The Charlotte News
Friday, July 3, 1959
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Havana, Cuba, that widespread troop movements had been reported this date with Fidel Castro's Government showing concern over mounting counterrevolutionary activity. Secret police had seized an arms cache in a suburb of Havana on Thursday, arresting eight men in a case they described as having "the most important counterrevolutionary implications." Troop reinforcements were reportedly moving into eastern Cuba, where 41 persons had been arrested for acts of sabotage, and into western Cuba, where guerrilla bands were operating in the mountains. Much of the unrest stemmed from the land reform program breaking up the large estates. Among the eight men arrested in the Havana raid had been six police officers described as "former military men". The implication was that they had served in the forces under former dictator Fulgencio Batista, presently in exile in the Dominican Republic. Behind the plot, according to police, were former Senator Rolando Masferrer, presently in Miami, Fla., and José Pedraza, a former general who now shared Sr. Batista's exile in the Dominican Republic. The upsurge of anti-Castro activity during the previous month, including a rash of minor explosions and acts of sabotage, had brought a Government order decreeing the death sentence for counterrevolutionary acts. The unrest had shaken the revolutionary armed forces when Air Force commander Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz had resigned, charging Communist infiltration of both the armed forces and the Government. Prime Minister Castro had told a television audience that Sr. Diaz's resignation had been a "traitorous act", timed to coincide with a period of difficult international relations for the nation. Although Sr. Castro did not spell it out, his lengthy indictment of Sr. Diaz had been heavily salted with suggestions that the airman was influenced by U.S. interests. The Prime Minister said that it was curious that American news agencies had the story of his resignation a day before the Cuban press had obtained it.
In Philadelphia, it was reported that Pennsylvania's 20-year old obscenity law had been declared unconstitutional by that State's Supreme Court, leaving authorities without any weapon to combat movies and live performances believed to be objectionable. In a controversial 5 to 2 decision on Thursday, the court had voided the provision of the penal code which banned exhibitions "of a lascivious, sacrilegious, obscene, indecent or immoral nature." The action followed the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down New York State's ban of the film, "Lady Chatterley's Lover". (The Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York would shortly hold that the banning from the mails by the Postmaster General of the unexpurgated edition of the book Lady Chatterley's Lover and its advertising circulars was void because the book was not obscene, subsequently affirmed in 1960 by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.)
John Borchert of The News reports that a healthy-looking, smiling Billy Graham had stepped off a four-hours late passenger train in Charlotte shortly after noon this date and greeted his parents. He was accompanied by his wife, Ruth, and was greeted by a large crowd. He would leave sometime this date for Montreat, where he would take a 2 1/2 month rest before going to New York City on November 11 to speak at Calvary Baptist Church, whose pastor was a friend of the evangelist. During his six months away from home, the bulk of it spent in Australia and New Zealand conducting crusades, with the previous few weeks spent in Europe and Russia, he had drawn press for his statements made regarding morality in British and Moscow parks, stating that he and his wife had witnessed sex acts openly occurring in London parks, not at the zoo. He said that he was only calling attention to a fact that the British were already doing something about."
In Washington, the U.S. Tax Court indicated this date that Keith Beaty, E. M. Beaty and the Beaty Service Co., Inc., of Charlotte, owed more than $309,000 in Federal taxes and penalties during a seven-year period. The company taxes owed were for 1941 and 1942 and those owned by Keith and E. M. Beaty were for the years 1943 through 1947, inclusive. Court officials said that they knew of no compromise payment and that there would likely not be one. Keith Beaty was listed as president of the company and E. M. Beaty was his brother.
In Durham, it was reported that a young mother, behind schedule on her way to work, and her two children had been killed instantly when their car skidded into a tree during the morning. The 23-year old mother and her children, ages seven months and two, had been a native of Midland in Cabarrus County. The accident occurred on a rain-slick road leading from the woman's residence in suburban Huckleberry Heights to downtown Durham. She had been taking her children to a day nursery.
Traffic safety officials across the nation were hoping to avoid traffic deaths during the extended holiday weekend. The National Safety Council had predicted that 350 persons would die in traffic accidents during the 54-hour period, starting at 6:00 this evening and ending at midnight on Sunday. The previous year, the traffic death toll for the three-day July 4 weekend had been 370. The Alabama Trucking Association planned to operate a 20-vehicle courtesy patrol on major highways during the weekend, with the cars carrying signs reading, "Safety Patrol, Courtesy Alabama Council of Safety Supervisors". The council was a division of the trucking association. American Legionnaires at 43 points of entry into Iowa would hand out pamphlets to motorists reading, "Slow down and live." The Iowa Outdoor Advertising Association had posted 150 billboards listing speed limits and warning of patrol planes and radar enforcement of the speed limit. The Atlanta Jaycees would repeat the previous year's highway coffee break stands to slow down speeding motorists and wake up sleepy ones. Connecticut, which boasted the nation's safest highways, had adopted a new safety slogan which was applicable all the time, being, "Drive safely—the car behind you may be a police car." "Ghost" police cars would be waiting for unwary drivers on the New York State Thruway, with authorities believing that the mere sight of a police car would cause speeders to slow down, even if they were unoccupied. Governor David Lawrence of Pennsylvania had called out all State Police to operate in 900 marked and unmarked cars.
Bill Godwin of The News reports that some people did not know why the nation celebrated the Fourth of July. An elderly man had said: "Well, it was supposed to have been Independence Day—the end of hostilities. But it ain't been that-a-way." A man on Independence Square had said: "Armistice Day. I know one thing: I have a birthday right after it." Fifty Charlotte residents in the downtown area had been asked about the meaning of the holiday the previous afternoon and answers fell into four general categories, with 62 percent answering "independence", 18 percent saying they did not know, 18 percent having given completely wrong answers and 2 percent having said they did not have time to respond. An 11-year old boy, said: "It's when we shoot firecrackers. You know, a lot of boys get hurt. I learned in school that it's when the new year is coming up." A service station attendant said: "Suppose it's a holiday just like Sunday cause we don't work. We just go to church and I'm going to—from sunup to sundown." A parking lot attendant had said: "Well, people are just too lazy to work. I'll rest all day." On West Trade Street, a middle-aged, portly woman had shouted, "That's the day the old bells rang independence!" An interrupted dance instructor had said: "Would you mind calling back? I just don't have the time right now. I'm busy." A young businessman walking briskly up Trade Street had stopped and replied, "The Fourth of July is celebrated in commemoration of the signing of the independence." A college professor had said, "We celebrate the Declaration of Independence." Of the 50 people questioned, though the answers of 31 had been partially correct, only one had mentioned the year 1776 and only one had named Great Britain as the country from which the U.S. had declared its independence. One gentleman, who had been living in the U.S. for over 40 years, had said: "Independence Day. It represents the same day as our March 25 in Greece." A waitress had taken her time getting to the point, saying: "I don't know. I hadn't thought about it very much. It's not Memorial Day… It's Independence Day." There had been many replies such as: "Vacation, I reckon"; "Declaration of Independence"; "Independence Day"; "Independence"; "Don't know"; and "Beats me". One lady had said, "I don't know." Then to the woman beside her, said, "Go ask somebody." A construction worker, after racking his brain, said: "It's sump'n 'bout the flag. I don't know. I heard 'bout it in school." One lady had seemed concerned about the matter, saying: "It's Independence Day. It's sort of a political thing. No—we love our country so much and it's democratic, so we remember it." Two men, unknown to each other, proved that there was strength in numbers, as each had replied, "The day the slaves were freed." He paraphrases what the Encyclopedia Americana said about the holiday.
Dick Rigby of The News reports that weather conditions would be nearly ideal for the holiday, according to the weather man. Skies would be fair and nights would be cool, with daytime temperatures normal or lower than normal. This date was to be fair and the following day and Sunday would likewise be fair. The high on Sunday would be around 85. The following morning, it would be about 66. The previous night's thunderstorms had cleared the area of rain for the weekend, with more needed rain coming on Monday or Tuesday to the area.
James Harris, local businessman and insurance executive, had been named by John Belk, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce sports and recreation committee, as chairman of the NCAA District Three event, planning for which was beginning, even though as yet Charlotte had not been named as the locus for it. Mr. Belk and Dr. Tom Scott, Davidson College athletics director, were headed to Colorado Springs, Colo., during the morning to ask the NCAA to bring the basketball regional playoffs back to Charlotte for the third time.
On the editorial page, "Tobacco Farmers Must Face Their Fate" indicates that the state's beleaguered tobacco farmers had to swallow the recent Presidential veto and begin to face up to their troubles. The issue in the President's veto of the Democratic bill to reestablish parity supports for tobacco and wheat had to be picked from a confusing maelstrom of currents in the farm picture.
It indicates that the issue was between variable price supports as designed by Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson, presently in effect, and a return to a program which, if the bill had passed, would have frozen tobacco prices at 1958 market levels. North Carolina tobacco growers, who had favored the recently vetoed bill, argued that under the variable system of supports, prices in the ensuing fall markets would rise and that those rising prices would further jeopardize the faltering export markets.
Mr. Benson had apparently been anxious to force the farm-subsidy issue to a crisis before the taxpayers. His variable supports had done little for the small farmers but had piled the surplus warehouses high with wheat and tobacco. The only conclusion one could draw, virtually admitted by the Secretary, was that his aim was to aid the tendency toward "factory" farming in the country. Behind variable price supports stood an unmistakable indifference to the small tobacco farmer's fate, as Mr. Benson was convinced that the industry had already grown too large for its own good. He was a front man for the Midwestern factory-farmers, and tillers of the 40-acre type could expect little mercy from his policies.
But if North Carolina farmers would look ahead, his austere policies were not without benefit. Even if he had not swayed the President to veto the parity bill, the victory of tobacco farmers would have been only one in the losing battle which small farms all over the country were fighting. The small farm, as a "way of life", was condemned to slow ruin because there were few to carry its torch politically. The continuing march to the city left the vast majority of American voters caring less than nothing about the small farmer's problems. Urban renewal, housing, highways, and education were all hotter issues in Washington than the small farmers.
In tobacco specifically, American growers had lost between 10 and 12 percent of the export market during the previous seven years, while consumption had increased 5 percent during the same time period. Higher prices in the following year could only debilitate American competition further, in its battle against the cheaper Rhodesian and Canadian tobacco.
For North Carolina farmers, the future was not pretty to behold. It suggests that if they were wise, however, they had to behold it straightforwardly. It might be that truck and animal farming, diversification in general, would provide the answer. "Certainly the bright leaf is dimmer than ever."
"The Beat Heard around the World" finds that American jazz had come of age. Senator Theodore Francis Green of Rhode Island, 91, until recently, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had been on hand for the sixth annual Newport Jazz Festival during the week, announcing his pleasure that CBS Radio was making its broadcasts of the performances available to the Voice of America for international transmission.
The Senator said: "In these discordant times, it is well to weigh the unique ability of jazz to communicate with all peoples at home and abroad. Jazz sums up the American character by emphasizing the combination of adventure and teamwork, elements which are basic to our progressive past. Throughout the world jazz continues to attract and fascinate growing numbers of enthusiasts from all walks of life. World travelers report that this universally understood music is one of the important aspects of fine relations. It breaks down the barrier created by man's tendency to distrust unfamiliar manners, customs and philosophies."
It indicates that middlebrows in the country who habitually looked down their noses at the nation's only native art form might have been somewhat mystified, but that the Senator had spoken the truth. American jazz, not to be confused with rock 'n' roll or the mass-produced trifles of Tin Pan Alley, had achieved special significance abroad. Its strange origins, its flowing rhythms, its completely uninhibited character had made it the subject of great curiosity and enthusiasm wherever it was performed. European intellectuals dissected it, young people danced to it and almost everyone listened to it. It was so characteristically American that it was banned in Germany, Italy and Japan during World War II and was frowned upon at present in the Soviet Union.
When a large jazz orchestra led by Dizzy Gillespie had toured the Middle East in 1956 for the State Department, the effect had been described by top U.S. diplomats in the area as "magical". For one thing, Arabs, reared on Communist propaganda about "racial wars" in America, were thus amazed to see four white and 12 black musicians performing together. U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Donald Heath, said, "This music makes our job much easier."
A diplomatic correspondent of the New York Times had written from Geneva in 1955: "America's secret weapon is a blue note in a minor key. Right now its most successful ambassador is Louis Armstrong… This is not a pipe dream from a back room jam session. It is the studied conclusion of a handful of thoughtful Americans from Moscow to Madrid…"
It indicates that the international
appeal of jazz was not to be sneered at or underrated, for to be
interested in jazz was to be interested in the United States.
Consequently, Charlotte residents enjoying cool applications of
Newport jazz But isn't it the case that if some guy repeatedly plays on the bar's jukebox the Storyville favorite
"Frederick C. Abbott Helped Us Grow" indicates that Mr. Abbott had been more than a community builder, that he was also a planner, creative thinker, source of continuous inspiration, with vision and enterprise which had laid the foundation for Charlotte's surging progress in recent years. His business was real estate, and land was as much the source of the city's greatness as it was a farmer's livelihood.
Mr. Abbott had known the importance of land and improvements to land, as well as people, supplying the elements which benefited the whole community. There were monuments to his success all over Charlotte, though they did not bear his name. He was known in the business community as the founder of organized real estate in the city and those whose memory went back as far as the early years of the century knew how long and how diligently he had served.
But he was not a native of the city, having come to Charlotte as a young man and risen rapidly in the business world. During the Depression of the 1930's, when real estate values had plunged sharply downward, he had accepted the consequences cheerfully and with optimism, and after the Depression, continued to maintain a successful business. He continued to contribute greatly to the progress of the community and his confidence in the city and its future had never dimmed. It indicates that he would be missed by everyone.
A piece from the Hartford Courant, titled "Make It a Cabbage", finds that the days were gone when one could get along with a quack-quack here and a grunt-grunt there on "Old McDougall's" farm. Now, one had to plant the north 40 in two-dimensional tomatoes or else one's Congressman was not going to send those free packets of seeds anymore. It finds that certain members of Congress had the Agriculture Department in Washington on the carpet. The House Space Committee had rapped the Department for not pressing ahead fast enough with futuristic foods for future space dwellers.
Representative James Fulton of Pennsylvania had told the Department recently to get going with space food projects, suggesting that perhaps entirely new forms of vegetables might be grown in orbit around the earth, on the moon and on the planets. He said, "Maybe we could develop a tomato that is almost two-dimensional, a million miles long and as thin as paper, a vegetable that would take advantage of the sun's intense rays in space." On second thought, he added, "Or maybe vegetables grown in space would have to be very small." He conceded that his suggestion might invite ridicule, but said, "Original thinking always brings a laugh."
It encourages the Congressman to cheer up, as they had laughed at Robert Fulton's invention also.
The Congressman had also suggested that to find out how well food could be preserved in space, a geranium might be placed in the last stage of rockets used to launch satellites. "Bosh! The thing to plant is a cabbage. Then we'll be bound to get ahead in the race to the moon."
Drew Pearson indicates that Governor Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut, who had been elected by a heavy Catholic vote in that state, had become the unofficial ambassador for Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Journeying all the way to California in quest of presidential delegates for the 1960 Democratic convention, Governor Ribicoff had interviewed Governor Pat Brown, also a Democrat, and Roger Kent, the Democratic state chairman, but neither had given him any satisfaction. Mr. Kent was blunt in telling Governor Ribicoff that Senator Kennedy had better stay out of the state. He said: "We are for Pat Brown, lock, stock, and barrel. That goes too for the state central committee and all other leading Democrats. And if Kennedy comes in here, will give him a good licking. If he comes in, it will also open the state wide to other candidates, and we'll beat Kennedy with Hubert Humphrey or someone else." Governor Ribicoff was polite but tough, refusing to promise that Senator Kennedy would stay out of the California primary.
Later, Mr. Kent had flown to Washington where he talked personally to Senator Kennedy, repeatedly warning with a smile: "We're all going to be on the Brown delegation. The instinct of self-preservation is very strong, and we're going to do our best to beat anyone who comes into the state." Senator Kennedy, in equal good humor, explained that he felt that he had to enter the state primaries or otherwise would be killed off at the convention by party leaders in the smoke-filled rooms. If, however, he had enough delegates prior to the convention, he believed it would be difficult for the party leaders to kill him in the secret huddles.
While the Democratic Party had been talking about cracking down on big business, its representatives in Congress had been doing exactly the opposite. The most recent public demonstration of that fact had been the Democratic vote to retain the "George Humphrey amendment", which gave a 4 percent tax preference to those who derived income from the stock market. Another unpublicized move had taken place backstage when Democratic Senators "marked up" the appropriation bill for the Justice Department. The President, whom the Democrats had attacked as the friend of big business, had requested $300,000 in additional funding for enforcement of the antitrust laws against big business, but the Democrats on the Appropriations Committee, working in a closed-door session, had cut out the $300,000. The House had granted the $300,000, but big business-minded Democrats in the Senate had turned it down.
Doris Fleeson indicates that any idea that Vice-President Nixon had outlived the controversy accompanying his rough climb to power had been dissipated anew by the violent outburst of Chief Justice Earl Warren against the latest biographer of the Vice-President, Earl Mazo, at a recent Washington party, as recently set forth on the front page. The Chief Justice had said that he resented having his name used in an effort to make Mr. Nixon President. When Mr. Mazo had protested that he had tried to write an honest book, the ordinarily benign Chief had responded, "You're a damned liar." He had added that it was a "dishonest account to promote Nixon."
She finds that the circumstances of the exchange emphasized again how Mr. Nixon inflicted wounds which did not heal and how even an innocent bystander, in this instance, Mr. Mazo, could again inflame those wounds. The Chief Justice and Mr. Mazo had never met until the party the previous weekend and the Chief Justice had not read all of the book in question—the subject of an editorial book review on the page the prior Saturday. He had only read the extensive excerpts which had been published by Look Magazine and in reviews by critics.
In the prolonged and heated exchange, heard by many of the other guests at the party, the Chief Justice had made it clear that he felt that Mr. Mazo had fallen completely for a Nixon line, which the Chief repeatedly said was an injustice to him, with his outrage having led him to break a silence which he had maintained for many years regarding the Vice-President.
Mr. Mazo was an able and sunny-dispositioned reporter for the New York Herald Tribune, who had been asked by Harper's to do the book on Mr. Nixon. He had been amazed and grieved that the Chief Justice, a public figure whom, he said, he revered, would be so upset by his book. Mr. Mazo had known at the start that politicians generally, along with many others, felt strongly for or against Mr. Nixon. He did not expect to please everyone, but he thought he had solved his problem by not taking a point of view toward his subject in the book with his own special insights, instead writing what was essentially a documentary, factual and thoroughly researched.
She finds much conversation in Washington at present to be about "the ethics" of publishing stories developed at a purely social affair. The hosts, correspondent Barnet Nover of the Denver Post and his wife, felt that their silver wedding anniversary, the occasion for the party, was all too memorable. But politicians and the press had moved "within the great white light which beat upon a throne", and such stories had been and always would be published sooner or later. In fact, it had been upon the note of the responsibility which a public man owed to history that the dramatic dispute between the author and the Chief Justice had ended, and it was Mr. Nover who had diplomatically guided it into precisely that channel.
Mr. Mazo had complained that the Chief Justice had refused to talk to him about the book and the Chief Justice had replied that he was "handcuffed" by his position on the high court.
Mr. Nover conceded that the position was difficult but argued that every public figure owed to the public the true facts of what had happened, and that when men who knew the inside story and had the facts on which judgments could be based, they had to yield to the greater good.
She finds that the public now had at least one fact believed by Mr. Warren to be true, that the Nixon version of some recent history "ain't necessarily so".
We might note that there is a major
difference between Trump and Mr. Nixon, in that once in awhile, Mr.
Nixon would impart the truth about things, though erratically,
whereas Trump follows a firm rule never to do so, to lie when the
truth suits the best. A good example is his and his sycophants'
recent line now to blame President Biden for the current high
inflation and rising unemployment 19 months into the Trump term, both
substantially higher than in the last year of the Biden
Administration. We are going nowhere fast backwards under Trump,
their lies to the contrary notwithstanding, based primarily on
Trump's illegal war against Iran and his illegal tariff wars, not to
mention his Big Billionaire Bill. Immigration?
And speaking of little "Bobby" Welch and his spreading vile bile through time, and Lou'sianar pols trying to stay out of mental institutions as best they can, by hook or crook, this rangy goony loonybird
Despite his unbearded state, incidentally, little "Bobby" graduated from UNC a year ahead of another fellow student, a future Senator. Both studied at Harvard Law School, but the early graduate dropped out, probably after being asked off the bat to brief Hadley v. Baxendale. A future chancellor of the Chapel Hill campus was also in the class. Also a future Governor, predecessor to the current Governor here in 1959, also a fellow student, and who had, in 1954, appointed the Senator originally to his seat upon the death of Shelby native, Clyde Hoey. And the rest, as they say...
A letter writer encloses an open letter to the members of the Legislature, especially to Representative Watts Hill, Jr. In it, she indicates that the 1959 session had been considered amusing by some while others were a little bitter and highly concerned about it. She wants to know why the basic issues were being dodged, indicates that there were many educated, well-thinking citizens in the state and that their greatest sin was sending to Raleigh men who were not qualified to do the job. She believes that the State Board of Education had for a long time known that the schools lacked quality and quantity and wonders why the General Assembly had not faced those facts. She says there was no time for a long-range program, that the time was now and that the people were their children, that they could not wait to be educated at the whim of the representatives. "Time passes too quickly and we need action, not promises of things to come."
You are so right. We have only about
two months left before we have to start up in there. Something must
be done now. They are going to have us going to sessions in the
morning part of the year and then in the afternoon the other part of
the year, such that we have idle hands
A letter writer finds that the vote of the citizens the prior Tuesday in Mecklenburg County on the bond issue and the increased property tax to 54 cents per $100 of valuation had been very gratifying to those whose prime responsibility was to provide better education for the children. He finds that the favorable vote had been the result in no small measure of the fine coverage in the newspaper, both on the news pages and in the editorial column.
A letter writer indicates that as alert critics had told of how the insidious teachings of the Communists had been given to the children in books such as the story of the black rabbit and the white rabbit living together and loving each other, he wonders why such critics had never learned that the Holy Bible was a mixture of black ink on white paper, written by people of foreign lands, with no regard whatever for the American way of life and especially some of the Scriptures of the New Testament, appearing as red as could be. "Our guess is that they have not yet had time to read and study the Holy Writ."
A letter writer from Washington indicates that he had heard of a banker who had undergone a complete checkup and then anxiously awaited the doctor's verdict, eventually told that he was "as sound as a dollar," to which the banker had replied, "Gracious, as bad as that?" He promptly fainted. He says that bankers had their opinion about what inflation did to the value of the dollar and that so should the rest of the country, deciding for themselves what the dollar at present was worth in terms of its 1939 purchasing power and what it might be worth 10 or 20 years hence.
A letter writer from Salisbury concedes the right of a man to smoke if he bothered no one other than himself, but asserts that no man had a right to smoke and force others to be sick from the fumes of the smoking. "Such people should not be allowed to buy smoking tobacco and should be fined, and put in jail until they learn better. On every bus and in every restaurant, we have to put up with these chain smokers who have to be puffing all the time." He recounts that he had seen two ladies of the highest type get up and leave their dinners in a restaurant because a man in the next booth was puffing on an old pipe and two others were smoking cigarettes. "Don't non-smokers have any rights at all?"
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