The Charlotte News
Monday, July 15, 1957
TWO EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson had told the Senate this date that the compromise proposals advanced since the civil rights debate had begun were "the reaction of thinking men who realize great issues must be met with reason instead of blind dogma." He described the previous week's debate as some of the "finest" in the history of the Senate, saying that when the debate had begun, there had been a widespread belief that the Senate was "shackled and handcuffed. It was thought that we could do nothing but accept the bill without crossing a 'T' or dotting an 'I' or reject it altogether." But the body had demonstrated that it was not in a straitjacket, and could act according to its convictions and a course which would serve the national interest, according to Senator Johnson. Several of the compromise suggestions had been aimed at eliminating or modifying the controversial section 3 of the bill, which would permit the Attorney General to obtain Federal court injunctions against violations or threatened violations of voting and other civil rights. Some Senators had suggested limiting the authority under that section to the protection of voting rights. Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina had told reporters that he thought there was a "good chance" that the bill could be reduced "to what its supporters have been advertising it to be—namely a voting rights bill."
The President had been lowered gently onto the South Lawn of the White House by helicopter this date, marking the end of his participation in "Operation Alert 1957", having arrived from a secret "command post" within 200 miles of Washington, where he had taken personal charge of Government efforts to return from a theoretical holocaust following Friday's mock nuclear bomb attack in which 155 key American cities had been supposedly hit. The President had departed from the White House for the command post the prior Friday, also by helicopter, with it having been the first time in history that a helicopter had been used to transport a president to and from the White House. (It would be the means of transport away from the White House for the last time for a former President, headed to San Clemente, 17 years down the pike, after the latter's own personal holocaust.) The President's participation in the drill had been interrupted during the weekend, which he had spent at his Gettysburg farm, as the President had left the farm by helicopter earlier this date to return to the command post, and then had flown to Washington after being briefed on the progress of the exercise. The President remarked that the trip back to the White House had been "fine" and that it had been good weather and a good way to see the country. James Rowley, head of the White House Secret Service detail, was with the President in the helicopter and other Secret Service agents were in another helicopter which had also landed on the White House grounds behind the South Portico. No one had the heart to tell the President that it was actually the real thing. You are now dead. Do not let anyone tell you anything different.
At the Atomic Test Site in Nevada, "Diablo", the nuclear device which had behaved as a dud two weeks earlier, had burst "with a stunning purple hue" over the Nevada desert early this date. It was the seventh of the current summer test series and was described by newsmen as one of the most beautiful they had ever seen. The bomb was about half the size and power of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945. It had originally been scheduled to be detonated on June 27 before being postponed a day, and on June 28, had failed to fire because of a power failure. Several other postponements had ensued before the successful test this date. Newsmen and a group of Canadian military observers had watched the detonation from News Nob, about 14 miles from ground zero, indicating that they had felt a moderate shock wave following the blast. About 500 U.S. military observers watched from another observation point nearby, and 2,000 feet from ground zero, a group of technicians were stationed in an underground shelter equipped with measuring devices for radioactivity. There were no troop maneuvers in connection with the blast but about 40 aircraft had been sent aloft for crew indoctrination and cloud-tracking missions. The Atomic Energy Commission said that the blast was not expected to produce any appreciable fallout outside the firing range. The detonation had been observed as far away as San Francisco, where people reported that it produced an orange-yellow glow in the sky. As we said, it was the real thing. Get along, little doggie...
In Chicago, it was reported that floods threatened some areas in downstate Illinois and the suburbs of Chicago this date in the wake of torrential rains during the weekend, causing many streams to reach near flood stage. Runoff from its record six-inch rainfall had caused millions of dollars of damage to property, had caused the Calumet River to run over its dikes and forced some 200 families from their homes in the Highland, Ind., and Calumet City, Ill., areas. Danger of further flooding appeared to be easing, as the river had started to recede the previous night. Heavy rain had fallen in areas between Springfield and St. Louis the previous day, with nearly six inches at Vandalia. Minor flooding had been reported along parts of the Kaskaskia River. Nine deaths had been attributed to the storm in Chicago.
In Knoxville, Tenn., a jury this date had heard a story of threats, tension and terror after black students had been admitted to the Clinton High School the prior fall in the effort to desegregate the school pursuant to Federal court orders, as the trial continued of the so-called "Clinton 15", now reduced to 14, and John Kasper, considered the instigator of the resulting violence. David Brittain, 41, principal of the school had testified: "We had more concentrated internal trouble then than in any other period of year." When asked why he had closed the school on December 4, the principal stated that there had been so many actions and the tension had been so great that he figured it was the safest policy. He said that when the school had opened in the fall, "Teachers, students—white and colored—were threatened," the judge indicating in response to objections by the defense that the testimony was not competent unless the Government could tie it definitely to Mr. Kasper and the other remaining 14 defendants. The principal continued that attendance at the school had dropped from about 800 at the beginning of the term to around 260, with people having told him that they were receiving threatening telephone calls. The defense had again objected to that statement and again the judge admonished the jury that the testimony would be pertinent only if it were linked to the defendants. Earlier, the Federal District Court judge had dismissed charges of criminal contempt against one of the defendants, a 19-year old woman expecting a child in September, showing mercy because of her condition as represented by a Clinton physician.
Congressman John Blatnik of Minnesota, chairman of a House Government Operations subcommittee, said that they would not stop at cigarettes in their inquiry into what he termed was misleading advertising.
The House, moving toward consideration of a 3.24 billion dollar foreign aid authorization, was told this date by Representative Thomas Gordon of Illinois that Russia's "lesser emphasis on violence" was the result only of free world strength.
In Beirut, Lebanon, a U.S. cargo ship had pulled into the harbor this date with the first sizable shipment of military aid to the Middle East under the Eisenhower Doctrine. The ship was delivering 1,700 tons of equipment, including 101 heavy vehicles.
In Prague, it was reported that Soviet Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev had told a crowd this date in Pilsen that "so far things are going badly" in the London disarmament talks, blaming the Western powers, primarily the U.S.
In Nicosia, Cyprus, armed troops and police had this date broken up a demonstration of several hundred persons parading with slogans protesting continued detention of political detainees and the exile of Archbishop Makarios.
In Newhall, Calif., a spectacular brush fire had been brought under control this date after sweeping into the mountain town, the fire having been stopped before extensive property damage had been caused.
Near Bridgeport, Calif., a search had been resumed at daybreak for a three-year old boy, who had been missing since Saturday afternoon in a mountainous area, the search having been halted the previous night for darkness.
In Bessemer, Ala., a 17-year old boy had been captured by a Mississippi Highway Patrolman, after he had been taken from a Greyhound bus and was held this date by authorities who said that he killed a police officer.
In Hamilton, Bermuda, the British cruise ship which had been stranded after running aground on a coral reef the previous Monday off Batavia, had resumed its homeward voyage to Liverpool, carrying 432 of the 556 passengers who had been aboard when it had run aground.
John Jamison of The News indicates that members of the County Commission had chided the "apathetic" citizens of Thomasboro this date and then voted to continue supplying them with water for at least another two weeks. One member, Sam McNinch, had said that City Council member Herbert Baxter needed to be "reminded of his remarks" concerning the City's taking over the Thomasboro water problem following this date's vote on annexation of Thomasboro. The County Commission had taken over operation of the private water company which had previously supplied Thomasboro before going out of business at the end of May, costing the taxpayers $50 per day. A private company had been running the system for the County. One citizen had strenuously objected to the expenditure for one isolated community and complained that if it continued, there would be "new faces around here next time around."
Julian Scheer of The News reports that there had been a better than average early turnout this date for the election in the city and perimeter areas regarding annexation.
In Binghamton, N.Y., a screaming 23-year old mother had dangled her 17-month old daughter from a fourth floor window the previous day and then had let go, at which point a patrolman had lunged forward and caught the child by one leg. The patrolman said it was a lucky grab. A sergeant said that he then tackled the woman as she attempted to jump from the window after her baby was saved. The child apparently had not been injured. Police said that the incident had begun with an argument between the mother and a man whom she had dated, that the woman had threatened to throw the little girl out of the window unless the man left, whereupon he had, but the mother continued nevertheless to dangle the child out the window. The mother was committed to the Binghamton State Hospital for mental examination. What's the problem?
In Geneva, Princess Yasmin, 7, daughter of Prince Aly Khan and actress Rita Hayworth, had been formally presented to the feminine followers of her half-brother, Prince Karim, the new Aga Khan IV. The ceremony had taken place on the restaurant terrace of a Geneva hotel. Yasmin had met all of the commands of photographers to smile and otherwise performed her part in the ceremony, with the manners she had learned in the U.S. being in evidence. As the women sought to show her humble signs of respect, she had curtsied and solemnly offered her hand to each of them, causing some confusion. The new Aga had stayed quietly in his hotel room during the day. This is a story about which we have to find out much more, it being so entrancing.
In Nanaimo, British Columbia, a house-building cooperative had been formed by 25 refugees from Hungary, all being qualified journeymen, and they intended to build about 20 brick homes.
On the editorial page, "Soviet Jets Rising with the Dawn Symbolize Nasser's Grip on Egypt", a by-lined piece by News editor Cecil Prince, writing from Cairo, indicates that election day had dawned in Egypt to the tune of Russian-built jets swooping over Cairo from the south. In a few hours, the MIG-15's had returned, and Egyptians going to the polls had shaded their eyes and peered upward in open-mouthed awe, seeing a pointed reminder that Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser's regime was great and would prevail.
The jets had been gifts from the Soviet Union to the Egyptian Air Force and they were out on election day to remind the populace of what Premier Nasser had done for them. As a free election, the vote for the members of the new National Assembly was little more than a farce, with not even Egyptian officials suggesting that it was a full resumption of political activity in the dictatorship. While all interested candidates for parliamentary seats were invited to run in the election, each had been carefully screened by the Government and only those considered loyal to the continuing "revolution" had been permitted onto the ballot.
In most districts, there had been no real competition, as all of the old political parties had been abolished. In some districts, a spirited campaign had taken place between rival loyalists, as permitted by the Government, with the most interesting race being one between a pro-American businessman who represented a large U.S. radio firm and a pro-Communist from the pyramids area.
Campaigns had been boisterous in a few districts but no violence had been noted except in Upper Egypt, with most of the speeches taking on an anti-Western flavor, as it was subtly suggested that Americans avoid the rallies for their own safety—sounding, we cannot help but observe, very much like Trumpville, U.S.A.
A rally the previous day had been interrupted by shouts of "Down with the Eisenhower Doctrine!" "We don't want dollars and imperialism!" and "Long live independence!"
It was not that Americans were terribly unpopular in Cairo with the man on the street, Americans still being treated courteously and with more than a little respect, with the wrist-slapping which the President had given to Britain, France and Israel during the Suez crisis the prior fall having boosted U.S. prestige in Egypt and throughout Africa and Asia. But the Egyptian Government's attitude toward Americans remained one of suspicion, something of which U.S. tourists entering Egypt became immediately aware when officials began inquiring of the "real purpose" for their visit. If it had been suspected that a tourist might also be going to Israel, the person received an especially bad time from the moment he entered a customs line.
Egypt was still the kingpin of the Arab world in terms of individual strength, with Cairo commanding the largest Arab army, perhaps of 100,000 men. But Premier Nasser's standing inside and outside Egypt was nothing like what it was supposed to have been a year earlier. Egypt and Syria were still accepting arms from the Soviet bloc, still meddling in the internal affairs of other Arab nations, and was still anti-Western. But Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iraq were now united in their opposition to Communist penetration of the Arab world, all of them accusing Syria and Egypt of being the focal points of that infiltration. Jordan's King Hussein, along with the help of King Saud of Saudi Arabia, had made a move to crush a pro-Egyptian plot in Jordan, helping to isolate Premier Nasser even more. The latter's grip on Egypt appeared to be complete, but some in Egypt doubted it, as changes in Egypt could occur overnight.
The Premier undoubtedly had great popular appeal in the streets of the cities and still swayed the mobs, but the country had been under a tremendous strain both psychologically and economically since the Suez crisis. The Premier had made enemies and his policies were virtually ruining the country's small middle-class, a fact about which he could care less, dedicated as he was to "the masses". He had not delivered on his promise to lift the living standards of Egyptians generally and poverty was rampant. He also had rivals who were eager to climb to power over him, with his opponents pointing to the deterioration of the country's financial and business life following the Sinai war and to the failure of his land reform and reclamation projects.
The internal hostility toward the Premier was not vocal and had to be sought. The Premier controlled the public information media with an iron grip and his suppression of unfavorable political expression had been quite effective. Mr. Prince indicates that his own dispatch could not be sent from Cairo when he wrote it, that it would be taken to Beirut the following day and dispatched from there to the U.S. after being subjected to strict censorship in Egypt.
U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Raymond Hare had said that the basic interest in Egypt was an area of interest, important from the U.S. point of view that it be an area of peace and stability, that if the U.S. had some acquisitive interest in Egypt, the policy would be simpler, but that there was nothing that the U.S. wanted materially from the country or that part of the world, that the only interest they had was oil and even the oil went to Western Europe, with the U.S. receiving very little. The area could not even offer the U.S. anything in the way of trade that it wanted.
Because the area was divided, U.S. policy toward it was also somewhat divided.
The Ambassador had paused and gazed out the window toward the tranquil greenery of the Embassy's court, saying that it was "like trying to cook in a broken pot. The Near East was a broken pot when we found it. We have put some of the pieces together and plugged some of the holes and tried to brew something that tastes a little better. At the present time, there is still some holes in the pot and things don't taste the way we would like them. Maybe they will before we have finished here."
Mr. Prince concludes that even as the Ambassador spoke, a new flight of jets had skimmed the treetops of Cairo.
"Adjutant General & Political Fragrance" indicates that if there was an odor of politics in the appointment by Governor Luther Hodges of Capus Waynick as the Adjutant General, it had to have been a subtle fragrance, as it could not understand there being any political motive, as Mr. Waynick had held several important state jobs and been privy to Presidents and foreign monarchs, thus not finding any special glory in being the state's top general of the National Guard. Likewise, there was no apparent reason why the Governor would want a political henchman in that post.
Mr. Waynick qualified as a top-level administrator, having served as director of the U.S. Employment Service, chairman of the State Highway Commission, director of Contract and Purchase, director of the U.S. Point Four program, and as Ambassador to Nicaragua and Colombia. He also had been head of the Small Industries Program initiated by the Governor to boost North Carolina's industrial development.
The Adjutant General was primarily an aide to the Governor and in consequence, the Governor had a right to appoint a civilian to the post if he wanted to do so. There were also plenty of able colonels within the National Guard who could supply anything Mr. Waynick lacked in military background, with so many of them, in fact, that the three colonels had arranged to rotate among them the one brigadier generalship available.
Drew Pearson indicates that when he had gone to the office of David Sarnoff, chairman of RCA, the latter had been talking on the phone to Bernard Baruch, age 86, urging him to look ahead as he was just a youngster, and not to worry about the development of atomic energy, that before it could operate industry, they would have solar energy. He said: "Why should man dig down into the bowels of the earth for oil, coal, and uranium when he has sunlight right on top of the earth—the energy that not only gives heat but makes plants grow? Look ahead, young man. Solar energy is the thing to invest your money in."
Mr. Pearson indicates that both Mr. Baruch and Mr. Sarnoff had made fortunes and reputations by looking ahead, that Mr. Baruch had probably looked further ahead into the economics of the country than any other man of his time, while Mr. Sarnoff had looked further ahead into the electronics of the country.
Mr. Sarnoff had told Mr. Pearson that the two foundation stones of the universe were the atom and the electron, constituting the cement and building stone to modern life. "And the amazing thing is that though they have been in the universe for the six billion years that there's been a universe, we've only put them to use in about the last ten years." He suggested that the reason was that there was a Divine Being who looked over everyone, that God had withheld the discovery from man until the present time, not because he trusted the present generation more than others but rather because civilization had reached a climax in which there was more opportunity for the future, more chance to prevent war, than in any other time in history, partly because the weapons created by the atom and the electron were so terrible. He believed that people were living in the greatest age of the world, that if Russia and the U.S. could make peace, then there would be peace in the world, and if the two countries could not get along, then there would be war, thus considering the developments in Russia at present to be highly important.
Mr. Pearson had dropped in to discuss getting behind the Iron Curtain to win over the Russian people and believed Mr. Sarnoff might have some good ideas on the subject, as to how to take advantage of the current upheaval in the Kremlin. Mr. Sarnoff considered the Kremlin purge, and especially the emergence of Marshall Zhukov, to be a great break for the West, but added: "We've been losing the cold war. I once told Eisenhower that, according to our present policy, either we freeze to death in the cold war or we burn to death in a hot war. But actually we don't have to do either. We can win the cold war. The only trouble is that democracies don't understand the art of waging a propaganda war. If a hot war comes, they don't shrink from casualties, but they don't realize the importance of heading off that war with nonmilitary means."
Stewart Alsop indicates that Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, "probably the most effective congressional leader of this generation", now faced his supreme challenge, preventing the Northern and Southern wings of the party from tearing it asunder over the pending civil rights bill, with his own political future at stake in his success or failure at the task.
In the past, the two regional wings of the party could, despite their differences on civil rights, get along because civil rights did not have a "ghost's chance" of passing. But now, for the first time during the century, some type of civil rights legislation appeared certain to pass the Senate, having already passed the House, and so the fight was now for the first time in deadly earnest. The Administration's decision to make civil rights a major party issue had not only frightened the Southerners with the specter of blacks becoming a decisive voting bloc even in the deep South states, it had also scared the Northern big-city Democrats whose political lives depended on an overwhelmingly Democratic black vote. Thus, both Northerners and Southerners were in a near-desperate mood, potentially creating an irreparable internal split within the party, so much so that Senator Johnson was laboring desperately to avert such division, using his "peculiar, almost hypnotic powers of persuasion to calm the political passions seething in Northern breasts." Thus far, he had been remarkably successful, partly because his counsel of moderation had fit well into the Southern strategy formed by Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, who had recognized early that it would be fatal for the South to be placed in a position of opposing the right to vote.
Senator Russell had therefore concentrated on those aspects of the Administration bill which had raised honest doubts in the minds of thoughtful persons, such as the denial of a jury trial for contempt violations under the bill and the force-bill aspects of the legislation, thus making the Southern argument an appeal to reason rather than passion. Senator Russell had also cast Attorney General Herbert Brownell as the villain of the piece, a role to which he was well-suited in the eyes of Northern liberals. The Senator's strategy had worked well thus far and it was doubtful that Senate Minority Leader William Knowland could muster a simple majority for the bill in its present form, much less the 64 votes needed to break a filibuster.
Compromise therefore of some sort was inevitable, with the main battles being fought on amendments to require trial by jury and to limit or eliminate the Federal Government's power to intervene to enforce school desegregation. When those battles were joined, suggests Mr. Alsop, Senator Johnson would have to perform miracles to prevent an internal explosion in the party. The hard-core Southerners would fight to the end against any civil rights bill at all, as they would have to do so to survive at home, while the big-city Northerners, such as Senators Paul Douglas of Illinois, Joseph Clark of Pennsylvania, Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Pat McNamara of Michigan, would also be under heavy pressure to take an extreme position the other way. To resist the Republican bid for the large black vote, the Northern Democrats had to appear more in favor of civil rights than any Republican.
Given that situation, Senator Johnson's task was complicated by the fact that almost everybody, with the possible exception of Senator Johnson, himself, considered him a potential presidential candidate in 1960, and thus any compromise position he might favor would be labeled by Southerners as a sellout to the North, and by the Northerners as a sellout to the South. It was thus hard to see how Senator Johnson could avoid the worst type of rupture within the party and consequent fatal damage to his own political prospects.
Yet, he had performed political miracles previously and the belief was growing in Congress that somehow he would emerge from the civil rights crisis with the party reasonably intact despite its wounds and with his own political position damaged, perhaps, but not beyond repair.
Doris Fleeson regards the Supreme Court decision the previous week reversing the lower Federal District Court and allowing the Government to hand over William Girard to the Japanese civilian authorities for trial for manslaughter for killing a Japanese woman on an Army firing range as she scavenged for metal, while under Army orders to guard the firing range against scavengers, the Court finding that a treaty between the U.S. and Japan permitted the Government that discretion and that such decisions were exclusively within the province of the Congress and the executive branch to determine, not for the courts, finding the matter thus not subject constitutionally to the Sixth Amendment right to jury trial in criminal cases or to due process, as had been contended by the defendant.
Ms. Fleeson finds that the issue then moved back to the political arena regarding the amendment offered by Senator John W. Bricker of Ohio and others, contending that the President had exceeded his constitutional powers in making international agreements of that type and ought be restricted by Congress. Senator Bricker, in the climate of the late years of the Truman Administration, had made some progress in that regard, but a Republican President had shown no more regard for self-limitation on making treaties than had a Democratic President.
Despite the emotional aspects of Mr. Girard's case, there was no present sentiment in Congress for reviving the issue of the Bricker amendment substantively. The conduct of the trial in Japan could conceivably alter the mood of Congress, but State Department officials were quietly confident that it would not provide grounds for complaint. The Japanese Government had made its point and the State Department believed it would not want to rub it in, as they argued that the U.S. would profit in Japan and everywhere in the Far and Middle East from the disclaimer of extraterritoriality, a major issue in those areas. Meanwhile, military sources suggested that the Japanese might feel more merciful toward the soldier than they did, as they found their job abroad complicated by incidents like the shooting by Mr. Girard, and they had not appreciated charges that they did not protect their own forces.
The President's most severe critics were within the Republican Party and Democrats had to defend him because they believed he was right and because they had a vested interest in the concept of a strong executive.
Representative Frank Bow of Ohio was the author of a specific statute to repeal the status-of-forces treaties, including that with Japan, which had been quietly pigeonholed, at least temporarily, by House leaders. But Senator Bricker was also trying to undo the status-of-forces treaties.
Undersecretary of State Christian Herter had opened his speech before the Women's National Press Club with an expression of relief over the Supreme Court's decision in the Girard case, and later in the speech said that while he wanted to be an optimist on disarmament, the truth was that the Soviets were becoming hardened over disarmament just as they talked in Moscow of promoting peace. With disarmament prospects thus dimming, the U.S. had to draw closer again to its allies and potential allies everywhere, and those nations took the status-of-forces agreements as seriously as Congressman Bow, as they had made clear to the President and the State Department.
Robert C. Ruark, in Palamos, Spain, says that he had seen where a three million dollar IBM computer, which could track earth satellites and identify atomic spies, had lost a game of checkers to a human recently, and so he congratulates the human. He says that he was possibly the only man who had ever shot a radio with a .45-caliber pistol in Northern Kenya because the news was unpleasant, claiming to be one of the oldest living enemies of machines presently practicing that enmity, indicating that he supposed he had kicked more tables and chairs for armed assault on his person than anyone he knew, that recently he had even kicked a parking meter for not accepting his nickel.
He says that in his house, there were three busted record players, two fancy radios which had never worked, a stove which drew wrong and fireplaces which smoked, while his car had a knock which no one could locate. He had been unable to change a ribbon in his typewriter without severely wounding himself and the only time he ever washed a dish, he dropped it, the only time he had helped his wife in the kitchen, he had nearly burned off his hand.
He continues in that vein, bemoaning all of the machines, including manual tools, in his midst. He says that during the day, he had looked three times in the same place for his driver's license, but that the gremlins had gotten it, though he managed to find his bank statement which he had hidden from himself four years earlier.
He concludes that he was glad that the machine was clobbered in the checkers game by the human, because it left some little bit of hope for such people as himself.
A letter writer from Whiteville suggests that the claim that the President carefully screened all of his nominees for the Federal bench would not bear careful scrutiny and analysis, as he finds the nomination of Chief Justice Earl Warren had been made to block the path of Richard Nixon to the White House, as the Chief Justice, he claims, had performed few activities in the practice of law and had no judicial experience prior to coming to the Court—forgetting that he had been District Attorney of Alameda County, California, and Attorney General of California before becoming Governor. He also believes that the press, including some North Carolina newspapers, had not only suppressed the facts of the civil rights legislation but had instead published "false, uninformed and designedly misstatements of the legal implications of the proposed legislation which is designed purposely to circumvent state laws of the southern states." He says that the people were fortunate to have Senator Sam Ervin as an able lawyer and statesman in the Congress, enabling him and many others to sleep peacefully at night.
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