The Charlotte News
Wednesday, July 10, 1957
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Fort Worth, Tex., that the Air Force this date displayed its first supersonic bomber, with Lt. General C. S. Irvine, head of the Air Force weapons procurement, saying at the official unveiling of the B-58 Hustler that the Convair atomic super-bomber was presently the fastest in the world, and had performed even better than they had expected such that they planned to buy an additional test quantity. He said that they had ordered 13 of the planes for testing and were discussing an order of 17 or 18 more. The plane was being built by the Convair Division of General Dynamics Corp. The general said that the Air Force had found that it was good practice to acquire up to 30 test planes of a promising new type before deciding whether to continue with a production order, and that they would need to decide in the ensuing six months how many test planes they wanted, that if the funds were available and they decided to go into regular production, the B-58 would be available in Air Force wings by 1960. He said he had no cost estimate at present but that it was likely to be close to that of the much larger and slower Boeing B-52 heavy jet bomber. He said that the new plane was designed to approach twice the speed of sound and that they were already at the point where they could make it go faster than it was designed to go.
Democratic supporters had sidestepped a vote on Hells Canyon dam legislation this date by staying away from a House committee meeting, the maneuver keeping the bill alive at least for the present.
In London, the Foreign Office this date denied a newspaper report in London that former Soviet Premier Georgi Malenkov had been offered political asylum in Britain before he had been purged the prior week from his leadership position as a member of the Presidium.
In Tokyo, it was reported that Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi had this date dismissed the Cabinet he had inherited 4 1/2 months earlier from his predecessor, forming an almost completely new Government.
In Neubiberg, West Germany, the U.S. Air Force this date officially closed operation "Safe Haven II", under which 4,616 Hungarian refugees had been flown to the U.S.
In Kings Canyon National Park, Calif., the life of a critically injured mountain climber depended this date on the ability of a helicopter pilot to land and take off on a rugged 14,000-foot peak. A bad Sierra thunderstorm the previous night and the usual vagaries of air currents at the high altitude had posed formidable odds for the rescuers. The 23-year old University of California student had suffered internal and other injuries in his 40-foot fall on Sunday, and a doctor said that he could not live through being moved out manually, as he needed immediate hospitalization. He had been moved from a high ledge by six mountaineers and taken to a camp on Monday, along a trail so steep that the doctor and ranger who had arrived on the scene had to leave their horses behind. The question was whether a helicopter could land and take off at the high altitude even in good weather, with pilots indicating that it could be done with the right type of craft and a good pilot. The Bell G2 was considered good enough to operate at the altitude and its pilot had made several exploratory passes over the area the previous day, dropping supplies and medicine, reporting that it would be difficult to find a safe place to land. The doctor said that if the helicopter could not land, there would be no alternative except to start out with the man on a stretcher, a trip which would take four days.
In Barstow, Calif., it was reported that the mystery of Clark Mountain, involving an intensive search for the survivors of a plane which was supposed to have crashed the previous day, apparently had been solved this date by a brief radio message from the scene that there had been no airplane crash, only a timber fire.
In Hamilton, Bermuda, shore leave offered a break this date for the 556 passengers stranded on a cruise ship since early Monday, with the ship listing hard aground eight miles north of Hamilton on a coral reef.
In Miami, Fla., a circuit judge ruled this date that a six-year old daughter of a Roman Catholic woman could be adopted by a Jewish couple who had raised her since she was ten days old.
In Johnson City, Tenn., another young patient had been admitted to a hospital polio ward this date, bringing the number to 44 such admissions since an outbreak of polio-like symptoms two weeks earlier.
In Topeka, Kans., flash floods had hit the area early this date, driving scores of persons from their homes, including Georgia Neese Clark Gray, former Treasurer of the United States, and her husband. The hardest hit area apparently was Richland, Kans., 18 miles south of Topeka, hometown of the Grays. Unofficially, the rains had ranged up to more than seven inches in some places. In Topeka, dozens of homes had been flooded and police called for boats for use in rescue operations.
In Raleigh, a minister carried his war on Fayetteville beer dealers to the State ABC Board this date, and the chairman of the Board said that he was sending the head of the Board's Malt Beverage Division and the supervising beer inspector for eastern North Carolina to Fayetteville immediately to investigate the claim of the minister that dealers were selling beer to minors.
Julian Scheer of The News reports that in all likelihood, the city limits extension would be the most talked about local news story of the year, a question which would be resolved by the upcoming vote the following Monday. He reviews some of the arguments in favor of the extension and some of those opposed.
Dick Young of The News reports that the City Council had unanimously voted this date to accept an eight-acre tract on Memorial Hospital grounds as the site for the new $666,000 health center, with the site to cost $100,000. The decision followed nearly three years of haggling and a half dozen "final" decisions by the Council. The North Carolina Medical Care Commission had agreed to grant $166,000 to assist in building the facility, which would replace the present quarters of the Health Department on City Hall Square.
In Charlotte, Operation Alert, 1957, was underway as an hypothetical Civil Defense alert, meaning that newspapers were publishing in a safety area without advertising, retail businesses were at a standstill and City and County Governments were operating from relocation centers in Pineville. It was only make-believe for the present, but was a test for the real thing, perhaps to occur the following day.
In Los Angeles, it was reported that the nine-year battle against smog, which had threatened to strangle the community, had brought the health menace under control, according to the Air Pollution Control District, or soon would bring it under control, upon completion of programs presently nearing conclusion. The annual report said that only automobile exhaust remained a major source of smog, as it would continue to be so for at least another four years. Since the anti-smog campaign had been launched in 1948, it had cost an estimated 72.8 million dollars. Industry had invested 50 million dollars in devices to control smoke and fumes and the agency had spent 10.3 million on its control program, with research expenditures by other agencies amounting to 12.5 million. There had not been a smog alert thus far in 1957, whereas at the same point in 1956, there had been three, with ten throughout the previous year, compared with 15 in 1955. The APCD said that there had been fewer days of heavy eye irritation below alert level during the current year than in the previous year.
In Cookham, England, a little girl had deliberately undertaken to give two other children the German measles at a party the previous day, with the results to be known in about three weeks. The two children to be infected, ages eight and six, belonged to a doctor who wanted the pair, plus his other three daughters, to catch the measles in childhood because if they developed it later in life while being expectant mothers, it could damage their unborn babies. The child imparting the disease, 9, invited the other children to look at her spots and said they could have them, to which the doctor's daughter said that she did not want measles, did not want to be sick, to which the infected child said: "You must get them. Otherwise, if you had a baby, it might be blind."
In Flemington, N.J., a 15-month old leghorn hen owned by a hatchery had been taking part in a county egg laying test, and had laid its 250th egg in 250 days, with its handlers claiming that it was on its way to cracking all national and world laying records. A professor in the poultry department of Rutgers University College of Agriculture in New Brunswick was directing the test, saying that as far as he could determine, the chicken had long since established a national record for consecutive eggs, but he had read in a Japanese poultry journal about a hen laying an egg on 365 consecutive days.
In Morristown, N.J., police said that a wading-type game bird from nearby marshlands was stealing goldfish from the municipal building pond.
Everything is in chaos, hopeless,
helpless chaos. The world is about to end. Beat it to the punch. They
are even eating the dogs
On the editorial page, "Perimeter Area Needs Urban Facilities" urges the need for the prettiest suburbs to have sewage services which would keep raw sewage out of the streets, as was now the case, a good argument for the extension of the city limits, coming up for a vote the following Monday. It urges an affirmative vote, if for no other reason, to ensure the health and prosperity of the perimeter residents.
"Sims Mustn't Be Hung by Headlines" indicates that Mecklenburg County ABC Board head Frank Sims had a solid record of accomplishment behind him and wishes to make that clear before he was unduly vilified by headlines announcing his recent indictment in Raleigh for having allegedly registered in a hotel under a false name, in connection with the provision of gifts of liquor to legislators during the recent session of the General Assembly.
Mr. Sims had administered the ABC system efficiently and strictly, and Mecklenburg was a better place for his efforts. The headlines appeared to have ballooned what appeared to be at most an indiscretion into the appearance of a dark and devious occurrence. He might also be exempt from the law if he qualified as a peace officer, which the law excepted.
It indicates that Mr. Sims was open to criticism for placing himself in a position in which his and the ABC system's integrity could be called into question, as its officials had to be above suspicion if it was to continue its good record. But it finds criticism to be one thing and condemnation another, seeing no grounds for the latter.
"New Laurels for a Man of Spirit" finds Charlotte resident Jimmy Dean to have been a good choice for the "handicapped person of the year", being a man of great spirit who had won many prior laurels.
"Normal people can hurt or help a handicapped person, depending on their understanding. But only the sufferer can conquer his handicap. The battle has to be waged with his own spirit." Mr. Dean had won the battle long earlier, being honored for public service in a wide range of activities ever since. While the state award presented to him by Governor Luther Hodges during the week added nothing to the substance of his community contributions, it had served as a reminder of the valiant human struggle which was being carried on everywhere against the pain and isolation of affliction. "The winners, like Jimmy Dean, are people of proved value."
It concludes that there were others who could be winners with more human understanding of their plight.
"Crabgrass Is Better Than Corn Tassel" indicates that the Senate was considering, not very seriously, making the corn tassel the official floral symbol of the country, the virtues of which had been extolled by Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois. It suggests that crabgrass should instead be chosen.
A letter to the Washington Post & Times-Herald had made a good case for poison ivy, but it finds that anything true of poison ivy was true for crabgrass.
It finds crabgrass to be eminently democratic, had made America strong, had grit and was the country's last frontier, as almost everything else had been conquered. Eventually, it would conquer the cornfields and if the Senate had to fiddle around with choosing a national floral symbol, it should honor the champion, crabgrass.
A piece from the Louisville
Courier-Journal, titled "Automation and Ease", tells of
talk of automation being everywhere in current times, but that there had
been a solid shot of it in Edward R. Murrow's recent television
program
Workers saw automation taking their
jobs, but the real problem was in the taking of skills rather than
jobs. While fewer employees would be necessary to run the machines,
more would be necessary to build them, requiring therefore better
trained employees. Automation would mean less of the monotonous
chores in industry and more
Drew Pearson indicates that while U.S. Steel was initiating a chain reaction of inflation which would hit everything from bobby pins to automobiles, it was simultaneously pulling the wires for a 40-foot channel in the upper Delaware River so that larger ore ships could reach its giant Fairless Works at Morrisville, Pa. The channel deepening would cost an estimated 91.7 million dollars, a gift from the Government to U.S. Steel because it was the only company planning to use super ore carriers on the upper Delaware.
The project had been quietly pushed through the House Appropriations Committee by its chairman, Clarence Cannon of Missouri, and was now being considered by a Senate Appropriations subcommittee headed by Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana.
Property owners along the Delaware River claimed that a deeper channel would increase the potential for flooding, pointing out that the last damaging flood in August, 1955 had been caused by hurricane-driven water forced up the Delaware, with a deeper channel enabling even more such water to be driven up the river in times of flood, the opponents stressing that the taxpayer money devoted to deepening the channel ought instead go to flood control.
The White House was upset over the way U.S. Steel had thumbed its nose at the President by hiking its price of steel one day after his appeal to major corporations to aid in the fight against inflation, but it remained to be seen whether it would oppose the appropriation for the deepening of the channel. Observers noted that in the past, the President had frequently rewarded his opponents in big business and had appointed Benjamin Fairless, a backstage power in U.S. Steel, to a high advisory post in his Administration.
U.S. Steel's stock value had risen six-fold since 1947, while it had paid dividends of over $12,000 on an original $10,000 investment.
The Kremlin shakeup of the previous week had caught the State Department unprepared. Ambassador Charles Bohlen had been transferred from the Soviet Union to the Philippines by pure whimsy, and the new Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Llewellyn Thompson, was still winding up his affairs in Austria. The President had been golfing in Gettysburg and Secretary of State Dulles was vacationing at Duck Island. The new U.S. counselor, Richard Davis, had arrived in Moscow only a few weeks earlier and though a good man, was in no position to begin reporting on the most difficult secret government operations in the world.
Doris Fleeson, in Independence, Mo., tells of the dedication of the Truman Library and specifically the supposed placement of a newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal, within the cornerstone. President Eisenhower, who had never invited the former President to the White House, had sent a telegram which "achieved complete and chilling impersonality." Former President Hoover was present, along with Chief Justice Earl Warren and political leaders of both parties.
The treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Missouri Masons had read the contents to be placed in the cornerstone, including: "By special request of former President Truman, a copy of the May 3 issue of the Milwaukee Journal with the headline: 'Senate Prepares Rites for McCarthy.'" Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson dropped his jaw at that point, while a former secretary of the former President opened his eyes wide and chuckled. Both the former President and Mrs. Truman seemed not to notice.
Among the press had been reporters who had heard the former President say of his enemies: "I'll outlive them all." One had suggested that it was his way of saying so to posterity.
In fact, it had been the result of a misunderstanding with his secretary, Eugene Bailey, whereby he and the former President, when they had been in Milwaukee the previous month, had expressed admiration for the Journal to its editors, and Mr. Truman had asked for a copy of the newspaper to be placed in the cornerstone. They had also said that they had not seen the issue in which the paper had published an exceptionally comprehensive account of the life and times of the late Senator McCarthy, with editorial comment. The reporter with whom they discussed the matter had sent along that particular issue to Independence.
The editorial in question had concluded: "Future generations are likely to find this period as fantastic and as harmful to the American spirit as the Salem witch hunts, the post-Civil War Reconstruction or the Ku Klux Klan. McCarthy was not directly responsible for the hysteria that seemed to sweep the nation but he was the man who captured the imagination of those who were susceptible to such an emotional appeal."
After receipt of the copy, the secretary explained, Mr. Truman and the trustees of the library had decided to include in the cornerstone only local newspapers, but Mr. Bailey had been left with the impression that the Journal was to be an exception and so had placed it on the list which he provided to the Masonic officials for inclusion. Actually, the Journal was never placed in the cornerstone and Mr. Truman had insisted on Sunday that he did not know anything about it, that the paper of May 3 would not be in the box. Had not the headline of the newspaper been read aloud, there would likely have been no questions raised about inclusion of the newspaper, as it was held in high regard.
The press was aware that Mr. Truman
was quite sensitive about rough handling of either Mrs. Truman or
Margaret, and that he was also quite sensitive regarding attacks on
him as a patriot, as distinguished from a politician. He had thus
been quite intolerant of the types of impugning in which Senator
McCarthy had been engaged. "That he should have been tempted by
what seemed to him a particularly persuasive and impressive
refutation of the charge, that he should work to warn future
generations against their McCarthys
Marquis Childs discusses the prospects of General Alfred Gruenther, currently the head of the American Red Cross, as the Republican nominee for the presidency in 1960. While he did not appear to be actively seeking the nomination, those who had followed his career closely through the years believed that he would like to be President. Such a move would be consistent with a worldwide trend of having military leaders in prominent roles.
In addition to President Eisenhower, the recent shakeup in Russia had produced Marshal Zhukov as second in command to Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, and in France, it appeared likely that soon General Charles de Gaulle would be called upon to form a "strong" government to replace the series of weak ones which had followed since the war.
A number of prominent military figures had taken top positions in industry and finance, including General Lucius Clay, the President's close friend and adviser, who was chairman of the board of Continental Can Co., Admiral Alan Kirk, one of General Eisenhower's close wartime associates, currently president and chairman of the board of Mercast Corp., and others.
But General Gruenther had chosen the $30,000 per year job as head of the Red Cross instead of the far more lucrative world of corporate executives, earning $100,000 per year or more, with additional perquisites. The only perq enjoyed by General Gruenther was an official residence to go along with the job. But he was located in Washington where he could serve as an occasional adviser to the President and be handy should the President want to tap him as either secretary of defense or of state. The General was quite dedicated to the President, in addition to being a constant companion and bridge partner, at which game he was an expert.
The theory on which many were basing his potential candidacy in 1960 was that if the present representative of the Eisenhower wing of the party, Vice-President Nixon, were canceled out mutually with the conservative wing representative, Senator William Knowland of California, in a showdown between the two, then General Gruenther would emerge as an appealing compromise candidate. But, suggests Mr. Childs, by 1960, the country might be tired of having "another general" in the White House. Mr. Gruenther was also a Roman Catholic and that, in the past, had been considered a handicap in some parts of the country. Some observers had felt that behind the General's disciplined exterior was a ruthless, driving ambition.
General Gruenther had dismissed all of the talk as mere speculation, as he sought to put the finances of the Red Cross in order to meet the succession of natural disasters in recent months, a task which absorbed him. If he were to succeed, he would have performed a notable public service in civilian life and in so doing might have staked out for himself a major political claim.
Of course, the scenario never played out that way.
Two letter writers discuss local issues, which you may read for yourself.
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.