The Charlotte News
Tuesday, July 16, 1957
TWO EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President had been pictured this date by Senate Minority Leader William Knowland of California, following a conference with the President, as being still in favor of all the "basic provisions" of the Administration civil rights bill, including a section denounced by Southern opponents of the measure. Senator Knowland added in his statement to reporters that the President recognized that the Senate might feel that there were certain "clarifications" which would be necessary. The Senate was set to vote later on Senator Knowland's motion to bring the House-approved bill officially before it for consideration and debate. The Senator predicted that the motion would be approved by a substantially heavy margin and also forecast defeat for an expected motion by Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon to send the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee for a seven-day review of its provisions, which Senator Knowland said would amount to killing the bill. Southern opponents of the measure had concentrated their efforts on section 3 of the bill, believing that it would open the way for military enforcement of racial integration of the public schools. Opponents had also contended that the measure had gone much further than the President's stated objective, to protect the right to vote. The Senator said that the President still favored all four parts of the measure.
Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia this date called Chief Justice Earl Warren "the modern Thaddeus Stevens", indicating that the present Supreme Court would let the Federal Government say who would vote, "the Constitution notwithstanding."
In Knoxville, Tenn., in the trial of the "Clinton 14" plus John Kasper on charges of contempt for violation of a Federal court order the prior fall not to interfere with desegregation of the Clinton High School, a Government witness, a Clinton police officer, had described this date a series of night meetings which linked Mr. Kasper, a segregationist from Baltimore who was allegedly responsible for resulting violence the prior fall, with seven other defendants. The officer had presented the strongest evidence thus far in the trial to support the Federal Government's contention that the 14 co-defendants had conspired with Mr. Kasper to defy the court order, the basis for the Government's case. The officer said that he had seen Mr. Kasper in Clinton frequently "anywhere from 7:00 to 11:00 nights, even after 12. Once I saw him at 3:00 a.m." The Government attorney had asked the officer if he had seen other defendants with Mr. Kasper and he responded by identifying seven of the defendants, prompting defense objections that the officer had not specified the times definitely and had only pointed at "that bald-headed man" when identifying one of the defendants. The officer said that he had seen the defendants with Mr. Kasper and others whom he did not know in a restaurant in Clinton, where he estimated they met once per week between August and December 1. That had been the time during which there had been violence, finally forcing the temporary closure of the high school. The officer mentioned "paperwork" which was done during the meetings at the restaurant, but could not see what they were writing, only that they had a typewriter. He said he saw other meetings taking place in another café, again eliciting defense objections which were overruled.
Secretary of State Dulles, answering questions of reporters, said this date that the U.S. was studying the possibility of providing NATO with a stockpile of atomic weapons, indicating that it was a possible answer to the objection of some European allies that an end to atomic weapons production under a disarmament program would deny them such weapons permanently. Britain and France especially had indicated such fears. Mr. Dulles said that he believed it would be more proper to set up a NATO stockpile of weapons than to turn them over to individual countries. He said that the NATO atomic arsenal could perhaps be created without a change in U.S. law by placing it under the command of General Lauris Norstad as the American military chief in Europe and also NATO commander. He also stated that the rulers of Russia were "perplexed" as to how to meet the demand of the Soviet people for greater freedom and better living, that the perplexity had caused a split in the Presidium in which Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev had recently won out by a "narrow margin", which Mr. Dulles regarded as a victory of the "modernists" in Russia over the "fundamentalists", who wanted to return to rule by "Stalinist rod of iron". He stated that the Kremlin shakeup did not mean any change in Soviet foreign policy, as the policies of Russia during the previous two years were assumed to be those of Mr. Khrushchev and the "modernists" anyway. He also said he had no intention of taking up the proposal by Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana that he make a first-hand tour of countries behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe.
In London, it was reported that Mr. Khrushchev and Premier Nikolai Bulganin had returned to a hero's welcome in Moscow this night after their eight-day visit in Czechoslovakia.
The Senate Banking Committee this date killed on a straight party-line vote of eight to seven an Administration bill to set up a presidential commission to study the nation's finances. The effect of the vote was to permit the Finance Committee to go ahead with a free rein in its own inquiry into the area. Senator Robert Kerr of Oklahoma had said that the President did not have the brains to understand Government fiscal problems. The bill had been offered by Senator Homer Capehart of Indiana, the senior Republican on the Committee, and the President was understood to have asked Republican members of the Committee personally to get the bill out. A similar measure had been shelved in the House Banking Committee by the Democrats.
John Barr, head of Montgomery Ward & Co., testified this date that any "inferences" that the firm's management had traded a collective bargaining contract with the Teamsters Union for that union's support in a 1955 proxy fight were "false … untrue and unfounded." The little piece does not state before whom the testimony was given, but it was presumably before the Senate Select Committee investigating racketeering and organized crime influence within unions and management—though not there either and so we are left buffaloed, an example of what occurs when a newspaper tries to digest too much information for placement on the front page, leaving the devil in the details out and thus the story bereft of its original point for inclusion, taking up then space which might otherwise be devoted to more substantive stories with their devils and details reasonably intact.
In Washington, a defense witness in the bribery-conspiracy trial of Teamsters vice-president Jimmy Hoffa had testified this date that John Cye Cheasty had sought out a job as a lawyer for Mr. Hoffa. Mr. Cheasty was alleged by the Government to be the object of the bribery attempt as a staff member of the Select Committee, the lawyer having reported the attempt to the Committee and agreed to cooperate with it and the FBI to obtain evidence of the attempt.
In Chicago, an officer of Teamsters Union Local 720 had said this date that its members had voted unanimously to accept an agreement to end a three-month strike against Railway Express.
Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson had recommended to Congress this date that corn, the largest grain crop of the nation, ought be supported at lower price levels in the future and that planting allotments be reduced.
In Manila, it was reported that a flood from heavy rains in the backwash of Typhoon Wendy had drowned 230 persons and left more than 1,000 missing in Mabini.
In Moscow, it was reported that a Russian railroad engineer was described as a genius by seven of his fellow workers, interviewed by a railway newspaper, for having discovered that water and even fresh air could be shipped in tank cars to meet his quota for "liquid" freight. Everything within the Soviet Union was done according to a plan, ranging from the number of fares a cab driver was supposed to pick up to the tons of coal which a miner must dig. Success in meeting the quotas resulted in rewards of honors and bonuses. Two years earlier, according to a letter written by the seven associates of the engineer, he had suddenly realized that his section of the Vladivostok line was in danger of not meeting its quota for deliveries of liquid freight, and so ordered 50 tank cars filled with water and shipped from Voroshilmv to Usurisky, at the destination the water freezing in the cars and it taking a month to thaw them and empty them, but enabling the engineer to meet his quota and thus maintain his job. He had again fallen behind on his liquid deliveries during the current summer and conceived a plan of ordering water pumped from mains directly into the tank cars and shipped to a destination nearby where they could be emptied back into the mains, enabling him to fulfill the quota for the year in the course of one month, and beyond that, had sent 15 cars with nothing in them except air, simplifying the unloading, since some of the water released at the destination had washed out the roadbed and caused traffic delays.
Near New York, Pa., seven persons, three of whom were men and four women, had been killed this date in a head-on collision of two automobiles on the Lincoln Highway, about 4 miles west of the town, with two other persons being injured.
In Camden, Ark., a group of businessmen this date offered $1,000 as a reward for information leading to the whereabouts of a prominent female lawyer who had been missing since March 2.
In Kansas City, an airline hostess had been found dead in the trailer home of an osteopathic student the previous day, with the cause of her death not yet known, to be determined by a subsequent autopsy. The 30-year old junior at the Kansas City College of Osteopathy and Surgery was being held for investigation, after he told police he had known for a month the 27-year old TWA employee, a native of Brussels, Belgium. He said he had examined her at his trailer on Sunday and found that she was about four months pregnant, denying that an illegal operation was performed, presumably an abortion. He stated that she had stayed Sunday night in his trailer and was dead when he had awakened the previous morning. He told police that he had administered two heart stimulating drugs to her in an unsuccessful attempt to revive her, and then had driven to her apartment and got her 21-year old roommate to accompany him back to the trailer. The roommate, also a TWA hostess, said in a signed statement that she had urged the osteopathic student to notify police, but that he had left the trailer that afternoon to dispose of sheets, instruments and medicine, telling her to telephone police two hours after he had left. She instead had called police as soon as he left and officers had arrested him when he returned to the trailer. He told the officers that he had thrown the articles into the Missouri River because "they were bloody and I was scared." This case presents a good example of why Roe v. Wade was eventually established by a wise Supreme Court majority in 1973, contrary to the stupidity which the far right wing in the country has exerted against it since that time, leading to the problematic Dobbs decision of 2022, orchestrated and ushered in through time via the Federalist Society and its strange exertion of total influence over Republican Presidents in Federal judicial appointments since the 1980's.
Julian Scheer of The News reports that 21,805 city and perimeter residents had voted the previous day three to one for the city limits extension. The perimeter residents had voted against the annexation by a margin of 4,260 to 1,443, but the overwhelming vote by city residents, 15,139 to 963, had added the 31 square miles and approximately 32,000 citizens. All 12 perimeter area precincts had voted against it. Added to the present estimated population of 160,000, Charlotte would expand to around 200,000 by 1960, when the annexation would become effective. City officials began making plans this date to provide City services and facilities to the perimeter area.
Dick Young of The News reports that a policy to require that areas desiring City services first be taken into the city limits was being advocated this date, with City Council member Herbert Baxter telling the newspaper that he favored requiring outside applicants for water and sewer services to agree to come into the city as one of the conditions for extending the services. City Manager Henry Yancey, however, had questioned the wisdom of extending water and sewer facilities beyond the boundaries approved in the annexation of the previous day.
John Kilgo of The News reports that City Police Chief Frank Littlejohn had said this date that he might ask the City Council to find a new police chief if the proposed pay raise for police officers failed to be approved. He said that the personnel conditions at the Police Department were not far from being critical, indicating that they were losing six more good men during the current month, that they had to have men who had at least a high school education, but that such men could not afford to work for present pay. He said that the police officer had to be a lawyer, a servant of the law and a public relations man wrapped into one. He said he had a man who had been on the force for 11 years, but was quitting at the end of the month because he had received a job which would pay him $128 more per month take-home pay. He said that the Department made an enemy every time it made an arrest, that people got mad at them for protecting them. He indicated that the Department had lost 15 "good" men since the first of the year and that it would continue to lose them until they made police jobs more attractive than they presently were. "A man doesn't like to go around sticking his neck in dark alleys at night not knowing for sure if he'll come out alive," said the chief. He said that in 1939, the police had been given a day off each week, but it was the last time anything had been done to make the jobs more attractive.
In New York, the executive committee of the Billy Graham Crusade would announce Saturday night whether they would extend the Crusade in New York for an additional two or three weeks, with the decision to be announced at a giant outdoor rally in Yankee Stadium on Saturday night.
In Emouth, England, a 49-year old man had been fined 25 pounds, the equivalent of about $70, the previous day for giving a lighted match to a zoo baboon, with witnesses testifying that the baboon had snatched an unlighted cigarette from the man, who then lit a match and handed it to the animal saying, "You'd better have a light, too." The baboon had been burned on the knuckles, leading to the man's conviction for "causing an animal unnecessary suffering." It is every baboon's right to smoke as they please, except when inflicting secondary smoke inhalation on others. So we disagree with the court's verdict.
America's newest puzzle and word game, "NewsWords", would begin the following Tuesday in the newspaper, meaning fun and profit for you and your family, the contest to run every Tuesday and Wednesday thereafter, with $200 available for the first winner and $50 per week added until someone would hit the jackpot. The game required the reader to find the missing letter in each of 16 words and to help, the newspaper would provide clues. As a bonus each Tuesday, the words would be printed on a page of advertising and if the reader had a sales slip from one of the firms advertised, the newspaper would provide an extra $50.
On the editorial page, "The Middle East Will Know No Peace Until the Refugee Problem Is Settled", a by-lined editorial by News editor Cecil Prince, writing from Cairo, indicates that a young Egyptian had posed to him an example of an Indian chief coming to the home of Mr. Prince in Charlotte and indicating that he was living on land of his ancestors and that they must have it, comparing it to the situation faced by the Arabs regarding Jews in Palestine, stating that it was Arab land for thousands of years, representing home for several generations of Arabs, until they had been driven out and "forced to live like animals in cages". He had said that it was wrong and found it no wonder that politicians believed they had to drive the Jews "into the sea" and reclaim their homelands.
Mr. Prince says that one heard such an argument all over Cairo at present, everywhere opinions were sought, with a curious uniformity to the answers, variations of which occurred only when one gained confidence with the person being questioned and was able to probe deeper into the Arab conscience. So it had been with the young Egyptian, who was willing to concede that a solution to the problem of Israel by driving the Jews into the sea was not a solution at all. But such views were not voiced willingly, as the Government did not tolerate variations from the propaganda line, and so the young Egyptian's real name had to remain undisclosed.
The young man was superbly educated, well-traveled, and highly nationalistic, preferring French to Arabic in casual conversation and thoroughly in sympathy with the aims of the regime of Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser. But regarding Israel, he spoke with a measured moderation never heard in official utterances by the Government, which he nevertheless admired with boyish devotion. He had said that one could not cancel a wrong with another wrong, that Israel was a fact whether Arabs liked it or not, that it had existed for a decade and that thousands of Jews from all over the world had come there and lain down their roots, making it ridiculous to believe that they could drive them into the sea. But he added that the politicians spoke differently as they had to do, as they were talking to the people in the streets who could only understand black and white, Israel necessarily being black.
He said that if they could only solve the problem of the refugees, hundreds of thousands of Arabs who lived in misery in camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, then they might acknowledge the existence of Israel, but that until that point, there could be no peace in the Middle East. He said that there was no hope for an early solution, that no one could say where the refugees could be relocated, that Egypt could not take them at present as they were already suffering from overpopulation, and that Jordan was too poor to absorb them, Lebanon too small, and Syria did not want them. Even if Israel were to admit the refugees, many would not want to return there to live under Jewish rule and become a minority subject to oppression. He had then paused and said that if only Americans would help them solve the problem, but added that American influence alone would not help, as it would take the best efforts of all nations. He said that they saw the danger of trading British and French colonialism for American colonialism, which they did not want, being weary of exploitation from abroad.
As with other young Egyptians of his class, he saw Egypt's role as being one of "positive neutralism", that they should align with neither East nor West, that like India, they had to remain positively in the middle, affording to be friends with both Russia and the U.S. without letting either side dominate them.
Mr. Prince indicates that wariness
of exploitation by foreigners had already triggered vast changes in
Egypt, with foreign-owned businesses having been "Egyptianized",
but that while British, French and American influences were being
systematically erased, Soviet influence was appearing everywhere.
Entertainers in Cairo nightclubs, once imported from Paris, now came
from central Europe, some from behind the Iron Curtain. American rock
'n' roll had been banned by the Government, although still being a
favorite of Egyptian youth and still heard in after-hours nightclubs
He found that Premier Nasser was not pro-Communist but merely an "enlightened socialist", interested only in "extending the limits of freedom" in Egypt. He said further that Egypt was not ready for freedom, as 90 percent of the population was either illiterate or simply did not care, that the people could not rule themselves as they did not know how, needing Premier Nasser to guide them.
That was so despite the Premier's guidance often being harsh and oppressive, but the young man had assured them that the Premier was clever enough to keep the people with him and that those who were not with him were muzzled, finding him to be a "clever man". Mr. Prince concludes that history would decide soon how clever he was.
"City Gains More than Census" indicates that the vote on the city limits extension the previous day had been surprisingly large and that the majority for it had been quite sufficient to keep Charlotte in the front rank of alert and progressive cities within the country, with those who had voted having contributed much to all of the citizens of the city, providing for its future progress and growth.
It thanks especially an organization to get out the vote headed by Carl McGraw.
It forecasts that by the time the annexation would become effective in 1960, the city's efforts to attract new industry and commerce, jobs and payrolls, would be greatly enhanced. The city's population by 1960 would thus be around 200,000 or more. The city residents and perimeter residents would now face in common issues of developing a more satisfying urban life. Some of the metropolitan area's ablest and best qualified leaders lived in the perimeter area which would be annexed, previously disqualified for service as City officials or members of boards and commissions. Previously, the perimeter area had been helping to shape Charlotte's future indirectly, and now it would have a direct impact.
Drew Pearson indicates that the leadership of three Republican Congressmen, George Dondero of Michigan, Gordon Scherer and Harry McGregor of Ohio, would cost taxpayers about two billion dollars extra for the new Federal highway program, the approximate amount to be paid to the gas, electric, telephone and water companies for relocating their poles, pipes and conduits when highways were widened. In the past those costs had been borne by the utilities, but those utilities were now telling state legislatures that the Government would pay 90 percent of the bill and so the states might as well let the Government pay for moving the poles, pipes and conduits.
Three other Congressmen, all Democrats, Jack Dempsey of New Mexico, Robert Jones of Alabama, and Brady Gentry of Texas, had warned what would happen, but Congress had ignored their advice and allowed each state to determine whether to make the utilities pay, presenting an opportunity for companies such as AT&T, which had promptly deployed lobbyists in the various state legislatures, to convince the legislatures to have the states handle the relocation of the utilities necessitated by widening of the highways, as they would be reimbursed for 90 percent of that cost by the Federal Government. The Bureau of Public Roads had reported that in 38 legislatures, laws had either been introduced or passed which would have the states pay the utilities for moving their facilities. The utilities obtained valuable access rights along public roads without paying for the privilege and also frequently wrote off moving costs of utilities against their taxes, with the result that most states in the past had required them to move the utilities at their own expense.
Representative Gentry had retired from Congress, but Representatives Dempsey and Jones were backing a new law which would prohibit further handouts to the utilities and bar them from receiving free access rights along the new highways constructed with Federal aid. Mr. Pearson notes that Representative John Baldwin of California, a Republican, had also urged that the utilities not pay for the moving costs, and that his proposed concession had been so generous that it had no chance to win, with the smoother approach of Representatives Dondero, McGregor and Scherer of letting each state decide having appealed to the lobbyists for the utilities.
The new Ambassador to Russia, Tommy Thompson, had been ordered to Moscow the previous week, regardless of his ulcers, and Mr. Pearson predicts that he would get more ulcers in his new position.
Kansas City Star publisher Roy Roberts, a political critic of former President Truman, was an admiring spectator of the Truman Library at its dedication recently, a ceremony boycotted by the President. But Mr. Roberts had married the widow of Mr. Truman's late press secretary, Charles Ross, and friends said that Mr. Roberts was becoming a real human being.
The IRS had chosen the hottest weeks of the year to overhaul the water-cooling system and air-cooling for its offices, with a Treasury notice to employees saying that it realized that it was one of the worst times to be without chilled drinking water, but that the General Services Administration had advised that the work must be done at the present time.
Mr. Pearson suggests that it was possible to be too punctual, for when the Prime Minister of Pakistan had arrived at the White House 15 minutes ahead of schedule, his limousine had been required to back out of the White House driveway to Blair House across the street, where he had to wait until the President was ready to meet him.
When Prime Minister of Burma, U Nu, had arrived a couple of years earlier on schedule to see the Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson, the latter had kept him waiting so long that the Prime Minister had departed.
Mr. Pearson indicates that the column recently had told the inside story of how the captain of the U.S.S. Saratoga had spent $65,000 to redecorate the carrier for the President's overnight cruise, at which point members of the crew had mimeographed a thousand copies of the column for distribution aboard the ship, and when the captain had learned of it, had confiscated the copies. Mr. Pearson says that the captain strode the bridge with a long cigarette holder clamped between his teeth and was as sharp a ship handler as the Navy had, but that there were some other incidents taking place aboard the carrier which created a morale problem which the Navy might well investigate.
Joseph Alsop, in London, indicates that the latest turn in the confusing disarmament conference in London between the U.S., Britain, Canada, France and Russia, had finally revealed the primary Soviet objective, not being disarmament but rather "limiting the nuclear club", according to the confreres present. At the time, that "club" consisted only of the U.S. and Russia, with a partial member being Britain. The proposed limitation of atomic and thermonuclear weapons tests would prevent additions to that club as no new nation could hope to become a serious member without exhaustive weapons testing. Closing that club to future membership was the only point of agreement at present between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
He suggests that there were no doubt many people in Washington, such as Atomic Energy Commission chairman Admiral Lewis Strauss, who were blind to that identity of U.S. and Soviet interests, reminding that the President and the Administration had negative things to say during the 1956 campaign when Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson had first suggested suspending nuclear testing.
Yet, U.S. nuclear weapons development remained ahead of Soviet weapons development and so in a suspension of the tests, the Soviets would inevitably lose. Without the limitations, many nations would possess nuclear weapons, with Swiss manufacturers mass-producing atomic and hydrogen bombs for sale to Egypt, Syria and other such nations.
Mr. Alsop posits that the Soviets had likely entered the conference with other possible objectives, but that judging by the latest outburst of lead Soviet delegate Valerian Zorin, they had begun with the thought that the talks had at least one practical and attainable objective, the limitation of the club to present membership, undoubtedly influenced by the Soviet fear of Germany becoming a nuclear power.
The Eisenhower Administration had received divided advice and the delegation to the London conference could not speak for the other Western powers, as Mr. Zorin could for all of the nations of the Soviet bloc. While there was identity of interest between the U.S. and Soviets regarding the limitation of nations having nuclear weapons, there was a conflict vis-à-vis the other Western allies who would want to engage in such testing to build their own nuclear programs. That conflict had produced drama behind the scenes, for instance, with new British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd having been of the opinion that Britain would gain if the nuclear club were presently closed, despite the incomplete weapons development by the British, a decision disputed by British Defense Minister Duncan Sandys. The French delegate had consistently taken the view that France ought agree to being excluded from the club in return for an agreement on general disarmament, while the French general staff, certain French permanent officials and several leading politicians, had doubts about that delegate's view.
About ten days earlier, French Prime Minister Bourges Manoury, a member of the latter group, attempted to alter the French delegate's previously agreed instructions, whereupon the delegate offered his resignation, with the impasse not overcome until the delegate had made an emergency trip to Paris and returned with his original instructions confirmed.
In effect, the views of Admiral Strauss and his friends in the Government had dovetailed with the differently motivated views of Britain and France, with the result being the final proposal by U.S. delegate Harold Stassen to halt nuclear testing and thus close the club, that being linked with a broader system of disarmament and a full system of inspection and control.
Mr. Alsop regards Mr. Zorin's indignant response as understandable in light of the Kremlin's actual primary aim for the conference, but the common interest between the U.S. and Russia still remained the same, while the problem of preventing a nuclear nightmare from continued armament having nothing really to do with the problem of disarmament, as prevention of the nightmare might be solved independently, provided Admiral Strauss could be disabused of his delusions regarding having a nuclear monopoly and the Administration convinced of accepting modest transfers to Western allies from the vast stocks of U.S. nuclear weapons, thus persuading the allies to join in closing the atomic club.
Walter Lippmann indicates that the President had let it be known that he was not sure whether he was in favor of a major measure which had been put forward by the Administration, that being the civil rights bill, just as he had been unsure of his own proposed budget. In the case of civil rights, it appeared that he had a misleading impression of what was in the proposed measure, and so at his July 3 press conference had said in reply to a question that while he was not a lawyer and did not participate in drawing up the exact language of the proposals, he had known what the objective was that he was seeking, that being "to prevent anybody illegally from interfering with any individual's right to vote if that individual were qualified under the proper laws of his state."
Mr. Lippmann indicates that protecting the right of blacks to vote in elections for Federal officials was the objective of part IV of the bill, but that the objective of part III was to strengthen the Federal power to enforce all civil rights laws, including that providing for integration of public schools. He thus suggests that the President had been misled, but that it was hard to believe he had read the bill if he believed that it was directed solely or predominantly toward securing and protecting the right to vote, as it was plainly a comprehensive measure to allow enforcement mechanisms for all civil rights which existed under law. He suggests that the President's lack of understanding of the measure had enabled Senator Richard Russell of Georgia to gain credibility for his charge that the bill had been an example of "cunning draftsmanship" and that it was promoted by a "campaign of deception".
He regards it as puzzling to find the President so inadequately informed regarding the objectives of the measure, but that whatever the reason for that misunderstanding, there had been no cunning deception as the text of the bill made plain what it was designed to do, and Attorney General Herbert Brownell, during hearings in the House committee and in a memorandum dated April 9, 1956, had included integration of the public schools among the Federal activities designed to be enforced by the bill.
Senator Russell had recognized that there were differences between the right of adults who were qualified to vote and the right to have their children attend a desegregated school, though both were civil rights under the law, the Senator having stated in his speech on July 2 that "the American people generally are opposed to any denial of the right of ballot to any qualified citizens" but that even "outside the South there are millions of people who would not approve" of the use of force to compel integration.
Mr. Lippmann indicates that in principle, it was the duty of the Government to use its powers to secure and protect the right to vote, but that to promote integration, its duty was only to use persuasion to obtain consent and that the two objectives ought not therefore be lumped together, with the wise result being to accept an amendment of the measure which would separate those objectives. He finds that even with that type of bill, there would be die-hard opposition in the deep South, but that such a bill separating the two objectives would be harder to defeat or to filibuster to death, as there were millions of Americans outside the South who believed that the right to vote had to be respected, while not believing that integration of the public schools could or should be enforced more rapidly than local sentiment would accept it.
He finds that the right to vote, when secured and protected, would enable black citizens to acquire powerful means for establishing all of their rights. He is not sure that whether the quote he offered from Senator Russell really meant that Southerners of his eminence were presently prepared to concede the right to vote, but if it did mean that, it marked a great advance for the cause of civil rights. "A disfranchised minority is politically helpless. Let it acquire the right to vote, and it will be listened to."
Well, it will be except in Trumpville, U.S.A., that is unless you step and fetch it, scratch your head a little like you are slightly confused and smile broadly and say "yassuh", the way little black boys and girls ought to do when greeting and being in the presence of Massa. Ain't that right, Massa Donny and Shady J. D.? No Negroes in our town 'ceptin' them smiley fellas and maybe an occasional Negro overseeah to maintain the law and awda in Negro-town.
A letter writer expresses surprise that the newspaper had printed an editorial favoring rejection of the civil rights bill by the Senate, finding the editorial to have been motivated by prejudice and "conceived by the mind of ignorance", suggesting to the writer that the newspaper believed that Federal legislation should not address intimidation exerted against a citizen's rights and that a way to appease such persons without actually granting them their constitutional rights could be found. He finds that a majority of Senators and Congressmen from the South were already making fools of themselves by trying to fulfill the desires of their prejudiced citizens. He also addresses two letters to the editor printed the same date written by anti-integrationists with narrow-minded concepts regarding the advantages of an integrated society. "But if we as a nation are going to remain the leading nation of the world today, something must and is going to be done about the problem of segregation."
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