The Charlotte News

Wednesday, January 7, 1959

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Havana that Cuba's new provisional government had polished up a new interim constitution this date as the work of weeding out remnants of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship had gone forward. The new cabinet met far into the night working on a new fundamental law to replace the Constitution of 1940 until the holding of free elections, promised between 18 and 24 months hence. It was not immediately learned how the new government charter would differ from the old one, which had been adopted during Sr. Batista's first period of power. Presumably, the interim constitution would be replaced after a new Congress was elected. Provisional President Manuel Urrutia on Tuesday had dismissed all provincial governors, mayors and councilmen in the island's six provinces. Presumably, a new list of civilian appointees to replace them was ready, although was not immediately announced. The new cabinet was reported to be preparing a decree abolishing all political parties and taking away the political rights of all candidates in the 1954 and 1958 elections held by El Presidente Batista. That would bar even the opposition candidates tolerated by Sr. Batista from the elections which were promised in the future. One leading politician apparently excepted from the political ban would be former President Carlos Prio Socarras, whom Sr. Batista had overthrown in a coup in 1952. Sr. Prio had fled to Miami and had not returned until the victory the previous week by Fidel Castro and his rebels. Informed sources said that other cabinet decrees would freeze the private bank accounts of all Batista officials and stop payment on all checks outstanding against the treasury. It was problematic, however, how much that could recover for the government, since the custom for Cubans profiting most from the government had been to bank in the U.S. or in Europe. Earlier on Tuesday, Sr. Urrutia's cabinet had dissolved Congress, suspended the criminal courts and announced that it would rule by decree until the elections were held. Revolutionary courts reportedly would be set up to try Sr. Batista in absentia, presently in exile in the Dominican Republic, as well as other officials of his regime who might be charged. Sr. Urrutia had said that he would demand Sr. Batista's extradition from the Dominican Republic, although that would assuredly be rejected by the latter's dictator, Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo. Several hundred Batista supporters had taken refuge in various foreign embassies in Havana, but the new regime had not indicated whether it would observe the Latin American tradition of safe conduct out of the country for political opponents.

In Cleveland, O., Soviet First Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan had arrived this date to start a 13-day coast-to-coast tour of the nation. As he left the airplane, several hundred picketing nationality groups were blocked by ropes. He had tipped his hat as he deboarded the plane about five minutes after it had arrived during the late morning. He then held a brief press conference before leaving the airport. Cyrus Eaton, Cleveland industrialist, and his wife, had greeted him as he left the plane, with Mrs. Eaton speaking in Russian. Mr. Mikoyan had told her that it was very good to speak Russian with her and had solicitously advised Mr. Eaton, who would be his host in Cleveland, that he ought wear a hat on his white-haired head, lest he catch cold. Before the plane had landed, several hundred iron curtain country nationality groups had gathered at the airport, carrying such signs as "blackmailer" and "Mikoyan, your hands are red with Russian blood". Police and security agents had roped off the concourse and the pickets were not permitted inside or on the observatory platform. One red-haired youth ran into the field while Mr. Mikoyan was still aboard the plane, but was hustled away by police. During the flight from Washington to Cleveland, he had sat beside Soviet Ambassador to the U.S. Mikhail Menshikov, who had read him the news from New York and Washington newspapers.

Battles over Republican leadership and Senate rules had mixed conflict this date with the traditional color of convening a new Congress. As the 86th Congress assembled, Senate Democrats lined up for a new fight over filibusters and civil rights. Shrunken Republican minorities in both houses fought over who should lead them for the ensuing two years. The unanimous nomination at a Democratic caucus on Tuesday had assured Representative Sam Rayburn of Texas an unprecedented election to a ninth term as Speaker. House Republicans had ousted their leader of the previous 20 years, Representative Joseph Martin of Massachusetts, and had chosen instead Representative Charles Halleck of Indiana. The close 74 to 70 caucus vote had left some hard feelings and raised questions about the course of legislation in the House. Senators of both parties had met separately this date to select their leaders. Senator Lyndon Johnson faced no opposition to retaining his leadership post, but Republicans had a fight on their hands. A dozen Republicans who classed themselves as liberals had sought to head off in a caucus the selection of Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, a supporter in 1952 of the late Senator Robert Taft of Ohio for the presidential nomination. The liberal Republicans had advanced Senator John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky, former ambassador and staunch Eisenhower supporter, for the post, but Senator Dirksen was said to have an edge. The liberals were seeking also to install Senator Thomas Kuchel of California as party whip or as assistant leader, a post presently held by Senator Dirksen. On the other side, Democratic Leader Johnson was reported ready to take the play away from a bipartisan group of civil rights advocates who wanted a rules change to make it easier to kill filibusters. In the previous session of Congress, Senator Johnson had been one of the sponsors of a resolution which would have provided that two-thirds of those voting could effect cloture to debate. The present rule required the affirmative votes of two-thirds of the entire body, or 66, as presently constituted including the two new Senators from Alaska, to accomplish cloture. An editorial below explores further that issue.

In Beirut, Lebanon, Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser had carried out in Syria one of the biggest purges of Communists in the Middle East, arresting more than 300 persons, beginning the previous Thursday, virtually wiping out the Communist organization in the Syrian region of Premier Nasser's United Arab Republic.

In Bakersfield, Calif., it was reported that a workman trapped for more than 12 hours at the bottom of a collapsed cesspool had been rescued this date when a heavy crane finally jerked loose a metal plate pinning the man's foot at the bottom of the 24-foot hole, enabling him to free himself. The man had spent eight agonizing hours trying to do so. He was rushed to a hospital and his rescuers said that he appeared to be in excellent condition. Because of the close quarters and the dangers of shifting sand, no one else could reach the man. Although someone stayed with him in the shaft to offer encouragement, he had to do the work alone of freeing his foot. He had banged away with a chisel, repeatedly broken blades of a power saw and tried unsuccessfully to move the plate with a powerful spreader jack. Finally the crane was backed into position and a hook lowered to him, which he fastened to the metal plate, and the crane was able then to hoist it far enough away from his foot for him to free it. His first request was for a cigarette. A doctor had been lowered into the shaft several times to give him sedatives and he had been fed hot soup. He had survived four hours of being buried alive the previous day when the walls of the cesspool had collapsed around him. His colleagues on the job in the back yard of a house then started digging immediately, but no one expected to find him alive. It had taken four hours to uncover one gloved hand and when they saw it, the rescuers called for the coroner, who was lowered into the hole to supervise removal of what everyone thought would be a dead body. But then the hand twitched and with frantic haste, the rescuers dug deeper until they uncovered the man's head. They then learned that another piece of the casing, the same type which had him pinned, had fallen over his face, giving him breathing space under the tons of dirt which had been covering him. He had asked for some water and a steak, and said he would then help to dig himself out. But when it was discovered that his foot was pinned, he and his rescuers realized that if the foot was to be freed, it would have to be done by him. A crowd of about 2,500 people had been attracted to the scene in the early evening. When it was learned that the man was trapped and the cave-in danger remained, all were cleared from the area by police. Batteries of floodlights illuminated the scene and a local television station provided what coverage it could. Above, watching intently, was the man's wife, whose prayers were the only interruptions to her weeping.

In Brandon, Minn., a father and his five children had died this date in a fire which had swept through their two-story home. The man had been able to get out of the house after the fire had begun, but lost his life when he returned to seek rescue of his children, including three sons, ages 16, 12 and about 14, and two daughters, one about 10 and the other three. The wife and mother had fled the burning house with her husband and sought to return for the children along with her husband but neighbors had restrained her from re-entering the house. The cause of the early morning blaze had not been determined.

Near Canton, O., six Tennessee men had been killed early this date when their automobile had collided head-on with a gasoline tanker on U.S. 68, about two miles north of Canton. The driver of the tanker was treated for lacerations on the hands, knees and face. Highway patrolmen quoted him as saying that all he could remember of the accident was seeing bright lights on the two-lane highway. The weather was clear and good. Gasoline had been spilled around the scene of the crash, but there had been no fire. All of the fatalities apparently had occurred instantly.

In New York, the 26-year old mother of a newborn infant who had been kidnaped from St. Peter's Hospital in Brooklyn the prior Friday night only 2.5 hours after birth, had returned home this date, with her daughter still missing and her whereabouts unknown. The woman's uncle had delivered the baby and he said that he had planned to discharge her this date or the following day, but after seeing her the previous day, decided that she should depart at once. He said that he thought she would be better off mentally if she were away from the atmosphere in which she was constantly seeing other new mothers and their crying infants. He said that she heard other babies crying and went almost into uncontrollable sobbing. She and her husband, an attorney for the Port of New York Authority, had one other daughter, a year old. She said that all she wanted was her baby back and waved photographers away. She said of the kidnaper: "If she loves the baby that much and would return her to us, I would even be willing to let her visit the baby periodically." A widespread search continued for a heavy-set bleached blonde, between 30 and 35, believed to be the kidnaper. Police thought she was a frustrated mother. People who had seen the woman at the hospital had failed the previous day to select the photographs of two women on whom police had focused their attention. One had been a woman missing from San Francisco, who had stolen a baby there under similar circumstances three years earlier and returned it unharmed. The other was a Queens woman, pregnant and a former mental patient, who was reported missing by her husband on Sunday. Both appeared to fit the description of the woman seen at the hospital. Eventually, the baby would be found alive and well, and the woman, who initially claimed that the infant was hers and that she had self-delivered it, would be charged with kidnaping, albeit only after the father, reluctant to press charges because of his elation at having their newborn daughter returned unharmed, was convinced by police and prosecutors to do so.

In Jerusalem, it was reported that the Holy Land's longest drought in memory had ended the previous night, with the rains which continued this date having been the first in 11 months.

In Raleigh, it was reported that the State this date had allotted teachers and funds for the operation of the Haliwa Indian School at Hollister as a public school. The controller for the State Board of Education said that the action had followed receipt of a letter from the Warren County Board of Education which notified the State that it had established the school as a public institution. The school, located in Warren County, had been operated for a year and a half as a private school by Haliwa Indians in Halifax and Warren Counties. About two months earlier, the Haliwas had sought to have the State approve the school as a private institution and thus make it available for tuition grants under the Pearsall school assignment plan. The committee reported that the school had failed to meet certain State requirements, however, and the Board delayed any action to give the Haliwa citizens time to bring the school up to requirements. An attorney representing the Indians said that he would assume that if the school were good enough for the State to take over, then it was good enough to meet the requirements. The Haliwas had announced before Christmas that they were unable financially to operate the school and were closing it. The controller of the State Board of Education said that he assumed that the school would be opened as a public school just as soon as details could be worked out. About eight teachers would have to be hired for the school.

Bob Thomas of the Associated Press reports from Hollywood on the diary of actress Mary Astor, who said she had kept it because her mother had kept one and she wanted "the assurance of individuality and reality and substance that the diary gave me." The diary, chronicling 1936 when she was in her heyday as an actress, plus some additions which she said had been forged, had produced one of filmdom's most blazing scandals and now had helped to bring forth a startlingly frank autobiography, titled My Story. Ms. Astor had written: "The diary was a consolation and a reassurance, but when it was no longer in my possession, it was suddenly transformed into a monster that threatened to devour me and my friends, and, worst of all, Marilyn." The latter was her four-year old daughter by Dr. Franklyn Thorne, who had won legal custody, based on the diary, in a divorce from the actress. The diary had been locked up by the court, but a purported version was leaked to the press, featuring a "box score" of Hollywood's famous males with purple comments—apparently for the bruises inflicted. The bootleg diary had been a forgery, according to Ms. Astor, faked by a well-known figure who had appeared in the real diary and feared the consequences. So he showed a phony, the fake Bird, to the top Hollywood bosses, hoping that he would force Ms. Astor to drop the lawsuit; but she refused. She said that the published version of her diary's account of her "romantic and sentimental" friendship with playwright George Kaufman had been true, indicating, "George was an extremely attractive man, for all his ungainly frame and saturnine mien." (Whether therefore she may have been also attracted to Sidney Greenstreet during the filming of The Bird must be left to the imagination.) The diary had never entered the custody case because it had been mutilated and was deemed inadmissible as evidence. Ms. Astor had won custody of her daughter for nine months of the year and the diary was impounded and finally destroyed in 1952. But enough of the diary remained to combine with Ms. Astor's memories in a book which had set a new high in confessionals by show business personalities. "She tells all, from her romance with John Barrymore ("He gave me love, affection, humor and, above all, beauty") to her long battle with alcoholism ("One can never go back to 'social' drinking, not even an ounce"). She also told of finding herself through her conversion to the Roman Catholic Church, saying: "I didn't pretend to have all the answers, but I believe I have enough material with which to make living in this world pleasanter for myself and, it must follow, others."

A man of Hutchinson, Kans., had given a cuckoo clock to his wife recently on the occasion of their wedding anniversary, attaching a note which said that he would love her until the clock struck 13. The previous day, the clock had struck 13 times.

Speaking of cuckoo clocks, you can, as always, ignore completely the babble being emitted by the Trumpies regarding virtually everything, but, in particular, the killing of a woman in Minneapolis yesterday on the pretext that she was a "terrorist" "seeking to run down an ICE officer" with her SUV. The State of Minnesota can and should turn this matter ultimately over to a local grand jury for potential indictment on charges of unjustifiable homicide against the officer who fired the fatal shots against the unarmed woman. As decided long ago by the Supreme Court, there is no barrier by way of immunity, as El Vicepresidente claims, nor "no jurisidiction" for Minnesota, as dogmatically offered by the cuckoo-bird cowgirl cosplayer from South Dakota, not only not a lawyer but missing any recognizable form of gray matter in her vacuous head. You do not get to go play cowboy on the streets of American cities, shooting up the place with impunity and issuing ultimata to obey or else, simply because El Presidente says you can. The cuckoo clock has struck 13.

On the editorial page, "Easy Does It on Senate Filibusters" indicates that unless all of the soothsayers had suddenly gone giddy, something was going to be done in the Senate to curb filibusters, as there was already anguish being expressed by Southern Democrats and much bitterness was brewing.