The Charlotte News
Thursday, July 9, 1959
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page
reports from Atlanta that a Federal District Court judge this date
had ordered the Atlanta Board of Education to submit a desegregation
plan by December 1. The judge said that the plan ought "provide
for a prompt and reasonable start toward desegregation of the public
schools of the city of Atlanta and a systematic and effective method
for achieving such desegregation with all deliberate speed,"
tracking the language of Brown v. Board of Education's
implementing decision of 1955. The order had enjoined the defendants
from enforcing and pursuing racial segregation in operation of the
schools, saying that the defendants would be allowed a reasonable
time to comply with the order and bring about a transition "to a
school system not operated on the basis of race." The order was
not a final judgment and the court retained jurisdiction for the
purpose of entering any further orders or granting "such further
relief as may be necessary to bring about compliance with this
decree." The order said that following the filing of the plan
with the court, further hearing would be held. Attorneys for the
plaintiffs had asked the court to require presentation of an
integration plan by October 1, but the attorney for the Board of
Education had objected to the plan on Tuesday. The judge, in his
original order for desegregating Atlanta schools, had indicated that
he would not call for blacks and whites to attend the same schools
the following September. Governor Ernest Vandiver's only comment was
that he had called a meeting of attorneys to discuss recent
developments. Present state law provided for the closing of any
schools ordered to be integrated. The desegregation plan, according
to the order, "may be contingent upon the enactment of statutes
permitting such a plan to be put into operation." The
vice-chairman of the Board of Education said that although he had not
talked with the Board's lawyers, he felt that the December 1 date was
set so that there could be "something going on by the time the
Legislature meets in January." Mayor William Hartsfield of
Atlanta had called for modification of the law to permit people in
the affected communities to decide whether they preferred integrated
or closed schools. Since a large part of the state taxes were
collected in the Atlanta metropolitan area, a lawsuit undoubtedly
would be brought to block expenditure of those taxes outside the city
in the event that Atlanta schools were closed, as it would impact
schools outside Atlanta. Following the judge's original order the
previous month, Governor Vandiver had said that he might propose new
segregation legislation at the 1960 session of the General Assembly
as a result of the order, but did not indicate what his
recommendations might include. Following submission of the desegregation plan the following December, the court determined that certain amendments to it were necessary and provided until January 6 to make those amendments. Subsequently, in January, the plan would be approved by the court and the plantiffs had sought its implementation in September, 1960, but the court had delayed it until September, 1961, to afford the State Legislature and the localities time to choose whether to close schools or integrate in accordance with the approved plan. This here's "all deliberate speed", Georgia-style, the best we can do, son, five years, ten years, twenty, what the hell? The Legislature and the Gov'nors creep in their petty pace. The subsequent explanatory opinion for the one-year delay, to try to allow Georgia time to reach a position whereby the schools would remain open, notes at its end that in August, 1960, a Federal District Court in Louisiana had found the closure of the public schools invalid and enjoined Governor Jimmie Davis
In Baton Rouge, La., it was reported that Governor Earl Long, beset by grievous mental and physical ailments, was admittedly in failing physical health, but how badly or rapidly was not quite clear. Washington political sources had heard the previous night that the Governor, 63, was failing fast. A visitor, State Representative Lloyd Teekell, had said: "He's in pretty bad shape." Shortly thereafter, when several doctors had hovered over the Governor and several relatives had arrived, speculation had arisen that his condition had become critical. Then Representative Spencer Myrick had emerged from the Governor's mansion and explained that a dentist was fitting a new set of false teeth for the Governor and that other doctors were laughing and joking with him. The Governor's condition, however, had been viewed gravely. A five-man team of doctors had examined him late the previous day and then expressed concern, saying: "He seems more fatigued than he has been prior to this time. The Governor has again been strongly urged to curtail his activities and to rest." It had been the strongest medical bulletin to reach the public since the Governor had been stricken with mild heart failure on July 1. Five days previous to that, he had won freedom from a mental institution in Louisiana, after he had been diagnosed as insane. The previous day, the examining doctors, who had spent 2.5 hours with the Governor, had stated: "All friends, well-wishers and associates are emphatically urged to speed his recovery by remaining away from Governor Long." Physicians previously had issued guarded statements, indicating only that the Governor was not snapping back as rapidly as had been hoped from his heart ailment. The Governor's aides had gone all out to depict him as improving daily with rest and taking an increasingly active role in State government.
In Chesterfield, S.C., it was reported that the prospect of a prison term which could range up to 30 years was faced this date by the jovial former probate judge, who had been convicted of slaying his long-time friend. The all-male jury had taken only an hour and 40 minutes on Wednesday to find the defendant guilty of voluntary manslaughter, following a two-day trial. If he had been found guilty of murder, he could have faced the death penalty. He had received the verdict calmly. He had claimed that the shooting had been accidental, the result of a tragic joke which had gone too far. He had testified that he was showing off a .25-caliber pistol to his old friend, a funeral director, who had asked him to obtain the gun for him, and had said jokingly: "I've been due you a killing for a long time and I think I'll let you have it." He then claimed that the funeral director had struck at the pistol and it had accidentally discharged, with the defendant not realizing that the gun was loaded. The bullet had hit his old friend in the stomach and he died about two weeks later. Defense attorneys, including T. Lamar Caudle, former head of the Justice Department's criminal division, and at another time, the tax division, for conduct during which he, himself, was awaiting appeal of his criminal conviction for defrauding the Government, had tried to picture the defendant as a happy-go-lucky character given to outlandish pranks but was incapable of murder. The prosecutor had argued that testimony by witnesses and by the fatally wounded victim showed that the defendant had intended to murder him. He argued that the defendant's old friend would have said that it was an accident if it had been, and the victim, before he had died, had indicated that the defendant had made a statement that he intended to kill him, just before firing the pistol. The minimum he could receive for his voluntary manslaughter conviction was two years in prison. The presiding judge would hear arguments for a new trial during the afternoon this date and would then pass sentence if he denied the motion. The attorneys for the defendant said that they would appeal the conviction should the motion be denied. It should be noted, without having access to the judge's instructions to the jury or state law at the time, that, typically, voluntary manslaughter involves reckless homicide or a killing during "heat of passion" without sufficient cooling time, as opposed to involuntary manslaughter, typically a negligent homicide. Thus, the jury appears to have settled on some form of reckless or heat of passion conduct, and not simply negligent conduct, the difference being that negligence is acting without the requisite reasonable care under the circumstances whereas reckless conduct implies knowing disregard of prudent conduct, knowing the risk and acting without regard to it. Under current South Carolina law, voluntary manslaughter is only heat of passion homicide and involuntary manslaughter is a killing caused by either reckless or negligent conduct. Whether that was the rule in 1959, we do not know. Regardless, while juries are supposed to follow the instructions of the court in all cases, the jury's ultimate determination is considered sacrosanct, and, absent some glaring inconsistency in multiple verdicts in the same case, cannot be disturbed on appeal for failure to follow the instructions, allowing for jury nullification at times, appeals regarding the trial proceedings, aside from basic constitutional issues, being limited generally to legal errors by the court, itself, in stating the proper instructions or other legal errors such as the admission of prejudicial, inadmissible evidence. Juror misconduct affecting the verdict, of course, such as improper discussion of the case outside or before the normal jury deliberations, is another issue, typically raised collaterally by way of habeas corpus, as it usually involves evidence outside the record.
In Charleston, S.C., it was reported that tropical storm Cindy, which had been a hurricane for only a few hours, had crawled northward this date through the Carolinas after swirling north of Charleston the previous night. While the storm had done little damage, it had been responsible for the highway death of a lawyer from Georgetown, S.C., who had been killed when his car hit a tree which had been blown across U.S. 17 about 20 miles north of Charleston, where the storm had come ashore. At one time on Wednesday, Cindy had reached hurricane strength of 75 mph, but by the time it had hit the coast at Bull Bay the previous night, it had lost its punch, with gusts ranging between 60 and 70 mph. The storm had then begun moving inland and breaking up, and tides had quickly begun receding after reaching a peak of 2 1/2 feet above normal at Georgetown. During the late morning, the storm had been located off north-central South Carolina with its center northeast of Columbia, and had been moving toward the northwest at about 8 mph, expected to move toward the north at about the same speed during the afternoon, but with some increase in forward speed likely this night. The movement would bring the remnants of Cindy into central Virginia by Friday morning.
Julian Scheer of The News reports from Cherry Grove Beach that by noon this date Cindy was just an overcast memory, with the sun flashing on South Carolina's sparkling beaches and the surf full of bathers again. He provides a rundown of how the South Carolina beaches looked hours after the storm had flirted with the coast. If you are headed that way, you might wish to check that out.
The storm had whipped gusty winds and light showers into Charlotte this date, and about .25 inch of rain had fallen, with the Weather Bureau indicating that showers would continue during the afternoon and evening, with rain diminishing this night, with occasional showers through the following day. The rain, which had begun in the wee hours, had brought an end to a long dry spell and although it did not arrive in time to help some crops, it had brought welcome relief to heat-parched residents. A high of 85, seven degrees under the previous day's high of 92, was forecast for the afternoon, with a cool 68 predicted for the following morning. The following day was also forecast to have a high of 85.
Dick Rigby of The News reports that stumbling blocks had been thrown in the way of the City Council's plan to hike parking meter costs this date. The City Treasurer, L. L. Ledbetter, had said that he had felt no financial gain would be realized in ending penny parking by charging a nickel at all meters. The executive secretary of the Merchants Association said that if enough merchants complained, a delegation would descend on the City Council. The City Attorney, John Shaw, said that State law prevented charging more than a nickel for an hour of parking and that many city meters in the downtown section had a 36-minute limit. A spot check among merchants indicated that most of them disliked the proposal of a nickel for an hour of parking. One large men's store manager said, "It looks like City Council is trying to keep people from coming downtown to shop." Mayor James Smith had latched onto the idea of eliminating penny parking and substituting the nickel charge. In their discussion, the members of the Council had agreed, with the exception of Claude Albea. They would go ahead with the plan, provided the meter heads could be converted cheaply. The acting City Manager, George Livingston, said this date that the meters could be converted without trouble. Mr. Ledbetter had said, however, that some of the meters would be difficult to change and that the increase would not produce the anticipated revenue. The plan had been seized on the previous night as a means of cutting the city tax rate, with Council members estimating that about $7,000 could be netted through the plan, cutting the City tax rate by 1.5 cents.
Bob Slough of The News reports that after men reached 30, they were harder for women to nail down for marriage, according to Mecklenburg's marriage license statistics for June. Of the 131 marriage licenses issued the previous month, 114 had gone to men between the ages of 16 and 29 while 12 had been issued to men between 30 and 39, seven to men between 40 and 49, two to men between 50 and 59, three to men between 60 and 69, and one to a man who was a septuagenarian. He finds that it could mean one of several things, including that the available men got picked off early, that the elusive ones became more elusive as they became older. Younger women also got picked off early. Of the 131 women listed on marriage licenses, 55 had been between the ages of 16 and 19, 68, between 20 and 29, after 29, the odds becoming greater. Seven marriage licenses had been issued to women in their 30's, five to women in their 40's, two to women in their 50's, one to a woman 64 and one to a woman who was 71. The marriage license business at the Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds office had picked up during the previous June as compared with June, 1958, when the office had issued 121 licenses, compared to 131 in the current year. Through June, the office had issued a total of 444 marriage licenses since the beginning of the year.
On the editorial page, "Here Is How Charlotte Can Improve Its Whole Law Enforcement System" indicates that the city deserved the kind of law enforcement system which new Police Chief Jesse James wanted to give it. The modernization program which he had unveiled before the City Council during the week was neither lavish nor particularly ambitious, based on recognized minimums of efficiency and effectiveness. It indicates that for too long, those minimums had been overlooked or willfully ignored.
If the Council's budgeteers were jolted by the size and scope of the improvements, it was probably just as well. Governmental bodies frequently had to be shocked into an awareness of certain conditions. While conditions were not tragically bad in law enforcement in the city, it finds that they ought be a great deal better. The Council had brought Chief James from his post in Burlington to make them better. To do so, he would need a larger share of the municipal budget and if the money was not available, the city might as well put the responsibility for law enforcement back in the hands of some amiable caretaker who was content to rock along as the Department had in the past, in which event, Mr. James was not the man for the job.
The major emphasis in his program provided some indication of its fundamental soundness, with his emphasis having been on training, wanting a $12,000 allowance and a full-time training officer for the purpose. The Greensboro Police Department had been completely modernized with excellent results several years earlier, and had a $49,000 budget for that same purpose. In Charlotte, only $1,500 was presently earmarked for training.
There had been in the past a preference for physical strength and common sense over training, backed up by a billy club, a six-shooter and a pocket manual. A few years earlier, a police commissioner had told the New York Crime Commission how he trained each new recruit: "I say to him that he is a policeman, and I hope he will be a credit to the force. I tell him that he doesn't need anybody to tell him how to enforce the law; that all he needs to do is to go out on the street and keep his eyes open. I say, 'You know the Ten Commandments, don't you? Well, if you know the Ten Commandments and you go out on your beat and you see somebody violating those commandments, you can be sure that he is also violating the law.'"
It finds that such inadequate "training" produced patrolmen who were as poorly equipped for police work as the commissioner who had provided it. Without discounting the value of common sense or knowledge of biblical ethics, it asserts that something more was required, that the detection and prevention of crime was a job for specialists, not well-meaning amateurs.
New police officers needed instruction in police powers and duties, elementary law, rules of evidence, legal procedure, first aid, handling of prisoners, criminal identification and any number of other essentials. Most metropolitan police departments touched all of those bases, but to do a completely satisfactory job required time, organization, equipment and special personnel.
Berkeley, Calif., was a trailblazer in the nation in that field, with a comprehensive three-year curriculum for policemen, showing the nation what could be accomplished and why it was important.
Chief James had listed other organizational improvements, some major and some minor, with one of the more reasonable items being the suggestion that the traffic ticket office be removed from the Department and placed under civilian supervision, thus not taking up an officer's valuable time in collecting fines.
The Chief had taken stock quickly and had come up with a set of sound remedies. He might not receive everything he had sought, including new badges, but he had served a notice on the Council and the community that he intended to do the job for which he was hired, improving law enforcement in Charlotte.
"It's the School System's Move Now" finds that the suggestion that City School officials were stalling on the question of feeding needy children was serious. It finds it difficult to believe that it was the case, but nevertheless urges that a comprehensive statement of the school system's position on the matter, with an announcement of its intentions, be made at once.
Minutes released to the press the previous day by the Social Planning Council committee studying the problem had left an honest doubt in the public's mind that school authorities were doing everything possible to effect a solution. Particularly damaging to the community's confidence was the recorded statement, unattributed, that the committee had "observed a long drawn-out stall leading to nothing." It amounted to an accusation of indifference and demanded an answer.
The citizens committee had studied the problem of the county's hungry children for more than six months, and its report, formally submitted to the Council the previous day, contained 14 recommendations, with the committee finding: "It is entirely clear that a need exists and that this need has not been met. It is equally clear that the responsibility for meeting this need rests with the school authorities."
A convincing case had been built for early and effective action on the part of school officials and furthermore, the various courses of action had been outlined in some detail. The community, it urges, needed to know whether that action was going to be taken.
"This Burial Ground Should Be Watched" indicates that since the coastal waters off the state were to provide the Atomic Energy Commission a burial ground for radioactive waste, North Carolinians would take more than passing notice of a recent story from Oregon, where, in the small coastal town of Port Orford, which had made ready during the week to reenact an 1851 battle between pioneers and Indians, a strange white barrel had washed up on the shore. In American fiction, the deep had disgorged mysterious vessels since Edgar Allen Poe. People were accustomed to bottles containing treasure maps or the woes of shipwrecked sailors, but on the barrel in question, there had been stenciled: "Danger—radioactive waste. AEC." Coast Guard Geiger counters rushed in, as the people of the town gathered to watch, showed that the barrel was radioactive.
It suggests that no one would indicate as a result that such barrels were thus fated to wash up on the shores of Cape Hatteras, but the incident in Oregon showed that one of the private dumping firms licensed by the AEC to bury nuclear waste had not taken all the care needed to see that human beings were not harmed. The accident in Oregon ought be noted, it indicates, in Raleigh, where the state's officials preferred the Carolina coast country to be all merriment, history, and, at worst, haunted by Edward Teach, the pirate, and not deadly waste.
A piece from the Greensboro Daily News, titled "Charlotte-Mecklenburg: Which Is Which?" finds that no one could tell where Charlotte and Mecklenburg County began and ended as it had authorized their seventh major bond issue for schools since 1946, a total of 8 million dollars. Successful bond issues were nothing new in Mecklenburg, but the latest bond issue had incorporated something new for that county and for the state, consolidation of City and County Schools.
It congratulates Charlotte-Mecklenburg as the pace-setter in the move towards simplifying some of the top-heavy super-structure presently fast developing around county and city government. In Mecklenburg, the problem was far simpler than in other localities where a single city had less dominance than Charlotte had in its county. Guilford, for example, contained two large cities, Greensboro and High Point, in a county area unlikely soon to approve any swallowing-up process, regardless of anticipated benefits.
It finds that the pioneering move in Mecklenburg had vast significance for a state where too many counties and too many city-county governments made for a maze of uneconomical and inefficient units. The state could well afford a few county-county or county-city consolidations, not only in areas of school management, but it finds such consolidations, if feasible, to be far into the future.
In the meantime, it finds that Charlotte-Mecklenburg had demonstrated the spirit necessary to deal with government's growing complexity, and the rest of the state would eagerly watch the results.
Drew Pearson, in Boston, indicates that as a result of a traffic accident, he had spent part of the Fourth of July weekend in the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. It did not mean that New England automobiles were more deadly than bureaucrats' brickbats, but rather that his wife ought be more careful about riding such an old-fashioned means of locomotion as a bicycle. She had emerged battered, yet all in one piece, but was pondering his advice that jet planes were presently safer than bicycles.
While he had been sitting in the hospital, the people of Boston, leaving for long weekends or sitting on the banks of the Charles River listening to the delightful pops concerts, were only mildly interested in the statement of Nikita Khrushchev to Averell Harriman that Russia would gain supremacy over the U.S. in a relatively few years. They seemed more concerned about news that Mike Higgins had been fired as the manager of the Boston Red Sox. He finds that one could not blame them, as simultaneously their leader in the White House had left for an even longer weekend in Maryland, apparently with no pressing cares other than the rubbers of bridge and the holes of golf he was going to play with his Camp David guests.
That which Khrushchev was saying when he told Mr. Harriman that the U.S.S.R. would surpass the U.S. was that the U.S. was on the road to becoming a second-class power. In Boston, some people seemed a bit shocked at Mr. Khrushchev's boasts to Mr. Harriman and could not believe that the country built up by the courage and energy of those who battled at Lexington could be in danger of becoming a second-class power. But things changed and especially if the country became complacent.
It had almost been two years since Russia had launched its first Sputnik on October 4, 1957, and the U.S. had not launched a satellite anywhere nearly the same size of that first Russian satellite. In that same time period, the U.S. had not yet launched a long-range missile while Russia had launched a dozen. Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy had even stated publicly that the U.S. had no plans for catching up with Russia on long-range missiles. To develop missiles and satellites required the development of scientists, which in turn required accelerated, intensified education.
The commissioner of education, Dr. Lawrence Derthick, an appointee of President Eisenhower, had officially reported that Russia had made amazing strides in education, that its teachers were excellent and that its average of students per classroom was lower than in the U.S. Simultaneously, an aid to education bill, improving both teachers and classrooms, had been blocked in Congress by House Speaker Sam Rayburn, a bachelor, and by Democratic House Majority Leader John McCormick of Boston, the latter on religious grounds.
If one counted the gains of Russia realistically, the boast of Mr. Khrushchev was based on hard, unpleasant facts, but facts which could be changed. No one had dreamed that the little band of farmers who had fought at Lexington or the political upstarts who signed the Declaration of Independence could build a country which would surpass the British Empire as the most powerful nation in the world. The U.S. was still that and was not yet a second-class power. "And we don't have to be—if we substitute the spirit of Concord and Lexington for the spirit of complacency."
Walter Lippmann indicates that few had foreseen how great would be the President's success in dealing with the present Democratic Congress, that although the session was not over, the record already showed that while he could not induce the Congress to do all that he wanted to do, for example to have confirmed Admiral Lewis Strauss as Secretary of Commerce, he had made himself master of the situation on any issue which involved the spending of money, having been able to defeat all of the Democratic measures dealing with defense, foreign aid, social welfare and public improvement.
Since the midterms, the Democrats had large majorities in both houses and yet the President had the upper hand, not because, as DNC chairman Paul Butler had said, the Democrats in the Senate lacked two votes of having a two-thirds majority capable of overriding a veto, as the Democrats had been split on measures requiring money, with an important minority supporting the President.
He ventures that the reason why the Democrats were unable to reap the results of the midterms was that the condition of the country had changed since those elections. The campaigns had been fought at the end of the recession of 1957-58, when there were still large unemployment and reduced business expenditure for plants and equipment. Economists had already detected signs at that time of an upturn in private employment as early as April and May, before there were signs that the recession in capital expenditure had ended. But for the mass of voters and for the politicians who were running for Congress, the recession had still been a reality. No one could say that the Democrats had won their majorities solely because of the recession, though undoubtedly it had helped them. Even now, when the recovery had become a boom, the Democrats in the Congressional contests continued to gain popularity as against the Republicans.
When the Democratic candidates had made their promises to the voters, the country believed that it was fighting the recession. The promises involved increased Federal expenditures for slum clearance, education, health, airports, power development and the like. All of those measures had been attractive and many of them had been necessary in themselves, but they were also useful in creating jobs and in stimulating business.
He indicates that in a recession, the generally accepted remedy was public expenditure of funds financed by borrowed money which showed up as a budgetary deficit. Many rejected that theory but the President and the Administration did not reject it. In 1957, when the recession had been showing itself, the President also was a "spender", and though not avowed except by certain of his own experts, the Administration was by no means opposed to a deficit as one remedy to the recession.
What had been true in November, 1958, however, when the elections had been fought, was no longer true when the victorious Democrats came to power in early 1959. According to the accepted theory, deficits were desirable in a slump and were evil during a boom. That meant that the progressive programs of the Democrats could no longer, as had been taken for granted during the election campaigns, be financed by a budgetary deficit. If the new measures were to be adopted, they would have to be paid for by an increase in taxes. He regards that as the reason why the President had prevailed when the expenditure of money was involved and why the Democrats felt frustrated about the results of their great victory in 1958. Their progressive program might be as desirable as ever, but it now depended not on painless borrowed money, as during the recession, but on painful taxation. Only a handful of Democrats had ever proposed or fought for new taxes to finance their progressive measures.
The great majority of Democrats, as well as all of the Republicans, regarded it as indisputable dogma that the tax rates set in 1954 were untouchable. Thus if they were not willing to raise taxes and also wanted to avoid a deficit during a boom lest it inflate prices, then the extra expenditures for defense, welfare and public services had to be given up.
Among the Democrats, there were two arguments regarding that dilemma, one being the theory of former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to President Truman, Leon Keyserling, which Mr. Lippmann says he did not fully understand, that instead of restrictions to prevent inflation what was needed was bold expansion of public and private investments. That might become a practical political issue in the future, but for the present it was an argument among theoretical economists. The central argument, however, was among the practical politicians. The great majority of them believed in orthodox economics, accepting the dogma that taxes could not be raised, that deficits had to be avoided and that, therefore, the President's vetoes would prevail.
The argument was between Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson and the Democrats especially concerned with elections in Northern states, where the two parties were evenly balanced. Senator Johnson's critics wanted him to pass the progressive measures and let the President veto them, thus building up a demonstration to the voters of what the Democrats wanted to do if only the Republicans would allow it.
He indicates that should that strategy work, it would only be because the voters had been allowed to forget that in good times the spending measures had to be paid for by visible taxes. In bad times, those measures were paid for invisibly out of unemployed labor and unused plants. In good times, without a tax bill attached to them, those progressive measures were not sincere, and the voters would have plenty of people telling them not to be deceived.
His own view was that in the era presently entered, the country would have to spend more on public services and public facilities, and those would have to be financed at the expense of private consumption. It was a rich country privately, but, comparatively, was a poor country in public life. But that was a new conception and it would take big leaders, much public explanation and argument, and fresh blood from the new generations to make it prevail in practical politics.
Robert C. Ruark, in Palamos, Spain, says that things were not like they used to be, even if it meant that he was beginning to suffer from senility in so perceiving. The thought had occurred to him as he had rousted the 65th German tourist out of his backyard during the morning, explaining that his modest road was not an autobahn but merely the access to his humble cottage on Spain's Costa Brava.
When he had first arrived there some seven summers previously, there had only been three hotels in a 20-mile strip, let alone bars, filling stations, nightclubs, miniature golf courses, paved roads and the other horrors of the summer civilization. Now, the paved roads were crowded with Rolls-Royces, Citroens, Mercedes-Benzes, Cadillacs, Austin-Healys and other such automobiles, and one could hear the shrieks of the fleeing pedestrians.
He had started wearing a necktie when he went into one of the villages at night, and, although it was difficult, he had forced his way into shoes. He had taken up shaving because one never knew who one might meet, maybe even somebody to whom one owed money, and he did not want anyone to think that he was on the bum.
He says he did not like dropping names but when he was not playing chess with Artie Shaw and Evelyn Keyes on one side of the street, he was falling in for tea with Madeleine Carroll on the other side, and in one week, they had two baronesses, his in-laws, and Paul Gallico pop in for a touch of ginger beer. He now could meet more people on a street corner in Nairobi than he knew in New York, and taking a safari was about as unique as having had mumps as a child. Things were getting so crowded around the world that twice he had been accused of not being himself. One chap in Hong Kong had said that he couldn't be who he was because it was well known that the fellow who wrote that Mao Mao book was a retired major from the Indian Army who had raised tea in Limuru, Kenya, and accused him of being an impostor. The other chap had stared at him fixedly for awhile in the Hotel Australia in Sydney and then had shaken his head, saying, "I beg your pardon, for a moment I thought you were a bloke named Ruark, but you couldn't be, for he lives in Nairobi."
He indicates that he had come from a fishing village, Southport, N.C., and thought that when he had bought a house in Palamos, also a fishing village, that he had come home to vegetate, but no longer believed it, that the nearly completely unknown Costa Brava had received so much publicity during the previous few years that they were about as chic as anything in Southern Europe and more chic than most. Also, he thought they were richer, because every time he turned his back for ten minutes, a new hotel went up.
"You'll pardon me. A big Bentley just drove into the backyard and a gentleman with a demanding look has alighted. I must go and tell him that this is NOT a hotel, but just a hovel, a poor thing but mine own alone."
A letter writer from Springfield, Mass., quotes from the late Pope Pius XII: "As all can easily see, the current mode of dress among women and especially among girls [during the summer months in particular] constitutes a serious offense against decency. Therefore it is imperative to admonish and exhort in whatever way seems most apt, people of all stations, but particularly youth, to avoid the dangers of this kind of vice, which is so directly opposed and potentially so hazardous to Christian and civic virtue." The writer indicates that in God's plan, women shared His creative power to form and fashion His children and hence were by nature designers and fashioners, that the attraction to fashions could prove very dangerous and needed to be rigidly controlled. "So often it leads to vanity, a form of pride; then it becomes sinful. Vanity in turn, easily leads to immodesty in dress; then it is more sinful. There is a close connection between modesty, decency and chastity."
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.