The Charlotte News
Monday, April 22, 1957
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Secretary of State Dulles, in an address prepared for the annual Associated Press luncheon, told Russia this date that the U.S. sought "the liberation of the captive nations" and that "the pressures of liberty are rising" within the Soviet bloc. He also appealed to Congress and the American people to preserve the Administration's foreign military and economic aid programs and not to submit to the "zeal to economize". He expressed confidence that Soviet "threats", such as had recently been directed against allied nations in Europe because of their membership in NATO, would not disintegrate the collective defense systems of the free world. He said that the question of how the U.S. ought deal with Communist "despotism" was not an easy one to answer, that the U.S. had set an example to stimulate forces for freedom throughout the world and that it would "never make a political settlement" at the expense of the Soviet satellite nations. He ruled out action by the U.S. to "incite violent revolt" and called instead for measures to "encourage evolution to freedom." He said the U.S. condemned and opposed Soviet imperialism and sought liberation of the captive nations, "not to encircle Russia with hostile forces, but because peace is in jeopardy and freedom a word of mockery until the divided nations are united and the captive nations are set free." The address had the advance approval of the President, who had read it while on vacation in Augusta, Ga., according to press secretary James Hagerty. It was the Secretary's first major review of U.S. foreign policy since the previous fall and his first speech of the second term.
The possibility of a previously unsuspected hereditary hazard from atomic radiation had been reported this date by an Atomic Energy Commission scientist, Dr. W. L. Russell, the chief geneticist in the biology division of the AEC's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, indicating the possibility that radiation might tend to shorten the lifespan not only of the person receiving the dosage but also of children sired by exposed individuals. Up to the present time, the shortening of the lifespan had been considered a potential hazard only for persons directly exposed. Genetic or hereditary hazards were considered to include such things as physical and mental defects, but not shortening of the lifespan. Dr. Russell had prepared his report for a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, saying that the life-shortening effect showed up in first-generation offspring of exposed mice. He described experiments made of male mice exposed to "moderate doses" of acute neutron radiation from a nuclear explosion, presumably at one of the Nevada tests, with the results that the length of life in the offspring of such mice was shortened by six-tenths of a day for each roentgen received by the father and his reproductive system, and if the ratio were to hold for humans, it would provide a 20-day shortening of the child's life for each such unit of radiation received by the father. Conditions under which humans would most likely be exposed could make the effect somewhat smaller, but it appeared likely that when allowance was made for the conditions of human radiation exposure, shortening of lifespan in the immediate descendants would turn out to be of a magnitude which would warrant serious consideration as a genetic hazard in man. Large doses of radiation from an atomic bomb blast could affect the body at one time, with between 400 and 600 roentgens received at a single dose being lethal for most individuals. Some of the inhabitants of the Marshall Islands, who had accidentally been exposed to fallout from an hydrogen bomb test, had received as much as 175 roentgens. The present maximum permissible whole-body or reproductive system exposure for workers in atomic energy plants was three-tenths of a roentgen per week.
In Washington, Jimmy Hoffa, vice-president of the Teamsters Union and head of the Central States Conference of the union, this date sought dismissal in U.S. District Court of his indictment accusing him of conspiring to hire a spy on the staff of the Senate Select Committee investigating racketeering and organized crime influence within the Teamsters and other unions, as well as among management, Mr. Hoffa contending in his motions that he had been "wrongfully deprived" of a preliminary hearing after his arrest by FBI agents on March 13 and that the deliberations of the Federal grand jury which had delivered the indictment on March 19 had been "influenced and infested by prejudicial and improper publicity directly originating from the Government." In the event that the motion was denied, Mr. Hoffa had sought permission to inspect the minutes of the grand jury, and had also sought dismissal of one of the three counts on the basis that the statute under which it was charged was void for vagueness and thus unconstitutional. The latter count had alleged that Mr. Hoffa and his co-defendant, Miami lawyer Hyman Fischbach, had interfered with the operations of the Committee. The counsel for the defendants, including Edward Bennett Williams on behalf of Mr. Hoffa, had also filed a motion for a continuance of the trial for six months from its current date of May 27, arguing that at present in the District of Columbia there was "great prejudice" against the defendants "as a result of improper and hostile publicity" such that they could not obtain a fair and impartial trial at the current time. The fact basis for the accusations was that Mr. Hoffa had sought to bribe attorney Cye Cheasty, employed by the Committee, to keep the union informed of the Committee's plans and documentary information. Mr. Hoffa had been arrested by the FBI with the cooperation of Mr. Cheasty, the Committee and the Justice Department, setting up a planned delivery to Mr. Hoffa of Committee documents in exchange for money he had tendered to Mr. Cheasty, having offered him $18,000 per year and having paid him $3,000, all of which had been recorded. Mr. Fischbach, once counsel to a House committee, was accused of having acted as an agent for Mr. Hoffa, an intermediary who knew Mr. Cheasty and had set up the transaction.
Walter Reuther, vice-president of the AFL-CIO and head of the UAW, said the previous day during a television interview that if the Teamsters Union were ousted from the labor organization in response to the problems uncovered by the Senate Committee, he was ready to push for a new union for the truck drivers which would be clean. He expressed the hope that expulsion would not be necessary but said that there would be no choice unless the Teamsters could clean up the union from within. The labor organization's ethical practices committee had set a hearing for May 6 to consider charges that the Teamsters was dominated by corrupt influences. The union had challenged the charges, but had not yet indicated whether it would make an appearance at the hearing. The union reportedly had been assured that if it did appear, no written transcript of the hearing would be made, to avoid having it subpoenaed by the Senate Committee.
In Chicago, a University of Chicago janitor admitted this date to police that he had killed a 62-year old housewife and raped at least four women employees of the University. According to a detective, the man admitted strangling the older woman in her home on April 2. The suspect had been picked up for questioning in connection with a series of rapes near the University because he matched a description of the rapist, and, according to the detective, had admitted attempting to rape two other women during the previous two months. Police said that all of the women except the slain woman had some connection with the University, where the suspect had been employed as a janitor since the previous May, having previously worked as a hospital aide in Jacksonville, Ill. Police said that the names of 21 women had been found on a list in the suspect's apartment and that he had told police he had taken the names of single women from records in the University rooms which he cleaned.
In New York, a young mechanic, accused of the bludgeoning murders of two women, had shown no emotion the previous day as a magistrate verbally remonstrated him in court as he was arraigned on a homicide charge in one of the slayings. His heartbroken fiancée sat silently at the rear of the courtroom in Brooklyn as the magistrate glowered at the 22-year old and said: "Of all the most gruesome crimes conjured in a girl's hideous dreams, you are charged with the most macabre." The defendant was held without bail pending a hearing the following day. Police asked the Army for medical reports on the defendant, as his father had stated that he had a brain operation while serving with the Army in Japan and had a history of fits. He had been arrested by police on Saturday after a tip from a man who lived in the same apartment building in Brooklyn, and had quickly confessed to the hammer slaying of a 19-year old girl in the back seat of his car the previous Wednesday night and admitted bludgeoning to death a 50-year old woman in the back seat of her car the prior January 29. He told police that he was engaged in petting parties with each woman and that when they resisted further advances, he had struck them. He stated that "attacking these girls was an outlet for myself". He also had reportedly admitted assaulting nine other women in Brooklyn.
In Church Point, La., about 50 miles west of Baton Rouge, a family disturbance had erupted into a wild shooting spree the previous day, resulting in the death of an estranged couple, their 14-year old daughter and two policemen. A State Police trooper said that the shooting had been the result of an Easter visit of a 37-year old carpenter to his estranged wife, eventually resulting in the fatal wounding of her, the daughter, the police chief and assistant chief, the latter two officers having responded to the home, before the suspect had turned a shotgun on himself and committed suicide. City police said that the man had apparently gone berserk during a discussion of reconciliation, but the chain of events remained unclear because all of the witnesses to it had died. Police reported a call from the woman's home asking for police protection, and the chief and assistant chief had responded, with police theorizing that the man, who had been arrested previously for disorderly conduct, had been angered by the call and shot his wife, daughter and the two policemen. The wife had not been killed immediately, but died without regaining consciousness a short time later after being taken to the hospital. The man had left the town following the shooting and had gone to the home of his brother-in-law, entered a room at that house and then killed himself. Another daughter of the couple who was not at home at the time had survived. The police chief was survived by his widow, a daughter, a stepson and a stepdaughter, and the assistant chief had a widow and two sons.
These messer-uppers in various places probably should have paused and watched a little television of the better variety
In Johannesburg, South Africa, four youths had been killed when a tunnel they had dug in the works of a mine collapsed and buried them the previous day.
In Morganton, N.C., officials of the Local 427 of the International Carbon Workers Union this date rejected an offer by management of Great Lakes Carbon Co. to end a two-month strike at the plant, with members set to meet this evening to discuss the latest offer. The company, in a newspaper advertisement the previous week, had stated that further contract negotiation appeared futile and that all workers could return with an immediate wage increase, with no specific date mentioned, but the company had notified some employees by letter to return to work on Wednesday. The Local president, however, said that there would be no work at the plant on Wednesday or thereafter until a contract was reached.
In Charlotte, William Waggoner, a young Charlotte attorney, had been selected as the assistant U.S. Attorney for the Charlotte division of the Western District of North Carolina, to be named officially to the position the following Friday, succeeding William Ward of Statesville, who had resigned to re-enter private practice.
In Dallas, Tex., it was reported that ten tornadoes had struck the previous night and rivers were rising this date in the Panhandle and South Plains, injuring an estimated 12 to 14 persons and causing heavy property damage, with one man reported missing. But apparently, the seven-year drought was about over in most of the state. In Dallas, the Trinity River crested three feet below flood level and then started receding, with the Weather Bureau indicating that the river would spread over lowlands south of Dallas during the ensuing few days. Thunderstorms had also hit central Texas the previous night and this date. Hard rain accompanied the tornadoes in northwest Texas and heavy rains drenched south Texas the previous night. General heavy rains had been soaking most of Texas since the middle of February, boosting the morale of farmers, ranchers and city dwellers. State officials expressed cautious optimism that the drought was about broken in all except the western and southernmost portions of the state. A tornado followed by heavy rain had hit Littlefield the previous day, cutting it off from outside communications for some period of time. The Texas Highway Patrol said that the tornado had cut through the western side of the South Plains cotton marketing and ginning center of about 8,000, injuring several persons and causing heavy damage, with another tornado hitting three miles west of Littlefield. A tornado which struck a community 20 miles northeast of Lubbock had demolished six homes and damaged a seventh, with one man indicating that the tornado had blown away 2,400 chickens on his farm. The State agricultural commissioner said that the drought was broken except for west Texas and that the rain now falling was where they already had received good rains during the spring and it was simply running off the soaked land.
On the editorial page, "Replace the Chalk Line with Science" indicates that the first drunk test had been a fairly simple contrivance, requiring the arresting officer to draw a line on the sidewalk and challenge the suspected drunk driver to walk it. The chalk line had gone out with the one-horse shay, but methods of determining the degree of impairment remained primitive in the state.
It urges that it was time that something be done about it and that science had provided the means, based on the principle that there was a direct correlation between the amount of alcohol in the blood and the level of impairment of the individual's ability to operate properly a motor vehicle.
It indicates that unless the General Assembly made the results of scientific tests for intoxication admissible as evidence in the courts, guesswork would continue to be the most familiar yardstick for adjudging alleged drunk drivers.
N.C. General Statutes Section 20-138 made it unlawful for any person who was under the influence of intoxicating liquor to drive any vehicle upon the highways. The Supreme Court had stated that a person was under the influence of intoxicating liquor when that person had consumed a sufficient quantity to cause him or her to lose the normal control of their bodily or mental faculties, or both, to such an extent that there was an appreciable impairment of either or both of those faculties.
It indicates that it was the fact that impairment could exist where no outward manifestations would lead an experienced observer to suspect that the driver was impaired, that the sudden shock of an accident could cause a person under the influence to appear sober, while shock and injury could also produce symptoms of impairment. At the same time, it suggests, impairment resembling intoxication could arise from conditions which had nothing to do with consumption of alcohol, such as diabetic shock or a heart attack.
Thus, scientific tests would tend to protect the innocent as well as help convict the guilty. But opposition to such tests remained stubborn, with it being charged that they were unconstitutional as an infringement on the Fourth Amendment. It finds, however, that if alcohol tests were unconstitutional, so, too, was the taking of fingerprints. There were also complaints regarding the time it would take between an arrest and testing, such that the alcohol would not be sufficiently absorbed within the system to impair a person's faculties at the time of arrest, while absorption would be complete at the time of the test. It suggests, however, that any such unusual delay could be taken into consideration in evaluation of the results.
Some people developed a greater tolerance to alcohol than others and were therefore less affected by a given quantity of alcohol, but medical authorities had established that certain standards applied to interpret test results so as to be fair to all individuals. A limit of .15 percent of alcohol in the blood, ordinarily the result of drinking between six and seven ounces of whiskey over a certain period of time, was generally recognized as evidence of being under the influence. Any report of blood-alcohol concentration would have prima facie status as a rebuttable presumption only and would not preclude presentation by the defense of contrary evidence.
It indicates that testimony on the alcohol content of bodily fluids was presently admissible in the courts of the state, but only through an expert who could explain the effect which a given amount of alcohol would have on a person's mental or physical faculties. In most communities of the state, such experts were not available and so legislation was needed to provide for the admissibility of chemical test evidence without the necessity of calling an expert. No one would be required to take the test—but, of course, at least in its later incarnation, the law would mandate that a refusal to take the test would result in automatic suspension of the operator's license for a given period of time.
It concludes that the General Assembly had no reasonable alternative, that chalk-line techniques had to yield to science.
It should be noted that the so-called chalk-line techniques, that is field sobriety tests, are generally used to establish further probable cause, beyond a police officer's initial observations of the suspect, including the presence of the odor of alcohol, for then asking the suspect, if he or she should fail the field sobriety tests, to submit to a blood, breath, or urine test of alcohol in the bloodstream.
And, of course, states have reduced the blood-alcohol levels from .15, the old typical limit, down to .10 or .08, and as low as .05 for drivers under the age of 18.
Check your state laws and be aware of the general rule of thumb that an average beer or one small 1.5-ounce shot of whiskey consumed within an hour prior to driving equates to approximately .02 on the scale of blood-alcohol content, depending on the weight and sex of the individual, and that for every hour of abstinence after consuming the alcohol, the rate would generally go down by approximately .02 per hour.
Since the person who is consuming an excessive amount of alcohol over a period of hours might be challenged with that sort of math, the best rule of thumb, besides having a sober driver in tow and at the ready, is to carry a little chart when out drinking, and check off honestly the number of drinks one is consuming, and the time during which the consumption takes place. And if, in that instance, one's friends become mockish, then one should probably find new friends, as they are definitely leading you down the road to hell in a hand-basket, which is the way they might have to pick you up off the road should you have a fatal accident while drinking or consuming drugs, unable to see the danger even when it arises and thus continuing to plow ahead into oblivion, without even attempting to apply the brakes at the last instant, which a sober person, even one who is momentarily distracted or inattentive, would often be able to do and thus avoid, hopefully, the worst.
Of course, the best rule of thumb is simply not to consume alcohol at all, preserving one's health and looks longer and thereby, while not eliminating the risk of being harmed or killed by other drivers on the road, at least minimizing the likelihood that you will cause an accident because of impairment of your normal faculties.
We suggest, also, that in addition to drug and alcohol testing for airline pilots and motorists, when appropriate, Congress and state legislatures ought adopt mandatory drug and alcohol testing before a member enters the chamber to conduct the people's business. For it has come to our attention, especially in the current Republican House, that there are many members who appear to be either drunk or on some form of drugs, be it prescription pills or illicit pills, or something even worse, when they enter the chamber. You know of whom we speak in particular, and so there is no sense in naming names, but we think it would be an improvement and would enable the people to know just what is going on with some of their representatives whom they have elected to conduct the people's business. We do not propose that there would necessarily be any penalty for showing up with such evidence of recent drug or alcohol usage while conducting the people's business, as mere use of drugs or alcohol cannot be evidence of a status offense unless driving or causing a public disturbance, short, of course, of being caught in possession of illegal substances. But it should be noted in the record at each session that this or that Representative or Senator did register legal impairment after a drug and alcohol test, or, when challenged, that the person had tested clean. Thus, it would work both ways, for the people, believe it or not, Republicans, think that most of you are either crazy, drunk or on drugs at most of the sessions which are being witnessed. And you are being witnessed.
We do make room for the possibility, however, that these Republicans of whom we speak are simply crazy. For that, there is little remedy except to educate the voters that they have elected crazy people, and if the voters, also, are crazy, there is little remedy for that except, perhaps, to increase funding for psychiatric and psychological counseling services for the particular district, county or locality in question, such as, for instance, Milledgeville, Ga., after they closed the insane asylum there years ago.
"The Talent North Carolina Wastes" indicates that when a follow-up study of high school graduates in the state revealed that more entered college in 1956 than in 1955, legislators appeared to applaud. But it suggests that it was ill-advised as the improvement was fractional and not necessarily reflective of a trend, as the Department of Public Instruction had duly warned. For the number of studies made to date were actually too few to be conclusive.
The percentage of high school graduates entering junior and senior colleges had only risen from 31.2 percent in 1955 to 32.1 percent the following year, and comparing city and county school systems, there was a wide variation in the percentage of 1956 high school graduates going to college, with the percentage of white graduates entering college from county schools being 26.9 and from city schools, 48.9. It was discouraging that only 73.9 percent of graduates ranking first scholastically in their classes had gone to college, and only 68.2 percent of the second-ranking graduates.
The Southern Regional Education Board estimated that the average college graduate earned $100,000 more during his or her lifetime than the average person who had no college degree. If the 78,000 college-aged persons in the South capable of graduating from college during the previous year had done so, they would have increased their taxable income by nearly eight billion dollars during the remainder of their lives, the absence of which representing social and economic erosion which the South could not afford.
It indicates that the waste of human resources was particularly evident in the state, that according to the North Carolina Education Association, only 5 percent of the state's adults had a college education, placing the state 12th from the bottom in the national average.
It finds that the simplest solution was in the maintenance of strong, low-tuition community colleges in major metropolitan centers, to which students could commute daily, and that until the state embraced that concept with the support of funding and enlightened leadership, there was little hope for any significant improvement in college attendance. "Progress that is only fractional is hardly worthy of the name."
"Deliver Us from Dullness, Please" finds that an era of stultifying decorum in literary criticism was apparently coming to an end, satisfyingly. Critic John Ciardi had heavily criticized the poetry of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and William Faulkner had unreluctantly acknowledged that he was the country's greatest living writer.
Now had come James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity, describing his latest work, a 900-page novel—which actually ballooned to more than 1,250 pages by the time of its publication, one of those Mack Truck novels—, Some Came Running: "It's not only longer than War and Peace, but it has more narrative pull. It's a great novel! I know I don't look it, but damn it, it is! It's the greatest novel we've had in America!"
It finds that therefore for the first time in years, the literary scene had some vitality, at a point when it was beginning to fear that the anemic propriety ushered in by pantywaists of the New Criticism had taken root. It suggests that it might awaken the snoring Philistines and coax the rest from the television set into the pages of a decent book.
George Bernard Shaw had enlivened the good part of a century with his well-expressed ego and Oscar Wilde had been no slouch in the same vein, in which H. L. Mencken had been a master, and was the only thing which made Alexander Woollcott at all bearable, as with Dorothy Parker.
"Deliver us from limp-wristed politesse. If art is worth championing it is worth championing with gusto. As with baseball, a certain brassiness is entirely in order."
A piece from the Reporter, titled "Pay Now, Gripe Later", indicates that Lord Brabazon
of Tara, who held a British pilot's license and had been variously a
Minister of Transport and a Minister of Aircraft Production, had
formed an organization called the International Society of Air
Travelers and Air Transport Users, the main object of which was to
stop airlines from treating passengers like "half-witted sheep
The piece applies eagerly for membership in the organization, incensed by memories of long waits in bleak airports with no information beyond something like, "There will be a slight delay in departure," with the word "slight" being infinitely flexible. It finds the airlines to be hell-bent on playing it cozy with their public-address messages in flight, wishing passengers a good trip and telling them that the stewardess's name was Miss Hoopersnoofer, but that if they really wanted to keep their passengers as one big happy family, they might give them a clue as to why engine number three was making a funny noise and why other planes were stacked in the fog above and below them. "It might also be diverting to pipe the pilot-to-tower talk into the passenger compartment. It can be as flavorsome as it is informative."
Drew Pearson indicates that the President's economizing elder brother Edgar ought realize that economy began at home and that he could have saved the taxpayers $47,000 spent to improve drainage around his home if he had been as vigorous an economizer as he wanted the President to be regarding the national budget, which he had recently criticized. The elder brother's home in American Lake near Tacoma, Wash., sometimes flooded and when it did, it threatened the various lawns and docks around the lake, including that of Edgar Eisenhower and of Col. James Stack, retired, a former aide to General Eisenhower during World War II. The Army Corps of Engineers during the winter had thus dug an 1,800-foot drainage ditch to take flood water from the lake into another lake below it, costing $57,000, of which $43,000 had been paid by the Corps of Engineers, $10,000 by residents around the lake, and $4,000 by the local county. The improvement would keep the lake's level at a constant height of 223 feet above sea level, instead of rising at times as high as 238 feet. The Corps of Engineers had not been anxious to dig the ditch as it took money from their budget unexpectedly and they also believed in economy, but pressure had come from above to dig the ditch, and so they did, not indicating where the pressure had originated, and Edgar Eisenhower could not be reached for comment.
Senator Richard Neuberger of Oregon had become not only the champion of White House squirrels, but of equal facilities for female Senators, having written a letter to Senator Dennis Chavez of New Mexico, in charge of Senate buildings, urging a swimming pool and gymnasium for Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, the only female Senator at present. Senator Smith was a Republican and Senator Neuberger was a Democrat, but he had nevertheless risen to her defense, for the sake of all female Senators who might be elected in the future. He said that he had been disturbed that equipment of the Senate included athletic and natatorial facilities for Senators who were male, but none for females. He said he believed it to be discrimination and a demonstration of male arrogance unworthy of the Senate, that under the Constitution and the laws, a state was as much within its rights to send a female to the Senate as to send a male, and that although there was only one female Senator at present, she was entitled to all the facilities and appurtenances provided to males.
White House chief of staff Sherman Adams called Republican Senators recently and persuaded them to kill a tax relief measure for small businesses, but could not convince Senator Norris Cotton of New Hampshire to vote against the amendment of Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas providing 8 percent tax relief to small businesses netting less income than $25,000, with Senator Cotton replying that he did not agree with Mr. Adams and favored tax relief for small businesses. When Mr. Adams said that he would get another chance to vote for it later in the session, Senator Cotton replied that he had been around too long to fall for that, and ignored the request of Mr. Adams, voting for small businesses. Mr. Pearson notes that the President had announced the prior October 22 that he planned to ask Congress to give small businessmen about 600 million dollars in tax relief.
Governor "Happy" Chandler of Kentucky had a tough time obtaining a speaker for his Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner, first having sought former President Truman, offering him any one of three different dates for the dinner, with Mr. Truman, however, having replied that he was busy.
Joseph Alsop, in Amman, Jordan, indicates that the State Department appeared to be the most immediate threat to the new Jordanian Government which had rescued the country from the Soviet trend in the Middle East. The threat was in the form of former Congressman James Richards of South Carolina, former chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who was now the roving ambassador to the Middle East, appointed to appease angry members of Congress.
Mr. Richards was now peddling the Eisenhower doctrine for the Middle East like a new brand of soap flakes. The Egyptians and Syrians were enraged because the new doctrine would tend to benefit Iraq. But he was a special problem in Jordan where a great many people, as throughout the Middle East, were convinced that U.S. influence was at work somewhere behind the scenes in the crisis which had just been surmounted, with the establishment of a new Cabinet and Prime Minister, as Mr. Alsop had detailed the previous Saturday.
Everyone in the Middle East was accustomed to explaining political developments in terms of the machinations of the great powers and thus the explanation of U.S. influence was preferred to the simpler and more obvious explanation. Everyone in Jordan also remembered the visit of British General Gerald Templer, who had been sent to command Jordan to join the Baghdad Pact, touching off riots which signaled the beginning of the end of Jordan's connection with Britain. In the eyes of many in Jordan, including a considerable number of friends of the West, the peddling by Mr. Richards of the Eisenhower doctrine looked suspiciously similar to General Templer peddling the Baghdad Pact. Under those circumstances, the prospective visit of Mr. Richards, if it materialized, would offer the local Egyptian and Communist agents and the nationalist left-wing demagogues their ideal opportunity for a comeback in Jordan.
As the hosts of Mr. Richards, King Hussein and his new Government would have only two possible alternatives, either to accept the risk of serious disorders, which could get out of hand, or to take military and police precautions of an extreme nature, embarrassing to the new Government and which ought be embarrassing to the State Department and Mr. Richards. The purpose of his trip also might not work out in any event.
The highly unpleasant alternative results of the visit had been explained to the State Department with some desperate insistence, the suggestion having been made that Mr. Richards could possibly omit Jordan on his itinerary. But Mr. Alsop indicates that at the present time, the Department had determined that it was better for Mr. Richards to come and be refused than not to come at all.
He suggests that the answer might be determined before his column reached print, but at present the story of the menace of Mr. Richards and the State Department's handling of it contained two vital morals for U.S. Middle East policymakers, the first being that it was not possible to make national policy within the complex region successful with one eye on the ball and the other on Congress, and the other being that it was not necessary to ask Jordan to adhere to doctrines, declarations, preachments or palavers to get them to remain independent and avoid either becoming an outright satellite of Egypt or a pro-Soviet stooge, the goal of U.S. policy, that instead keeping their mouths shut was the wiser choice.
A letter writer indicates that the warning of Cora Harris of the newspaper to gardeners on April 18 had been inaccurate as she had not regarded it as a wet season, despite a lot of rain and flooding of yards, basements, etc., with more water having run off into the Catawba River during the previous three months than in any similar period in some time. He says that he would be happy for Ms. Harris to visit his home and attempt to plant a few flowers and shrubs, that he would suggest that she bring her hip boots and elbow-length rubber gloves.
A letter writer comments on the editorial of April 16 asking for a Senate probe into the release by the Internal Security subcommittee of information related to deceased Canadian Ambassador to Egypt, E. H. Norman, who had committed suicide after the subcommittee had released information, debunked in 1951 by the Canadian Government, that he was a Communist. He finds it to place the newspaper on the side of the rest of the liberal press, misrepresenting and omitting facts in the case. He says that the liberal press had conveniently suppressed Mr. Norman's Communist background and the significance of the case for the security of the United States, proceeds to provide some of the "facts" of the matter—which you may read for yourself.
A letter from J. R. Cherry, Jr., responds to the same effect, indicating that the Senate subcommittee did not owe an apology to anyone for the release of the information on Mr. Norman. You may also read that for yourself—as Mr. Cherry is about as credible as any other avowed supporter of Senator McCarthy, which is to say about as credible as Donald Trump, which is to say having no credibility whatsoever.
We do not feel like wasting our time on the subject further this date, with all of the typical ultra-right-wing punch at "'liberals'" and, in this case, libel in the vilest manner of a dead man who was no longer around to defend himself. Mr. Cherry and the other correspondent should have moved to Argentina long ago where they would have felt far more comfortable. Ditto for Senator McCarthy and double ditto for Trump. Argentina, no doubt, would anoint the latter Generalissimo for life, which he so intensely desires. All of his cultists could then follow him down there and live happily ever after in their greater America.
The editors respond to Mr. Cherry, asking whether he believed that a Senate subcommittee could or ought attempt to dictate to the Canadian Government the selection of its Ambassador to Egypt, indicating that they did not so believe. Perhaps, they should have turned the tables on Mr. Cherry and asked him whether he was or ever had been a Fascist. Perhaps, the current Senate ought to subpoena Mr. Trump and ask him under oath the same question. Oh, beg pardon, H.R.H. Trump.
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