The Charlotte News
Monday, September 10, 1956
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from London that Egypt had sought this date a parley representing the views of all users of the Suez Canal to try to resolve the stalemate which negotiations in Cairo had reached, with the principal issue still being control of the canal. An Egyptian communiqué stated that Egypt desired to continue to work for a negotiated settlement within the letter and spirit of the U.N. Charter. The Government of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser set forth the idea even as Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies and his five-nation mission returned to London to report the collapse of talks with President Nasser. French leaders also headed to London to plan the next move with Prime Minister Anthony Eden and British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd, facing a choice between war and further diplomatic negotiations. The Egyptian communiqué had been handed by Egyptian diplomats to U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold and to governments throughout the world. The note criticized the massing of British and French troops in the eastern Mediterranean and the reported efforts to influence foreign canal pilots to quit. It said that Egypt had expressed willingness on August 12 to negotiate on the basis of renewal of the 1888 convention, guaranteeing freedom of navigation through the canal, which had been seized by President Nasser on July 26. The note suggested that without violating Egypt's sovereignty, a solution could be found to enable freedom of navigation, improvement of the canal to meet future needs and maintenance of fair tolls. British officials received the suggestions coldly, finding the proposal to envisage negotiations premised on Egyptian control of the canal, making it immediately unacceptable to Britain. The British Government had emphasized repeatedly that it would not agree to unfettered Egyptian management which would control the waterway's traffic. Prime Minister Eden had arranged a working dinner party for this night, at which the crisis would be reviewed thoroughly, to be attended by Prime Minister Menzies, French Premier Guy Mollet and Foreign Minister Christian Pineau.
In Sturgis and in Louisville, Ky., black students returned to classes this date, but a jeering, gravel-throwing mob barred a black female and male from a junior college in Texarkana, Tex. While a force of National Guardsmen stood by, seven black students were brought to the Sturgis High School in automobiles an hour before the beginning of classes, and although a crowd had started to form, there was no disorder, with the crowd subsequently growing to about 1,500, but remaining orderly. The school's white students numbered about 300 in the town of 5,000. Integration had begun on a large-scale basis in Louisville quietly, without troops or heavy concentrations of police. Threats to picket one high school, where 75 black students enrolled, did not materialize. Louisville, with about 47,000 school-age children, one-third of whom were black, was one of the largest tests of integration yet undertaken in the South's border areas. (Nineteen years later, in 1975, Louisville would become, along with South Boston, a flashpoint for dissension over busing of white students, after George Wallace had stirred the pot hard on the issue during his 1972 campaign for the presidency until he was shot—all of the disgruntled quite forgetting that during the separate-but-equal days, black children had been bused in many situations long distances to attend all-black schools.) At Clay, Ky., 11 miles from Sturgis, the mother of two black children, who were kept away from the elementary school by a mob the previous week, refused to say whether she would seek again to have them enter the school, apparently having made no effort during the current morning. A crowd of about 300 adults and students of Texarkana Junior College had formed a mass picket line which prevented an 18-year old female and a 17-year old male from entering the building. The female student had been accepted after passing entrance tests and the male said that he was trying to find out how he had done on the entrance examinations. In forcing the two students to flee in a taxi, members of the mob had thrown gravel at them and a white boy had kicked at the male but missed. At Clinton, Tenn., where there had been disorder the previous week when 12 black students began attending Clinton High School, mixed classes continued amid signs that a boycott by some of the white students was weakening. This date's attendance was 520 out of 800 enrolled, compared to a low of only about one-quarter attendance at the height of the previous week's troubles, with only about half having attended the prior Friday. The principal of the school, D. J. Brittain, said that he was convinced the situation had settled down and believed that attendance would steadily increase, reaching normalcy within a few days. Soldiers at Clinton had been reduced to about 50 men.
In White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., Governor Frank Clement of Tennessee, in his welcoming address as chairman of the 22nd annual Southern Governors Conference, told fellow Southern governors this date that "all justice does not lie on either side" in the South's school segregation problem. He said that he was optimistic about the ultimate issue and that it would not prevent the South from making future contributions to the nation. The governors would weigh two plans for coping with their mutual problem in school desegregation, one plan coming from the only Republican governor attending the four-day meeting, Theodore McKeldin of Maryland, admittedly a general plan, and the other, quite specific, having been offered by Governor Luther Hodges of North Carolina, the same plan which had been adopted the previous Saturday by a 4 to 1 margin in a special referendum. The consensus among the governors was that the President and Vice-President would not do nearly as well in the South as they had in 1952, when they had won seven Southern states. Joint Chiefs chairman Admiral Arthur Radford would deliver the principal address at the annual dinner this night.
Vice-President Nixon, according to the RNC, would embark on September 18 on "the most intensive air tour in U.S. political history", kicking off the re-election campaign. The announcement said that he would cover more than 15,000 miles and visit 32 states, with one stop in each state, during 14 working days, lasting through October 3. He would be accompanied by his wife, Pat, a staff of approximately 12 and more than 30 reporters. The announcement said that the "unprecedented tour" had been scheduled with one stop in each state, to enable the Vice-President to obtain a cross-section of sentiment in the country, from political and civic leaders, farmers, workers, businessmen, and economists. (In 1960, he would pledge to visit all 50 states, keeping the pledge, causing him to wind up visiting Alaska just before election day, after being sidetracked in the hospital for several days during the early part of the fall campaign when a young person opened a car door against his leg in Greensboro, N.C.—and thereby mercifully delayed, at least, that which later came to be between 1969 and 1974.)
The Agriculture Department this date forecast that the year's Government-restricted cotton crop would be 13,115,000 bales of 500 pounds gross weight each, based on conditions as of September 1, 437,000 bales less than had been forecast a month earlier, and more than one million bales less than the previous year, with the ten-year average through 1954 having been 13,098,000 bales. Because of the accumulation of a record surplus, the Department had restricted plantings to 17,400,000 acres, or four percent below a similar allotment of the previous year, and had imposed rigid marketing quotas. The Department provided no forecast on cottonseed production, but said that if the ratio of lint to cottonseed was the same as the average for the previous five years, production would be 5,410,000 tons, compared to 6,038,000 tons the previous year.
In Tokyo, a U.S. RB-50 weather reconnaissance plane, with 16 crewman aboard, was reported missing this night, having failed to return from a typhoon-spotting mission in the Japan Sea between Japan and Russia, according to the Air Force. Its last position had been reported roughly between the coast of northern Japan and eastern Siberia. It had sufficient fuel to keep it aloft until 9:30 p.m., local time, 7:30 a.m. EST and had been listed as overdue when it did not land by that time at its home base, an hour later, having been listed as missing. Typhoon fringe winds over 50 mph and heavy rain had whipped the Japan Sea, but other American planes had begun a nighttime search in the hope of sighting signal flares.
In Atlantic City, N.J., the Miss America pageant had taken place the prior week, crowning on Saturday night Miss South Carolina, Marian McKnight, as Miss America. Miss North Carolina, Joan Spinks Melton of Albemarle, said that she was thrilled for Ms. McKnight and was glad that it was South Carolina who had won the title. It was the first time that a Miss South Carolina had ever become Miss America, as Ms. Melton reminded. The latter was able to rejoin her boyfriend of Greenville after six days of separation. He had been staying at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel with Ms. Melton's mother throughout pageant week.
In New York, Ms. McKnight, 19, this date skirted the controversial issues of segregation and Elvis Presley during her first press conference after being crowned. She had been asked whether she would return to Coker College in Hartsville, S.C., if there were blacks attending the college following her year-long Miss America tour, and she responded that she would rather not answer the question. When asked whether she was a fan of Elvis Presley, she said, "No comment." When asked whether she preferred Northern men or Southern men, she said, "Why, Southern men, of course." She said that at Coker College, there were 350 females and only four male students, and not one of the latter had ever asked her for a date, which she assumed was because there were so many more girls from whom to choose. She said she planned to return to Coker after her tour.
In Jeffersonville, Ind., National Guard troops and State foresters joined State police this date to search the Clark County State Forest near the town for a boy, nearly 3, who had wandered away from a picnic on Sunday afternoon, wearing only a light shirt and trousers. The forest had been cold the previous night. The State police suggested that he may have just wandered away, or was perhaps kidnaped or struck and killed by a car on a road near the picnic area and then taken away by the driver, emphasizing that there was nothing to back up any of those theories—quite a comfort, no doubt, to the boy's parents. Two youths told the picnic party that they had seen the boy on the road riding a stick horse, but as the parents hurried to the spot, a car had sped past them and they found no trace of their son.
In Glendale, Calif., a teenager's family watched television, unaware that the 16-year old boy, alone in a small house at the rear of the family home, was suffocating to death in a fire. The family learned of the tragedy when a younger sister, who also slept in the rear house, departed for bed, finding firemen fighting the blaze.
In Los Angeles, a gunman obtained $500 in a holdup of a market clerk, using only sign language. He asked the clerk to summon the proprietor, who said that he did not understand the sign language very well but that the robber's .45 automatic "made everything clear."
In Shreveport, La., a man telephoned police, identifying himself, saying that he had read in the papers that he was dead, to which a detective said that he was dead, according to his information. To prove that he was alive, the man went to police headquarters, where it was determined that his wallet had been stolen and was found on the body of the dead man.
The coldest September weather on record had hit the Carolinas, with a record low reading of 48 for the date being recorded in Charlotte, five degrees lower than New York City this date, the previous record having been 51 on September 10, 1880. A high of 78 was predicted for this date, with a low of 53 the following morning, reaching 80 by the following afternoon.
On the editorial page, "The Pearsall Plan's Great Challenge" tells, in the wake of the 4 to 1 public approval of the Pearsall Plan in the special referendum conducted the prior Saturday, of the people of the state meaning to preserve the form and avoid the substance of compliance with Brown v. Board of Education. It suggests that the vote on the amendment to the State Constitution, which allowed for payment of tuition grants to students desiring attendance at a private school and also allowed local school units to conduct a vote to abolish their public schools, might have been larger had it been delayed until November during the general election, but that the turnout had been large enough to settle the debate on the Plan.
But it also finds that nothing had been finally settled, as the troubles with desegregation still existed, with the outcome of the vote having only increased the responsibilities of North Carolinians to preserve the public schools, as they could no longer rely on the State Constitution for it.
It finds that the Plan placed a premium on active and informed interest in the schools by individual citizens, and that if its school-closing powers were invoked hastily or recklessly, the worst fears of those who had opposed the Plan would be realized, that being increasing school closures within an atmosphere of tension and hysteria, while if the local option were used sparingly or not at all, the best hopes of the supporters of the Plan would be realized.
The Plan had been called the greatest question to face North Carolinians thus far during the current century, and, it posits, it had also placed before them the greatest challenge of the century, to be guided by the knowledge that however well the Plan might serve their traditions and customs, it could also severely damage the future of their children if they did not use it wisely, which was to say as little as possible.
"Shhhhhh! The Public Mustn't Know" indicates that an issue the people would not be asked to judge in November was secrecy, for Congress and the Administration appeared to agree that Government secrecy was a good thing, keeping the people placid and thereby preventing political embarrassments.
There had been some Congressional criticism of the Atomic Energy Commission for proceeding with plans for an atomic installation in Michigan while suppressing scientific evidence indicating that it might blow up and produce the first atomic fallout on U.S. soil, in the Detroit area. There had been outrage in the Senate when the Administration had omitted from its Dixon-Yates report the conflict of interest evidence, which it had replaced since, to try to convince a court that the conflict of interest it had previously denied and tried to hide actually did exist.
Nevertheless, Congress could not claim to have done much to remedy secrecy in Government. For it had barred the public from 1,131 of its 3,121 committee meetings in 1956, more than a third, and often committee chairmen had failed to observe the custom of reporting meetings in executive session after they had been held. Eleven important Senate committees had been closed to the public for at least half the time. Of an estimated 309 meetings in the House Appropriations Committee during the year, 308 had been closed and none of them were subsequently reported.
It allows that there were good reasons for some governmental secrecy, but when the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee met in secret 36 percent of the time, there appeared to be room for major improvement.
It concludes that the Congress had a right to engage in executive sessions some of the time, but that it was a lesser right than the public's right to know most of the time.
"When Chivalry Was Still Imaginable" suggests that the loneliest author in town at present was one not writing a book about the Civil War, that the New York Times had reported that about 75 volumes regarding it had already appeared during the year and that another 25 or so would be published by Christmas.
It finds the popularity of the subject to be attributable not only to the South's infatuation with it, as Northerners also consumed the books, many of the newer ones having been written by pro-Union authors. Bruce Catton, a neutralist who had won a Pulitzer Prize for A Stillness at Appomattox, had announced that his next work would chronicle the Yankee cause, to be the Book-of-the-Month Club selection for November, titled This Hallowed Ground.
It suggests that the popularity of the books had to do with a national longing for an era of imaginable romance, that the present was too rich in unimaginable terror, nuclear weapons, brink-of-war diplomacy, nerve gas and brain-washing. It finds that the country, consciously or unconsciously, longed for a day when individual gallantry was still possible, when chivalry was in flower and the cavalry charge remained as a possibility. But only in books were such things still possible, and the Civil War had been one of the last great historical melodramas where such derring-do had been tolerated.
"Desperate moments have always been food for literature. But contemporary terror is uninteresting because it is so casual and meaningless. On the other hand, the Civil War was the most meaningful tragedy the nation has ever endured."
Of course, if you happen to be one of the Trumpy-Dumpy-Doodles, whose reading material scarcely ventures beyond the comic-book realm, or, at least, the right-wing vanity books which are written on a scarcely higher level of comprehension, you are not possessed of much imagination to begin with, and so have to manifest those wild imaginings in reality to bring them home to the senses, playing soldier-boy or soldier-girl with real guns and real bullets, storming the Capitol to try to overturn a valid American election, all in the name of what? We could not tell you, except that it is treasonous conduct of the lowest variety, an attempt to overturn democracy, itself, because the little boys and girls who participated did not get their way.
They are such totalitarian freaks in their personal lives that they cannot even imagine that their way was not acceptable to the great majority of the American people, having for so long deluded themselves that "the American people" will not stand for this or that, their issue du jour, believing all of the garbage spewed since 2015 by their fearless leader, the demagogue to top all American demagogues, or that, waiting four years until 2024 will somehow, magically, make their regimen any more palatable to that majority, not stopping to realize that it never will be acceptable because their way is pure fascism, dictatorial fascism.
We shall say it again: just leave the country and go somewhere else, where your ideals and principles will be greeted with greater respect, at least until they stand you up before a firing squad when you deign to disagree one whit with the totalitarian state's positions, and politely shoot you through the heart.
These freaks are either too young, or, if older, too senile, to recall that during the 1950's and 1960s, we already had a "second civil war", first over civil rights and then over the Vietnam War and the draft, and that it was not very pleasant to live through or endure, and that we do not want a repeat of that experience again in our society, with all its untoward concomitants of violence, death, and political assassination, with whatever shreds of chivalry left at the end of the day being of little or no consolation. The Trumpies need to grow up and face themselves, for a change, in the mirror, and do a load of self-analysis of their pettiness and utter ignorance and stupidity. That analysis should start with the ultra-right-wing members of the House Republican caucus, who are borderline psychotics, and have become a national joke with the broad majority of the American people, whether they realize it or not being quite inconsequential, except to their immediate political futures.
A piece from the Sanford Herald, titled "Snake's Tongue: A Fable", relates of a fable involving a snake and a raven in the fabular tradition of Aesop, which, to glean its full import or lack thereof, we shall let you read for yourself.
It concludes: "The serpent shook his head. 'You are right, my friend,' he sighed. 'When last I saw you, the jug was wet and I could leave it alone. But now the jug is dry. I am very much in a mood to take it.'"
Drew Pearson's column, with Jack Anderson, Mr. Pearson's partner, substituting for him while he was in the Middle East, tells of Senator Thomas Martin of Iowa having broken all records for abusing the franking privilege, having mailed four million copies of a political speech at taxpayer expense, the largest amount of free mail ever dumped on the public by a single Senator. Previously, Congressman Ralph Gwinn of New York, who periodically flooded his district with political literature, was the champion of franking. Yet, in his most ambitious effort, he had never mailed four million copies. Senator Martin's mailing was going to farmers in 13 states, a speech which he called "Fifty Facts for Farmers", presumably meant to influence the farm vote.
The State Department had heard recently that Senator Bourke Hickenlooper of Iowa, previously touring the Far East, had wanted Government funds for a valet. But it turned out to be a typographical error, requesting only funds for his Senate Foreign Relations Committee aide, Francis Valeo, who handled his finances for the trip.
The President had instructed Secretary of State Dulles to be ready to fly to London for another emergency conference on the Suez Canal seizure by Egypt, the President being so alarmed at the continuing danger of war in that region that he wanted the Secretary personally to deal with the crisis.
The Kremlin appeared to believe that the President was a cinch to win in November, as Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev had told half a dozen diplomats that the President was a shoo-in, adding that he hoped the President would select a new Secretary of State.
The President liked to read Western novels for relaxation, but the reading habits of Senators and House members were a better kept secret. But one book at the Library of Congress had a two-month waiting list among the members, with the Library having placed a pink slip in the book indicating that it was so popular that it could not be reserved for longer than ten days at a time so that the next member on the waiting list could check it out. The book was Death Walks on Cat Feet by D. B. Olsen.
Never having had the privilege of clapping eyes on it or any of the other "cat" books by Ms. Olsen, we cannot say whether it, in some manner, might have either inspired or spookily foreshadowed, via the ultimate tale-teller left behind, the events at the Clutter farm in Holcomb, Kans., in November, 1959.
Marquis Childs, in Milwaukee, tells of the President, frustrated by obstructionist tactics of Republicans in Congress, having considered during the first two years of his Presidency forming a new party, but was persuaded instead to try to remake the existing party as one which would stand for world cooperation abroad and moderate social reform at home.
He finds that in Wisconsin, the President had a long way to go to remake the Republican Party, as in that state, as well as in most of the Midwest, those who controlled the party organization were deeply resistant to change, rooted in a conservative and isolationist past. While they provided the President glowing tribute during the campaign, depending, as they were, on his personal popularity, they opposed many of the issues the President regarded as basic.
During the President's first two years in office, Senator McCarthy had caused the President more anguish by way of the Army-McCarthy hearings than any other Republican. Yet, the same men who had been the sponsors of Senator McCarthy, along with his ardent supporters, had led the movement to dump Senator Alexander Wiley, seeking a fifth term, and substitute a 41-year old member of the House, Glenn Davis, whose position on foreign policy was much more acceptable to those who managed and financed the party organization in Wisconsin. If that effort were to succeed, it would result in two Senators from Wisconsin in opposition to the President on key foreign policy issues.
The state chairman was sometimes listed as an Eisenhower Republican, but was actually an ultra-conservative on both foreign and domestic issues. He was pitching the candidacy of Mr. Davis, opposing the President's policy opposing the Bricker amendment to limit the President's treaty-making power, and favoring limitation of foreign aid and restrictive trade tariffs. Mr. Childs indicates that the appeal regarding tariffs might have come out of the campaign of President William McKinley at the turn-of-the-century, an ad having been run indicating that Mr. Davis stood for protecting American jobs "against the flood of foreign goods produced by cheap labor."
As with the Wisconsin chairman, many of the state chairmen were young, but it was questionable whether they were merely giving lip service to the President and his personal popularity for campaign purposes or were really behind the "new Republicanism". In Indiana, Senator William Jenner continued to hold control of the party as an extreme ultra-nationalist who had fought the President on many issues. Representative Charles Halleck of that state, who had placed the President's name in nomination at the Republican convention, was credited with being an Eisenhower Republican, but his conversion was superficial only.
In Illinois, the party was dominated by former Senator Wayland Brooks, a diehard isolationist. Senator Everett Dirksen, who was up for re-election and thus was praising the President, had gone through several transformations, from being an isolationist to supporting the Marshall Plan, until reverting to his old isolationism when he ran for the Senate.
In Tennessee, Representative Carroll Reece, an old-fashioned Taft Republican, led the party. At the state convention, the Republicans gave the President heavy praise, but then adopted a platform opposing most of that for which he stood.
In some states, the President had a good chance in the general election to strengthen the Eisenhower wing of the party both in Congress and within the organization. Kentucky was an outstanding example, where both Republican candidates for the two Senate seats, John Sherman Cooper, former Ambassador to India and former Senator, and Thruston Morton, former Assistant Secretary of State, were genuinely committed to the President's foreign policy objectives.
By having intervened in the Congressional campaign of 1954, the President had helped elect Senator Clifford Case of New Jersey, adding a strong adherent to the President's policies, Senator Gordon Allott of Colorado, also on the President's side, as was the Senatorial candidate in that state, former Governor Dan Thorton. The President could thus claim some progress in persuading his party to stand up for what he believed were the stern realities of the mid-20th Century, but he still had a long way to go if Midwestern Republicanism, where the party had been strongest, was to be made over in the Eisenhower mold.
Mr. Childs indicates that it would be the last election in which the Republicans would be able to invoke the President's widespread popularity, the last time they could use him, and he would have nothing like the same power in his second term which he had enjoyed in his first.
He concludes that if Wisconsin was a fair example of Republicanism, the President was likely to discover the truth of the old adage that the more things changed, the more they remained the same.
Robert C. Ruark, in London, wonders what happened to the British, as he did not find them in town. London at the present time of the year was supposed to be empty, with everyone off on holidays. But he finds everybody in town, from June Allyson to Zachary Scott, that it was becoming the "21" Club of the world, the stopover for everyone who had been anywhere lately, keeping it loaded even in the off-season, with hotels, theaters and restaurants jammed mostly with Americans. He finds that Hollywood had moved to London, that what was laughingly referred to as "café society" had deserted New York in favor of London.
He says that the British claimed poverty but he found that they could purchase the new Rolls-Royce and have it delivered in three months, whereas the previous year, they had to wait four years. He had never seen so many flashy cars anywhere, not even in Texas, finding it a relief that if one were to be mowed down on the streets, it would be by a Bentley rather than a motorcycle.
There was an ongoing crime wave and
Americans were receiving credit for having introduced gangster
thinking
He concludes that he nevertheless loved London, that it was a great economy city where one could be in both America and Australia at the same time. But he missed the English.
A letter writer from Rock Hill, S.C., finds it no wonder that the Charlotte newspapers and disc jockeys had been playing up "Elvis the Pelvis", finding that it indicated a void in the cultural leadership in the Carolinas, despite a tremendous potential for cultural attainments. "Yet we suffer from an inferiority complex and look every way for leadership. Why have we failed to awaken to our cultural responsibilities?" He urges that children and teenagers had to be exposed to culture, that teachers had to feel that individual participation and development of cultural talents were a vital part of their work. He says that they found money for many things but failed where culture and the spirit entered the equation, while large business would find that blossoming of the arts would redound to their benefit. He favors increasing scholarships, not only for technical and scientific studies, but also for music, arts and cultural attainment. "We are potentially a wealthy people in many things besides the ordinary. If the youth show an interest in Elvis … are they to blame?"
A letter writer from Laurinburg indicates that as a young American who would soon be a mother, she could not help but think of the future public school education and preparedness for college, finding that the Pearsall Plan did not benefit the poor or average income families into which most fell. She says the public schools were now lacking the advantages in advanced curriculum of schools in other states, and if school funding were not enough to provide advancement and to pay teachers at present, the public schools should not be closed in favor of private schools. She concludes that it was time to build up democracy rather than destroy it.
A letter writer from Monroe finds
that those who had indicated disfavor toward Elvis Presley
Your musical regimen, therefore,
must be very limited these days, and for the previous 30 years. But
don't worry, Elvis will eventually provide you some of that "church
music" which you seek, even if it is not completely salutary or
equipping of the individual for life outside the church. It had its
place, we suppose, in the 19th Century and earlier, before the advent
of phonographs, radio, talkies and television, but reality is
reality, and it is not possible to turn back the hands of time and
eliminate mass media stimuli from the perceptions of anyone dealing
with others in society, without also throwing out the baby. Anything
to excess tends to produce boredom, which breeds stress, and is not
conducive to mental or physical health. Try to broaden your musical
horizons to embrace other perspectives and learn with greater clarity
empathy, a good Godly value. Besides, the rock 'n' roll might ultimately quell and loosen up some of these rioters
Framed Edition
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