The Charlotte News

Tuesday, April 30, 1957

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Dallas that farmers in many Texas river lowlands, who had not had a good crop in seven years of drought, were now seeing their crops being ruined by flooding. Meanwhile, some cities along the major rivers of the state had begun sandbagging and throwing up levees in a desperate attempt to prevent water damage. The highest flood in the history of the Sabine River had been predicted for the upper Sabine, and major flooding was expected on other waterways as well. In the vicinity of Cuero, thousands of acres of bottomlands were flooded by the Guadalupe River, and crop damage was reported heavy around Navasota, on the Brazos River, with an estimated 30,000 acres in Washington and adjoining counties under water. Some of the crops could be replanted when the water subsided. At Freeport, workers were placing sandbags around a plant of the Dow Chemical Co., where the crest of the Brazos flooding was anticipated for the following day. The Liberty City Council had voted to build levees around the Oak Forest section, into which water from the Trinity River already was flowing. Virtually every major river in east and south-central Texas was surging near or above major flood stages. The April floods and tornadoes had been declared by the Red Cross to be the worst disasters in the history of its Texas operations.

In Pittsburgh, Pa., a routine call came over the police radio to investigate a disturbance of a man reported to be beating his wife, but before it was over, it had turned into something of a nightmare for police officers the previous night. For a half hour, they had sought to capture a man they said had gone berserk after threatening to kill his wife, and with the aid of teargas, finally had been able to arrest him. A patrolman said that he had never shot anyone during his 14 years on the force and did not want to kill the man, that he would do so only if his life were threatened seriously, but thought that they could take the man in question without hurting him, as they had. The man, wielding a club, had chased his wife from their second-floor apartment into a tavern below, where some 15 customers scattered as the man began grappling with the proprietor, his wife fleeing through a rear door, running upstairs as the police arrived. Two police officers had gone upstairs and ordered the man to surrender, whereupon he had thrown a jug of wine at one of the officers and then picked up a knife. That officer then sent his partner for reinforcements and fled into a bedroom with two doors, locking both of them, as the man tried to break through with a hatchet. The officer said that he could have shot through the door but decided that there was some other way to capture the man, had gone out the other door and down the stairs. The man continued to defy police reinforcements, going to the front door with a knife in hand, but one officer had knocked the knife away and the man fled upstairs. Officers had then thrown teargas into the apartment and the man calmly picked up the bomb and had thrown it back, but two other bombs had forced him to flee through a second-floor window, whereupon he toppled onto an awning and rolled into the arms of waiting officers. The man was reportedly unemployed recently, was hospitalized for observation and no charges were filed. His wife was treated for bruises and shock. A patrolman said that he was glad that they did not have to fire a shot at him and felt sorry for the "poor fellow".

In Gastonia, N.C., a 24-year old man who engaged in a midnight fist fight along a railroad track had died early this date and his opponent, a 17-year old amateur boxer, had been jailed on a charge of murder. The police said that the latter youth had told them that after an evening spent in a poolroom and café, he had been en route along the railroad track on the northwest side of Gastonia when he made out the forms of three men in the darkness, with one of them shouting at him, followed by a rock-throwing fight, after which the trio had closed in on him, with one striking him in the face and neck. He had begun swinging his fists and when two of the men stepped back, he had squared off against the deceased, striking him in the jaw and mouth. The youth said that the man made a "funny noise" but the two onlookers assured him that he would be all right. The boy continued to his home, where police later arrived in the wee hours of the morning and told him that the man had died and that he was wanted on a charge of murder. Police said that the deceased man's companions, both around 22, had told substantially the same story, except that they denied throwing the first rock, and added that the deceased and the youth charged had argued before the fistfight had begun. They said that they had taken the deceased to the home of one of the two companions, where they later summoned an ambulance, and the man had been dead on arrival at a hospital. An autopsy and inquest would be held in the death.

In Shelby, N.C., a doctor had died early this date in a mysterious explosion and fire which struck his second-floor office in a building three blocks away from the heart of the town. The police chief said that police were investigating the possibility of the deliberate planting of an incendiary device. Investigators said that they had been told that the physician had informed a nurse that he intended to move from Shelby by June 1, but had given no reason. A taxi driver had discovered the fire in the wee hours and had driven away the car of the victim, parked in front of the two-story brick structure. Police said that the car was packed with luggage, clothing and children's toys and that they had been told that the doctor was planning to visit his wife and two of their three children in Nashville, where his wife was studying at Tennessee State Teachers College. The doctor's mother, with whom the third child was visiting, had arrived during the morning from her home in Newberry, S.C. Police discounted any connection between the doctor's death and his reported involvement in a dispute over retention of a school official at Cleveland Training School, a black high school in Shelby. An autopsy was ordered at Shelby Hospital to determine the cause of death.

In Dobson, N.C., two of five persons charged with the ambush slaying of a Pilot Mountain farmer had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Surry County Superior Court during the morning and were automatically sentenced to life imprisonment. The two defendants, one 23 and the other 15, had been charged along with three others with murder occurring on the night of February 7, and the other three would be tried on May 7. The two defendants pleading guilty during the morning had stood before the court without showing emotion as they heard the judge sentence them to prison for the rest of their natural lives. The slaying of the man had occurred on the porch of his home in a remote section of Surry County, as he had gone to the door, according to his wife, to determine why his dog was barking. The younger of the two defendants who pleaded guilty had admitted shooting him from the darkness of the yard, but said that the other four defendants had put him up to it. Officers said that the five had plotted to kill the man and to rob him, but when he was shot in the doorway of his home, he had fallen back inside and his terrified wife had stayed with the body all night before sending for help. All of the defendants had been arrested shortly after the shooting and had been in jail in Dobson since that time, with a female defendant having been released long enough to deliver her male child at the Elkin Hospital, and then was returned to jail. Welcome to life, little one, but your mama, unfortunately, may be going to jail for a long time for being an aider and abettor to murder, after your presumptive papa was just sentenced for the crime. Good luck in life...

Entries to the contest being held for Mother's Day for young people under age 12 to submit short letters beginning, "I love my mother because…" would have to be postmarked by midnight on May 2, to be eligible to win the prizes of $25, $15, $10 or ten one-dollar prizes. Again, and for the final time probably, we recommend catching the eye of the judges by having a theme revolving around Senator McCarthy, such as, "I love my mother because she had nothing to do with witches or witch-hunts, as did Senator McCarthy aplenty, and now he is dead."

In Raleigh, the bill to permit annexation of perimeter areas to Charlotte remained in a vacuum, with the public hearings set for the following Thursday before the House Committee on Local Government, the second hearing for the controversial bill. Proponents of it were seeking quick action by the second committee to study it, while proponents had not wanted another public hearing, although succeeding in getting it scheduled for Thursday rather than having to wait until the following Tuesday, as originally proposed. The measure had already passed the State Senate, and had been reported by the House Judiciary Committee No. 2 with a "without prejudice" label. The House, on a motion by Mecklenburg County Representative Jack Love, an opponent of the bill, had re-referred the bill to the Local Government Committee.

Charles Kuralt of The News reports that Jim Smith lacked the artifacts of political triumph at his brush company office during the morning, having just some congratulatory messages and a big pasteboard box full of "Vote for Smith" cards which had never been used. In the previous day's municipal primary election, 7,101 people had voted for him for Mayor, and with no competition in the general election on May 7, he would be sworn in as the next Mayor on May 13. He had been convinced about four years earlier by a former City Council member to run for the City Council, and had now been all but elected Mayor without an organization or a program, relying instead on his life-long Crescent Avenue neighbors and his friends to put him over the top. Twice, he had led the Council ticket and served as mayor pro tem, and after his second victory in 1955, had set his sights on the mayoralty, with outgoing Mayor Philip Van Every making it easy for him by stepping down. During the morning, he sat in his office and declared that he had not thought much about a "plan" or a "program", that there was the need to approve the hospital bond issue and to wind up the selection of a site for the new Health Center, that he thought they had ignored the Police Department, which needed more men, better equipment and probably a little more take-home pay, though he did not know where it was coming from. He said that the city was in sound financial shape, that the New York bond attorneys had told them they were among the soundest cities anywhere, and he believed that they could approve the hospital bond issue without getting into trouble. He hoped that they could pass an ordinance on heating installations, which they did not have at present. Mr. Kuralt concludes: "That's the way it went. The city's new mayor is no crusader in the usual meaning of the word. He's a 49-year-old grandfather, a solid citizen with no pretensions toward anything else. No wheeling. No dealing. No cigar."

Julian Scheer of The News tells of 43 of the "jar boys", small-time dealers who sold half-gallon jugs of bootleg whiskey, or single drinks of it, having been arrested the previous night by Mecklenburg ABC Board agents in swift, orderly raids in the black section of the town, helping to smash the traffic in moonshine. The arrests had climaxed two days of vigorous activity by local, state and Federal agents against illegal whiskey operators. On Sunday, they had arrested 83 of the state's alleged largest wholesalers, and the previous night had arrested some of their alleged customers. The latter had been charged with selling or processing non-tax-paid whiskey and would be tried in County Recorder's Court on misdemeanor charges on May 9. In one arrest, an agent sought to have some fun, knocking on the front door of a man and asking whether or not he had any whiskey. The man recognized him as an agent and started to run through the house, whereupon the agent followed and found a jar of white whiskey in the kitchen sink, adding another count to the charges in the warrants. In another case, an agent had knocked on the bedroom window of a man preparing to go to bed.

On the editorial page, "The Big Bugaboo that Backfired" indicates that State Senator Avery Hightower, who had introduced a resolution targeting Governor Luther Hodges for exerting "undue influence" over the 1957 General Assembly, had been one-fourth bombast and three-fourths bunk. His resolution to curb the Governor's patronage power appeared as sheer nonsense and had badly backfired.