The Charlotte News

Friday, November 14, 1958

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the U.S. would ask Polish leader Wladyslaw Gomulka to explain his move in joining Russia to denounce U.S. policies as endangering world peace. Mr. Gomulka's remarks had been made Wednesday following talks in Moscow with Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and had disturbed top State Department officials. U.S. officials were particularly upset over his outspoken support for the new Soviet demands for an end to four-power control of Berlin. His denunciation of "American imperialists" came at a time when Poland had appealed for more economic aid to bolster its shaky economy. During the previous two years, the U.S. had extended 193 million dollars in aid to Poland, primarily consisting of surplus food, cotton and machinery. The aid, given despite some Congressional opposition, had gone to help Mr. Gomulka with his professed objective of leading Poland toward more independence from Russia, in the vein of Yugoslavia and Marshal Tito. U.S. Ambassador to Poland Jacob Beam had returned to Washington on Sunday for consultations with the State Department regarding Polish-American relations. His trip, scheduled to last for several weeks, had preceded the Mr. Gomulka's recent utterances, however, and an informant had said that the trip was not connected with dissatisfaction regarding the remarks. Most officials diminished the likelihood that the Administration would suddenly end its aid program to Poland. Their tentative conclusion was that Mr. Gomulka had echoed Moscow's line to survive and continue his drive to increase his nation's independence. Despite that understanding of his delicate position, authorities nevertheless believed that he ought stick to the facts. Instead, they said, he had teamed up with Premier Khrushchev in a distorted effort to blame all of the world's ills on the U.S. Responsible State Department officials closely followed Mr. Gomulka's 18-day visit to Moscow for conferences with Premier Khrushchev. They had more or less shrugged off the joint Soviet-Polish communiqué following the conference, which had assailed American policies, even though Mr. Gomulka had supported Soviet denunciations of U.S. moves in the Formosa area. His speech in Warsaw, upon returning from Moscow on Wednesday, however, was looked upon as even more anti-American.

Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy said on Thursday that the long-range intercontinental ballistic missile and the cold facts of international relations might render obsolete the intermediate-range missile as part of the U.S. arsenal. He hastened to add that the U.S. would go ahead with production of the Thor and Jupiter IRBM's to complete orders for weapons to be deployed to Europe, to England and probably to Italy. But he also said that "the farther you go down the road of the ICBM, the less interesting it is to employ additional IRBM's." With the ICBM, which would be launched from bases in the U.S., he said that "we would have complete control." That presumably had meant that the U.S. would be free from the complications of sharing with other countries control of the missiles which, in the case of the IRBM's, would be fired from bases in allied nations. Mr. McElroy had another point to make, that if an enemy had to use its own ICBM's to strike U.S. missile bases, the job would be more difficult at a range of 5,000 miles than at 1,500 miles, the range of an IRBM. The first missile to be launched would not be that of the U.S., but rather that of the enemy.

In Hamburg, West Germany, the International Transport Workers Federation this date ordered a world-wide four-day boycott of 1,200 "cheap flag" ships from December 1 to December 4. The word had gone out to refuse port facilities or to load or unload ships registered in Panama, Liberia, Honduras and Costa Rica.

In Manila, Philippine leaders this date threatened strong action to get custody of a Filipino Communist Huk leader whose seeking of asylum in the Indonesian Embassy had caused a street riot.

In Vatican City, Pope John XXIII this date received a U.N. group which included representatives of Communist, Moslem and Hebrew countries, and gave his apostolic blessing "to all present who wish to accept it."

In Bancroft, Northern Rhodesia, it was reported that rescue workers had dug through a mud wall 900 feet underground this date and rescued eight African miners who had been trapped for 36.5 hours. Two of the miners had died. Hot soup had been sent to the survivors via a tube thrust down a two-inch drill hole.

In Chester, N.Y., it was reported that pickets had marched again this date at the Chester Cable Co., the president of which had been arrested on Thursday in the slaying of a previously convicted bank robber who had been leading a wildcat strike against the company. The leader of that group, who had been seeking recognition for an independent union, expressed shock at the shooting, but said that they would continue to press for their objective. The company president was in jail on a first-degree murder charge, awaiting a hearing on December 1. The victim, 52, was a New Jersey labor organizer with a long criminal record, who had been engaged for several weeks in an effort to switch the firm's 14 employees from an AFL-CIO union to a small, independent organization. A wildcat strike had been initiated on Monday by some workers, but plant production continued by others who crossed the picket lines. The company president had recently taken out a gun permit, saying that he feared violence might occur at his plant. A few days earlier, he had begun gathering information about the criminal record of the victim. Upon reaching the plant on Thursday morning, he encountered the victim and the two exchanged angry words, whereupon the president shouted that he planned to reveal the man's criminal record. A short time later, the president had driven away from the plant and the victim followed in his own car. About a half-mile away, according to the company president, he noticed the man behind him and stopped, whereupon the other man also stopped and got out of his car. The latter had approached and the company president said that he thought the man had his hand on a gun concealed in his pocket. The company president had then drawn his pistol and began firing, two shots hitting the union man, killing him. The president then returned to his office and called the police, who arrived soon afterward. He readily admitted that he had shot the man, who had a record in New Jersey for bank robbery, armed robbery and mayhem. Self-defense? Apprehension of an immediate assault and use of the same amount of force which the victim had at his apparent disposal at the moment? Or first-degree murder, or, without premeditation, and perhaps having resorted unreasonably to self-defense with at least some basis for the belief, second-degree murder, or, potentially, voluntary manslaughter?

John Kilgo of The News reports that two teenage boys had been arrested this date and charged with the knife slashing of two other boys outside Firemen's Hall early on Saturday morning. One of the boys, 19, had been charged with felonious assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and assault with a deadly weapon, while the other boy, also 19, had been charged only with assault. Both were released on bond. They were scheduled for trial in City Recorder's Court the following Tuesday.

In Los Angeles, it was reported that an 18-year old boy who had been a psychiatric patient had told newsmen and detectives at the county jail: "My brother was an inferior person. He just had to die. He was a no-good person to be around. I couldn't stand the thought of Ted getting married and bringing kids into the world. Everything he did was bad. Instead of sitting straight he'd slouch. When he sat in a chair he'd cross his legs. A good friend of mine came to see me once and Edward kept working a yo-yo in front of him. I just knew he was never going any place and there was no use in his being around." So he had killed his 14-year old brother by shooting him with seven bullets from a mail-order revolver. He had stopped talking to his brother 21 months earlier "because he tore up some book covers. That was the end." When asked whether he was sorry that he had killed him, he responded: "Not at all. I'd do the same thing again. Last August I saw a magazine and it said guns could be bought by mail order. I saved my money, and when I got $10 for my birthday I had enough. I sent the people $16.50 for the gun. They sent me an affidavit to fill out saying I was 21 and had never been in jail. The gun came about the middle of October. I hid it in my desk drawer… Last Wednesday … I thought this might be the day." His brother had come home from school and "like always he changed his clothes and went into the bathroom." As he had opened the bathroom door, his brother had shot him in the left arm. The bullet had spun him around and he fell against the door, pushing it closed. He had begun to call for help, asking, "What's the idea?" His brother then said: "Let me see where you're hit. I'll get the doctor. As Ted put his head around the door, I pulled the trigger." In his parents' bedroom, the boy had also killed his brother's dog, Razz. The boys' parents were a deacon and deaconess at the Community Church in suburban Altadena, where the family lived. At the jail, his father, 49, a water company maintenance man, reached out in a comforting gesture and his son retreated a step with his head aloof. The boy was booked on suspicion of murder. A detective sergeant said that a psychiatrist had treated the boy for a year and had diagnosed his personality as being schizophrenic with paranoid tendencies. He had quit high school some time earlier.

In his mind, perhaps, two plus two equaled six. At least, apparently, he could not mail-order a hand grenade from an Army surplus store, or from a props department at one of the Hollywood studios. But how did he know about Batman?

On the editorial page, Doris Fleeson tells of New York Governor-elect Nelson Rockefeller having given what she regards as the most significant political quote of the ensuing two years, while at Maquetia Airport in Caracas, Venezuela, when he said, "I have nothing to do with Nixon." He had been asked by a reporter to compare his reception at the airport with that of the Vice-President the previous year when the latter was greeted by rock-throwing and spitting crowds. The Governor-elect had paused at the airport in the wee hours to take questions from the press for half an hour before going to his ranch for a vacation.