The Charlotte News
Friday, June 19, 1959
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President had said this date that the American people were the losers in what he called the sad episode of Senate rejection of Admiral Lewis Strauss as Secretary of Commerce. The grim-faced President had taken a highly unusual step of calling newsmen to his White House office to read a brief statement. At the outset, he noted that the Senate the previous night had refused to confirm Admiral Strauss for the Cabinet position, in which he had been serving under a recess appointment since the previous November. During a post-midnight roll call, the Senate had rejected the nomination by a vote of 49 to 46. The President had gone on to praise the Admiral warmly, calling him a man who had loyally, honorably and effectively served his nation under four Presidents. He said that if the nation were denied the right to have officials of proven ability and integrity in responsible Government positions, then "indeed it is the American people who are the losers in this sad episode." The statement was consistent with the position which the President had taken throughout the long confirmation fight, that the Admiral was an effective, dedicated and upright public servant. Opponents had argued that the Admiral had been devious and less than frank in his dealings with Congress and the people. The issue of public versus private power had also come into the nomination fight through the Admiral's chairmanship of the Atomic Energy Commission in connection with the controversial Dixon-Yates utility deal based on a conflict of interest. The President had read his hand-written statement before a hastily arranged battery of cameras and floodlights. Admiral Strauss had visited with the President immediately before his statement, hastily arranged after the previous night's Senate rejection. The press conference lasted about 20 minutes. On arrival at the White House, Admiral Strauss had smiled broadly as he stepped from his car and hurried past newsmen, saying that he was late for the "boss". He did not go with the President to the office following their conference.
In Geneva, it was reported that Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko this date had refused to accept the West's latest proposals for a stopgap Berlin solution, even as a basis for discussion. The British delegation spokesman said that Mr. Gromyko had advance new proposals for an interim Berlin arrangement, but that those had given "no new hope" to the West for a solution. In Moscow, Premier Nikita Khrushchev had declared in a speech at the Kremlin that the Western allied occupation of West Berlin had to end. The British statement, echoed by other Western delegations, was issued during an intermission between two secret sessions of the Big Four foreign ministers meeting. It immediately posed the likelihood that Secretary of State Christian Herter, British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd and French Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville would raise with Mr. Gromyko the question of recessing the conference, as they had previously stated would be the case if the Russians would not accept the new Western proposal as at least a basis for further negotiation, the details of the Western proposal not having been disclosed. They arranged to meet with Mr. Gromyko again late in the afternoon, evidently to provide him their initial reaction to the rejection of their proposal. They had gone to his villa expecting to obtain a reply to the last-chance offer. The Western statement said only: "The meeting lasted 35 minutes. Mr. Gromyko made some new proposals. The Western foreign ministers said that they wanted time to study them and then went to the French delegation headquarters. The foreign ministers will meet again at 5 o'clock."
The two Communist MIG fighter jets which had shot down an American patrol plane over the Sea of Japan had, according to Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy, more than likely belonged to North Korea. He told a press conference on Thursday that he based that opinion on the direction from which the planes had come. In the area of the attack, 85 miles east of Wonsan, the jet fighters could have been manned by North Koreans, Communist Chinese, or Russians. Planes of all three nations carried the Red Star insignia seen on the attacking planes. Mr. McElroy said that it had been ridiculous to raise a fuss about whether the American patrol plane was adequately armed or not, as its World War II vintage guns "are not going to knock off a MIG anyway." He said that the important thing about the incident was that the Navy plane was on a peaceful mission over international waters and was jumped by "an irresponsible pair of fighters." The U.S. plane's tailgunner had been severely wounded by the attacking jets and his gun had been knocked out before he could return fire. Crew members agreed that the attackers were Soviet-built MIG-15's or 17's. Other gun turrets on the plane had been disarmed so that radar and camera equipment could be installed. A photograph of the enemy planes which one of the crewmen had snapped in the confusion of the attack could pin down the nationality of the attackers beyond doubt and that photograph was being sent to Washington for evaluation. A Navy spokesman said that "it is not known when and if it will be released." The State Department wanted to protest the Monday attack but was unsure where to direct the protest. The U.S. had no diplomatic relations with North Korea. Mr. McElroy told the press "our patrol aircraft see aircraft of the other side with some regularity. It is an area where each side keeps track of what the other is doing." Earlier in the day, members of Congress said that they understood that patrol planes in that area would be escorted by fighters in the future, armed with the deadly Sidewinder rockets. But the Pentagon had promptly disputed that report, indicating that it must have been misunderstood as there were no plans for escorting the patrol planes.
In Naha, Okinawa, it was reported that one U.S. Army soldier had been killed and five others injured this date when a Nike missile had ignited prematurely at a launching site near Naha Airport. The U.S. military spokesman said that the missile was in a horizontal position when the accident had occurred. The rocket had plowed several hundred yards and then broken apart in an open field near the launchpad, without any explosion. The military spokesman said that all safety factors built into the missile had been in operation, which apparently prevented the explosion. General Donald Booth, U.S. Army commander in the Ryukyu Islands, had named a board of officers to investigate the accident and determine its cause. It had been the first such accident to occur on Okinawa, the largest U.S. base in the Far East. The Army had two types of Nike missiles, the Ajax and the newer Hercules. It could not be learned immediately which type had been involved in the accident. The last serious Nike mishap had occurred on May 22, 1958, at an anti-aircraft battery in Middletown, N.J., when eight Ajax missiles had exploded in a chain accident which killed six enlisted men and four civilian Army employees, injuring three others. The Army had blamed a smashed detonation can for that accident, and subsequently, the Army said that safety regulations and requirements had been reviewed and tightened. The Ajax used a conventional explosive warhead and had been the weapon generally deployed around large U.S. cities and military installations. The Hercules was designed for use of conventional or atomic warheads and the previous year had begun replacing the older Ajax installations. Nike missiles were guided by radar and designed to track and destroy enemy bombers. The Ajax, deployed in 1955, reportedly traveled about twice the speed of sound, was 32 feet long and could operate up to 60,000 feet in altitude. The larger, swifter Hercules had a range of 50 miles and was said to be capable of knocking down entire formations of enemy planes.
The Labor Department reported this date that the cost of living had hit a new peak in May, that small increases in prices for nearly all types of consumer goods had lifted the cost index a tenth of a percent above the April level, to 124 percent of the 1947-49 base period, the highest the index had ever reached. A further small increase during the summer months was also in prospect. In reporting the figures this date, the Department said that spendable earnings of factory workers, their pay after Federal tax deductions, had also hit a record high. The average for the factory worker heading a family of four was $81.03 per week and $73.49 for a single factory worker. Those earnings each were 35 cents higher than the records set in April. The Department said that the increase in spendable earnings was the result of both longer working hours and higher pay rates. The buying power of the worker was up about 9 percent from a year earlier because living costs had changed very little since that time. The head of the Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said that the cost of living index had been moving within an extremely narrow range for the year and that the May index had only been three-tenths of a percent above the May level of 1958.
In Durban, South Africa, it was reported that African women had massed around beer halls again this date in a demonstration for home-brewing rights, which had cost the lives of four Africans and put 24 persons in the hospitals. The deputy police commissioner announced that the police had summoned three heavily armored troop carriers from a depot in Cape Province, 350 miles away, to help restore order. Fires had been set by demonstrators the previous night, gutting 25 buildings, including municipal offices, post offices, police posts, clinics and schools. Strong police patrols had watched over the non-white townships of Cato Manor and Chesterville, centers of the overnight disturbances. Most of the African residents of those tin-shack townships had gone back to work during the morning. The deputy police commissioner confirmed, however, that groups of women, enraged over raids on illicit stills under Government regulations against brewing of beer at home, had been carrying on their protests. They massed around beer halls in the townships of Rossburgh and Lamontville, and in Durban's Victoria Street. Stoned and fired upon by Africans, the police finally had used rifles and machine guns to break up the rioters the previous day.
In Baton Rouge, La., it was reported that Governor Earl Long, coarsely screaming curses, had battled all the way with sheriff's deputies on Thursday night as they hauled him to a mental hospital for the second time in three weeks, after his stint in a mental facility in Galveston, Tex., had ended. When they had tugged him into a sheriff's car to take him to Southeast Louisiana State Hospital at Mandeville, 50 miles east of Baton Rouge, he yelled, "I'm not going to get in there." Louisiana politicians were concerned about who would take over his duties as Governor. Lt. Governor Lether Frazar, it was supposed, would step into the breach, as he had done when members of the Long family had flown a drugged and unwilling Governor on May 30 to the psychiatric clinic at Galveston. But nothing was certain. In his New Orleans hotel, the Lieutenant Governor hastily declined to comment on the situation. He told one reporter that he did not know what his status was or what was going on. State Attorney General Jack Gremillion said: "The only thing I can say is the law provides that if the governor is unable to serve, the lieutenant governor acts as governor ad interim until the disability is removed." He also indicated that he was not attempting to tell the Lieutenant Governor what to do. The events leading to the Governor's detention at the Mandeville facility had begun on Thursday morning when the Governor informed his wife and doctors at a hospital in New Orleans that he planned to leave. His release from the Galveston clinic had been arranged as a compromise with the Long family based on a promise that the Governor would take at least two weeks of treatment at the New Orleans hospital. For 3 1/2 hours, doctors had argued with him, but the Governor remained adamant, the interval providing Mrs. Long time to arrange for the pickup by the deputies. When the Governor's car had crossed the East Baton Rouge Parish line, the deputies had stopped it, and then driven him to the parish courthouse. The Governor, becoming angry, refused to move from his car. A doctor and another physician interviewed the Governor as he sat on the front seat smoking a cigarette and joking, obtaining then an order from a judge committing the Governor to the mental facility in Mandeville. The question of his competence had begun in May when he had addressed the Legislature in wild and abusive tones, resulting in his wife having obtained an order of commitment to the Galveston facility.
In Philadelphia, it was reported that the older of two brothers who had allegedly killed a police officer in Philadelphia, the younger of the two, 22, having been killed in a standoff with police, had returned to Philadelphia the previous night and made a movie about the murder, the movie having been produced by the Police Department. The accused had directed it and played himself, and a detective had played his dead brother while another detective played the patrolman who had been killed while walking his beat. The theme had been violence and tragedy. Two young men were observed by the killed patrolman stealing milk from doorsteps in the early morning hours of June 5. While the younger brother ducked behind a parked car and fired five shots, the older brother stood by providing cover. Then the brothers had run back to their apartment via different routes and the film ended. Some 2,000 persons had gathered to view the reenactment and filming of the murder of the 33-year old patrolman. Portable lights illuminated the entire block and cameras were mounted on trucks, with tape recorders picking up the noise of the blank cartridges fired in the reenactment. Dozens of cables criss-crossed the street and sidewalks. The filming had begun as soon as the older brother had reached the city, having made the seven-hour trip from Wareham, Mass., in a Philadelphia police patrol car, transported by three detectives. Before he had left Massachusetts, the alleged killer had gone to a mortuary and identified his younger brother. He had also pleaded guilty in district court to charges ranging from intent to murder two Massachusetts police officers to kidnaping, and had agreed voluntarily to waive his extradition rights back to Pennsylvania. The accused appeared to enjoy the filming, having a loudspeaker, a microphone hanging from his neck with which to direct the action, and telling people for instance that they were not standing in the correct spot. When there was a delay, he yawned and sometimes snickered. When policemen tripped over the cables, he laughed. When the detective playing the slain police officer fell down, he was silent. But several people in the crowd, moved by the realism, had screamed. Meanwhile, the district attorney had issued a statement demanding the death penalty for him, indicating that there was enough evidence for a first-degree murder conviction.
In Charlotte, it was reported that a 15-year old boy had been seriously injured during the morning when a homemade gun had fired and struck him in the right side. County Police officers had responded to the incident, and one said that the boy had made the gun from some water pipe, packing it with explosives during the morning, and that the gun had fired and hit him in the side. He was being provided emergency treatment at Memorial Hospital at noon.
Dick Rigby of The News reports that the month of June had been good for colds in Charlotte, as it had been both cooler than usual and hotter than usual, according to the Weather Bureau at Douglas Airport. The previous night's low temperature of 56 degrees had come within a degree of matching the record low for the date established in 1879. Earlier in the month, the mercury had topped 90 on several occasions and the average daily high temperature for June was between 85 and 88 in Charlotte. Charlotte and its vicinity would remain under the influence of a cool mass of Canadian air through the following day, according to the Bureau. The low this night would be 58 degrees, up just a bit from the previous night's low of 56. Cool, dry air would remain through the following day and partly cloudy conditions would accompany the "moderate" temperatures which were predicted. The near-record reading of the previous night, according to the Bureau, was not the low for the month, which had occurred the previous Monday when the temperature had dropped to 55. The record low for June 15 was 51.
Also in Charlotte, it was reported that a man had told a County Police officer that thieves had during the week stolen three cast iron bathtubs, a car motor and three sinks, the bathtubs, he reported, weighing 500 pounds each.
As indicated in a lengthy caption accompanying a photograph, a 17-year old girl was graduating from high school this date in Redlands, Calif., significant because she had become a parent with her 20-year old husband the previous September 17, delivering triplets. Notwithstanding that event, she had continued her schooling, after the school agreed to provide her instruction at home during the year, enabling her to graduate on time, while her mother and husband took turns babysitting. She said of her task: "You never know what you can do until you have to. And, mister, we had to!"
On the editorial page, "If the Doors Are Locked in Raleigh, Urban Areas Will Turn to Washington" indicates that in the 1959 General Assembly session, when the chips were down in the debate regarding state constitutional changes, the small county representatives of the eastern part of the state had closed ranks to do battle with the populous Piedmont, as it had always been. Sectionalism had imposed an unnatural and undesirable limitation on the state's political progress since the 1760's.
It finds it a senseless waste of time and effort for the same fights to be reenacted every time important political or social reforms were proposed, but the condition would not be corrected until eastern counties produced leaders of sufficient vision and statesmanship to reconcile their special interests with the general good of all the citizens. The problem had deep roots in the state's history.
It finds it only natural that the state's early leadership should have come from the coastal areas where the first settlements had been located, and that even after pioneer families had migrated into the upper Cape Fear Valley and settled the Piedmont and penetrated westward to the Blue Ridge Mountains, the power had remained in the hands of the planters, the major landholders and wealthy merchants of the eastern part of the state. Whenever a new county had been created in the western area, another had been formed in the east to maintain the imbalance of power. The west had complained bitterly, but it was not until the constitutional convention of 1835 that some reapportionment of representation and political authority had developed, that action, together with later constitutional reforms, having bolstered the west's power and triggered a remarkable era of progress in the state.
Sectionalism, however, was not stamped out, as deep resentments and jealousies remained and easterners had the political cunning more than to hold their own. The population had moved westward but the power had not, and the east had continued to dominate the General Assembly through the years.
The resulting rivalry had produced peculiar compromises, such as the unwritten law that the governorship would alternate between the east and west and the rule that one U.S. Senator would come from each section. Furthermore, political opinions had frequently been divided along the line separating the Piedmont from the coastal plain, a diagonal line running from Northampton County to Anson County. The heaviest opposition to the calling of a secession convention had come from the west in 1861. The west had shown enthusiasm for black disfranchisement in 1900 and for prohibition in 1908.
Sectionalism was reflected at present in the efforts of an eastern-dominated legislature to deny the large Piedmont counties fair representation. The Legislature had not only refused to follow the mandate of the present State Constitution and reapportion every ten years after each decennial census, but had also attempted to amend the Constitution to limit each county to one State Senator regardless of its size. That continuing struggle had been responsible for the death of the court reform in the current General Assembly and was the reason the state was still hamstrung with an obsolete 1868 State Constitution.
The interests of the whole state were now at stake, for an equitable system of representation would strengthen state government so that it would be better able to serve the needs of the whole population. The long-range benefit was more important to the state and its people than any temporary advantage to an area enjoying over-representation. If urban areas, such as Mecklenburg County, continued to be denied their fair share of representation, the result would inevitably be more direct Federal-municipal dealings. As cities would grow, the power and influence of the State Government would inevitably diminish. A trend in that direction was already discernible as broad areas of Federal-municipal partnerships had already been opened, in urban renewal, public housing, community planning, airports, civil defense and financial planning for public works, with others sure to follow.
It concludes that if the statehouses continued to ignore urban problems and denied the large municipalities a fair shake at every opportunity, cities such as Charlotte would be compelled to look increasingly to Washington, as there would be nowhere else to go.
"Dowager Queen of the Royal Family" indicates that the queen of Broadway, Ethel Barrymore, was dead, that no one who had ever seen her perform could ever quite forget her. There had been a certain aura of majesty about her, a "great lady" appeal, which was absolutely unforgettable. "She was more than an actress: she was an institution. To millions of play-goers, she represented the American theater at its glittering best."
She had appeared in many movies
It indicates that her name had never really come down, that the success of her famous brothers, John and Lionel, had never diminished her own share of fame. One success had followed another, including "The Second Mrs. Tangueray", "School for Scandal", "The Constant Wife", "The Kingdom of God", "Hamlet", with Walter Hampden, "Lady of the Camelias", "Declassee", "Sunday", and "The Corn Is Green".
For "Sunday" she had thought up her famous line, "That's all there is… There isn't any more." It had been the signal for the final curtain and there was always sadness mixed with the applause. It finds that the sadness remained.
"The 'Interview'" quotes from Human Events: "Diplomatic row, in the nation's capital, feels some reassurance about Vice President Nixon's scheduled trip to Moscow this summer… Nixon—they learned—will not (like Sen. Humphrey) just get an interview with Khrushchev. Instead, he will, in effect, grant Khrushchev an 'interview' and he will give the Soviet dictator some blunt, straight talk."
The editors add: "Uh-huh."
A piece from the Asheville Citizen, titled "The Wisdom of Old Wives", indicates that publicity releases found their way by the bushel into cavernous wastebaskets, that occasionally there was something of interest worth passing along.
Cheesebrough-Ponds, Inc., had a yarn dealing with the proverbial old wives and their alleged wisdom, citing as instances, baldness being a sign of intelligence, a sort of "grass never grows on a busy street belief", that the IQ might be there, but questioning whether it was not smarter to keep one's hair.
Another was that a handstand cured an upset stomach, stemming from the belief that one's insides somersaulted and made one sick and to right them, one should turn upside down, being recommended for acrobats and aerialists whose stomachs would not churn if they tried that trick.
A third one was wearing a clove of garlic, warding off a cold, working like magic in keeping nosy neighbors away.
A fourth was buttering a burn to heal it, indicating that butter was for bread and on burns, could lead to an infection.
A fifth was that rose leaves, tossed in a salad, would insure good health, an ancient Roman idea, indicating that a rose, though it would not cure any ill, might doctor a romance if wired by the dozen to a lovely woman.
A sixth was that a potato in one's pocket warded off arthritis, indicating that if it grew, one had a conversation piece.
The seventh and final one was that to cure warts, one should bury a toad by the light of a full moon. "There's no guarantee that the warts will go, but surely you know the moon inspires madness—lunacy, is the word."
Drew Pearson indicates that Senator
Hugh Scott of Philadelphia had made the formal charge on the Senate
floor recently that anti-Semitism was behind the confirmation fight
against Admiral Lewis Strauss, claiming that it was a modern Alfred
Dreyfus case
Senator Scott lived in a Philadelphia suburb which was largely Jewish, and during the early part of the hearings on Admiral Strauss, he had received mail from Jewish voters highly critical of the persecution tactics being used against Dr. David Inglis, an atomic scientist who had the courage to testify against Admiral Strauss. Senator Scott had branded Dr. Ingis as being guilty of "McCarthyism", and then had proceeded to use "McCarthyism" against him. He had since surreptitiously sought the HUAC file on him through his Republican colleague, Congressman Gordon Scherer of Ohio, had then cross-examined the scientist as to whether he had ever defended Alger Hiss and whether he was ever a member of the Citizens Independent Committee of Arts and Sciences. The Senator appeared upset when it had leaked that he had gone into the files of HUAC, and reaction in Philadelphia had not been good.
Mr. Pearson suggests that it might be why he was swinging in the other direction and calling the debate on Admiral Strauss another Dreyfus case. The charge went to the root of American fair play and deserved careful examination.
Other Senators had charged that Admiral Strauss himself was guilty of persecution and therefore ought not be in a position of important government power. They had not focused on the Admiral's loyalty trial of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, in which the scientist who had built the first atomic bomb had been scrutinized and dissected and made to suffer public humiliation as few public men had experienced previously in the century. Instead, the Senators critical of the Admiral had cited the lesser known cases of persecution by the Admiral, one having been that of Carroll Wilson, the former manager of the Atomic Energy Commission. When the Admiral had been questioned about that matter by the Senate Commerce Committee, he had been evasive, saying that it was only hearsay and that the Senate ought obtain its information directly from Mr. Wilson. Senator Gale McGee of Wyoming had done so, and Mr. Wilson had written back: "Mr. Strauss deeply resented my insistence while I was general manager of the commission in carrying out the will of the majority of the commission and my unwillingness to modify or change by executive action the policies adopted by the majority of the commission." Mr. Wilson had then told in detail how, after he had gone to work for Climax Molybdenum, FBI agents had been sent to investigate him and subsequently, his Q-clearance had been revoked. After considerable effort, it had been reinstated. Mr. Wilson had said that it was entirely clear to him "that the initiative and responsibility for both actions came from Mr. Strauss, whose vindictiveness I had seen demonstrated before."
Walter Lippmann indicates that the Geneva foreign ministers conference, though not yet concluded, was in a stalemate with little prospect that it would be broken. He posits that it was not much, but was something, and was about all which could be expected. As early as March, it had become plain that Russia would not attempt to expel the Western troops by force and that the West would not use force should East German officials replace the Soviet officials, as Russia had threatened to do. That was the stalemate which left the situation in status quo.
The conference had been unable to build on that stalemate to reach an agreement on how long the existing situation was to be maintained, as neither side had felt any immediate compulsion to work for such an agreement. It had begun to appear that the stalemate included more than just Berlin and the two Germanys, that for some reason, Mr. Khrushchev was less urgent about a summit meeting, not willing to pay any substantial price for such a meeting. It appeared to mean that he believed that he could wait because his position in Germany was improving and that time was on his side.
Regarding West Berlin, that was true, as the Western allies had accepted the leadership of West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and French Premier Charles de Gaulle, and had successfully and unitedly stood pat and firm, not only on their right to be in West Berlin but also on the juridical and political basis for their rights. But they had failed to provide West Berlin with any promise of its future as part of the capital of Germany. If it did not have that promise, it had a very uncertain future. Even if there were no blockade or overt act against West Berlin, the uncertainty, given the geography of the city, was a dangerous form of insecurity. In a Western capitalistic economy, such as West Berlin, confidence was indispensable and a belief in the future a necessity.
At the Geneva conference, the Western allies, being committed to the policy of standing pat and firm, had left the initiative for the future to the Soviets. Geneva was not, however, the end of the story. Whether or not it would lead to a summit meeting, it would be followed by negotiations in one form or another at the highest level.
The First Deputy Chairman of the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers, Frol Kozlov, would come to the U.S. in July, and Vice-President Nixon and the President's brother, Milton, were going to Moscow in July. During those visits, they might work out ways by which the heads of the governments could exchange views and negotiate without bombarding each other with public tirades or setting up an international circus.
He concludes that if it were true, as it appeared to be, that Mr. Khrushchev was not impatient about having a face-to-face meeting with the President, it could be much better if a meeting at the summit were postponed while discussions and negotiations at the highest level were carried on.
Robert C. Ruark, in Palamos, Spain,
indicates that he felt like Dr. Frankenstein must have felt when his
homemade monster had gotten up and inquired about the dinner hours in
the household, having seen where they had come up with a
hangover-proof booze. He finds it no wonder that the world was going
to blow up, that people were "just too damn' nosy. A couple of
pointed-head gnomes with nothing better to do have discovered that
acetaldehyde and isomyl alcohol produce the furred
And he goes on… Concludes: "I
say okay to ICBMs and thinking machines, but when the boys dip their
nasty little noses into auld lang syne in the grog league, I cry,
'Hold! Enough!' Out of the lab and back to the charred keg
A letter writer from Salisbury indicates that he was a white man teaching in a black college and he wonders if the white people of the state knew how poor the average black person was in the state. "These Negro men and women have more money than the average Negro. Yet most of them do not have a penny in their pockets half of the time. What can the people of North Carolina do about it?" He suggests paying blacks a living wage and then making them earn that wage, not allowing them to loaf around while paying them half enough on which to live. He asserts that half pay caused blacks to do half work and to be lazy, that paying them what they should receive and making them earn it was the way to go. "Laziness is the worst fault that Negroes have and I believe half pay is the cause of at least part of it."
A letter writer from Laurinburg, a minister, indicates that the length to which some people would go to uphold a false theory and the cleverness with which they would distort facts was amazing. The Southern white man and those who believed in "Dixiecratology" were past masters of that act, finding an example in an article by a nationally syndicated columnist recently. His deception in that attempt to fool the public was not anything new but an old gimmick with a new twist. He indicates that as a boy, he recalled how people had found an old slave and in newspaper and radio interviews, got that person to praise the "Good Old Days" of slavery. The columnist in question had given the old trick a new twist, that instead of getting a former slave to praise slavery, he had interviewed a group of uneducated and uninstructed black women and had gotten them to speak a good word for segregation, attempting to use their statements as proof that the Southern black person did not want economic, educational and political rights, "which is just about as senseless as the older ones saying 'the Negro did not want his freedom.' It just goes to show how far some people still go to uphold a false theory."
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