as the first Nike missile to be produced at the plant came off the line this date and was placed in a metal can to be sent to an Army installation. The missile had been completed some 16 months after conversion of the former Charlotte Quartermaster Depot had begun and before all building alterations had been completed. The missile being produced was an improved model of the Nike I, which the Douglas Aircraft Co. was manufacturing under a subcontract from Western Electric.
Also in Charlotte, the so-called surplus in the park board funds amounted to only $89,374 after expense obligations, according to the superintendent of the Park & Recreation Commission. The board had on deposit, as of June 28, cash of $304,296, against which there were anticipated expenses of about $215,000, plus unmatured certificates of deposit insurance funds of $50,000, maturing in August, plus the residue of a million dollar bond issue in the amount of $35,000. All of those funds could only be spent for capital investments and were earmarked for purchase and development of Veterans Park in the Chantilly section of the city.
Dick Young of The News tells of the City Council having declared a 36-foot strip on the edge of the large Coliseum and Auditorium parking lot to be a public street, in an effort to fund paving of the lot, making it legally possible to utilize State funds for improvement of the strip. But the manager of the complex wondered what would occur during a performance when a motorist claimed that he was merely driving through from Monroe Road to Independence Boulevard, which the strip would interconnect, when parking fees were being collected for the lot, with the City traffic engineer, Herman Hoose, responding that they could put up a sign saying, "toll road, 25 cents", which would give Charlotte the distinction of having the only toll road in the state. The manager did not like the idea and Mr. Hoose then suggested charging the person a quarter and having the parking lot attendant tell him that the quarter would be refunded by the police officer on duty at Independence Boulevard. But the manager also did not care for that idea, finally consoling himself with the thought that the motorist who just wanted to drive through would not be able to buck the traffic moving three abreast from Independence into the parking lot.
In Berkeley, Calif., a stockbroker who had been kidnaped after a robbery at his home by two men, had persuaded one of them, a 26-year old airman, to give himself up. The other airman, 19, who had fled the home after a police officer had fired at him, had been captured without incident 14 hours later, as he came down from the hills to pick up his car, parked just a block from the victim's home, and was there arrested. The man who gave himself up was charged with kidnaping, robbery and burglary, and the other was charged with robbery and burglary. A detective related that the two men had invaded the stockbroker's home on the basis that there was a pink convertible parked outside, had bound the stockbroker and his wife, their daughter, two other women and a neighbor with neckties on the living room floor. A Chinese student living with the family had been sent by the wife to a neighbor's home to call police, whereupon an officer responded and fired at one of the suspects at the front door, at which point the other man said that he would count to five and unless they let his buddy go, he would start shooting, beginning with the stockbroker's wife. When he got to two, the stockbroker convinced the officer to leave and he did, at which point the other suspect had slipped out the back door and vanished. The man who had threatened to kill the stockbroker's wife decided that he had better take the stockbroker with him as a hostage, and as they were riding along in the stockbroker's convertible, with the robber holding a .45-caliber automatic pistol on him, the robber proposed that the broker cash a $200 check, the broker responding that the bank would not be open for another hour, the robber then ordering him to drive around. The robber said that he was in a lot of trouble, but the stockbroker replied it was not as much as it could be as he had not hurt anyone yet. At that point, the robber pulled the cartridge clip from the gun and ordered the stockbroker to drive by the other man's parked car, and upon seeing that it was being watched by police, said, "Oh, hell, I might as well give myself up," whereupon he stepped from the car and called back to the broker, "Thanks, mister."
In Washington, two of Mae West's
musclemen were engaged in a criminal case, with one, billed as Mr.
California 1948, having been accused by the other, Mickey
Hargitay—eventually to marry Jayne Mansfield—of simple assault for
knocking him down in Miss West's dressing room on June 6. Mr.
Hargitay had formerly played the role of Mr. Universe in Miss West's
nightclub show, but she had dropped him from the role because he was
creating bad publicity. Her attorney had told the court that she
objected to his "running around with a woman who wasn't his
wife," and announced his demotion from the Mr. Universe role at
a news conference which preceded the alleged assault. Mr. Hargitay,
according to Miss West's testimony, had not been invited to the press
conference and she was surprised when he appeared. She also said that
another reason he had been demoted was that he had missed a rehearsal
and she later learned that his wife was divorcing him on the grounds
of cruelty, deciding that it was not good for the show to have a man
appearing who was cruel to his wife. During the press conference,
according to Miss West, the two men exchanged cross words and then
Mr. Hargitay had lifted up his hands, with a fist by his ear, at
which point the other man hit him, knocking him to the floor. Mr. Hargitay had been quoted by
the Associated Press as having testified: "There should be no
reason to demote anybody because I know my part I've been playing…
When Miss West
By coincidence, it would be exactly 11 years subsequent to this date that Ms. Mansfield would be killed in an automobile accident in Louisiana. It was subsequently reported in 1972 that Criswell had predicted the death of Ms. Mansfield, albeit not by name, in his syndicated newspaper column of January 1, 1967, but that column, though mentioning Mae West
On the editorial page, "Park Board: Explanations Are in Order" finds that the original question of how and why the Park & Recreation Commission had piled up a surplus not reflected in its budget was now being confused and compounded by the hindsight of amateur sleuths eager to muddy the waters, and that the Commission would be pained if it delayed a full accounting, with more than its reputation being sullied by inaction, as the recreation program could be jeopardized if the serious questions raised were not answered immediately. It suggests that there might not be anything wrong in the record, but the Commission's disorganized delay in facing up to the situation was breeding suspicion, which needed clear explanations.
"Beware of 'Galloping Compassion'" comments on the crackdown against traffic violators expressed by a Superior Court judge and a Recorder's Court judge the previous day, the Superior Court judge indicating that hit and run drivers could expect to do time on the roads, and the Recorder's Court judge indicating that drag racers appearing in his court would not be treated with lenience.
It indicates that most Superior Court judges in the state, with one notable exception, were conscientiously stern, but could do little if jurors ignored damaging evidence and turned violators loose. It finds that the trouble was that many people did not believe that assault and battery by an automobile was as serious as such an offense committed with fists or a knife, not able to understand that manslaughter committed through reckless driving was as serious as manslaughter committed with reckless passion otherwise. Some juries had been so reluctant to take violations of motor vehicle laws seriously that judges had called off all such cases for the rest of the judicial term.
Albert Coates, director of the North Carolina Institute of Government, had quoted one North Carolina judge that in a recent term of criminal court, the usual number of motor vehicle cases had appeared on the docket and the evidence had convinced the judge that the defendants were all guilty as charged, but the jury had acquitted all of them. One defendant had been charged with operating under the influence of liquor, was without a lawyer, had put on no evidence, never cross-examined any witness or gave any speech to the jury, merely sat through the trial, wherein two officers testified that his car had passed them going 75 to 80 mph, that he had left his side of a three-lane highway, had gone into the extreme left lane and hit the side of a truck coming in the opposite direction, turned over twice, and when he got out of the wreckage, was wreaking of alcohol and unhurt. Nevertheless, the jury had stayed out only ten minutes and acquitted him. The judge had observed that it happened repeatedly.
The piece finds that the case suggested where the trouble lay, that there was nothing wrong with the law, the judges, the arresting officers or with the solicitors who prosecuted the cases, that it was the juries who appeared determined to let lawbreakers go scot-free.
It concludes that no real progress could be made toward enforcement of motor vehicle laws as long as juries would wink and find no offense, as the jurors appeared to see in the other's guilt their own. Judges getting tough was fine but it wants to see some "get-tough" juries.
"An Ideal Site for the Health Center" agrees that the location approved for the city's $600,000 health center on the grounds of Memorial Hospital was desirable for several reasons, that it would be conveniently located, would take the City-County Health Department out of its current bustling location and move it to a place where parking would be possible and growing room available, served by several bus lines, would consolidate two important health facilities, the hospital and the Health Department, and be located in a teaching hospital with many facilities.
While the offer of land by the hospital's board of trustees still had to be approved by the site committee and the City Council, the opportunity was attractive and full advantage ought be taken of it.
"Non-Political" indicates that Moscow had announced that USSR, the Russian picture magazine soon to be distributed within the U.S., would have a "non-political" text. "And then there was the one about crop failure in the satellites caused by capitalistic 'tater bugs dropped by the U.S. Air Force…"
H. Clay Ferree, writing in the Winston-Salem Journal & Sentinel, in a piece titled "'I am Going To Live in Charlotte...'", indicates that, according to Dr. Harold F. Clark, professor of economic education at Columbia University, the Southeast was destined to become the world's wealthiest area because of climate and the water supply. Dr. Clark had studied all areas of the world for economic potential and had told an audience at the University of Alabama that the South's 50 inches of annual rainfall was "enough to sustain a widespread, irrigated commercial agriculture and a highly diversified industry." He had also observed that with the work week steadily shrinking, the time was nigh when labor would select locations "by leisure possibilities and not by working conditions."
Mr. Ferree finds that it sounded good, almost too good to be true, but that it was obvious that the Southeast had tremendous advantages to offer industry and commercial agriculture, and is reminded that the great civilizations of the West had first developed in areas of mild climate in the vicinity of the Mediterranean, the Tigris-Euphrates River basin, and the Valley of the Nile. But in the previous several hundred years, areas of wealth and culture had arisen in regions of greater climatic extremes and other natural handicaps, while some areas more favored by nature had lagged behind. For decades, the South had been one of those areas, now beginning to advance, with the speed of that progress dependent on the alertness, initiative and vision of its people.
While it had the resources to become the world's wealthiest area, it was only a possibility and would take much planning, investment, cooperative leadership, social vision and hard work to realize.
An official of the North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development had recently published an anecdote about an out-of-state industrialist and his wife, wherein the industrialist had been interested in establishing a new plant in the Piedmont. A Gastonia businessman had arranged to have the industrialist's wife entertained at the Charlotte Country Club while the men toured plant sites in a number of neighboring towns, and when the industrialist returned, he had begun to describe enthusiastically to his wife some of the plant sites he had visited. But before he could finish, his wife interrupted, stating: "Well, I don't care where you build your plant, but I'm going to live in Charlotte!"
Mr. Ferree concludes that to grow and prosper as it should, the Southeast had to be the sort of place where people liked to live, as well as work and make money.
Drew Pearson tells of additional facts having come forth regarding the days preceding the President's June 8 attack of ileitis, showing the strain under which he had worked. Shortly prior to the illness, he had called in House leaders to urge reinstatement of a billion dollars in foreign aid, talking for 30 minutes in two 15-minute segments, telling them he was talking to them as a military man, explaining how certain types of U.S. bombers could fly a certain number of missions over Moscow if they flew from European bases, as compared with far fewer trips if flying from the U.S., arguing for money for the overseas bases. His listeners had been impressed, but the President had become flushed with the exertion, making a plea which a man with a heart condition or high blood pressure found difficult. At its conclusion, House Speaker Sam Rayburn said that the meeting should have been held two weeks earlier, as the foreign aid bill was out of committee, but added that they would do their best. Mr. Rayburn had carried out the promise, only to be reversed by a vote on the floor, which occurred just a few hours before the President became ill.
A day before the illness, the President had been quizzed at a press conference regarding his failure to support Republican Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin, loyal to the President on foreign aid. The President, despite the loyalty, had not supported him when anti-Eisenhower, pro-McCarthy forces had conspired against the Senator for renomination. When asked about it, the President had become flushed and noticeably unhappy, indicating that Senator Wiley had not wanted White House aid and that he had not intervened in other Republican primaries. When he was asked why he had intervened in Oregon to assist former Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay, the President had replied that he had not known that other Republicans were running, despite the fact that four Republicans had already entered the primary before the President had written his letter endorsing Mr. McKay. The President had suddenly appeared to realize that his aides had provided him with poor advice.
On other occasions, the President had stomach upsets when he faced disagreeable decisions, as when he had testified for the 1950 reduced military budget and faced bitter criticism from his own military comrades, with the illness which followed forcing him to spend over a month at Key West.
Also during the first week of June prior to the attack, he had made a statement sympathetic to neutral nations which so aroused the Philippines and Pakistan that the White House had to correct it the following day, occurring only a few hours before the attack.
Also just a few hours prior to the attack, the President had an unpleasant session with former Senator Harry Cain of Washington, a bitter critic of the President's loyalty program. Mr. Cain had become embroiled in a shouting match with White House counsel Gerald Morgan during the meeting, with the latter accusing Mr. Cain of shooting from the hip and attacking the program without talking to the White House first, charging that Mr. Cain was not a "team player". Mr. Cain had replied that he had reported to the White House but had been rebuffed by the palace guard, that he had sought to get information to the President regarding abuses within the loyalty program but had been unable to get through the ring of aides around the President. Mr. Morgan took umbrage and stated it was untrue, but Mr. Cain insisted, reciting the details of what had occurred. By that point, the President, who had been grim and unsmiling throughout the argument, had broken in sharply and restored order, visibly upset.
Marquis Childs tells of the full force of the effect of the President's ileitis regarding the main goal of the Administration, peace in the world, having now become painfully evident with the cancellation of Indian Prime Minister Nehru's visit to Washington. Mr. Childs suggests that the hope that it was merely being postponed was dubious, as the Prime Minister's schedule of international visits was packed and he would have to return to New Delhi for an important session of the Indian Parliament.
While no one believed that in three days of talks, the President and Prime Minister would have resolved differences between the two countries, the informal, direct conversations would have likely brought matters closer to an understanding. U.S. Ambassador to India, former Kentucky Senator John Sherman Cooper, had so hoped, as had the Indian Ambassador to Washington, G. L. Mehta, both of whom had worked to effect a new start in the troubled relations between the two countries.
In talks between the White House and the State Department, the possibility had been explored of curtailing the schedule of Prime Minister Nehru's four-day visit and have Vice-President Nixon substitute as his host, cutting out a welcome dinner and a luncheon, and still holding the abbreviated talks with the President for five or six hours. But it was eventually decided that even that would interfere with the President's convalescence.
There were major differences between the two governments regarding Communist China, with Prime Minister Nehru arguing for a settlement, which would eventually mean the end of Chiang Kai-shek's stronghold on Formosa. But to have explored those differences frankly would have placed the President under a major strain.
The original plan was to hold the discussions at Camp David where the two men could talk in a relaxed atmosphere. The Prime Minister had made it clear that he did not want to take the time to visit Washington to hold conversations with Secretary of State Dulles, whom he had seen during the latter's quick swing through Southeast Asia earlier in the year, the concern possibly accentuated by a recent speech of the Secretary, in which he had called the neutral nations "immoral", with India remaining neutral as between the Communist and non-Communist nations.
The President's performance at the Geneva Big Four Summit conference the prior July had convinced the Prime Minister that the President wanted to reach a peace settlement with the Communists, not only in Europe but also in Asia. He had written an admiring letter to the President, inviting him to India, and the President had replied by indicating the difficulties of any long absence from the U.S., urging the Prime Minister to visit Washington. After an exchange of several letters, Secretary Dulles extended a formal invitation.
Whether justified or not, Prime Minister Nehru believed that there were marked differences between the foreign policy espoused by the President and that of Mr. Dulles, and so he had hoped to engage in direct negotiation with the President in the hope of establishing peaceful coexistence, the goal of India's foreign policy. For those in the Administration who opposed coexistence and wanted the cold war continued as previously, cancellation of the Prime Minister's visit would be good news, but to those who continued to believe that the President could achieve a peace with honor and thereby build a bridge to the neutral nations of Asia, the news would be sad.
The Congressional Quarterly tells of President Eisenhower and former President Truman being the most effective campaigners in their respective parties, according to a cross-section of Congressmen polled by the Quarterly, with Mr. Truman holding a narrow edge over Adlai Stevenson and the President being favored over Mr. Stevenson in all sections of the country except the South.
But a large majority of members of both parties said that campaign visits by such party leaders as the President and former President Truman were a minor influence in previous elections in their states and districts, with only six members of Congress regarding in-person endorsements by party leaders as a major campaign aid, while 72 stated that they were a minor influence, with seven saying they were no help at all.
Fifty Republicans and 39 Democrats from all sections of the country had participated anonymously in the poll, conducted by questionnaire among members seeking re-election in districts where contests had been fairly close in the past. Each member was asked to rate the campaign effectiveness of six leaders of their own party.
Vice-President Nixon was ranked second by Republicans to the President, but one Eastern Republican wrote "No! No!" when asked if Mr. Nixon would help in his district. RNC chairman Leonard Hall was ranked third in the South, East and Midwest, but on the West Coast, Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson placed third. In the East, most Republicans believed that an appearance by Mr. Benson would help their campaigns a little, and in the Midwest, half said that he would help a lot, while only 20 percent said he would be of no help. Senate Minority Leader William Knowland of California and Attorney General Herbert Brownell were regarded as somewhat helpful campaigners in most of the sections, but in the East, as many Republicans as said that they would be of no help said that they would help a lot.
Among Democrats, former President Truman's "give 'em hell" technique was rated slightly higher than the moderate approach of Mr. Stevenson, with the latter ranking second to Mr. Truman in the East and West and second to Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson in the South. In the Midwest, Mr. Stevenson trailed both former President Truman and Senator Estes Kefauver as a campaigner, with three of the ten Congressmen polled from the region stating that Mr. Stevenson would be of no help. The latter, however, was the only Democrat regarded as being helpful in all parts of the country, with Senator Johnson rating high in the South, Midwest and West, but not in the East. Senator Kefauver and New York Governor Averell Harriman were regarded as no help at all in the South and not much in the West. DNC chairman Paul Butler was popular in the Midwest and South, but not on either of the two coasts. Former President Truman had little favor in the South.
Generally, Republican Congressmen were more optimistic than Democrats about the help they might receive from their national leaders, with the average Republican leader having been rated as a lot of help by slightly more than 50 percent of the Republican respondents, as being of little help by 39.3 percent and of no help, by 10.4 percent. By contrast, the average Democratic leader was rated by 37.6 percent of the Democratic Congressmen as being a lot of help, by 36.1 percent as little help, and 26.3 percent, as no help.
A letter writer wonders what the local police force was coming to, asks whether it was necessary for them to abuse teenage girls and small boys to keep them in line and whether they were unable to control their tempers, indicating that two nights earlier at the Coliseum, the writer had been present to see the concert put on by Elvis Presley, and after it was over, the group the writer was with had waited on the balcony for some of the crowd to clear out before departing. In front of Mr. Presley's dressing room had stood three policemen, the writer saying that she used the word "policemen" loosely, as only two of them were gentlemen and the other was a "roughneck and a disgrace" to the force. The kids had been yelling, "We want Elvis", at the top of their lungs, and the latter policeman apparently had no control over his temper, manhandling a group of young girls. The writer, being a mother, was sickened to her stomach to think that such men were assigned to protect the youth, as the officer had grabbed a young boy from the ground and slammed him up against the side of the building. She had never seen anything so revolting and could not sleep that night for thinking about it, as it could have been anyone's child. "Think it over, mothers. Are our children safe with a policeman?"
The young people should have said the magic words: "You can do anything, but lay off of my blue suede shoes. Thank ye, thank ye very much."
A letter writer from Post number 9 of the American Legion states that July 4 was the national birthday and encourages everyone to display the flag.
A pome appears from the Atlanta Journal, "In Which Is Expressed An Opinion About Folks Who Take Themselves Too Seriously:
"If you cannot take some
kidding,
Brother, you are truly skidding."
You may be doing the Devil's
bidding,
Thus sensitive to any form of
ribbing.
Framed Edition
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