The Charlotte News
Wednesday, April 1, 1959
TWO EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Berlin that the U.S. Air Force had served notice on the Soviets this date that it would go on flying high altitude transports to West Berlin "if at any time a military requirement is established." An Air Force spokesman made the statement shortly after a Soviet Embassy warning had been issued that complications would arise if the U.S. persisted in flying planes to West Berlin at altitudes above 10,000 feet. The spokesman said that if at any time a military requirement were established for transporting cargo or military personnel in or out of West Berlin, the high altitude planes would be used. He added that the most efficient altitude for carrying cargo over relatively short distances was between 20,000 and 30,000 feet, depending on winds and cargo. A guarded statement from the Soviet Embassy had hinted that explosive incidents might erupt in the three air corridors used by Western planes into the city unless there was a settlement of the dispute which had become public on Tuesday. The State Department had declared that the U.S. would continue to fly planes into Berlin at whatever altitude it deemed necessary. The dispute had come into the open when the U.S. and the Soviet Union had traded protests regarding the flight of a U.S. Air Force transport ino West Berlin the previous Friday. The transport, a turbojet flying in its normal cruising altitude of about 30,000 feet, had been buzzed by three Soviet MIG jets on both its inbound and return flights to West Germany.
In Columbus, Ga., it was reported that Atlanta Constitution editor Ralph McGill stated that he had canceled plans to address a meeting of the Columbus League of Women Voters on the current school crisis "in order to spare further harassment of those concerned." The decision had been announced the previous night a few hours after the Muskogee County Commission had refused to permit the League to hold the meeting in a Superior Court room on May 4. Permission to use school facilities for the speech had been denied by the school superintendent. The Commission had voted unanimously to ban the meeting. A member of the Commission, who had introduced the motion, said that it was the duty of the commissioners "to keep down strife" and by permitting Mr. McGill to speak could create undue tensions. Another member of the Commission had described the proposed speech as "an effort on the part of the Atlanta newspapers to ram their opinion down the throats of the people of this county." Mr. McGill had advocated continuance of public schools even if they were ordered to integrate. The Commission earlier had agreed to allow the League to meet in the courtroom and in rescinding that action, the commissioners had indicated that the ban was based on an opinion that the League meeting was not a function of government. The commissioners cited a letter dated November 18 from the judges of the Muskogee Superior Court and the Columbus City Court that courtrooms could be used only for judicial and governmental functions. The Columbus president of the League said that the reasoning of the commissioners was illogical, indicating, "It is my understanding meetings not connected with government, including a labor meeting, have been held in the courtroom." Both Columbus newspapers, The Enquirer and The Ledger, had carried editorials the previous day urging the Commission to permit use of the courtroom for Mr. McGill's appearance.
In Dallas, Tex., it was reported that tornadoes had slashed through vast areas of Texas and Oklahoma the previous night and this date, killing six persons and injuring at least 59. The twisters had struck at Vaughan and Bynum in north central Texas, near Gainesville in north Texas, near Kingston, Okla., and at Silver City, 30 miles west of Tulsa. A freak tornado had dipped into Marshall, far east of the main turbulence area, uprooting one home and then lifting it, striking hours after the main twister line had departed Texas. Another tornado had cut a path 500 feet wide in Henderson, in far east Texas, southwest of Marshall, while hurricane force winds had damaged homes and businesses in Gladewater and near Longview.
In Raleigh, it was reported that the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee had been told on Tuesday that two bills to place a tax on soft drinks were "disastrous, discriminatory, unfair, inequitable and onerous." A spokesman for the state's soft drink industry had led opponents in assailing the tax proposals at a Committee hearing. He maintained that soft drinks were food and that the proposals of a tax represented a "penalty tax" which would result in reduced employment, business volume and state tax revenue. One bill before the Committee would place a penny tax on each bottle of soft drink, and fountain syrup used for soft drinks would be taxed at 76 cents per gallon. It was estimated that it would bring in revenue of 18 to 20 million dollars per year. Another bill would tax soft drinks at 1.5 cents per bottle, but syrup would be exempt. That proposal would bring in an estimated 27 million dollars annually. A glass manufacturing executive of Laurens, S.C., told the Committee that his company would not have considered a plant near Henderson if it had thought that a crown tax likely would be implemented in the state. The plant, presently under construction, would employ 200 workers initially and 750 at full capacity. He said that a 25 percent decline in soft drink consumption would result in a 75 percent drop in bottle purchases.
In Marble, N.C., it was reported that a relief truck driver, asleep in the compartment behind the cab of a tractor-trailer rig which had plunged into a river near the Cherokee County town during the morning, had awakened as the heavy vehicle left the highway and had pulled his companion from the driver's seat where he was pinned by the shifting cargo. Both the driver and the relief driver had escaped serious injury in the wreck which had occurred during the morning on U.S. 19. A State Highway Patrolman said that the relief driver had been awakened as the rig had run off the left shoulder of the road in an S-curve before the tractor hit the water. One end of the trailer, loaded with mixed cargo, had landed on top of the tractor, but the impact had knocked a hole in the side of the trailer. It was through that hole that the relief driver had led the dazed driver as water had poured into the sinking cab. Both men were taken to the hospital where they were being treated for shock and multiple bruises. The rig was owned by Roadway Express of Charlotte and was en route to Chattanooga, Tenn., when it plunged into the Valley River.
In Newark, N.J., it was reported that two men had been killed on the New Jersey Turnpike this date in a collision involving six trucks, occurring in a dense fog.
In Coalinga, Calif., it was reported that six children, ages 2 to 5, were back home this date after a night in the hospital where doctors had rid them of nearly a pound of rat poison pellets which they had consumed. The mother of one of the children had seen them eating the pellets which they had found in some garbage. At the hospital, doctors had pumped out their stomachs and given them antidotes.
In Omaha, an eight-year old girl asked her grandmother whether she would do anything in the world for her, and she replied that she would. The girl then said, "Then ride my bike." The grandmother then mounted the bike and rode down the street about 50 feet before taking a tumble, scratching her ankle. An hour later, the grandmother discovered that her engagement ring was missing. Into the dark had gone the grandmother, the mother of the eight-year old, the eight-year old and a nephew. They had shone a flashlight and the family car lights onto the pavement and, according to the grandmother, everything seemed to glisten. Neighbors and more cars lined up to sweep the pavement with light, but they had no success in finding the ring. The grandmother was ready to call it quits when her daughter suddenly found the ring. The grandmother said, "It's certainly an interesting way to meet the neighbors."
Dick Young of The News reports that City Manager Henry Yancey had given notice this date that he would retire as of May 1, or earlier if the City Council desired. An editorial below treats of his retirement.
Julian Scheer of The News reports that they would remember Mr. Yancey around City Hall for many things, setting forth some of those things.
On the editorial page, "A Big Man Will Be Needed To Fill Henry A. Yancey's Role at City Hall" indicates that the departure of Mr. Yancey as the City Manager would leave a void in Charlotte's municipal government which would not be easily filled.
Many people regarded him as one of the ablest city managers in the South and thus his announcement this date of his intention to retire was as startling to the community at large as it had been at City Hall. At age 63, he was at the peak of his managerial powers, as firmly in control of the complex municipal organism as he had ever been. For most of the dozen years he had been the undisputed boss of an operation which would leave many other public servants in bewilderment, but he had met and passed every test and his accomplishments had been so significant that it was doubtful that any city administration would want to oust him.
He had taken office on September 17, 1946, and had passed the national norm for tenure in a single community. Few managers had ever come to a city of Charlotte's size with a better record of professional experience in public service. A native of Virginia, he was educated at Fishburne Academy, VMI and the University of Pennsylvania. He had served as a civil engineer for the Virginia Highway Commission, director of public works for the City of Charlottesville, and later had been that city's manager. For eight years, he had then been city manager of Durham, then moved to Greensboro in 1943, serving as city manager there until being hired by Charlotte.
He was now the oldest member in terms of service in the International Association of City Managers and had in 1945 served as that organization's vice-president.
It finds that his successor would have to be equipped to deal with the problems of the growing community as well as with the normal problems with the governmental machinery, which would require the multiple talents of a big man. Under Mr. Yancey, a tradition of bigness had been firmly established.
"Al Capp: Windmill of Wordsmanship" finds that Mr. Capp always had something to say, even if not expressing much thought, always worth quoting. He was notable as a tireless verbal boxer of windmilling attack, ready for all comers.
Recently, he had visited St. Louis and had left behind certain quotable gems. He had said: "I started at Harvard, talking to the Nieman Fellowship journalists. I discussed newspapers and television. I think I denounced them both."
Regarding his speaking tour subject matter, he had said: "At the University of Connecticut I spoke about myself. Fascinating."
Regarding American youth, he had stated: "Teenagers ought to be totally ignored until they recover their sanity by becoming adults."
Anent abstract art, he had stated: "Anyone who doesn't dig abstract art is a well-educated person. Abstract modern art is the work of the unhealthy and untalented sold by the unprincipled to the totally bewildered…"
To a group of advertising men, he had said: "Advertising does further two beautiful emotions, envy and avarice."
Regarding censorship of his comic strip, "Li'l Abner", he had stated: "An editor who has paid me for that day's Abner strip has every right to do with it as he chooses. Just as I have the right to buy his paper and use his most precious editorial to wrap fish in."
It indicates that if it heard of any reports of him wrapping fish with its editorial, it would expose Li'l Abner as having said he did not believe there was any Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, and would leave him to get out of that one the best way he could.
A piece from the Richmond News Leader, titled "Of Course, There's a Monster", indicates that Francesco Gasparini, an Italian journalist who had declared recently that he had "invented" the monster of Loch Ness when he was working in London in 1933, ought be denounced for having admitted that he created it from thin air.
The residents of Inverness were outraged at his heresy, as their town was full of monster men seeking out the monster which did not, in fact, ever exist. It indicates that it sympathizes with the people of Inverness and with their libeled serpent.
It finds that there was too much debunking going on in present times. "The realities that men must live with are sufficiently depressing without depriving us of those pleasantly provisional truths that ought not to be examined too closely. So far as we're concerned, there was a Ulysses, and there was a Galahad, and Paul Bunyan really strode the Western hills; we believe in flying saucers, leprechauns, and strange footprints in the Himalayan snows."
It concludes therefore that there was a monster in Inverness which dwelled in the fastness of every child's imagination, "a scaly beast of infinite loops and coils, and if Mr. Gasparini never saw him, what does that prove? We like our monsters the least little bit invisible, and the monster of Loch Ness suits us fine."
Drew Pearson, writing from San Juan, Puerto Rico, indicates that the stock technique of the sleight-of-hand performer was to maintain the audience's attention diverted to one part of the stage while he sawed a lady in two in a wooden casket, a technique used by the Kremlin during the Berlin airlift of 1948-49 and might be the Kremlin strategy again in Berlin.
Iraq, one of the most vital countries in the Middle East and a one-time ally, was rapidly coming under the Kremlin's wing. But even more important, the Kremlin appeared on the way to establishing a beachhead in the Caribbean around the Panama Canal. The New York Times, CBS and others who had built up Fidel Castro, had been superficial in their reporting of the factors and influences around Sr. Castro. The fact was that he was an extraordinary young man with an extraordinary background.
The first record of his operation to appear in U.S. intelligence reports had been on April 9, 1948, eight days after the Russians had clamped their first blockade on Berlin. At that time, Secretary of State George Marshall was in Bogota, Colombia, attending the historic ninth meeting of the Pan American Union, aimed at promoting peace and unity in the Western Hemisphere, when one of the worst civil massacres in recent Latin American history had bloodied the streets of that city. A carefully planned student plot had occurred in the streets and 300 people had been killed.
The principal leader of the revolt, it had now developed, had been Sr. Castro. Records showed that on April 3, five days before the massacre, Communist-slanted handbills had been dropped from the gallery of the Colon Theater in Bogota as the President of Colombia and other officials had attended. Police at that time had arrested two young Cubans, Sr. Castro and Rafael Delano, both of whom were released. Following the massacre, police had tried to arrest the two men again, but they had taken asylum in the Cuban Embassy. The manager of the Hotel Claridge, where they had stayed, testified that guns and ammunition had arrived at the hotel, and Guillermo Hoenigsberg, who had occupied the adjoining room, testified that he had listened to conversations of the two students indicating that they were agents for the "Third Front of the USSR in South America".
At the same time of Sr. Castro's successes in Cuba, two secret plots had been uncovered in Panama, one of them having been hatched on U.S. soil inside the Canal Zone, both having occurred following Sr. Castro's rise to power in Cuba. The first had come to a head the prior February 18 in Panama City and the second had been discovered as a result of a meeting at the home of Carlos Calzadilla, a former student leader inside the Canal Zone.
Joseph Alsop indicates that now that the President was somewhat reluctantly trudging along the road to the summit conference sometime during the summer, he feels it necessary to begin to use "language of the heights". Since the cold war had affected English usage in ways which Henry Fowler had at his most pessimistic could hardly have foreseen, no one wanted to be stuffy or out of date, particularly in a serious discussion of world affairs, and so the language of the height was worth the trouble to learn. He thus produces a short lexicon of modern diplomacy.
He starts with "rigidity", a deplorable diplomatic attitude, happily growing increasingly rare, based on the obsolete and illiberal principle that what a country had, it held. He cites as example that the Kremlin might soon wake up to the fact that Secretary of State William Seward had cheated the Russian people when he paid such a low price for Alaska during the Administration of Andrew Johnson in 1867. When that happened, it would be "rigid" to insist that Alaska belonged to the U.S. and to refuse to renegotiate Mr. Seward's bargain. In recent years, and especially on the other side of the Atlantic, the term had come to be associated with Secretary of State Dulles, as the phrase, "The habitual rigidity of Dulles' diplomacy."
He next regards "flexibility", the modern and enlightened diplomatic attitude which was the opposite of rigidity. If there were a truly flexible Secretary of State when the Alaska bargain was challenged, he would proclaim that he was willing to negotiate on any subject at any time. He would also realize that he could not go to the conference table with a mere bundle of arguments justifying Mr. Seward's acquisition. Instead, he would prepare to return to the Kremlin a portion or even all of Alaska as the circumstances might seem to require.
He next looks at "easing of tension", a secondary diplomatic method, tinged with enlightenment, but less truly modern than flexibility.
Next, he examines "disengagement", a particularly useful term as it meant all things to all men and most of all to wishful men. The theory of disengagement was that a world struggle could be stopped if one just said to oneself repeatedly, "It isn't there; it isn't there, it isn't there!"
Next he looks at "thin-out", a variant of disengagement, having special reference to Europe. For instance, the current balance of ground forces between NATO and the Soviet empire's European provinces was on the order of 1 to 7. If NATO were thinned out by six divisions and the Soviet garrison in East Germany by six divisions, the balance in favor of the Soviets would be approximately twelve to one. That was thin-out.
"Containment" was an obsolete U.S. policy, based on holding what it had and letting the other side stew in its own juices. Advocates of containment were first classified as subversives in the 1952 presidential campaign and had since been barred from sensitive posts on the public payroll.
"Liberation" was the more moral and progressive U.S. policy adopted at the beginning of the Eisenhower Administration in 1953. The peace which had left Korea divided, the partition of Indochina with the Communists, and the Kremlin's progress in realizing the Molotov plan for the Middle East, were the liberation policy's chief monuments to date. A graveyard in Budapest was also said to be called "The Liberation Cemetery". Further progress, he suggests, might yet be hoped for.
Robert C. Ruark, in Nairobi, Kenya, indicates that he was strongly opposed to tampering with other people's customs and was upset with the first Algerian Moslem woman to sit in the French National Assembly, Nafissa Sid Cara, who was now a secretary of state. She had just scored a resounding victory for her side, that is womanhood, and Allah knew what the results would be. Moslem men had it made for many thousands of years, able to marry up to four wives and able to divorce one of them by merely declaring so.
Largely because of the lobbying of Ms. Cara, the French had just nullified the old ruling and henceforth, divorce would be granted only after a hearing by a magistrate, with alimony and all the other things ordinarily attendant divorce in modern civilization.
He says that the reason he was sore at her was that for years, he had been telling his wife that if she did not behave herself, he would go to Algiers and utter "I divorce you" three times and obtain a divorce. He indicates that in Moslem Cairo recently, a ruling had been made that a non-Moslem could divorce his wife by the same process if he were a resident of Egypt.
Also for the first time, thanks to the lobbying of Ms. Cara, consent from a woman was made part of the marriage law, whereas in the past, a father could affiance a daughter while she was still an infant, and she could not contest it. The new French decree also set the minimum age for marriage at 15 for girls and 18 for boys, whereas in the past, a girl was considered an old maid if she was not betrothed by 15. Thus far, there had been no abolition of polygamous marriages, but he believes that was next to go by the boards.
"There is much too much misguided good being committed in this world, I believe, by people who claim to know what the other fellow wants. If I were an Algerian male Moslem today, I would be awful sore at Miss Nafissa Sid Cara, and almost equally sore at the Assembly and Big Charlie [de Gaulle] for letting her get away with it."
While written a bit tongue-in-cheek, or hand to cheek, Mr. Ruark, as usual, betrays a certain atavistic desire to return to earlier times, as in the Old West
A letter writer, speaking for friends and neighbors on Wentworth Place, indicates that they were friends and neighbors of Boyd Payton, Carolinas director of the Textile Workers Union of America, and wanted the world to know that they thought a lot of him and his family, and that a grave injustice had been done in the accusations made against him. He indicates that he was a completely dedicated, selfless man, a true Christian, in every sense of the word.
He refers, apparently, to the allegations being made by the director of the State Bureau of Investigation and by State Attorney General Malcolm Seawell that Mr. Payton's claims of being attacked by having an object thrown through the window of his car had been a hoax.
A letter writer says that God did not "give" people equality, that he gave people eternal life in whatever form they wished to believe. "For all races to be born equally presupposes God's promise of eventual redemption as an accomplished physical and spiritual attainment. If any future civilization dares to believe it has reached God's ultimate perfection, that civilization will end, for life cannot exist without struggle."
It is a bit unclear as to what exactly she is driving at, but presumably it has something to do with race relations which denies equality to all.
A letter writer responds to a letter to the editor regarding the percentage of black police officers in the community, that it ought be increased commensurate with the percentage of the population which was black. He suggests that it would perhaps be fairer to appoint black police officers according to the percentage of taxes paid by the black population, but as that might result in a decrease of the number of black officers on the force, he is certain that the letter writer would not approve of that method.
The letter writer is obviously not only a racist, but a smart aleck one, even if undoubtedly he would contend he was being perfectly fair and not at all racist in his attempt to be fair.
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