The Charlotte News

Thursday, November 20, 1958

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Geneva that Communist delegates to the conference seeking an agreement to avoid surprise attacks indicated this date that they at least were studying the arms and detection system lists which had been introduced by the West in an effort to keep the talks to the slated technical matters and away from politics, which the Communist delegates had sought to interject.

At the U.N. in New York, delegates waited this date for the U.S. to make up its mind regarding the Soviet Union's compromise proposal for an international study of peaceful uses of outer space. Instructions from Washington, involving both the State Department and the Pentagon, were expected by nightfall.

In Paris, it was reported that NATO Secretary-General Paul-Henri Spaak had warned NATO legislators this date not to reject a friendly nation's appeal for help against internal subversion and external pressure. He predicted that the Soviet Union would use subversion and pressure in the future in Asia and Africa and that the same tactics might be applied again in Europe should NATO relax its vigilance. The group's Political Committee had approved a resolution declaring that the West ought resist Soviet withdrawal from the Berlin four-power occupation authority as a "flagrant unilateral renunciation of international agreements." The agreement had been formed in 1945 after the war.

In Tehran, the Iranian Government reportedly had suppressed the anti-Communist morning newspaper Farman at the request of the United Arab Republic, led by Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser.

In Taipei, Formosa, it was reported that Quemoy's children had gone back to school this date after a three-month vacation because of the Communist shelling of the island. All primary schools on the island fortress had reopened. Damage from the shelling had been repaired and shelters had been dug for pupils and teachers.

The President was traveling to Augusta, Ga., for a ten-day stay at his vacation retreat at the Augusta National Golf Club.

Republican Congressional leaders would meet with the President early the following month to map the following year's legislative program under a White House directive to hold down spending.

Before the Senate Select Committee investigating labor and management, the chairman of the NLRB, Boyd Leedom, stated this date that it was Teamsters Union stalling which had delayed the Board in handling of the Coffey Transfer Co. case until the firm had gone out of business. In the process of dealing with that case, the NLRB had been twice enjoined by two separate courts. He said: "The union was taking advantage of all the rules of due process… It was to their advantage to take as much time as possible." He was called as a result of testimony the previous day from Tom Coffey of Lincoln, Neb., the former operator of a truck line in that state, who had told the Committee that a boycott by the Teamsters Union had put him out of business while he awaited Federal action which, he said, had come too late. Senator Sam J. Ervin of North Carolina said that Mr. Coffey's truck line had "starved to death while justice moved on leaden feet." He said that the case could have been handled in 30 minutes. It had involved a bargaining election in which only seven drivers were eligible to vote. Senator Carl Curtis of Nebraska said that the NLRB's pace in handling the case had been outrageous. Mr. Coffey testified that he had appealed to the NLRB for a plant election in September, 1955, when the Teamsters had conducted a boycott against his company to back up demands for recognition as bargaining agent for his drivers. The election was not held until January 24, 1956 and the results had not been announced until the following April 1. He stated that the NLRB's count had shown that four of the seven members did not want the union. Three votes had been challenged but could not have impacted the outcome. His financial losses from the "hot cargo" boycott, he said, were so great that he was forced to close down his truck line on March 1 and had sold out at a heavy loss just before the vote was announced. The Committee was investigating whether tighter laws were needed to curb secondary boycotts, including the hot cargo practice in which unionized truck lines refused to do business with other truckers in dispute with the Teamsters. The Interstate Commerce Commission had ruled against the practice, but the Committee had been told on Wednesday that it had not been effective enough.

In New York, a proposed merger of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation and the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company had been banned this date by a U.S. District Court judge. The proposed merger would have been the largest in business history. The judge had concluded that that "there is reasonable probability that the merger of Bethlehem and Youngstown would be in violation of section 7 of the Clayton Act, substantially lessen competition and tend to create a monopoly in the iron and steel industry." The corporations had sought through long and involved court proceedings to establish a merger which would have resulted in a company having assets totaling in excess of 2.7 billion dollars. The court found that the proposed merger would eliminate the present substantial competition between Bethlehem and Youngstown in substantial relevant markets, would eliminate substantial potential competition between them, would eliminate a substantial independent alternative source of supply for all steel consumers, eliminating also Youngstown as a vital source of supply for independent fabricators who were in competition with Bethlehem and the sale of certain fabricated steel products, and would also eliminate Youngstown as a substantial buyer of certain fabricated steel products.

John Kilgo of The News reports that the criminal case against City Recorder's Court Judge Basil Boyd had been dismissed in Superior Court during the afternoon because of lack of evidence supporting the charge against him that he had willfully neglected his official duties, a misdemeanor. The court found that there was no evidence from the testimony that the defendant had committed any criminal act.

Also in Charlotte, The News had experienced a fire in the pressroom in the early afternoon this date, delaying delivery of the current edition by more than four hours as firemen worked to extinguish the fire in vital electrical equipment. The damage had been repaired and the following day's edition would be delivered at the regular time.

In New York, a diamond dealer, who resided beneath a dance studio where a 54-year old master of the tango, the cha-cha and the calypso, held classes, had many times during the previous 3 1/2 years complained to police of his sleepless nights during which he had to flee to his office to escape the students prancing around overhead. Two convictions had failed to deter the operator of the dance studio and he had been charged a third time, on which he had appeared the previous day before a magistrate. The instructor said that, as he interpreted the dance, he taught his pupils to glide, to swish, but never to stomp. He and one of his students of three years then twirled, swirled and rocked before the judge to demonstrate that they did not stamp their feet and that there was no noise. The student sat down and another pupil then took the witness stand. Asked if she should be called Miss or Mrs., she said with a smile, "Just call me Alice." She said that it was a silent studio and "very refined". The court found that there was a reasonable doubt and found the defendant not guilty and dismissed the charge.

In Lincoln, Neb., not in the newspaper this date, the jury, after hearing final arguments of counsel the previous morning and being instructed by the court the previous afternoon, had received the case and begun deliberations on the fate of 15-year old Caril Ann Fugate, accused of aiding and abetting her erstwhile boyfriend, Charles Starkweather, in the first-degree murder of 17-year old Robert Jensen in nearby Bennet, Neb., on January 27. Mr. Starkweather, 19, had already been convicted the prior May of first-degree murder in the case and sentenced to death. Caril's case had been delayed while the defense appealed her case to the State Supreme Court on whether she could be tried as an adult rather than as a juvenile, the Court having ruled that because it was a capital case, she could, under state law, be tried as an adult notwithstanding her minority status. The prosecution had decided after hearing all of the evidence in the case not to seek the death penalty against Caril, leaving the penalty to the jury, though indicating that the State had proven that the defendant had aided and abetted the first-degree murder and the murder during the perpetration of a robbery, the theft of Mr. Jensen's car, and so was liable for the death penalty on either charge. Those wanting quick results will have to be patient as the jury, showing its conscientiousness in wrestling with the conflicting evidence as to whether Caril was a hostage of Charles, as she claimed, throughout the three-day killing spree which left seven people dead in addition to Caril's three family members, doing his bidding on penalty of death for her family, whom she falsely believed were being held captive at a remote location, or, in fact, had been a willing accomplice in the death of Mr. Jensen on the first day of the rampage following the deaths of the family members, will be out for awhile.

In Los Angeles, the defense opened its case this date in the intoxication trial of Gregg Sherwood Dodge, the showgirl wife of automobile heir Horace Dodge II. Mrs. Dodge, 35, had been arrested in the city on August 26 in a car driven by Chicago columnist Irv Kupcinet, whose drunk driving trial was set for December 10. Prosecution witnesses testified that Mrs. Dodge had fought and spit when she was being booked on suspicion of drunkenness. The booking officer said on Wednesday that she had a staggering gait, mussed clothing and an alcoholic breath.

Sr. Rico was probably behind it all.

Because we have fallen behind, there will be no further comments on the front page or editorial page of this date, as the notes will be sporadic until we catch up.

Framed Edition

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