The Charlotte News
Friday, October 11, 1957
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that American observers had reported sighting Sputnik or the third stage of its launching rocket this date as the objects made three morning passes over the U.S., once every 96.1 minutes. The Naval Research Laboratory in Washington said that Sputnik had made three high-speed passes over the U.S. during the morning and would make another three passes this night. The New Haven, Conn., moonwatch team, which had first spotted the third stage of the launching rocket the previous day, reported that it had seen two objects streaking through the sky during the morning, presumably the satellite itself and a part of the rocket. Observers at the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution in Cambridge, Mass., also apparently had caught a momentary glimpse of the satellite this date. Two students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., said that they also had sighted the satellite shortly prior to dawn. Sputnik had traveled more than 2.5 million miles, according to Soviet estimates, since its launch the prior Friday night. Dr. Fred Whipple, director of the Cambridge Observatory, said that there had been no observation to indicate a third object orbiting the earth, after the Soviets had claimed that the nosecone was also in orbit. Radio Moscow said that in the last stage of its existence, Sputnik would come closer to the earth and give off light similar to a meteor, and that "its light will be observable for a long time." The broadcast gave no indication of when that might occur, and there had been widely varying estimates as to how long the satellite would remain aloft, with one Russian scientist estimating that it should continue orbiting for about four weeks. In New York, Dr. Sergei Poloskov said that the Russians had intended to share with the U.S. and other nations the scientific information obtained from the satellite. He said that there was no special competition with the U.S. to launch the first satellite and that when American scientists studied the orbit of Sputnik, "they may have enough data to make changes in the plans for theirs." He and two other Soviet scientists were interviewed before returning home from a conference in New York in connection with the International Geophysical Year. Satellite launchings by both Russia and the U.S. were planned as part of the IGY, an 18-month worldwide scientific effort to learn more about the earth and the universe. The U.S. planned some test firings in December and the launching of a fully instrumented satellite in March, according to the President at his press conference on Wednesday.
In Sioux Falls, S.D., it was reported that some
disgruntled farmers had hurled eggs at Secretary of Agriculture Ezra
Taft Benson as he was being introduced by Governor Joe Foss at the
state mechanical corn-picking contest on a nearby farm this date, but
the Secretary was not hurt. The farmers were being threatened with
prosecution for the incident. One 21-year old farmer admitted that he
and four others had thrown the eggs
A small group of 13 New York Teamsters continued to seek a court order to prevent Jimmy Hoffa from becoming the president of the union after his election in Miami Beach the prior week by a 3 to 1 margin of the convention delegates, the New York Teamsters contending that the delegates had been rigged to favor Mr. Hoffa. In addition, the Government was prosecuting Mr. Hoffa for perjury, the case scheduled to begin the following Tuesday. The outgoing president, Dave Beck, had said that he would remain in the position for awhile if Mr. Hoffa proceeded to trial, as there had to be someone operating the union. Mr. Beck said that he had not given much thought to what might occur if Mr. Hoffa were convicted. His term of office would expire on December 1.
In Rock Hill, S.C., it was believed that Senator Strom Thurmond would air his views on the integration situation in Little Rock during a speech at Winthrop College the following Thursday. The Senator held the rank of brigadier general in the Army Reserves, and had no plans to resign regarding the deployment of the Army paratroopers by the President to Little Rock to escort the nine black students to school each morning.
Otherwise, once again, for the second day in a row, there was no news from Little Rock this date on the front page, but there was on an inside page the fifth and last in the series of articles on the crisis by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Relman Morin, this date looking at what might happen if the Federal troops were withdrawn from the city. He says that most people in Little Rock had applauded Governor Orval Faubus for his actions in deploying the Arkansas National Guard at the beginning of the school year to prevent the nine black students from attending their classes on the basis of preserving peace and order. But then had come the riots and the deployment by the President of the Federal troops and federalizing of the National Guard. Prior to that violence, most people had thought of the problem of integrating the public schools primarily in terms of integration versus segregation, while being aware that the Supreme Court had declared segregation per se unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause. They had not thought of it as a question of obeying or not the Federal law. Now, a precedent had been set whereby when violence would erupt regarding integration, Federal troops could be deployed by the President. Little Rock had brought that conflict into hot focus and placed it in the lap of every parent with a child in a segregated school. For that reason, integrationists in Little Rock and elsewhere contended that Governor Faubus and the rioters had inadvertently dealt segregation a fatal blow. They expected to see a stronger civil rights bill enacted by Congress the following year and believed that the Federal courts would be less likely to permit delays in integration, and that the NAACP would become more militant, demanding more action sooner. On the morning that Governor Faubus had departed for the meeting with the President in Newport, R.I., to try to resolve the standoff, he appeared quite confident of his position, telling one reporter that he was on the ground and in control and that it was up to "them to make the next move." Neither the Federal District Court injunction against him on September 20, the riots of September 23, nor the arrival of the Federal troops on September 24, had appeared to shake him. The group of four Southern governors, chaired by Governor Luther Hodges of North Carolina, which had sought to effect a compromise solution between the Governor and the President had not been able to make any progress. The President had said, after meeting with the Governor, that his statement was unacceptable. The following day at a press conference, the Governor did not appear so confident and accused the White House of "double talk". Meanwhile, reports circulated that he was planning to call the Arkansas Legislature into special session, with the possibility looming that the Legislature would close all of the public schools in Arkansas to prevent the integration of Central High School. Integrationists hoped that the Governor would undertake that action as they believed it would alienate much of the support he presently had around the state. Thus far, there had been no special session called and members of the Legislature had registered lukewarm reaction to the idea. Meanwhile, Central High School was open and the nine black students were going to classes every day under guard, with attendance generally rising daily during the first week of their presence. Students and teachers described conditions inside the school as being about as normal as they could be under the circumstances. There had been a few disturbances, and the superintendent of schools, Virgil Blossom, had acted quickly and forcefully to quell them. A female student said: "You're not really conscious of the soldiers there. They don't escort the Negroes to classes anymore. They just stand in the halls. Some of the kids simply ignore the Negroes. Some are polite to them. There are two Negro girls in my gym class and they seem very nice." She said that one white boy had sat at a table in the school cafeteria with some of the black pupils during the first week, and later, some other white boys had told him that they would "get" him after school, but she did not think that they had. Judging from attendance figures, it appeared that between 15 and 20 percent of the parents who had children enrolled at the high school were determined to keep them out. For the others, integration had come and they seemed to accept it. A letter to the Arkansas Gazette, which had editorially attacked Governor Faubus for his action in deploying the National Guard at the beginning of the school year, had received a letter signed by one "Iris Bell", which stated, "You will see a quick right-about-face in the situation," should persons who employed blacks discharge them and if the Governor would cut blacks from the welfare rolls. The writer had said that she had discharged her maid that morning. Executives at the Gazette said that they immediately received a call from a woman they described as "prominent" in the city, in which she said that she wanted to place an ad indicating that she would personally employ any blacks fired for that reason. The Gazette executives said that there had been about a dozen other letters like the one sent by Ms. Bell. One morning, soon after the paratroopers had taken up their posts around the high school, former Congressman Laurie Battle of Alabama appeared inside the barricades, and one reporter had asked him, "Are you trying to get some idea of the effect of this situation on integration in Alabama?" He replied quietly, "Mister, there just isn't going to be any integration in Alabama." Mr. Morin concludes that the impact of the Little Rock story on the rest of the South was yet to be determined.
The editorial page is here.
Framed Edition
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