The Charlotte News

Friday, September 20, 1957

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Little Rock, Ark., that the hearing on the Government's petition to the U.S. District Court to enjoin Governor Orval Faubus and the National Guard from further interference with the court's prior orders to proceed with integration of Central High School forthwith, began this date, with the Governor, who had been served with an order to show cause the previous week as to why the injunction should be granted, not appearing personally in the courtroom, though his attorneys were present and the Governor was not required to appear personally. Also absent personally was Arkansas Adjutant General of the National Guard Sherman Clinger, also a party to the proceeding. The judge denied the defense motion for the judge to recuse himself for bias and prejudice on the basis that it was not legally sufficient or timely.

In Washington, a U.S. District Court judge said this date that he would sign an order directing the Teamsters Union to show cause why election of union officers should not be delayed, with a group of union members seeking to block the elections at the Teamsters convention in Miami, scheduled to take place on September 30, at which time it was anticipated that Jimmy Hoffa would be elected to succeed Dave Beck as president. The union members claimed that delegates to the convention had been illegally designated to rig the election for Mr. Hoffa, a vice-president of the union and head of the Central States Conference. The judge said that the order to be prepared for his signature should require a hearing in Washington on September 27 regarding the injunction and that Teamsters officials should be served with notice of the hearing by September 24. Most of the officials were in Florida for the preliminaries to the convention—such as talking over with various underworld characters, also in Miami, how best to get around the Senate Select Committee chaired by Senator John McClellan of Arkansas.

At the U.N. in New York, the Soviet Union warned the General Assembly this date that it could not stand by passively while the Middle East was turned "into a permanent hotbed of military conflicts" by the Western nations.

At the Missile Test Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., a missile believed to the be the Air Force Thor was launched during the morning this date. It rose to an altitude of perhaps 15 to 20 miles, then headed downrange to the east as it continued to climb in an arc, observable for about two minutes after launch. If it was the Thor, it was the fourth attempt and the first successful launch of the missile to date, the first two having been of doubtful success and the third, on August 30, having traveled an estimated 13 to 17 miles upward before a booster had apparently thrown it off course, requiring its destruction from the ground. Spectators on the beach about three miles from the launch pad saw what appeared to be fumes from the fuel escaping around the base of the missile for about an hour before the firing. Then the fumes cleared and seconds later, the missile took off. Assistant Secretary of Defense Donald Quarles was at the base and observed the launch, with his report to Secretary Charles E. Wilson set to have a probable effect on the decision whether the Thor or the Army's Jupiter missile, or a combination of the two, would go into regular production. (Recall that the exchange of the Jupiters, by 1962 deemed obsolete in favor of the submarine-launched Polaris, for the removal of the missiles and their launchers in Cuba, was the quid pro quo which ultimately led to a successful conclusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962.) Both missiles had a range of 1,500 miles and were considered MRBM's. There was still speculation that an Atlas ICBM, with a range of 5,000 miles, might be fired from the Cape in a day or so—as the Soviets had recently claimed to have successfully launched an ICBM, a claim which Secretary of State Dulles deemed credible. One test Atlas had been fired the prior June but was destroyed shortly after launch when it veered off course.

In Orlando, Fla., a barber interrupted a haircut the previous day, during the course of an argument with his customer, and stabbed him in the chest, forced him to remain in the chair while he continued to cut his hair, and when the customer was finally able to get free, the barber twice shot him with a pistol, the second shot striking the man fatally in the back. The barber was arrested on an open homicide charge. It is probably best always to agree with everything the guy with the scissors has to say and, should you vehemently disagree, simply get a haircut at another shop and let the matter go.

In Los Angeles, everything remained hush-hush and on the q.t.

The editorial page is here. A piece from the Sanford Herald, titled "The Lonely Little Tribe", tells of having received inquiries on an article from the Raleigh News & Observer in which four different school types had been identified in Robeson County, black, white, Indian and Smiling, prompting readers to ask about the Smilings. Upon inquiry to the city editor of the Robesonian in Lumberton, it turned out that the Smilings were a separate tribe of people, deemed too dark-skinned to pass for white, not considered part of the Lumbee tribe which jealously protected its membership, and not black, and so had been designated Smilings by the Lumbee Indian Commission, with their own school established by Robeson County, which normally had between 40 and 50 enrolled students with two teachers.

In any event, they could soon adopt a theme.

Framed Edition

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