The Charlotte News

Wednesday, June 3, 1959

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Geneva that the Western foreign ministers this date had reportedly decided to call for an early showdown with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko in secret talks regarding the Berlin crisis. Secretary of State Christian Herter and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and West Germany agreed at a midday strategy meeting, according to officials, that Mr. Gromyko ought be told that the time had come for the Soviet Union to set forth new, constructive proposals for a solution. Mr. Gromyko's reaction to the challenge, it was hoped, would shortly disclose whether the German meeting had any chance of success in easing East-West tensions regarding Berlin and clearing the way for a summit conference later in the summer. The Western ministers had met for an hour at U.S. headquarters and concluded the strategy session a little more than two hours before another round of secret talks with Mr. Gromyko was set to start at Mr. Herter's villa. An American spokesman said "the situation with regard to Berlin was not appreciably advanced" by Mr. Gromyko's statement to the Big Four conference on Tuesday. But British and French diplomats said that Mr. Gromyko's speech was being studied with extreme care because it contained intimations that the Kremlin might be interested in finding a way out of the Berlin deadlock. British and French sources thought that the ensuing 48 hours of the conference, presently in its fourth week, could prove to be the most critical of the conference, with a Berlin deal and a summit meeting dependent on the outcome. British and French experts cited four points in Mr. Gromyko's speech as being possibly significant. First, the Soviet Union, according to Mr. Gromyko, was not asking the U.S., Britain and France to grant diplomatic recognition to East Germany's Communist government, something which the Western Allies had adamantly refused to do. Second, the Soviet Union did not question the Western powers' legal right to have troops in West Berlin, although it considered the occupation of the city to be outdated, Mr. Gromyko insisting that some new arrangement had to be made for West Berlin. Third, although he had again called for demilitarization of West Berlin under international guarantees, he said that his government would agree to Western troops remaining in Berlin, provided that their number was limited and that the Soviet troops also were admitted. Finally, Mr. Gromyko had urged the Western Big Three to join Russia in trying to "bring our positions closer together."

The President stated at his press conference this date, his first since May 13, that there had been no detectable progress in the Geneva talks which would justify a summit conference. He suggested that the Soviet Union ought make, for example, a clear commitment that Western rights in Berlin would not be impeded pending reunification of Germany. He said that there also were other good faith approaches which the Soviets could take, adding that some recent statements by Premier Nikita Khrushchev had not been calculated to ease East-West tensions. On other topics, he said that the Administration had not decided yet whether to ask Congress for an increase in the interest rate ceiling on Government bonds, confirming that he had discussed that matter, as well as the need to raise the national debt ceiling, with Congressional leaders earlier in the week. He said that it would be tragic if an issue of anti-Semitism were seriously raised in the Senate fight over confirmation of Admiral Lewis Strauss as secretary of commerce. The Admiral was a Jew. The President had been asked for comment on what a reporter had referred to as a statement made by Republicans that the anti-Semitism issue already had been injected into the controversy. The President replied that he was not aware that such an issue had been raised and then remarked that it would be tragic if it were. Making it clear that he continued to support Admiral Strauss's nomination, he said that he had no doubt that the Admiral could work effectively with Congress if confirmed. Regarding steel, the President labeled as completely untrue an assertion by John L. Lewis, head of the United Mine Workers, that the President had sided with management and against the workers in the steel wage talks. The President said he had never interfered in such labor-management negotiations, although he had urged repeatedly that both sides in the steel dispute guard against any new inflationary spiral. Regarding labor legislation, he said that he hoped that Congress would not adjourn without passing such a bill, making the statement when a reporter remarked that both Mr. Lewis and Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa had come out against enactment of any new legislation. Regarding missiles, he said that Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy was now conducting an exhaustive study which would be ready in about ten days. The main dispute was between the Air Force, championing its Bomarc missile, and the Army, promoting its Nike-Hercules.

In Galveston, Tex., it was reported that Louisiana Governor Earl Long, who had entered a hospital because of physical and mental exhaustion the prior weekend, was not being violent but was just "mad as hell" and would recover completely within 2 to 3 months, according to attending physicians. That account had come exclusively to the Associated Press from the physicians who refused to be quoted by name. The Governor, 63, according to the sources, was being cooperative, was "very clear in his thinking and speaking, and is not violent at all." They said that all they were trying to do at present was to promote his physical health, shattered by his sleepless nights and driving determination. The Governor had flown to Galveston on Saturday, and his wife the previous day had asked a probate court for his protective custody in the psychiatric clinic for his own protection. Her application to the judge claimed that her husband was sick mentally and physically, and the judge had signed the order. At present, Governor Long had nearly a year left in his current four-year third term and his friend and colleague, Lt. Governor Lethar Frazar, was acting Governor by virtue of the Governor's absence from the state. The physicians at the privately run psychiatric clinic said that the Governor had not resisted any questioning, "in fact, he has been talking very freely, talking as he normally would. He is a sick man, but actually we do not know the cause of this man's troubles. We do feel he has an excellent chance for a complete recovery." They added that the only handicap they had was that the Governor did not believe he was a sick man and was "just as mad as hell" that he was in the hospital. The doctor said that at times he had resisted simple medical efforts such as blood tests, sedatives, vitamins and other drugs designed to build up a person physically. The doctors added, "We're all tremendously interested in this man, but he simply is not resigned to being here."

In Fort Madison, Ia., four long-term prisoners had held a guard in a cellblock captive at knife point and had sawn their way out of the Iowa State Penitentiary early this date. One of the four was serving a life sentence for killing a policeman. They had sawn two bars from a window located in an outside cell of the prison after having sawn their way from their individual cells. The escape came in a cell house which housed about 400 prisoners and the four who had escaped had to drop less than ten feet to the ground after cutting the opening in the window. The warden identified the four, ranging in age from 23 to 38. The night cell house captain said that he had heard a noise on a walkway extending outside the cells and had seen one of the men crawling along, and so pushed the alarm button. Almost simultaneously with the escape of that prisoner from his cell on the second tier, another prisoner got out of his cell in a different part of the cellblock and put a knife to the throat of a guard. Then the other two men came out of their cells, which also were widely separated from those of the other two. The warden said that each man had sawn two bars from their cells to get out onto the walkway. It was not immediately known where they had obtained the saws. Two of the men held a long dagger on the guard and forced him to call the deputy outside the cellblock and say he had rubbed against the alarm button accidentally and that everything was all right.

In Taylorsville, N.C., it was reported that a usually quiet 38-year old truck driver was being held on an open charge this date in connection with the slaying of the sheriff the previous day. The shooting apparently had stemmed from a family feud, which had raged for several months without attracting much attention, even from close neighbors. A next-door neighbor to the accused slayer said that he had not been aware of any unusual trouble between the man and his father and stepmother, calling them "good neighbors". The previous day, however, the man's father had come to the neighbor's home and told him that he was having trouble with his son and used the neighbor's phone to call the sheriff, starting a chain of events which ended in the sheriff's death and the arrest of the son. The sheriff and his deputy had been starting upstairs to talk to the man when the sheriff was hit in the back by a .22-caliber bullet. The father had complained that his son was throwing rocks at the house and asked the sheriff to talk to him and try to straighten him out. After the shooting, the man refused at first to come out of the house. Police prepared to battle their way in if necessary. But after a short time, the man came out in response to the calls of his neighbor, putting up no resistance as officers whisked him first to the local jail, then to a jail out of reach of any possible mob violence. No violence had developed. People appeared dumbfounded when they heard of the sheriff's death, according to the coroner, who was acting sheriff. The sheriff had been extremely popular and the father of five children, a successful farmer and one-time sawmill operator, having been elected to his third term the previous fall by the largest majority in Alexander County history. The accused killer was described as "quiet, but a little odd". Apparently any tendencies toward violence were known only to his family. In the family argument, he reportedly had thrown dishes and rocks at his father. He had worked for some time as an independent trucker, primarily hauling produce. But he had been unemployed for the previous few months after his truck had been repossessed. The deputy sheriff was with the sheriff and said that they did not see the man with the gun before the shot was fired. The officers had left their weapons in their car. The sheriff had died before reaching the hospital. It was the second instance in modern times of a law enforcement officer being shot in Taylorsville, the police chief having been slain 15 years earlier by a 15-year old Newton youth in the lobby of a hotel in the town.

Tornadoes had done some heavy property damage in the Carolinas the previous day but had taken no lives. In Cumberland and Columbus Counties in North Carolina and Horry County in South Carolina, twisters had struck, but had hit only farming areas and no communities as they swept across the lower part of North Carolina and upper South Carolina.

Julian Scheer of The News reports that singer Jerry Lee Lewis had played a date in Virginia the previous night and that while he sang, danced, jumped and wiggled, Charlotte Coliseum-Auditorium manager Paul Buck and City Council member and promoter Jim Whittington were busy looking for a piano for Mr. Lewis's show in Charlotte on Wednesday night. Mr. Whittington had finally won, but had to make some promises to Mr. Buck. The previous August, Mr. Lewis had played in Charlotte as part of another rock 'n' roll show and during his act, he leaped onto the piano belonging to the Coliseum-Auditorium Authority and had done a jig. Mr. Buck, seeing that performance, rushed to the stage in a rage, yelling, "Get that man off my piano!" Inspection of the piano later revealed no real damage but Mr. Buck said that it was "just the chance you take, the idea of it all. I just don't want that guy jumping up on my piano." Mr. Whittington had finally persuaded Mr. Buck that Mr. Lewis would handle the piano with loving care this night, that he had talked to Mr. Lewis and that just in case he might cross him, he would inspect the singer's shoes to make certain they had soft soles. Mr. Buck said, "He had better!" Mr. Whittington promised. Mr. Buck added, "Pianos aren't made to dance on." He'll play some love ballads and gospel spirituals.

In the second of a series of articles on D-Day, June 6, 1944, General J. Lawton Collins relates of his experience leading 7th Corps in the capture of Normandy's Utah Beach, the freeing of Cherbourg, breaking the German crust at St. Lo, and being the first to capture a major German city, Aachen. "The darkness was almost pitch black off the coast of France when the anchor chain of our command ship, the Bayfield, rattled out on D-Day 15 years ago. Except for the fact that we were 12 miles offshore, its sudden clanking might have alerted the German defenders whose radar had failed to pick up the approach of the vast armada of ships and planes which was poised to attack the east coast of the Cherbourg peninsula." As Rear Admiral Don Moon, the naval commander of Task Force Utah, and he had looked out from the bridge of the Bayfield, nothing could be seen of the hundreds of transports, LST's, and smaller landing craft and accompanying naval escorts which they knew were all around them. They had been underway from the southern ports of England for nearly 24 hours, moving slowly but steadily through six-foot waves under lowering clouds driven by winds up to 20 knots. So bad had been the weather that the responsible German Admiral Francke had no patrol boats in the English Channel. The weather had proved to act as a screen for the invasion, but could have been disastrous if it had worsened. It had already postponed the invasion by a day and had threatened the final departure of the expedition. As he had written to his wife en route to France on the early evening of June 5, 1944: "First of all, it is a relief to be off at last. After months of rehearsals and feverish preparation, we began loading a few days ago, only to be threatened with a long delay when the weather suddenly turned against us. In fact some of our landing craft had to be turned back after being underway several hours. Generals Bradley and Kean, Admirals Kirk, Moon and Wiltse, several Britishers and I were none too optimistic as we assembled last night [at British naval headquarters in Plymouth] for the word as to whether or not we would get underway again. It was with a mixture of relief and misgivings that we received the decision to go ahead, subject to final confirmation early this morning. For the weather was still threatening, and a great amphibious operation such as this has to have just the right conditions of wind, tide, sea and ceiling to insure the almost perfect coordination of naval, land and air forces that is essential for success." They had been greatly relieved when they emerged from the meeting to find the moon breaking through, indicating that the expedition could go ahead. The remainder of the piece is on an inside page.

On the editorial page, "Ghosts Who Come to Commencement", editorial correspondence from Chapel Hill by Edwin Yoder, indicates that those who were attending commencement the prior Monday thought wistfully of the legend inscribed on the Morehead sundial outside Morehead Planetarium—being used by the recently named Mercury astronauts to learn celestial navigation: "The sun is always shining somewhere in the world."