The Charlotte News

Monday, June 22, 1959

TWO EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Secretary of State Christian Herter this date had given the President an hour-long report on the deadlocked Geneva foreign ministers conference, presently recessed until July 13. Following the conference, the Secretary confirmed that he would go on nationwide television and radio the following night to explain to the American people about the futile efforts thus far to reach agreement with the Russians regarding Berlin and other problems. Mr. Herter had told reporters at the White House that the time for his broadcast had not been definitely set. He said that he had reported to the President in general terms and that they had discussed "just where we are" in the efforts to ease the East-West tensions. A reporter had asked him about prospects for an eventual summit conference of the Western heads of state with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and he replied, "That is something I just don't want to go into at the present time." He then had gone on to say that at no time during the six weeks of the conference had the Western foreign ministers discussed with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko the possibility of a summit meeting. He had arrived the previous day from Geneva after the fruitless first round of the talks and had said then that the Soviets had revealed that their actual aim was to absorb free West Berlin and keep Germany divided until they could bring the whole country under Communist influence. U.S. authorities believed that the best course for the West was to stand firm and see what the Soviets came up with when the Geneva foreign ministers conference would resume, having recessed the prior Saturday. The view in Washington was that Britain, France and the U.S. had hit rock bottom in the concessions they could offer to the Soviet Union regarding Berlin. But officials intended to return to Geneva still willing to bargain sincerely, provided the Communists, forsaking their uncompromising position, would do likewise. There was no support evident in Washington for a pre-July 13 Western summit to shore up the allies or even for a Western foreign ministers meeting except in Geneva a day or two prior to the resumption of the talks. Mr. Herter had talked with the President by telephone on Sunday, but a scheduled Sunday White House appointment had been postponed.

In Baton Rouge, La., it was reported that Governor Earl Long's new attorney had said this date that the Governor's bid for freedom from a mental health clinic near Baton Rouge might develop in the courts as early as the following Wednesday. The attorney was an old political buddy and had been a one-time attorney general candidate on a Long-backed ticket in 1952, and said that he would see the Governor again during the afternoon. He had visited Mr. Long the first time the previous day at Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville, where the Governor was confined. The attorney declined comment on why the Governor still wanted to pursue legal action rather than seeking the rest under hospital care which physicians had said that he needed. He said that he found the Governor "in good health and good spirits, but mad as the dickens… That seemed natural to me after 22 days of confinement in various mental hospitals." When asked how a constitutional provision might affect the Governor's status while in a State charitable institution, the attorney responded that it was one of the things he was exploring. A provision of the State Constitution said in part that inmates of charitable units could not hold public office. Lt. Governor Lether Frazar meanwhile still was not clear on whether he was acting governor and indicated that he expected a legal opinion on the matter by the following day. It still had not been resolved whether Governor Long was legally insane, and if not, whether he could be released from the State mental hospital, and meanwhile, who was the chief executive of the state. Physicians who had visited the Governor on Sunday reported that he was "quite cooperative and his general condition satisfactory." Five days earlier, the Governor, cursing and fighting, had been taken to the hospital in Mandeville after being arrested near Baton Rouge in his car after he had sped away from a New Orleans hospital to which he had been confined, following his three weeks of confinement at a mental facility in Galveston, Tex., to which he had been spirited away at the behest of his wife, following a tirade launched in open session of the Louisiana Legislature, attacking his political enemies with freely exercised cussing, after which his wife said she feared for his mental stability and health. The coroner for East Baton Rouge Parish, also a psychiatrist, said that the Governor was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, delusions of persecution. At the time he had been arrested and taken to the Mandeville mental facility, he had been on his way to Baton Rouge to resume his executive powers.

In Tallahassee, Fla., it was reported that the four white youths, ranging in age between 16 and 23, who had been convicted of raping a 19-year old black coed of Florida A&M University the prior May 2, had been given life sentences by the judge this date, the maximum sentences which could be meted out for the conduct. They had been found guilty by an all-white male jury, which had recommended mercy, saving them from the death penalty. No white person had ever been executed in Florida or any other state for the rape of a black person. In pronouncing sentence, the judge told the four youths that he had never imposed less than a death sentence or life imprisonment on a conviction for rape. The four youths had paled when the sentence was pronounced but showed no other trace of emotion. Under Florida law, parole from a life sentence was possible after six months, but those convicted of rape customarily served at least ten years before being considered for parole. The judge told the four as he prepared to pronounce the sentence: "You have been convicted of a very serious offense. It is an offense that is horrible and under horrible circumstances. The court feels sorry for you and for the prosecutrix. You are fortunate that the jury recommended mercy." A 2011 article from the Tallahassee Democrat reported on the subsequent history of the four defendants, each of whom was paroled by 1967, the youngest having won parole in 1965, the eldest released last. One of the four was subsequently convicted of attempted murder in 1993 and remained in prison in 2011. Another was convicted of the murder of a black woman in 1969, the youngest 1959 co-defendant having testified in that case that the man had told him while in prison that he intended to kill another black woman as vengeance for the 1959 conviction, though upon reversal on appeal, he was acquitted by a second jury. He nevertheless spent another 16 years in prison for the 1959 case based on a parole violation in association with his fleeing arrest in the 1969 case. The eldest defendant had returned to prison on a parole violation for the 1959 case in 1975 but was paroled again in 1976, and no further criminal history was known in 2011. The youngest of the four had no further problems with the law as of 2011. (It should be noted that under present Supreme Court decisions since 1977, rape cannot be subjected to the death penalty by any state, to avoid the provisions of the Eighth Amendment barring cruel and unusual punishment, a proscription generally extended since 2008 to all crimes except homicide and crimes against the state such as treason. It begs the question as to why the Florida Legislature in 2023 thought it could change that proscription under the Trumpetytized Su-preme Court by passing a law permitting imposition of the death penalty for rape of a child under age 12. While a heinous crime which is revulsive to the general public mind, it nevertheless no less offends the sense of proportionality when seeking to invoke the supreme penalty provided by law, as opposed, for instance, to life imprisonment without possibility of parole, the final penalty affording no possibility for any rehabilitation once applied and thus to be invoked only in the most extreme of criminal circumstances, where life is taken with malice amounting to murder, plus some form of premeditation, taking it out of the context of manslaughter-type homicides. An increasingly punitive society, especially in Magaville states, is a prescription for fascism where the object becomes involving the state in killing people for the sake of satisfying blood-lust, a never-satiated condition once begun, which befit Nazi Germany. Moreover, a primary, usually unconsidered and unstated reason for not imposing the death penalty in non-homicide cases, or for that matter throw-the-key-away sentence durations, is that it tends to afford a shield to the victim of such other crimes from being murdered by the perpetrator, as otherwise the latter would be more likely to kill the victim to avoid the prospect of a living witness, figuring that there was nothing to lose in potential penalty if subject to the death penalty in any event, assuming that a mind depraved and loosed of moral restraints enough in the moment to commit such an act would also be capable of committing the ultimate act to avoid detection. Heedless of those rationales and heedless of the Supreme Court's wisdom, a Florida prosecutor's office recently announced that it would seek the death penalty in such a case, apparently regarding it as a test case, apparently believing that Magaville, USA, would damned sure Mek Amurica Grate Agin with its A-1 edrucashun, by putting to death whomever the public cry for blood demands, right to life 'cept for some no 'counts who never deserved it nohow, regardless of no damn law to the contrary. Hell, an' if they don't like it, we'll damned well throw 'em in the Everglades for the gator meat. Nobody gonna treat our li'l chillens like 'at and walk to see daylight agin, ye know? Nawsir. Pardon our good friends, hell, put 'em in the White House, but death for ev'ryone else.)

In Cloudcroft, N.M., it was reported that a light plane had crashed close to a ranger station early this date, killing four persons. Forest Service employees said that the four dead appeared to be a family, a man, a woman, a boy and a girl. No identification had been available immediately. The plane had burned after the crash. A Forest Service employee said that the single-engine craft had flown east over the ranger station at a low altitude, that the motor had suddenly quit and the plane had nosed down and dove into the trees. The gas tanks had exploded as soon as it hit, and he indicated that there was no chance to get the bodies out until the fire had cooled down, at which point they had used hacksaws on the twisted wreckage. The Federal Aviation Agency had been unable to indicate where the plane was from or its destination. It was believed that the pilot, based on identification found in the wreckage, was from California.

In Toluca, Mexico, it was reported that four persons had been killed in a stampede while leaving a movie theater on Sunday night after its roof had been ripped off during a violent wind storm, with about 20 persons having been injured seriously in the panic.

In Miami, Fla., beset by rain which had broken the city's 1942 June record on Saturday night and had messed up streets, lawns and daily activities, the Weather Bureau reported this date that more rain would fall, followed on Tuesday by scattered showers, if correct, prolonging the wet weather to eight consecutive days. To this date, the Bureau had calculated 19.67 inches of June rainfall for the city, compared to 4.61 inches on average in a comparable period of time. The previous record for all of June had been 19.45 inches. Eleven inches of the current month's downpour had come within a 72-hour period, following a destructive tornado the previous Wednesday night.

In Charlotte, it was reported that Robert Cherry, vice-president of the Federal Reserve Bank branch in Charlotte, said that he had no comment regarding a statement by Representative Wright Patman of Texas that audit reports showed $100,000 in U.S. Treasury certificates had disappeared from the Charlotte branch. Mr. Patman, longtime critic of Federal Reserve banking operations and credit policies, said on Sunday in Washington that Federal Reserve audit reports had disclosed "unbelievably shocking" management deficiencies. He had said regarding the Charlotte situation that an investigation of the mysterious disappearance of the certificates had revealed only that they had been removed from an envelope after delivery and had been destroyed with trash burned up by the member bank. In pointing to a 1957 audit report, the Congressman said that the $100,000 certificates were 2.25 percent indebtedness, series B-1957 tax anticipation notes and that they had been allotted on direct subscription to an undisclosed South Carolina bank which, in turn, had requested that they be delivered to an unidentified company in North Carolina for safekeeping. Mr. Patman added that the South Carolina company had received a signed receipt for the total amount, but that the consignee bank admitted that it had not opened the package to verify the contents at the time of delivery. Mr. Patman added that when the package was later opened, it reportedly contained only six lots of securities, totaling $785,000, to which were attached receipts numbered 36 to 41. He asserted that "according to the records of the branch, their certificate was one of seven lots of like securities, in the aggregate amount of $885,000, to which were attached receipts numbered 36 to 42, prepared by the branch on August 15, 1956." He said that the failure to alert the consignee bank had placed a measure of responsibility on the branch bank in Charlotte because the consignee was unable to make a search of its waste paper or to institute other investigative measures which might have been effective if started promptly. He added that steps had then begun to secure a replacement certificate.

John Kilgo of The News reports that Jesse James had been sworn in as Charlotte's new Police Chief this date at City Hall by Mayor James Smith, and that the first thing the large man had asked for was patience, while the first thing he had been told he did not have much of was money. He was the city's youngest police chief, having come from Burlington, where he had served as chief. About 20 people from Burlington had made the trip to wish him well. The City Council members were present for the swearing-in ceremony, as were other business and civic leaders and several had been called on to make short talks.

Ann Sawyer of The News reports that the culmination of a decade of discussion and effort at consolidation of the City and County school systems would occur on Tuesday, June 30, when a bond election would be on the ballot, determining the future of countless thousands of schoolchildren in the county. The question posed would be for or against levying a 54-cent countywide tax per $100 of property valuation to supplement State revenues for school purposes, with a vote for the bond measure representing a vote for consolidation. The tax would mean a four-cent increase over what was presently being paid. For someone whose home was valued at $10,000, it would mean paying four dollars more in City taxes. For a County property owner, with a home on the books at that value, the 14-cent increase would mean a $14 higher tax bill. At present, the 50-cent supplement paid by property owners in the City School Administrative Unit was used to pay teachers more than the State scale and to employ teachers to enrich the school program. The County school system used its 40-cent supplement to increase teacher pay, provide for music teachers, for additional teachers to relieve heavy student loads, and to relieve principals from teaching duties, as well as providing for some special teachers, such as in physical education and speech correction. With an increased countywide supplement, it would be possible to provide in County schools in a limited way some of the special services offered by the City schools, including special education, music, physical education, libraries and art. The larger supplement also would bring County teacher pay up to the level of City teachers. If passed, about 56,000 students in 93 schools with 3,500 employees, 2,100 of whom were instructional personnel, would be consolidated. The bond passage would also erase the boundary line between the City and County school systems and most children could attend the schools nearest their homes. The children in the perimeter area which would become a part of Charlotte at the beginning of 1960, would not automatically come into the City School Administrative Unit, except via consolidation.

Brodie Griffith, editor of the newspaper, announces six new employees added to the News staff during the previous three weeks, including Tom Wingate, an experienced North Carolina newsman, who had taken over the state desk, with his responsibility being coverage of the news in the adjacent areas; Elizabeth (Betty) Barrett, who had become a woman's department reporter immediately upon graduation from Woman's College in Greensboro; Dick Rigby, who joined the staff from the High Point Enterprise and would cover the local news scene as a general assignment reporter; Jerry Shields, who would be a reporter, having received his master's degree from UNC earlier in the month, and was also on general assignment; Monroe Campbell, a UNC graduate, who had moved to the copy desk after two years with the Durham Morning Herald; and Jerry Bellune, who had begun with the newspaper as a copyreader after having been a student at Furman University. He indicates that the bylines of reporters Rigby and Shields would appear with increasing frequency in the coming months along with those widely known veterans of the staff, Julian Scheer, Dick Young, Sr., Emery Wister, J. A. Daly, Elizabeth Prince, Bob Slough, Ann Sawyer, John Borchert, John Kilgo, Bill Hughes and Jerry Reece.

On the editorial page, "Mecklenburg Delegation Performs Well" indicates that the Mecklenburg five-man delegation to the Legislature had performed well during the session which had begun in February and had just ended. They had performed "with all of the adroitness and sagacity of parliamentary veterans." It finds it one of the best delegations from the county in many years, though they had not provided perfect scorecards, there having been times when the editors believed they had erred seriously on single issues, but taken as a whole, had performed in superior fashion.