The Charlotte News
Wednesday, February 18, 1959
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President had said this date at his press conference that he wanted Secretary of State Dulles to remain on the job as long as he believed he was able to do so. He said that he and Mr. Dulles had agreed during the President's visit to Walter Reed Army Hospital the previous day to go ahead with plans for international conferences. In response to a question, the President said that he had given no thought to naming an alternate negotiator if Mr. Dulles was physically unable to attend the conferences because of his cancer. Moreover, the President said that he had not discussed with anyone the possibility of replacing Mr. Dulles. The President said that since Mr. Dulles had become Secretary, he had made it clear to the President that at any time when the President felt that the Secretary was either a political or national liability, the President could accept his resignation. In that connection, the President said that Mr. Dulles had never made the specific statement that he wanted to resign because that would have indicated the Secretary wanted to lay down his duties and responsibilities.
In Havana, Maj. Jesus Sosa Blanco had died before a firing squad this date, calmly giving the order to fire. He had been convicted a second time the previous day as a major war criminal. After Maj. Sosa Blanco's first trial in a carnival atmosphere on January 23 had brought adverse criticism from abroad, he was granted a second trial, but the same three-man tribunal had tried him again, on that occasion in a quiet courtroom, and reached the same guilty verdict the previous day. Resigned to his fate, he had refused to make any personal plea for his life, saying that he would go with a "clear conscience". The 51-year old career officer had one last request, that he be given the right to give the order to his executioners. Army sources said that he had been led from his cell into the courtyard where the firing squad waited and told them: "I forgive you, muchachos, and you will forgive me." Then he calmly told the executioners: "Get ready… Aim… Fire!" In his last hours, he had been visited by a Franciscan priest and his wife and sister. The priest said that the condemned man had been calm. Only official witnesses had observed the execution and it was not announced until two hours afterward. Prime Minister Fidel Castro had branded him a mass murderer and virtually demanded his death. The unofficial total of executions carried out by the revolutionary regime presently stood at 303. On the diplomatic front, Cuba had directly challenged three Latin American countries which Sr. Castro charged were oppressed by dictatorships.
At Front Royal, Va., it was reported that 22 black students and six white teachers, but no white student, had shown up during the morning for registration at Warren County High School when it reopened on an integrated basis. The black students had arrived in groups of three and four and had walked slowly up the hill to the entrance. A few townspeople, including some white children of school age, had gathered, but no words had been spoken to the black students. Police set up barricades at the entrance and allowed no one except the pupils on the grounds. Two policemen had manned the gates, while others were at the top of the hill fronting the school. Sheriff's deputies and state police had been stationed along the street leading to the school. As each student passed through the barricade, his or her name was checked by the school's supervisor. The first group arrived only 15 minutes before registration was set to begin for classes which would start on Thursday. Within the ensuing ten minutes, the other 18 had arrived, all by car. The group of 22 included 10 boys and 12 girls. Twenty-four black pupils had been ordered admitted to the school by Federal courts, but two had not shown up by the opening time for school registration and presumably would not enroll. School officials said that they were "not surprised in the least" that no white students had appeared for enrollment at the high school, where more than 1,000 had been enrolled the previous year. An attorney for the NAACP in Richmond, Oliver Hill, said in an interview with a Washington radio station that any boycott by white pupils would be the fault of the County's School Board. The Board, he said, had "failed to provide such leadership as appeared in Arlington and Norfolk," where seven schools had opened on an integrated basis on February 2. Three previously all-white schools in Alexandria had also been integrated. Of the 1,000 white pupils who normally would have enrolled at Front Royal the previous fall, some 800 had been attending private, segregated classes conducted by the Warren County Educational Foundation, which on Monday had voted to continue the private classes until the end of the term. More than 100 others, according to the school superintendent, had been attending schools in other locations.
At Fort Bragg, N.C., it was reported that General George C. Marshall had suffered another stroke and that his condition was considered serious. He had suffered a mild stroke on January 15 at his winter home at nearby Pinehurst and had been immediately transferred to an Army hospital at Fort Bragg. An announcement this date by the Womack Army Hospital said that the stroke suffered during the night was more severe than the previous one. The announcement said that the General was conscious, that his blood pressure and pulse were stable, and at present, he showed no evidence of paralysis of his extremities. He had some difficulty with vision and was swallowing.
In Oxford, N.C., it was reported that former State Supreme Court Chief Justice William Devin had died early this date of a heart attack at age 87. He had retired in January, 1954 and had spent his retirement quietly at his home in Oxford. In failing health for the previous year, he had been stricken shortly after midnight and died at his home. He had served for more than 40 years as a Superior Court judge and Supreme Court justice, having been named an associate justice in 1935 by the late Governor J. C. D. Ehringhaus. Generally regarded as a moderate conservative, he was described by colleagues as a man who put the rights of defendants ahead of strict legal technicalities and cold-blooded efficiency.
In Henderson, N.C., it was reported that an explosion early this date had damaged the home of a worker in the strike-troubled Harriet-Henderson Cotton Mills. The Vance County Sheriff's office said that the explosive had gone off in the early morning hours in the yard of the worker's home. He had been among those who had returned to work on Monday when management had reopened the mills in an effort to break the strike. Most of the workers, members of the Textile Workers Union of America, had remained on strike. According to the Sheriff's office, the blast had broken a picture window in the home and damaged plaster inside, but no one had been injured. The spokesman said that it was not known what type of explosive had been used. The home was located about 100 yards from the fence of the North Henderson mill's plant.
In Concord, N.C., it was reported that the efforts of doctors and the Charlotte Life Saving Crew had proved futile the previous night in a dramatic attempt to save the life of a 13-year old boy, who died during the morning at Cabarrus Memorial Hospital. Hospital authorities said that the boy, a polio case, had been admitted to the hospital on February 14 with one of his lungs collapsed. He had developed pneumonia in the other lung and was placed in an oxygen tent. Early the previous evening, his doctors had felt the need for an iron lung. The hospital had put in a call to the Charlotte Rescue Squad, and a team had delivered the iron lung to the hospital the previous night. Rescue Squad members had spent several hours working with the iron lung in an attempt to restore the boy's breathing. Squad members said that the boy stopped breathing and surgeons had opened up his chest and begun to massage his heart. The boy had started breathing again and was still living when Rescue Squad members returned to Charlotte early in the morning.
Bob Slough of The News, in the third of a series of articles on traffic accidents in and around Charlotte, indicates that a wreck in Mecklenburg County generally involved a lot of people, was time-consuming and costly to those involved. A captain of the Charlotte Police Traffic Division, said that the average accident would entail about two hours of Department time. Where there was a personal injury involved, the investigative time would extend to three and possibly five hours. When a death was involved, the officer might spend as much as a day or two investigating it. Mr. Slough describes the process when a traffic accident was reported. If a driver had a long record of accidents extending over six or eight months, according to the captain, they did one of two things, called the driver in for a talk and told him or her they were going to send the driver's record to Raleigh if the accidents continued, or they simply sent the record to Raleigh with the notation that the person was an habitual violator. The traffic secretary also put pins on a map of Charlotte to show the location of the wreck. The report of the accident went into a file at the Department and became a statistic.
Paul Wooton, Washington correspondent, in this date's entry to the "Lenten Guideposts", indicates that on Thanksgiving, 1957, two days after he had suffered a cerebral disturbance, President and Mrs. Eisenhower had driven to Connecticut Avenue to an old gray stone church, the walls of which had turned dark from 70 years of weather, the National Presbyterian Church. An involuntary murmur had risen from the congregation as no one had expected to see the President so soon after his illness. After the service, the pastor had walked up to the President's pew and personally escorted him and Mrs. Eisenhower to the rear of the church. On the steps outside, they had paused while cameras flashed, and the pictures which had appeared in the newspapers the following morning had seemed to catch a look of mutual admiration as the two men had exchanged handshakes. As an elder of National Presbyterian Church, Mr. Wooton had written to General Eisenhower during his first candidacy for the presidency in 1952 and said that "we would be complimented if you would throw in your lot with us." From the first, they had some reason to think that the Eisenhowers might accept their invitation. Mrs. Eisenhower was a Presbyterian and their son, John, years earlier had been a member of their church's Boy Scout troop. The General also knew and liked their pastor, Dr. Edward Elson, 52, from Pennsylvania originally. From the time of his early teens, the latter had been struggling with the choice of going into the ministry or into the Army. After concentrated soul-searching and prayer, he had turned down the opportunity for an entrance examination to West Point, though he still had not given up his interest in the Army. Two days after his ordination, he had joined the reserves as a chaplain. He still carried himself with military bearing, walking fast, speaking fast, working fast. During World War II, he had gone on active duty and seen 169 consecutive days of action in Europe. He had first met General Eisenhower during that tour of duty. Over the years, the Eisenhowers and the Elsons had become good friends. Dr. Elson and his wife were frequent guests at White House dinners. After the President's heart attack in September, 1955, one of the first persons upon whom Mrs. Eisenhower called had been the pastor. Dr. Elson constantly received letters urging him to intercede with the White House on various matters, and he always provided a polite but firm reply in the negative. More difficult to control were the people who used the church simply as an opportunity to do some sightseeing. The church office was constantly bombarded with telephone calls, asking when the Eisenhowers would be in church. The remainder of the piece is on an inside page.
On the editorial page, "Ike Should Pick Dulles' Successor Now" indicates that the nation's anxiety about the personal well-being of Secretary of State Dulles was deep and utterly sincere. It finds that it was difficult not to feel a certain affection for Mr. Dulles, who had battled the hosts of darkness so long and with such dour determination. As Joseph Alsop in his column this date had said, he was the real backbone of the Administration. Whatever one might think of his strategic assumptions, of his brinksmanship, his colossal piety, his courage was both obvious and admirable.
Lord Bryce in his American Commonwealth had written: "The American statesman is apt to be timid in advocacy as well as infantile in suggestion." Had the British historian lived to see Mr. Dulles in action during the previous six years, it posits, he might have amended his generalization. Personally and professionally, Mr. Dulles was the personification of courage, particularly true if Ernest Hemingway's definition of it, "grace under pressure", were accepted. But admiration for the man and his spirit could not alter the necessities of the moment.
The U.S., whether it liked it or not, stood in great peril, as competition with the Communists had reached the crucial stage. In the past, Western policy, most especially U.S. policy, had produced stalemates rather than solutions. Now, the grace period was coming to an end in Central Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East, and there was yet no practical accommodation with the Soviet-Chinese bloc to reduce the danger of another world war.
Neither the U.S. nor NATO could wait for the ailing Secretary to become well enough to direct the operations and planning of American foreign policy again. The best medical evidence available indicated that his active career in diplomacy had ended.
With a foreign ministers conference scheduled for Paris the following month, it was imperative that someone be named who could step into the role with high standing in both Washington and the capitals of the world. While Acting Secretary Christian Herter was an able man, he lacked that standing, the authority of the office he was attempting to fill, and had never been noted for any closeness with the President.
It indicates that for the good of the nation and the free world, Mr. Dulles ought relinquish his title and a new Secretary appointed immediately, with no time to lose.
"One Weak Point in Renaming Streets" indicates that the Charlotte Mayor's study committee had outlined basic criteria based on a point system for the changing of duplicated street names. It finds that six of the seven categories appeared sound, but the public tended to become emotional about such things.
"The public, by pride, will want to argue over development, and if renaming is to be accomplished, arguments must be held to a minimum."
"A Castro Parade Would Puzzle
More" indicates the news that Fidel Castro
"If Castro and his bearded bullies suddenly appeared on Tryon St. for a parade, they'd receive all the enthusiasm of students taking a first glimpse at a shaky report card." It finds that they would be curious but not cheering.
Everyone knew immediately from
television Westerns
An informal check of Charlotte residents had pinpointed the fact that no one knew exactly what had happened and who the hero was in Cuba. It indicates that it could only offer that it was likely that Sr. Castro would one day shave off his beard, become dictator under the guise of president and that gringos would live to spend more vacation money in Havana's casinos.
A piece from the New York Times, titled "Non-Hibernating Man", indicates that there were days, particularly at the present time of year, when one wondered why man's primitive ancestors gave up the habit of hibernation, why they had turned warm-blooded and begun to roam the earth in all kinds of weather. It was doubtful that the climate in those remote days of change was uniformly hospitable all year.
Man still faced variable weather while the cold-blooded animals and even a few of the warm-blooded ones, such as woodchucks, hibernated and waited for better days. Man wallowed in snow and slush and risked his body in sleet. He shoveled coal and tinkered with his oil burner.
Then in February, the sun shone and the temperature rose and ice began to melt. Even wise men, however, could not say when it would happen, not being even as predictable as the January thaw. But when it came, it warmed the heart of technically warm-blooded men, lifting the soul, though not being compensation for storm, flood, sleet and snow, but the best which February could offer. "It is worth being awake to know, and for a little while one knows why man does not crawl into a hole and stay there for weeks on end. It could happen tomorrow, but don't count on it."
Drew Pearson indicates that there were four reasons why the President would lean heavily on former New York Governor Thomas Dewey's advice regarding a successor to Secretary of State Dulles. First, it had been Mr. Dewey who had sold Mr. Dulles to the President in the first place, and he had also helped develop the idea that Mr. Dulles was the one and only logical Republican to be Secretary of State. Second, Mr. Dewey was close to John J. McCloy, head of the Chase Manhattan Bank, former High Commissioner to Germany, and high on the list of those considered for Secretary of State. Mr. McCloy was a member of the liberal wing of the Republican Party, believing in cooperating with Democrats. FDR had appointed him Assistant Secretary of War and President Truman had made him head of the World Bank, and then sent him to Germany. Mr. McCloy was related by marriage to West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who had to be satisfied regarding the future of Berlin. Mr. McCloy had picked Chancellor Adenauer for the position in the new German Republic when it first emerged from the war. He knew the complexities of German policies and knew the banking policies of the Rockefeller family which he served as head of the Chase bank.
Third, Mr. Dewey also knew Douglas Dillon, Deputy Undersecretary of State, who had risen like a meteor in the President's esteem and favor. Mr. Dewey had helped take Mr. Dillon out of the Dillon, Read banking firm and made him the President's first ambassador to France, a job which he did not want to relinquish. Mr. Dillon's grandfather had migrated from Poland to become a Dallas merchant and Mr. Dillon's father, after changing his name, had established one of the most successful and ruthless firms on Wall Street. Mr. Dillon was chairman of the firm when it was prosecuted by the Justice Department under the Truman Administration, along with other investment bankers, for monopolizing the investment market. Under President Eisenhower, after Mr. Dillon had become Ambassador to France, a government appeal from the first court ruling in the suit had been dropped. The Dillon, Read firm previously had been exposed by Senate investigation for loaning the money to Bolivia to finance the famous Chaco war in the early Thirties and for bribing the Bolivian finance minister in the course of the negotiations.
Fourth, Mr. Dewey had toyed with the idea of becoming Secretary of State, himself. In 1950, just before the Republicans had decided to pull Lt. Governor Joe Hanley out of the gubernatorial race in New York and make Mr. Dewey run again, the latter had conferred with Dean Acheson, then Secretary of State, about becoming ambassador to Britain or taking some other diplomatic post which would school him in foreign affairs. Since that time, Mr. Dewey had toyed with the idea of becoming Secretary of State. He loved his law practice, was making money for the first time and might not want to change. But friends who had seen the efficient Dewey machine knock the late Senator Robert Taft out of the presidential nomination in 1952 in favor of General Eisenhower, knew that the President was more heavily indebted to Mr. Dewey than any other man in the world.
Joseph Alsop examines why so many Western leaders regarded the illness of Secretary of State Dulles as a major tragedy at present, when two years earlier, they would have danced at his funeral, finding that, in large part, it was an admission of weakness deriving from the general feeling that Secretary Dulles was the real backbone, the remaining element of firmness, within the Eisenhower Administration and in NATO. With Mr. Dulles gone, questions would arise as to the posture of the Administration and the course which the West would take.
The other element was a change in the test which the Western leaders applied to Mr. Dulles. During the previous two years, he had come to be judged less by his methods and more by his spirit. His "liberation" policy had been a fraud and the strategy of "massive retaliation" had been announced at the very moment when it was becoming impossible. The talk of "brinks" was deplorable. The appeasement of Senator McCarthy in the early years had come close to destroying the American Foreign Service. But as the years had passed, and Mr. Dulles had gained self-confidence, he had vastly improved his way of doing business.
Meanwhile, as the years had passed, the spirit of Mr. Dulles also had gained in value because it had become increasingly rare. It had been much criticized on the ground that Mr. Dulles was "moralistic", constantly accused of "seeing the cold war too much in terms of right and wrong." Mr. Alsop indicates that such was quite true in a sense. By the same token, his vision of the cold war as a gigantic contest between good and evil, in which one could give an inch without being guilty of surrender to the powers of darkness, was immeasurably more accurate than the vision of the cold war held by those who denounced Mr. Dulles for "inflexibility". It was true that U.S. and Western policy in the previous years had increasingly lost the vital power of maneuver. With such defense policies, a bold, imaginative and rapidly maneuvering foreign policy was and remained impossible.
As far as one could see, "flexibility" meant the willingness to surrender something every time a remorseless enemy pointed a missile in the direction of the U.S. If a "flexible policy" was now to be adopted because Mr. Dulles was no longer in charge of the State Department, the time would likely come when the desirability of being "flexible" about Communist claims to America would be widely debated.
The cold war was a gigantic contest between good and evil, between freedom and slavery, between the values of the human spirit and the values of the slave state. The best thing about Mr. Dulles was the fact that he saw the cold war in those terms, that the spirit which had driven him forth on his journeys overseas had come from his sense of the moral issues in the cold war. "And at the last, this Dulles spirit warmed men who burned with a less intense feeling, and they were grateful for it."
Doris Fleeson indicates that for all intents and purposes, the long career of Mr. Dulles as Secretary of State was over. The President would not withdraw his cachet and it would be up to Mr. Dulles and his family to decide how long he wished to retain his title. But the harsh medical facts were that he had a recurrence of cancer which was now inoperable and the radiation treatment prescribed was no easy matter to endure. It was thus unlikely that he would find it possible to direct any part of the operations or planning of the State Department from his hospital bed. Most optimistically, his treatment would require many weeks.
Secretary Dulles would be 71 during the current month and he would have been Secretary for more than six years, a long time in that position. He had informed associates prior to his 70th birthday that he intended to retire at that time, but the pressure of world affairs plus the belief that he was required to deal with them had kept him in the position.
History would record that Secretary Dulles had made contributions, whether for good or ill, but it was only true to say that his career was coming to a close on a high note. His recent visit to London, Paris and Bonn had been a success in that it had produced a closer unity among the allies in the face of the critical negotiations with the Soviet Union regarding the future of Berlin and Germany.
The White House was quieting the suggestions of a change in the office of Secretary, a tribute to Mr. Dulles. But events were pressing relentlessly as a conference of allied foreign ministers was scheduled for Paris the following month to discuss answers to the Russian challenge regarding Germany. There had been suggestions that it be moved to Washington to accommodate the illness of Mr. Dulles, but it was beyond reason to believe that he could participate wherever it was held.
Without the title of Secretary and without the authority of either the office or the intimacy with the President, neither Acting Secretary Christian Herter, nor Undersecretary Douglas Dillon would carry determinative weight in such a conference. Without question, there would be pressure from the Senate and elsewhere for the appointment of an active and full-time Secretary of State soon. A dozen or so names were being mentioned, including Mr. Herter and Mr. Dillon. Those of the chief U.S. delegate to the U.N., Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., and General Alfred Gruenther, head of the American Red Cross, were considered to be at the top of the list.
As indicated, upon the death in late May of Secretary Dulles, Mr. Herter would become his successor.
Marquis Childs also regards the illness of Secretary Dulles, indicating that it was so grave that no matter how many White House denials were issued, the speculation about his successor was continuing, creating a situation of uncertainty at home and abroad. No matter what the ultimate decision would be, he indicates that the fact ought not be overlooked that at the head of the State Department in the Secretary's absence was a loyal two-man team, Mr. Herter and Mr. Dillon, who had followed first-hand the steps leading to the current approach toward negotiation regarding Berlin and Germany.
Because of their intimate knowledge, the view was increasing that if Mr. Dulles had to be replaced, the logical choice for his successor would be Mr. Herter, with Mr. Dillon becoming Undersecretary. It was argued that it was the only way to ensure continuity of policy. But time was running out on the Administration and a new person brought in from the outside would require weeks if not months to catch up on the background papers which spelled out the policy with the allies and the Russians.
Much had been written of Mr. Herter's crippling arthritis, and he would not be as mobile as Mr. Dulles as Secretary. Mr. Dulles had traveled more than 500,000 miles by air during his tenure. But Mr. Dillon, 49, while Mr. Herter would soon be 64, could be the roving agent, with the Secretary given time to ponder and reflect on the course of foreign policy. Mr. Herter could and would attend the major conferences, such as that presumably to be held in the spring regarding Germany.
Mr. Herter, because he felt he was not being used, had seriously considered a year earlier resigning as Undersecretary. His loyalty to the Administration would not permit it and he remained. In recent months, Mr. Dulles had given him somewhat more of a role, with his views given serious consideration.
The Administration often appeared unaware of how fast the time was running out with less than two years to go before the end of the Eisenhower term. Someone, presumably on the inside, had chosen the occasion of the grave illness of the Secretary to leak word that Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy would leave his position by the end of the summer, based on an understanding that he would stay only for two years. That was denied, but nevertheless the impression was left of an Administration going to pieces.
He indicates that it took a year for a man to master a job as complicated and difficult as Secretary of State or of Defense. The assumption was that he would begin to be useful and effective in the second year, and if he departed at the end of that time, the Government had lost the investment in his education and experience. James H. Smith, Jr., had remained less than two years as head of the International Cooperation Administration, and now the White House had to try to find a suitable successor.
When George Humphrey had resigned as Secretary of the Treasury in mid-1957, he had tried to persuade others, including Mr. Dulles, that the time had come to make way for younger men. His argument was that if the Administration went to the end with the same team, it would look as though that not the Administration alone but the Republican Party was trailing off to a feeble end, with ailing old men. With 3 1/2 years in office, a new team could present a new and positive front.
He indicates that no one could help but admire the stamina of Mr. Dulles in staying on after his major operation for cancer nearly two and a half years earlier. It had been in the midst of the Suez crisis in late 1956, when that brief little war had threatened to spread to the whole world. At the time, Mr. Dulles had made a decision calling for great courage and resolution, deciding to forgo the long weeks of radiation therapy to try to ensure that the cancer did not spread to other parts of his body, as it now appeared to have done. To have undergone therapy would have kept him away from his office for many weeks after his immediate convalescence.
So much had been left unfinished in the wake of the Suez crisis and Mr. Dulles had the overriding conviction that it was his destiny to set a triumphal course where others before him had failed. Having schooled himself throughout his life to be Secretary of State, he could acknowledge nothing less than the perfection of his own concept of how American policy ought be conducted. In view of the concentration on one individual, for the reason of his great capacities, the country was more fortunate than it knew in having had in office men such as Mr. Herter and Mr. Dillon, and they now deserved a full and free opportunity.
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