The Charlotte News

Tuesday, August 28, 1956

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Communist China had informed the U.S. that Communist Chinese planes had shot down an aircraft off the China coast the previous Thursday and that apparently there had been no survivors. Secretary of State Dulles reported this date that the Communist Chinese regime contended, however, that the shot down plane was a Chinese Nationalist plane, when a U.S. Navy patrol plane, with a 16-man crew, had been missing since the previous Thursday after reporting that it was under attack, with U.S. searchers having found wreckage and the body of one crewman with bullet wounds. At a press conference, Mr. Dulles said that in answer to an American inquiry through the British Embassy in Peiping, Communist China had conceded only that their Air Force fighters had shot down a plane in the general area at about the time the U.S. plane had been shot down. He said that the note had been entirely negative in response to the inquiry regarding the whereabouts of any survivors. He did not recall whether the Communists had stuck to a story previously broadcast via radio that a Chinese Nationalist plane had been "damaged" and then disappeared toward the sea. He said he assumed that everyone knew that the American plane had been shot down, following the discovery of the wreckage and the dead crewman, with apparently there having been no survivors. The Secretary did not indicate the next step the U.S. might take, saying that the Defense or State Department would make some announcement as soon as the facts became available. There had been some demands that the country communicate a strong protest to Communist China against the shooting down of the plane and perhaps take other action. The State Department had taken the position that it first wanted to obtain all of the facts.

In Birmingham, Ala., voters would indicate this date to what extent they would sacrifice control over public schools, parks and housing to preserve racial segregation, with two of six State Constitutional amendments being submitted to a statewide referendum designed as legal weapons to resist attacks on the traditional segregated society in Alabama. It was anticipated that about half of the 850,000 registered voters in the state would participate, with only a small turnout among black voters expected. The spotlight was on two of the amendments, dealing with the racial issue, with a third amendment dealing only with corporate income tax. One proposed change, dubbed the "freedom of choice" amendment, would remove both the constitutional obligation for State-supported education and the requirement for segregated schools.

In Richmond, Va., leaders of the administration of Governor Thomas Stanley introduced to the General Assembly this date 13 bills aimed at retaining Virginia's traditionally segregated public schools, with the key bill being one which would cut State support for integrated schools, which the Governor believed would bring about voluntary segregation. The Assembly had convened the previous day for a special session regarding the public school situation. The Governor, in an address to the Assembly the previous day, said that there ought be no reason to close any school in the state under the proposed legislation, placing blame for any school closures on those who would seek to enter a school operated for the other race.

A photograph appears of three male students of Clinton High School in Clinton, Tenn., holding signs in protest against any attempt to "intergrate" their schools. They just ain't a-gonna take it no more, nohow. They'll be a-votin' for whoever says they don't have to go to no intergrated schools. And that's that.

In Columbia, the South Carolina Democratic Party regulars had put down an attempt by some members to place independent electors on the November general election ballot. Following two close votes on the issue, a majority of the delegates to the reconvened state convention the previous day had shouted their approval to a resolution placing the national Democratic ticket on the ballot, deciding officially to return to the fold of the national Democratic Party for the first time since 1944. The action occurred despite the warning that a "gag-rule" on voting in the election would split the state party so badly that it would never heal. But the convention had hardly adjourned before a "South Carolinians for Independent Electors" movement had been hastily brought into being, with members of it having just left the state convention where they and others had been successful in attempts to give state Democrats the right to vote as they pleased without damaging their party standing. The group's first job would be to obtain the legally required 10,000 signatures to get onto the ballot.

In Hendersonville, N.C., Governor Luther Hodges stated this date, in an address before the annual meeting of the North Carolina Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, that the people had to face the fact that North Carolina ranked very poorly in per capita income standing among the states, that in 1953, it had ranked 45th, outranked by six of the 11 Southeastern states. He said that the greatest problem was in the low per capita farm income, while also indicating that the non-farm per capita income was "nothing to shout about". He said that the state did not have the largest farm population, though ranking second in the total number of farms, that agriculture was in a great transition and the small farm or family-sized farm faced a very dark future. He said that the gap between income per farm person in the country and that in North Carolina was still very large, and that there was also plenty of room for improvement to boost the per capita income of non-farm people by increasing the diversification of industry and expanding existing industry throughout the state. He concluded his talk by touching on the public school segregation issue, discussing the steps which the state had taken to retain segregated schools, explaining the tuition grants program and local option features of the Pearsall plan, passed by the special session of the Legislature in July and which would go before the voters in a referendum on September 8.

In New Haven, Conn., the parents of three infants, whom a weeping 220-pound pediatrics nurse had admitted shaking to death, were preparing statements to provide to a coroner's inquest this date. The nurse's attorney said that they intended to have her examined by a psychiatrist, and probably more than one. Police indicated that the previous day, the nurse had admitted fatally injuring one child and that she had probably been responsible for the deaths of the other two. The parents had not known that their infants had died from other than natural causes until that point. The deaths dated back to 1948. The coroner stated publicly that the nurse had inflicted a head injury on an eight-week old baby and broken the leg of a three-month old girl, with police disclosing that the suspicious death of an 11-day old girl had triggered the four-day investigation. The police chief quoted the nurse as saying that she had shaken the infant violently because it had refused to take its formula. The woman had been a pediatrics nurse for 12 years and often lived with the parents of the children for whom she cared, not being connected with any hospital and neither a registered nor a licensed practical nurse. She said that she did not know why she had shaken the infants, that sometimes children got on her nerves, and that she ought to be put in the electric chair for what she had done. She was being held on a technical charge of idleness and placed under a $50,000 bond.

In Greenville, S.C., a bandit held up at gunpoint a drive-in branch of a savings and loan association during the morning and fled with between $2,500 and $3,000 in cash. The clerk had gathered a stack of bills and handed it to the bandit, and he ordered her to return to the safe for more money, but the clerk said that there was none there. The bandit then turned and exited, speaking to the manager as the latter entered, then fled in a 1945 Ford. He abandoned the car at a supermarket, which he entered, obtained change for a dollar and purchased two cigars, then went outside to a pay telephone, called a taxi, which had taken him to an intersection downtown where he got out. Police had converged on the area a short time afterward and conducted an extensive search of buildings within a four block radius, coming up empty. The automobile left at the grocery store had been traced to a man recently discharged from Donaldson Air Force Base, but his description did not match that provided of the robber.

In Charlotte, the price of coffee was going up this date, producing protests from housewives, following an announced increase in New York of four cents per pound the previous day. One large local grocery chain had reported prices on its four blends to have gone up simultaneously, with the new prices ranging between 89 cents and $1.07 per pound. Another chain announced that one brand, which had formerly sold for $1.02 had been increased to $1.05 per pound. A spokesman for a grocery chain predicted that all brands would increase in price within the ensuing 2 to 3 weeks, with the price hike also affecting instant coffees, which were usually 90 days behind the market. The regular two-ounce jar of instant coffee sold for about 55 cents, he said, with the six-ounce economy size selling for $1.50. (Dishwater is cheaper and just about as tasty and robust.) One housewife said that they drank coffee only for breakfast and would probably continue to do so. Another, however, said that she would be drinking less coffee and might eliminate it completely.

In Pebble Beach, Calif., the President this date left for Washington to resume Government business conferences and to map his campaign strategy for a second term, ending a 4 1/2 day vacation, during which the President had played golf at the Pebble Beach course, following the Republican convention which had concluded Thursday in San Francisco.

In Los Angeles, two bandits had held up a 30-year old postal clerk, but the latter assured police that he had only lost $10 and a $60 wristwatch, relating that one of the bandits had said to him: "Daddy, you've had it, man. Give us your bread, then you're as free as a bird." The other, looking at the money and the watch they obtained, said: "This wasn't much of a score, man. We didn't know you were from Brokeville."

In Denver, police had obtained a unique clue to the identity of a burglar who had failed in an attempt to loot a garage the previous weekend, as the entire floor of the garage had just been painted gray.

In Detroit, a woman named Eddie sought to have her name changed to Billie because her first name embarrassed her as people often confused it with a man's name.

In Austin, Tex., the mythical Joe Smith of the Nebraska delegation to the previous week's Republican convention, sought to be placed in nomination as the vice-presidential candidate, had received a write-in vote for governor, three for lieutenant governor and one for state representative in the Texas Democratic runoff primary the previous Saturday.

On the editorial page, "The Office Should Seek the Man" indicates that the campaign for the state's special judgeships could be as shamelessly boisterous and slickly rigged as any local slug-fest for a minor elective office and yet those appointed posts required the kind of person who was completely free from the "jerking puppet strings of political manipulators."