The Charlotte News
Friday, June 14, 1957
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Communist China had this date released two American Jesuit missionaries after four years of imprisonment and house arrest. Two of those released had left the Shanghai house where they had been maintained in recent months and had gone to the Jesuit mission headquarters, with one indicating that they hoped to leave Shanghai for Hong Kong in about ten days, depending on available travel. The release left six Americans still confined in Communist China, three of whom were under house arrest in Shanghai and the other three believed to be imprisoned in the Peiping-Tientsin area. The number still confined had dropped from a high of 55 in 1951 to the current level. One of the two released priests said that their health was fair, with the other priest suffering from a back ailment, but in better health than he had been earlier during their four years of confinement. He said that because they remained in Shanghai, he would rather not comment on the conditions of his treatment while imprisoned. The release of the two had been anticipated because their sentences were to be completed the following day. They had been arrested on June 15, 1953, presumably on the usual charge of "counter-revolutionary activities and spying". Two of the three Americans still being held under house arrest were priests, and because they were also scheduled to complete their sentences soon, presumably would also be released.
The State Department this date determined to cut short the European tour of two University of South Carolina students, who had recently been released by Communist Hungary after venturing over the border from Austria on May 26 as a lark. The Department decided not to allow renewal of their passports, instructing the U.S. Embassy in Vienna to validate them only for return to the U.S. Their travel across the Hungarian border violated passport regulations, and the two students had indicated that they maintained other travel plans in Europe, stating that they were interested in returning to Hungary if possible. Return of their passports would be delayed until they made arrangements for their return travel to the U.S.
In Fort Campbell, Ky., Army investigators were seeking this date to find the cause of the worst traffic accident in the post's history, in which 14 paratroopers had died when the truck in which they were riding had plunged through a bridge rail the previous day, with nine others injured. The canvas-covered truck had landed upside down in a rocky creek bed and many of the injured had lain trapped among the dead until a helicopter had been able to lift the rear of the flattened truck off of them. The soldiers had been returning to barracks after four days of field training in the remote area of the vast base, when the 2.5-ton truck suddenly veered across a gravel road, sliced off between 15 and 20 feet of steel bridge rail and smashed into the shallow creek 20 feet below. Several soldiers had managed to struggle free of the wreckage and sought unsuccessfully to free their fellow soldiers, propping the heads of the trapped men above water, with one of the survivors climbing up the creek bank to summon aid, afforded eventually by two helicopters. The base spanned the Tennessee-Kentucky border and the accident had occurred on the Tennessee side. A board of inquiry was convened and no cause of the accident had yet been determined.
In New York, a frail woman, 90, who had died three weeks earlier almost helpless from malnutrition and kidney and heart diseases, and who lived in a fire-damaged apartment and dined on 15-cent hot dogs, had left a fortune worth nearly $500,000, half of which she had kept under her bed. No one had suspected that she was wealthy, although she had been a prominent businesswoman on Staten island where she lived and was the widow of a tugboat owner. A search through her belongings for a will had led to the discovery of $274,980 in cash in the apartment and further investigation revealed that she had another $205,000 in banks, plus 740 shares of stock. She had lived in rooms above a store building which she owned, and several years earlier, four of the six rooms had been severely damaged by fire, which had not been since repaired. Her cash had been stored in cardboard boxes stuffed under a bed in one of the fire-damaged rooms, and it had taken a police officer some 14 hours after discovery of the money just to copy down the serial numbers of all of the bills, which varied in denomination from $10 to $1,000 bills. No will had been discovered. During the 1890's, she had opened a small candy and stationery store on Staten Island and eventually had expanded the business into several stores, and had been the first woman to build a theater in New York City, which she had sold several years earlier. She had become reclusive after the death of her husband 11 years earlier, with her days consisting of a routine during which she would go to a nearby dime store for a hot dog or hamburger at around noon, return home, sometimes sitting in a chair outside for awhile, before going upstairs and listening to the radio until she went to bed at around 7:30. Her husband had been a member of a Staten Island family which spanned several generations. She was related by marriage to reclusive twin sisters, who had been clubbed to death at age 80 in their rundown Staten Island home in 1946 by a distant cousin, during the course of a $500 theft.
In Laurens, S.C., the county sheriff indicated that two men had confessed to an alleged kidnap plot involving a member of one of the state's most prominent families. A member of the family, who had founded Presbyterian College and Thornwell Orphanage, was being held on charges of attempted extortion of $350,000 on threats of kidnaping a four-year old boy, son of one of his relatives by marriage. All three men were charged with conspiracy to kidnap the son of the president of a bank.
In Tower, Minn., a 75-year old farmer had drowned and his 77-year old wife had been rescued when a cave-in had caused them to fall down a 40-foot deep well at their farm home the previous night. The wife had called to their grandson for help, who then was able to pull her up with a rope. The farmer had been sitting on a porch with his grandson the previous evening when they noticed that the pump on the nearby well was shaking, and when he went to investigate, the ground around the well had given way and he had fallen in. His wife had gotten too close in following him, and also had slid down into the well. The grandson, 18, said that he could not see his grandfather, who was covered with mud, water and broken timbers, and since there was no telephone at the home, he had run to a neighbor for help, after rescuing his grandmother with the rope. Deputy sheriffs had pulled out the grandfather's body with grappling hooks after about six hours of work. The grandmother apparently suffered only from shock and possibly a sprained ankle. The cave-in had apparently been caused by failure of timbers near the bottom of the well, which had given way and caused the earth above to collapse.
In Chester, Pa., a 68-year old man had died in the hospital from a skull fracture received when he had stepped from between parked cars and was hit by a passing automobile's side view mirror.
In Asheville, N.C., in the murder trial of the McDowell County sheriff for fatally shooting a man in the streets of Marion, the prosecution began its final summation after the defense had rested its case the previous day following presentation of the testimony of 20 witnesses. The judge denied defense motions for a mistrial, non-suit and directed verdict, as well as an effort to eliminate the testimony of a Marion nurse who had testified earlier that the mortally wounded victim had stated that the sheriff had wanted him out of his way. After the defense had rested, the State had recalled the father of the victim as a rebuttal witness, stating in testimony he had provided earlier outside the presence of the jury, that he had given his son money in 1952 to go to Alaska because of the sheriff's threats to kill him, at around the time the victim was a witness for the State Bureau of Investigation when it was inquiring into McDowell County law enforcement. The defense then called the Buncombe County State Representative as a rebuttal witness, but the court ruled that the testimony was inadmissible, barred by attorney-client privilege. Outside the presence of the jury, he had testified that he had represented the victim on one or two occasions and that the victim had come to him at his law office early in 1952 to seek advice about leaving McDowell County, at which time the attorney had told the victim that he had talked with SBI agents once and did not want to fool with them again. He said that he had advised the victim against leaving but did not know any legal reason why he could not do so. The last witness presented by the defense was a convicted bootlegger from McDowell County who testified that the victim had said he would kill the sheriff if he lived long enough, having made that statement in 1952. The majority of the defense witnesses of the previous day had corroborated earlier testimony from defense witnesses, some indicating that they had heard the victim threatening the sheriff's life.
Dick Young of The News reports that Southern Railway's share of the City's grade-crossing elimination program would be increased, as announced by City Manager Henry Yancey, attending a conference of railway officials in Greensboro the previous day. The increase was in recognition of increased costs and the spread of inflation, such that rail officials would not insist on the contractual limit set in 1950 at 1.25 million, with the share of the cost of eliminating the grade crossings having then been estimated at 5 million dollars, with the railroad agreeing to pay one quarter of that cost, presently agreeing to pay that same proportion without reference to the contract limitation of 1.25 million.
In Reedsville, Wisc., a man kept his $275 horse in the barn during the state's nine-day deer season to prevent it from being mistaken for a deer, but three minutes after the season had closed, he had let the horse into the pasture for exercise, whereupon, a few minutes later, he heard a shot and found the horse dead, shot through its chest with a shotgun slug.
In Harrisburg, Pa., a Superior Court had ruled that sleeping at the wheel of a car amounted to reckless driving.
In Colorado Springs, Colo., a blizzard had marooned five men in the Pikes Peak summit house this date as foot-deep snow blocked the highway, with Highway Department officials indicating that the road had been closed 14 times since its opening on May 1, expected to be cleared this date. The superintendent of the highway, his two aides and a manager and assistant manager of the Summit Restaurant were all trapped. The Colorado Springs street superintendent and former Pikes Peak Highway superintendent said that the spring snows were the worst in his memory, dating back to 1922 when he was first employed regarding the Highway.
On the editorial page, "Thoroughfare Planning Is a Civic Must" indicates that in the major thoroughfare plan presently being developed by the City-County Planning Commission, there was before Charlotte a superb example of bold blending which would be necessary to preserve order and sanity in an era of sudden expansion.
For the first time in the area, there would be adopted a concept of coordinated street planning for the southern part of Charlotte. Without such thoroughfare planning, there would be likely serious problems occurring later, with unduly restricted rights-of-way suitable for carrying only residential traffic.
By looking ahead, major thoroughfares could be developed to fit the precise needs of the community, deserving of community support.
"A Mill Closes and a Pattern Develops" finds that the long story of the textile industry was one of heartache and hope, and that Charlotte had received a stiff dose of the heartache the previous day with the announced closing of the Louise textile mill in early July, which would result in the loss of between 300 and 400 jobs locally.
Assuming that the workers were making about $52 per week, they would be eligible for 26 weeks of unemployment compensation at about $18 to $19 per week, with their situation made the more difficult by the fact that the older workers were likely unskilled at other jobs and would have trouble in consequence finding new ones. Thus, they would have lean times ahead and become a drag on the area's general economy.
The prospective closure of the mill was part of a larger pattern, but one which also contained some hope, as the industry which dominated the economy of both Carolinas was undergoing an evolution which involved both plant eliminations and large-scale plant modernization, as well as diversification of industry aimed at keeping it balanced during peacetime. About half of the nation's cotton spinning capacity was concentrated in the Carolinas, along with great capacity for weaving cotton fabrics, and mills which produced fabrics and knitted products from wool or synthetic fibers. Those mills were spending on average each year close to 200 million dollars for new machinery and equipment in broad modernization programs. The wool processing industry was advancing impressively, while the cotton textile industry was shrinking, including the hosiery industry in North Carolina.
Profit margins for the cotton textile industry had been decreasing for the previous two years, with profit margins falling to long-time lows the prior March and April, remaining at those low levels, resulting in the industry curtailing output because of adverse market conditions. But the industry was maintaining its aggregate of cotton consumption through operation of new, high-speed production equipment, with the non-modernized mills practically priced out of existence. Within a few years, it was believed that the readjustment would bring the industry's production potential into efficient balance with potential peacetime demand, with some reasonable financial stability to be achieved over a long period of time.
Along with that hope, there was the unfortunate necessity of elimination of the weaker parts of the industry, causing a loss of jobs and payrolls, as in the case of the closure of the Louise textile mill.
It appears to be a combination of social Darwinism and Malthusian doctrine at work, while the workers, per the usual case in such circumstances, got hosed.
"Global Humor? No Laughing Matter" tells of jokesmith George Q. Lewis, having recently urged Congress to extend the copyright law to gags, now asking Secretary of State Dulles to initiate "a worldwide crusade for peace through humor."
Mark Twain had once solemnly observed that the human race had only "one really effective weapon and that is laughter." Napoleon had once said, "We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him." Henri Bergson had noted that laughter was the "corrective force" which prevented everyone from becoming cranks. Scientists contended that man was the only creature endowed with the power of laughter.
"What even the scientists neglect to mention is that man is also the only creature that deserves to be laughed at."
A piece from the Columbia (S.C.) State, titled "Hold and Release", finds that a couple of humorous authors, including Cornelia Otis Skinner, had scored on the subject of the rigidity with which things were packaged "for your protection" from new products and the resultant problem of penetrating them to permit use of the contents.
It finds that a tiny package of cookies was enclosed in such an impenetrable jacket that it almost took a safe-cracker to crack through to the crackers, but that buttons and buckles often fell off clothing almost as soon as it was donned or the first time it was laundered.
"These plastics have their moments of usefulness as well as glamour, but sometimes it seems that we are headed in the wrong direction, and that those things that should be strong in the seams are getting weaker, while those that are supposed to come apart are becoming more and more tightly united."
Drew Pearson indicates that Old Guard Republicans would resent the fact that modern Republicans were saying that the future of the President's health was largely up to the Old Guard, that if he had not been so harassed by budget cuts and had not been forced to meet with Republican Congressmen and cut short his Florida vacation to speak to the RNC, his recent stomach seizure probably would not have occurred. Mr. Pearson finds it an exaggeration, but probably with a kernel of truth in it.
RNC chairman Meade Alcorn had persuaded the President to undertake a series of back-slapping conferences with rank-and-file Republicans, which would include luncheons and White House breakfasts before 40 members of Congress at a time, a form of meeting which the President did not like. The modern Republicans were saying that it was up to the Old Guard to cooperate without placing any extra burden on the President.
The President had always suffered from stomach trouble when under heavy strain, and his staff would have to handle the situation accordingly. He could handle routine chores of the office without problem, but problems tended to pile up. Mr. Pearson provides a chronology of such events starting just prior to the ileitis attack of the prior June. On June 9, House leaders were urged by the President to restore a million dollar cut to foreign aid. The President had refused to support Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin in his primary battle against him from the McCarthy-wing of the party, despite Senator Wiley having been a staunch supporter of the President. A newsman had asked the President why he supported Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay in his bid for the Senate in Oregon, but had refused to support Senator Wiley, prompting the color to rise on the back of the President's neck. Former Washington Senator Harry Cain had become involved in a shouting match with the White House staff in front of the President, regarding the unfairness toward alleged subversives. Those events had appeared to snowball into 48 disagreeable, difficult hours just before the President's attack of ileitis.
On June 10, 1957, just before the recent stomach problem, the President again faced a battle over his budget, plus the issue of whether Army Specialist 3rd Class William Girard would be tried before an American court-martial or the Japanese civilian courts for the homicide of a Japanese citizen while he performed guard duty at an Army firing range in Japan, as well as the issue over British and Chinese trade. The President had agreed that Mr. Girard should be tried in an American military tribunal, but Secretary of State Dulles had decided that he should be tried before the Japanese civilian authorities. The President had provided his indirect approval to British trade with Communist China by stating on June 5: "You are going to have just authorized trade or you are going to have clandestine trade." The State Department had stated on May 30: "The United States is most disappointed by this action." At the same time, the President had taken a half-hour trip to Congress for a box luncheon with Republican members, a flight to Florida to review the Navy, a flight back to Washington to address the RNC, and the dedication of a new building at American University.
Mr. Pearson offers it as a glimpse of the burdens of the Presidency, suggesting that it was no wonder that the President began to feel ill.
Walter Lippmann indicates that throughout the Communist world, from Poland to China, the question was being posed as to whether it was wise or not to open exchange between the West and the Iron Curtain countries. The U.S. had determined to open the communication with Poland, negotiating an agreement for economic aid, but regarding Communist China, the U.S. still chose non-recognition and an economic and trade boycott, though alone in that regard among the leading powers of the world, with mounting opposition to the policy within the U.S.
The previous week, the President said that, personally, though not in his official capacity, he favored at least some freedom of trade with China.
There were two principal schools of thought, one holding that the U.S. should close down interchange with the Communist states, placing them, insofar as possible, in quarantine, with the Communists benefiting from trade with the West and, regarding diplomatic and cultural interchange, the Communists would seduce and subvert the non-Communists. They believed that the Iron Curtain was essential to the security of the Democratic and capitalistic world, wishing to see the world divided into two closed systems, each bombarding the other with propaganda across the Iron Curtain.
The other school of thought believed that Russia and China, instead of being weakened, grew stronger in the long run when quarantined in that manner, with the trade restrictions and embargoes having erected effectively a high tariff wall which compelled them to develop their own industries and to make themselves self-sufficient, perhaps causing them, because of the cost involved, to move more slowly, but ultimately to achieve a strong position, at least as applied to Russia and China, though the smaller countries, such as Poland, could not hope to become self-sufficient, making those latter countries dependent on the Soviets.
Thus, those who believed in the latter policy, opposing the quarantine, contended that it was wise to give a country such as Poland an alternative so as to break the Soviet grip as a supplier of Poland's essential needs. They believed that while an embargo on trade with China might slow somewhat its industrialization, it did not slow it very much, and any such slowing was offset by leaving China no alternative means than through the Soviet Union to achieve industrially.
Neither policy would achieve quick or dramatic results, as Communism had grown across the world, not declined, despite restrictions. But opening up trade and cultural exchange would not produce spectacular results, as Vice-President Nixon had suggested in his recent speech favoring aid to Poland, indicating "the explosive power of freedom". Mr. Lippmann suggests that rather than an explosion, such as had taken place the prior fall in Hungary, resulting in humiliation to the U.S. and a tragedy for the world, the hope should rather be attrition through exposure of the people to freedom and a gradual wearing down of the totalitarian character of the Polish regime, "the healing efforts of more light and more air."
A letter writer finds that the national political situation presented elements of varying and largely undefined opinion by would-be national Republican leaders in and out of Congress. He believes that the modern Republicanism was only seeking to identify the Republican Party with the policies of the New Deal, which he believes would cause the President's star to descend, unless he reversed course, in which case, he would lose political prestige and the support of the politically-appointed Federal officeholders. He finds modern Republicanism to be paradoxical, in that it was being promoted by a President who had chosen his Cabinet primarily from among millionaires in big business. He finds the same dynamic at work in his policies toward the Middle East, subsidizing the current ruling governments of four or five small, poor and isolated, underdeveloped countries, to enable agreements for their oil, which would only benefit the wealthy oil interests in the U.S. He wonders what the difference was between colonialism and exploitation of the natural resources of a poor country, finds that the Middle Eastern countries, robbed of their oil, would come to hate the U.S. a generation hence, just as the former colonial states had come to hate England and France at present.
A letter from the secretary of the Salvation Army advisory board, expresses gratitude to fellow citizens who had assisted the Salvation Army in its celebration of "Salute to the Carolinas" week, especially the local newspapers, television and radio stations, and the new Charlotte Mayor, Jim Smith.
A letter writer, past president of the Charlotte Music Club, expresses gratitude for coverage by the newspaper of the Club's projects and its ultimate goal of developing a fine arts building for Charlotte.
A letter from Arthur Larson, director of the U.S. Information Agency, praises an editorial in the newspaper on May 15, thanking it for its support.
A letter writer finds, in response to an editorial on trade with Communist China appearing June 11, that Secretary of State Dulles looked back to 1932, at the point when World War II was being formulated overseas, finding, "Because you stand alone does not mean your cause or action is wrong."
A letter writer urges the newspaper to do all it could to prevent Charlotte schools from becoming integrated, as that would only cause "confusion, and there are laws to prevent it."
A letter writer from Cheraw, S.C., pays his respects to and congratulates the Reverend David Fowler of Greensboro, who had been arrested in Greenville, S.C., for preaching the gospel. He finds it a pity that there were not more young men who would seek to tell the "lost people in sin the sweet story of Jesus that they might accept Christ as their Saviour." He indicates that city officials should be more careful as to how they treated such persons simply because they did not have a permit. He hopes that cities would refrain from putting anyone in jail merely because they told the people of Jesus.
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