The Charlotte News
Monday, August 12, 1957
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Senate Select Committee investigating misconduct of unions and management had heard this date from Anthony Doria, one time friend of racketeer Johnny Dio, who described the latter as a frustrated man who sought to become an honest labor leader but that "society wouldn't let him." He said that Mr. Dio had told him within recent weeks that he had "nothing to do" with the acid-blinding attack on labor columnist Victor Riesel, for which he had been indicted and was charged as being part of a conspiracy in that attack. Mr. Dio had appeared the previous week before the Committee but had pleaded the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer all major questions. Mr. Doria said that he had visited Mr. Dio's home recently and asked the latter about the case involving Mr. Riesel, and Mr. Dio had said that the charge was "absolutely a farce" and that he knew nothing about the attack. Mr. Doria said he did not ask him whether he knew who was responsible for the attack and that Mr. Dio had suggested no names. Mr. Doria said that he had been contacted four times by the FBI, questioning him about that case, and that those contacts had convinced him that there was no evidence against Mr. Dio. Until the previous March, Mr. Doria had been the secretary-treasurer of the Allied Industrial Workers Union, formerly the old AFL UAW. He had left the union under pressure after questions regarding his fitness to hold union office had been raised in the AFL-CIO, partly because of his association with Mr. Dio. (Right now, because "The Internet Archive" is temporarily off-line for it apparently having suffered a cyber-attack last week, we will have to wait until it is back online to link you to the Committee hearing transcript. The attackers were probably some racketeers in league with Mr. Dio and/or Mr. Hoffa, or perhaps Allen Dorfman. Beware your alliances, and where you have lunch.)
Rival Democratic and Republican strategists jockeyed for advantage this date while the civil rights bill remained in limbo between the two houses, with the House out of session until the following day and thus no action expected before that point. The Senate version of the bill, with its controversial jury trial amendment and limitation to voting rights enforcement, had to be reconciled with the House version, without a provision affording jury trial for contempt proceedings and with enforcement mechanisms through injunctions available for all civil rights, including voting.
In Moscow, it was reported that six young Americans had balked this date at turning over their passports to Communist Chinese authorities, still wanting to travel to China with 42 other Americans. A man from Alexandria, Va., who was acting as a collection agent in getting the passports together, said that the six young people preferred not to have the Chinese authorities have their documents, and instead had put pertinent information on a separate paper. He said that the Chinese had stated on Sunday that they had to have actual passports and would not know until the following day if the separate papers would suffice. The man declined to identify the six young Americans. They had been in Moscow for nearly 3 weeks for the Communist-sponsored World Youth Festival. Others in the 150-member U.S. delegation were leaving Moscow this date for home or points in Western Europe. The 48 who were remaining had accepted invitations of the Communist Chinese Government to tour the mainland, but U.S. Government passports had not been issued for travel there. One of the six had withdrawn from the list wanting to go to Communist China, but two Americans had joined the list. It seemed that it was likely that others might withdraw before the train carrying the group on an eight-day trip to Peiping left late on Wednesday afternoon. The hometowns of 11 Americans bound for China had been given out this date and it lists the names of those individuals. Almost all of the other Americans who had come to the youth festival and were not going to Communist China had left Moscow by train this date for Leningrad, Warsaw, Prague, Berlin or London. A 21-year old theology student from Walnut Creek, Calif., who had been detained twice by Soviet police, had left by train for London with the British delegation. The Soviet newspaper Literary Gazelle had dubbed him a spy after he was caught scaling the wall of a Soviet factory. The 34,000 delegates from all over the world had received a flag-waving sendoff at the festival the previous day.
At the Atomic Test Site in Nevada, the nuclear test shot scheduled to have occurred this morning, had been postponed for another 24 hours because of adverse wind conditions. It was the 15th time the blast had been postponed.
In Grindelwald, Switzerland, it was reported that the huge
rescue operation for a group of Alpinists trapped on the north wall
of the Eiger Mountain
In Issoudun, Quebec, the fuselage of a wrecked Canadian airliner had begun to sink slowly into a deep, watery swamp this date, complicating the work of an investigating team and searchers seeking the bodies of the 79 dead from the aircraft. The four-engine DC-4 had crashed into the swamp during a summer thunderstorm the previous day, 15 miles south of Québec City, the worst Canadian air disaster to date, with no survivors. Available evidence pointed to lightning as a possible cause of the crash. The chartered plane was carrying veterans and their families back home.
In The Hague, it was reported that eight persons had been killed this date when a Martin Mariner seaplane of the Royal Dutch Navy had crashed shortly after takeoff from an airfield on Dutch New Guinea, the dead including six crewmen and two passengers.
In Orlando, Fla., it was reported that a B-47 Stratojet had flown nonstop from Guam to Morocco in 22 hours and 50 minutes, ending its 11,450-mile trip just before midnight.
In New York, an outbreak of approximately 100 mild cases of flu had been reported this date aboard a ship bringing foreign exchange students from Europe, it not being known whether it was the so-called Asiatic flu.
In Belfast, Northern Ireland, police said that the outlawed Irish Republican Army had blown up a Government barge this date after a weekend of violence in its campaign for unification of Ireland under one government.
In Eindhoven, Netherlands, at least six people had been killed this date in a train crash near Acht, with an estimated 50 others injured, several of whom seriously.
In Great Yarmouth, England, a British submarine had broken loose from its moorings this date and was driven across Great Yarmouth Harbor by a strong tide, smashing into and sinking two small fishing vessels, with no injuries reported.
In York, Pa., a playful game of "war" had turned into an actual tragedy when a souvenir bazooka shell had exploded near the town, killing four boys, two sets of brothers, ranging in age from 9 to 15. An investigation was underway to determine how the boys had gotten the shell. Police said that the blast had occurred when one of the boys, 15, had climbed a tree near their home and dropped the shell to the ground, killing the other three youngsters instantly, with the boy who had dropped the shell dying shortly afterward at a hospital. Two of the boys were believed to have brought the shell home after a visit with their brother at Fort Bragg, N.C., several weeks earlier.
In Stumpy Point, N.C., it was reported that a huge forest fire, which had been brought under temporary control the prior Saturday night by cooling showers, now threatened to break out again this date as strong and erratic winds fanned the flames in the smoking woodland of Dare and Hyde Counties. A State forester said that the area was undergoing the most critical fire weather yet in the 12-day span of the state's worst forest fire of the year. The forecast was for high and very erratic winds up to 25 mph. The winds had caused flames to jump U.S. Highway 264 again, some two or three miles north of Stumpy Point, posing a new threat to the 300 persons living in the coastal fishing village—not to be confused with North Stumptown Landing, S.C., the hometown of Jim-John of the shrimp boat and his lady, Sally Lou. On Saturday night, the fire had destroyed some fish net houses and charred some boats outside the village, but no dwellings had been burned. The fire had been started by lightning on August 1 and had burned an estimated 80,000 to 90,000 acres in the two counties, including about 70,000 acres owned by the West Virginia Pulp & Paper Co., an official of which said that by far the major portion of the burned area owned by his company consisted of open lands around Stumpy Point, also including some excellent timberland.
Fletcher Knebel, in the first of a series of six articles, reveals how wealthy the President was, who endorsed his paychecks, why the First Lady had an account in a branch bank, whether the President bought savings bonds, and what his Gettysburg farm was worth, beginning by indicating that the President and Mrs. Eisenhower, who had been married in 1916 on an Army lieutenant's pay of $161.67 per month, were now worth about a million dollars, that being primarily from the President's book, Crusade in Europe, and the increase in the value of his investments through "Eisenhower prosperity". His net worth consisted of a showplace farm in Gettysburg valued at about $250,000, and an investment portfolio estimated to be worth $750,000. After inheritance taxes, the President's son, Major John Eisenhower, should inherit, based on present value, about $700,000, following payment of inheritance taxes. Mr. Knebel notes that nothing was official, as no official statement had been made since October 14, 1952, when General Eisenhower's staff had made public his resources at that time during the campaign, disclosed in the wake of the problems of vice-presidential candidate and Senator Richard Nixon regarding his California slush fund collected by businessmen on his behalf after his 1950 Senate campaign, all of which he managed to skirt around through his famous "Checkers speech" that September. Senator Nixon, Governor Adlai Stevenson and Senator John Sparkman, in 1952 the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, had disclosed figures on their income and worth at that time. General Eisenhower's statement at the time showed he had netted $476,250 after taxes from the sale of his book in 1948 and that the bulk of that amount had been invested. During the six years prior to the sale of the book, in addition to his $51,548 from his Army salary, his joint income tax return with Mrs. Eisenhower showed income from investments of $7,728.59, or about $1,300 per year. By 1952, adding the $25,000 of invested capital to the proceeds of the book, the guessers had estimated the Eisenhower worth to be around $500,000. After his first inauguration, the President had reportedly set up an irrevocable trust for the rest of his life, according to his Naval aide from World War II, Captain Harry Butcher. But that was determined to have been asserted in error, that the irrevocable trust had been discussed but never set up, instead an arrangement having been made with the trust company to handle the President's investments while he was President, with his investment management returning to him after he would leave office. It was not known what the investment portfolio contained, but it had been determined that it had some "bits and pieces" of real estate in it. The President had little to do with his "big money" since obtaining it. While he had been supreme commander of NATO in Paris in 1951 and 1952, his investments had been handled by a power of attorney held by Clifford Roberts, an old golfing crony of the Augusta National Golf Club, who was a partner of Reynolds & Co., a New York City investment house.
Julian Scheer of The News finds that July, 1957 in Charlotte would not be remembered for the annexation issue, the gas wars, vacations, the appointment of Capus Waynick by Governor Luther Hodges as head of the North Carolina National Guard, or unmarked patrol cars, but rather because it was the month of Janes, Joes, Marys, Susans, Debbies, Harrys, Marthas, and Johns, as it had been a record-breaking month for births, with 655 newborns in the city, topping the previous record of 651 in September, 1946. The largest single day for births had occurred on July 23, with 35 reported. Of the total, 232 had been white males, 221, white females, 104, black males, and 98, black females, 98.4 percent of them having been born in Charlotte hospitals, including all of the white children, and all except nine of the black children, five of whom had been born in homes attended by physicians and four attended by midwives. In September, 1946, 258 white males had been born, along with 274 white females, 63 black males and 56 black females. "Meanwhile, back at the maternity ward, things are crowded, busy, noisy—and hungry."
On an inside page, as indicated on the front page, there is a story on Tweetsie Railroad, which had opened the prior July 4 in Blowing Rock, a familiar attraction to most people who grew up in this era and occasionally visited western North Carolina, remembering that singing cowboy Fred Kirby of Channel 3 'll be up 'ere on the weekends soon enough, and you can get your name in the headlines of the Tweetsie Gazette as the hero who stopped the outlaw train robbery, and watch it printed right before your eyes, that is, if you don't chicken out and hightail it for the hideout—like some ornery politician blinking in the face of challenged debate of his opponent because he is sorely trepidatious of having his saddle shot clean out from under him as before. For those who did not grow up around there, we offer the story, though it will be quite some time, we assume, before any railroad will now be running very far in that part of the state, whether for tourist trade or practical uses, after the furious and disastrous flooding from Hurricane Helene in 2024, doing more to create "Sherman neckties" than the Union Army ever did in that region.
We want one of those little Thunderbirds.
On the editorial page, "Propaganda Poops without Listeners" indicates that the State Department had reportedly been upset because some American delegates to the World Youth Festival in Moscow had wanted to go to China.
It indicates that there were probably many serious reasons why the youngsters should not go, that if there were not, as American reporters barred from China understood, Secretary of State Dulles could come up with some very quickly. But on the basis of reports of their performance in Moscow, it appeared that the Americans might cause Communist China's propagandists some trouble as they had caused enough in Moscow to take at least some of the headlines away from Nikita Khrushchev's saber-rattling tour of East Germany. While Communist functionaries were rounding up crowds to line the path of Mr. Khrushchev and cheer his speeches, the Americans were mounting soapboxes to tell Soviet citizens what was wrong with Russia.
It finds it doubtful that either Mr. Khrushchev or the Americans had won many converts. A Virginia girl, who had gone out with a member of the Young Communist League, had found him "completely set—rigid in his political views. He was an intelligent man, but so indoctrinated I could not budge him. There are millions more like him." Another Russian had told her that more blacks were lynched in the U.S. than Hungarians had been killed in the uprising the previous fall.
It finds that perhaps it was the kind of indoctrination that General Eisenhower had found so bewildering in his famous conversation at the end of the war with General Zhukov about the merits of capitalism versus communism.
It finds that in one respect, the young Americans seemed to have put Mr. Khrushchev to shame as a propagandist, as they had attracted their own audience and caused such a stir that one of them was severely lectured by festival officials trying their best to use the Americans for their own propaganda. While Mr. Khrushchev's captive audiences in East Germany were larger, no one seemed to be listening to what he had said. (It reminds of the Trump audiences, including the mindless devotion and reverence to the speaker, quailing in the face of his incipient wrath at any display other than absolute obeisance with glued-on smiles and waving little signs around bearing cute, catchy slogans with plenty of pith attached.)
It concludes that if those young Americans wanted to set up their soapboxes in China, perhaps the State Department ought allow them to go.
"Fiction for the Minority Taste Test" hopes that consistency was not one of the virtues held dear in the executive suites of CBS and NBC, as it would be a shame to lose the "Star Spangled Banner" because a pacifist group objected to its reference to "bombs bursting in air", in the same manner as an overzealous minority group must have protested the way Stephen Foster had written his songs.
The networks had censored those songs, such that "Old Black Joe" was now being sung by tv choirs as "Old Dark Joseph", and such terms used by Mr. Foster as "mammy", "darkie", and "black", were no longer uttered on television as they referred to skin color.
It finds that it was a shame that the late Fred Allen was no longer around to characterize properly the matter, but it finds that he probably would no longer be allowed to do so in present times anyway, as he had previously on "Allen's Alley" on his radio program. "The networks are solemnly and dutifully creating fiction to fit the minority taste test. Allen's jests, which were tipped with truth, wouldn't be appreciated in the censorial sanctums of Madison Avenue."
It finds that Mr. Foster had not
been lampooning the black race, that his biographer, H. V. Milligan,
had written that in the best of his songs, "the Negro ceases to
be a caricature and becomes a human being… In this type of
song, universal in the appeal of its naïve pathos, he has never
had an equal…" It finds that the pressure groups would
now substitute militance for pathos as a racial symbol, and that was
their business, that the times had changed, that the old Kentucky
home was even further away "and Massa indeed is in the
cold-cold ground
It suggests, however, that American history was being tampered with as "massas, mammies and darkies" were a part of it. "The networks really can't eradicate history, so why should they sillily tried to do so? If they are so frightened of giving offense, perhaps something can be done about that man who, shortly after the dinner period, shows how 'stomach acid' can eat the keel off a battleship."
See, little Trumpy-Dumpy-Doer? This
stuff just didn't start a couple of years ago or so, as you are so
often apt to suggest, nor did it even start in the political or
governmental realm. Blame your dumb-show
Just because you became aware of
something a couple of years ago, does not mean that others were not
aware of it a long time before you ever even got here. Trying to
blame everything on "liberals" or the "gov'ment"
If you really want to vote for that rubbish, go right ahead, but don't complain at the result. We have been through this one before for four long and terrible years of division, strife and disease. It concluded in the worst pandemic to hit the country in 100 years. It has resulted in high inflation, now being brought under control by the Biden Administration, which for the past two years has brought the lowest unemployment figures trending since the 1960's. If you think the lowest job-creation figures since the Hoover Administration is a good thing, then go right ahead and vote for the moron again.
And while you're at it, why don't
you drive your car off the rim of the Grand Canyon, just to see what
will happen? Maybe you can survive. You can do anything. You are the
one. You're a Trumpistador
"Intimations of Autumn along Park Road" tells of a farmer on Park Road the previous week having cut a field of tasseling corn and ground it to silage, it seeming a shame to see the corn cut, chewed and neatly baled by an impersonal machine, cheating "motorists passing the field of a genuine autumn scene in which the corn, left standing, would have given rustling sounds and fodder-odors to October's winds."
It indicates that nostalgia, as someone had written recently, was to be avoided because it took one's eyes off the glorious unfolding of man's nuclear future, and was negative and potentially dangerous to continued progress. It finds that sentiment doubtful, that nostalgia, in its way, provided "a hefty turn to the wheels of commerce, contributing to buyer demand for items ranging from old brick to phonograph records, from refurbished corner cupboards to little cars that look like old cars and cost considerably more. It makes a family spend several hundred dollars extra to put an unneeded fireplace in an otherwise ultra-modern home."
It finds that in any event, nostalgia could not be turned on and off like a faucet or a tv. "It comes unexpectedly and unbidden, even to a motorist passing a cornfield on an unseasonably cool morning in August."
A piece from the New York Times, titled "The Birdbath", advises placing a deck chair in the shade of a dogwood tree and facing it toward a birdbath in a rose garden to enjoy one of life's pleasant simplicities. "Here, amid a cricket serenade and a butterfly ballet, the avian world comes to call with the regularity of commuters but more often and seemingly with less stress." It finds that while some birds were satisfied only to drink, most came to revel "knee-deep in the water like children frolicking in a bathtub or at the beach."
"Cardinals, blue birds and orioles throw brilliant flames of color over the water. Later comes an uproar with the arrival of those scrappy renegades from city roosts and streets, the starlings and English sparrows. They finally leave, carrying their bluster to other haunts, happily."
"Then, all of a sudden, the last of the visitors is gone. The rippling surface of the water quiets and mirrors the blue sky, shining white clouds and the leaves of maple and oak while an insect symphony competes with the clear treble from feathered choristers in elm and orchard.
"Intermission has come to the watery stage."
Drew Pearson indicates that Justice Department officials had stated that any further moves toward Jimmy Hoffa would be up to the Federal judge who had presided over his trial, where he had recently been acquitted of conspiring to bribe lawyer John Cye Cheasty, allegedly seeking to have him work for Mr. Hoffa to obtain inside information from the Senate Select Committee investigating misconduct of unions and management, Mr. Hoffa having successfully contended that he had retained Mr. Cheasty only as co-counsel for the Central States Teamsters Conference which Mr. Hoffa headed and had not known until after his arrest that Mr. Cheasty worked for the Committee.
Despite the evidence that former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis had been brought to Washington at the expense of the Teamsters during the trial and that a full-page ad had been placed in the Washington Afro-American to influence the eight black members of the jury, Justice Department officials did not appear anxious to try to obtain a contempt citation, leaving it up to the judge who had presided over the case. Under 18 USC 401, the judge could summon Mr. Hoffa and his associates to court and summarily fine and imprison them for any contempt occurring in the courtroom, so-called direct contempt. If the conduct occurred outside the courtroom, indirect contempt, the judge could refer the question to a jury, as provided under 18 USC 402. Mr. Pearson indicates that the arrangements for Mr. Louis to come to Washington had been made in Chicago, and thus outside the courtroom, but his shaking of Mr. Hoffa's hand in front of the jury had occurred inside the courtroom. The placing of the ad in the newspaper had also occurred outside the courtroom. (Absent a prior court order which was violated, the sort of conduct described by Mr. Pearson would likely not ever be sustained as contempt by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court by this era, hence the reluctance of the Justice Department to pursue it. Mr. Cheasty, however, might have had a civil suit for libel against the Afro-American, should he have wanted to pursue it. The 1941 case, Bridges v. California, and, for the civil libel issue, the 1964 case, New York Times v. Sullivan, for libel against public officials, and the 1967 Time, Inc. v. Hill, and cases cited therein, for libel against private individuals in a newsworthy public setting, provide some legal context for the viability of such contentions.)
He indicates that there was evidence in the record of the trial that the lawyers were not unaware of the importance of blacks on the jury, that the defense attorneys had gone out of their way to select black jurors. On page 1,485 of the record, the judge had taken judicial notice of the fact that eight of the jurors were black, doing so at the request of Dan Maher, one of the defense counsel. But she had gone further, taking judicial notice on her own initiative of the fact that "the defendants exercised all of their challenges to challenging members of one race, to wit the white race, while the Government exercised its challenges to challenging both races in equal proportion." The defense attorneys had challenged 16 white jurors and no black jurors, while the Government had challenged three white jurors and three black jurors. (That was the prerogative of each side, as long as the Government in a criminal case does not engage in systematic exclusion in a biased manner regarding a racial, ethnic or religious group, when the defendant is of that group (now expanded to include any systematic exclusion regardless of the defendant's group identity), and cannot justify the exclusion on the basis of reasons other than group identity. The proscription only applies to the prosecution, as the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial by an impartial jury belongs to the defendant.)
After the jury had been seated, Mr. Louis was persuaded to come to Washington and put his arm around Mr. Hoffa in view of the jury. At the same time, the Afro-American, both in its full-page ad and accompanying news columns, had told of how the judge was born in Mississippi, the home state of Senator James Eastland, and how Mr. Hoffa had created job opportunities for blacks and how, when elected president of the Teamsters, would provide many more job opportunities. The newspaper had printed the names and addresses of all of the black jurors on its front page, omitting only their phone numbers.
Mr. Pearson had ascertained that the ad had been placed by John Cowling, a Detroit black politician, and that the organization which had allegedly sponsored the ad, the "Detroit Citizens Civic Committee", did not exist, and the person allegedly directing that organization, "Frank Crowling", named beneath the ad, also did not exist.
He finds it to be some of the reasons why members of the Washington Bar were indignant over what had happened at the trial of Mr. Hoffa, describing it as unparalleled in the annals of judicial history in the District of Columbia.
Stewart Alsop discusses the six serious candidates for the presidency in 1960, with five of them benefiting from the civil rights battle, the sixth being Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, who had said he did not want the nomination. His close associates believed him, unless the situation arose where the only alternative was a candidate who would "tear the party apart", naming no names, but having in mind someone such as Governor G. Mennen Williams of Michigan or possibly Governor Averell Harriman of New York. Senator Johnson's friends stated that even in that event, he would agree to run only if he felt confident about his health—having had a heart attack in July, 1955. His friends were more worried about his health than they wanted to admit.
Since the civil rights battle had begun, Senator Johnson had been keeping frenetic 16-hour workdays. His role in the civil rights fight had not only been bad for his health but even worse for his presidential chances. If he had not taken command of the forces fighting for a bill with which the South could live, the jury trial amendment would have been defeated. Even so, Northern liberals, who had never been friendly to Senator Johnson, had been further alienated, and liberals usually exercised veto power over Democratic presidential nominations.
When the fight over civil rights had begun, Senator Johnson had remained in the wings with his mouth shut, playing the game the smart way for someone who wanted to be president. Mr. Alsop says that the Senator was a very smart man and the fact that he moved front and center in the civil rights fight suggested that his friends might be correct and that he really did not want to be president.
The other serious potential Democratic candidates were Senators Stuart Symington of Missouri, Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, both of whom had voted against the jury trial amendment, and John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who had voted for it. Senator Symington stayed carefully out of the limelight throughout the battle, but his vote would, on balance, help him, as his greatest drawback had been that the Northern liberals had tended to regard him as an ally of Senator Johnson and as a border state semi-conservative. Senator Kennedy's vote, cast after agonized soul-searching, would hurt him in the North, but would attract Southern delegate support at the convention, on which his strategy for the nomination appeared to be based.
The position of Senator Humphrey was curious, as he had not hurt himself badly with Southerners, who generally liked him personally, with his fight against the jury trial amendment. Since 1948, he had been "Mr. Civil Rights" in the Senate and his stand was discounted in advance, with the Southerners saying, "Hubert had to do it." He was close to Senator Johnson personally and would not be one of those, in the Majority Leader's view, who would tear the party apart. But he was really more of a vice-presidential candidate than a presidential candidate anyway and was thus in a good position to become a ticket-balancer with a civil rights moderate, such as Senator Johnson—Mr. Alsop proving to be strangely prescient for 1964, after the intervening tragedy in Dallas, though not for 1960.
There had been talk that Minority Leader William Knowland's prestige had suffered because of his earnest fight for the civil rights bill, but, though he had been unsuccessful, it had given his candidacy liberal coloration it had badly needed.
The person who might profit most from the civil rights debate was Vice-President Nixon because of his role in persuading the President to take a strong stand against the jury trial amendment. Southerners regarded the Vice-President, rather than Senator Knowland, as the real villain of the piece. Senator Johnson's recent blast at him was expected to be the prelude of a concerted Democratic attack, the theme of which would be that the Administration was playing low politics with civil rights, with the Vice-President as the behind-the-scenes Western demagogue. (Was it a scene out of "Gunsmoke", one perhaps emulating "High Noon"?)
Mr. Alsop suggests that such an attack by Senator Johnson could easily make Vice-President Nixon the hero of the civil rights battle, especially in the eyes of black voters—something which everyone, historically, certainly understands, that even aside from Sammy Davis, Jr., Mr. Nixon was to black voters a secret hero rather than a villain, as that inimical, liberal press so often portrayed him so unfairly through the 1960's and onward. Just ask Frank. "And just because (as Nixon has consistently preached in the Administration's inner circles) the Negro vote is the swing vote in the industrial North, Nixon could well emerge from the battle with more political profit than anyone else."
That would be made perfectly clear
by that kid in the ghost costume on Halloween in 1960 at O'Hare
Airport in Chicago, invited to stand next to Mr. Nixon on the podium, for his sporting the crudely handwritten statement on his sheet, "Jack
Don't Stand a Ghost
A letter writer indicates that, as he was a civic-minded person and one who liked money pretty well, he wished to write an open letter to the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in which he finds that they had held a lodge meeting in an open field near Indian Trail the previous week, indicating to him that they had no regular meeting place, and that, just as the Knights of Columbus had a regular meeting place, they should, too. He says he owns an open field a few miles from Charlotte which he believed would be an ideal location for Klan meetings because even the grass on it was segregated, the Johnson grass being on the low ground and the crabgrass on the high ground. "There is a high peak in the center that would serve as a permanent speaker's stand. I have some scrap lumber out there that you can have for making your crosses. There is a creek running by the field and an alfalfa field rich in chlorophyll adjacent to it. There are plenty of buzzards around there too. You can have all this for just $5 per night." He adds a P.S., that if they would accept his proposition, he would donate 100 slightly used night shirts.
A letter writer writes an open
letter to Robert C. Ruark, congratulating him on his essay on justice
appearing in the newspaper on August 7, in which he had spoken
primarily of Leopold and Loeb, the thrill-killers who killed a
14-year old boy in Chicago, and were represented by Clarence Darrow,
who entered guilty pleas for both and then sought to spare them the
death penalty, which he did successfully. He indicates that he could
see "cleverly interlaced throughout this brilliant work all of
your farsighted ideas on justice, the penal system, etc." He
says that there would be people, idiots all, who would not consider
him farsighted, but shortsighted, including probably among such
"backward barbarians" "the religious fanatics who
shout incessantly that 'revenge is the Lord's', the so-called penal
authorities who are constantly trying to 'rehabilitate' criminals,
and the namby-pambies who believe in the worth of the individual and
declaim over and over again that rot about executing the murderer not
bringing the victim back to life. But alas! these self-styled
'children of the enlightenment' appear in every generation. We must
learn to tolerate them." He suggests that Mr. Ruark had
discovered the secret to being farsighted, that because everything
went in cycles, he merely had to think as people had several hundred
years earlier, and thus hope that posterity would come around to his
viewpoint. He encourages Mr. Ruark to believe that one day, "social
revenge will be revived again in all its glory. And with the new age
of Hammurabi will come the new age of Ruark." He advocates
carrying it further, executing all criminals, for, "once a
criminal, always a criminal. By doing this we could alleviate the
overpopulation problem to some extent. Furthermore, the state would
save enormous amounts of money now uselessly spent on futile efforts
at rehabilitation that could then be used to make a few bombs, or a
lot of machetes, if you prefer, that could, in turn, be used to kill
off more people, thereby further alleviating the overpopulation
problem
A letter writer from Cheraw, S.C., says that he was opposed to forcing any kind of mixing of the races as long as they were against such acts in the schools or anywhere else, wishing to point it out to Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois and the Senators from New York, Irving Ives and Jacob Javits, as they were "in the thick of the fight trying to force the so-called civil rights bill down the throats of the American people." He believes that they should not preach to others as to how good their people in New York and Illinois treated black people, when they were having trouble there between the races. He suggests that the people of the South would never have such trouble unless it was forced on them against their will, and if the Federal Government would let the states, as in the past, maintain the authority to administer the affairs of its citizens, "which is a God-given right of the citizens of each state of the union..."
Trump could not have said it better, himself. That, of course, is always all well and good, until the big business interests need some of that corporate welfare in the form of tax breaks and subsidies to help with trickle-down economics to the peasants below, who just can't understand that high-finance stuff. Leave it all to the trillionaires to resolve. Then Amurica can be grrrr-eat agin.
Framed Edition
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