The Charlotte News
Saturday, February 28, 1959
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Cape Canaveral in Florida that the U.S. was ready to try again to launch a satellite past the moon and into orbit around the sun. The Army moon shot appeared likely to occur during the weekend, although the exact time remained secret. Preliminaries in the big weekend space show included the launching of a powerful 80-foot Thor-Able rocket early this date on a 5,000-mile ICBM nosecone recovery test. Successful firing of a 28-foot Jupiter missile the previous day over a 1,700 mile range to test its tactical ballistic shell, nosecone, engine, warhead and fusing system had also occurred. Launching of the Navy's Polaris nuclear submarine rocket the previous day had taken place, and the Navy later said that the Polaris might have broken up soon after it disappeared into the clouds, although considerable test data had been recorded. Three of four earlier Polaris firings had been unsuccessful. The Army moon rocket waiting to take the limelight was a four-stage Juno II, a Jupiter surmounted with three successive stages of Sergeant rockets. Its role would be to hurl a 13-pound satellite loaded with radiation equipment past the moon to become an artificial planet whirling around the sun. The first and second stages of the Juno II rocket would be in a spinning bucket to give stability in flight. There would be 11 of the solid fuel Sergeant rockets in the second stage, three in the third, with the fourth stage also to be one Sergeant rocket to which the satellite would be attached. The planes of the earth and moon were presently in the best relation, with the moon about 220,000 miles from the earth. The first Army moon shot the previous December 6 had climbed to 64,000 miles. The Pioneer II rocket fired by the Air Force the previous November 8 had reached 71,000 miles. The Soviets had claimed that they had sent a space probe past the moon early in the year.
In Washington, it was reported that the Vanguard II, the American weather satellite, was working perfectly, according to space experts this date. Indications were that the new satellite soon would provide an interesting and important report on cloud coverings around the world. NASA said that as of Thursday night, the satellite had completed 108 orbits around the earth since it had been launched into orbit on February 17. On 96 of those orbits, it had provided its weather reports in perfect order, according to NASA officials.
In Berlin, it was reported that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev would come to East Germany to attend the Leipzig Trade Fair which would open on Sunday. Presumably, he would take advantage of the occasion to talk over the Berlin crisis with East German officials. The official East German news agency, ADN, had announced the visit by the Russian Premier, quoting a Tass agency dispatch this date from Moscow. The announcement had come amid speculation among Western diplomats in Berlin that the Soviet Union might be getting ready to sign a separate peace treaty with Germany.
In Listowel, Ontario, at least four children had been killed this date when the roof of the local arena had collapsed during a Peewee Minor Hockey League practice, with an unknown number of persons trapped in the debris. Twenty-five youngsters and two adults had been reported to have been in the arena when the roof had collapsed, apparently under the heavy weight of snow. Ages of the players in the league ranged downward from 11 years. Station wagons had started a shuttle service between the arena and a hospital two blocks away. The recreation director and the team's coach had been the two adults inside the arena at the time. The collapsed roof was reported to cover the entire surface of the ice. Residents of the town flocked to the arena to provide assistance and some worked to resuscitate the rescued youngsters. It was reported that the roof was specially designed to withstand heavy snow, built five years earlier.
In New York, it was reported that a Federal mediator had announced this date that a threatened strike Monday by 8,000 employees of Pan American World Airways had been averted, after agreement "in principle" had been reached following an all-night negotiating session, according to a member of the National Mediation Board, who said that the Transport Workers Union negotiating committee would have to vote on the agreement, which would go before them for ratification on as yet undetermined date.
In Henderson, N.C., it was reported that another dynamite blast had occurred during the previous night in the strike-troubled town. As with a similar explosion on Thursday night, it apparently had caused no damage. The Henderson police reported that the blast was "not as heavy or as loud" as one which had awakened residents in the same section of South Henderson on Thursday night. As with the previous explosion, officers could not locate the exact spot where it had detonated, indicating that it might have occurred in an open field. Except for that explosion in the wee hours and a paint-throwing incident, police reported a "very quiet night". One worker living near Henderson reported red paint had been thrown on his car, parked in front of his house during the night. Officers were relieved that the Harriet-Henderson Cotton Mills, the focus of the strike, had been closed this date, thus eliminating any possibility of picket line troubles during the morning. Prospects for settlement of the 15-week old strike had faded on Friday, possibly as a result of an increasing back-to-work movement. Both management and union officials said that there were more workers in the two plants of the mills on Friday than at any time since the mills had been reopened two weeks earlier by management in an effort to break the strike. The number of those who were strikers returning to the job and the number who were new employees could not be determined. Boyd Payton, Carolinas director of the striking Textile Workers Union of America, reported that talks the previous day had resulted in no progress and that the company had retrenched in its original position on several key issues, holding up any agreement.
In Rutherford, N.J., it was reported that two bandits had pulled an Eastern version of the old Wild West stagecoach holdup the previous day, collecting $655.50 at gunpoint from 62 people on a commuter bus from New York. The pair posed as passengers and when the bus had emerged from the Lincoln Tunnel under the Hudson River, one of them sitting at the front told the bus driver that there was going to be a holdup. The driver looked at him and thought that he was kidding, but suddenly, he had pulled out a large automatic pistol and told him not to try anything funny and keep driving normally. The driver kept thinking of Fidel Castro's victims and how bullets went through people. As the bus rolled along, the other bandit moved from the rear with a brown duffel bag, taking up the collection among the passengers, some of whom were standing in the aisle. He skipped some of the people in the excitement, according to the driver. None of the riders had spoken and none had moved except to reach for their wallet or purse, and the whole thing was over in about ten minutes. The driver said that when the robber had gotten to the front of the bus, he looked outside and said to his accomplice, "Is that your car?" The robber with the gun said that it was and so he told the driver to pull over and let them out, then to keep going. They had gotten off the bus and strolled leisurely to the car as the bus disappeared. There were no service stations handy where the bus driver could phone the police and so he had driven to a bus company garage in Clifton, two miles away. Police had questioned the riders and then let them go. The gunman standing over the driver had asked for his wallet and the driver told him that he had only a license in it and the robber told him that he did not want it, but took his change carrier containing $15. The driver said he actually had seven dollars in his wallet.
Bob Slough of The News reports that thieves the previous night had stolen a 1.5-ton van loaded with $10,000 worth of cigarettes and assorted groceries. The International van was located early in the morning by the Mecklenburg County Police, who said that the cigarettes were missing. The manager of the warehouse of the Associated Grocers Mutual of the Carolinas had reported the theft to the police during the morning. A police captain said that the truck, loaded with 100 cases of cigarettes and assorted groceries, had been parked in the company's warehouse. Thieves had broken into the building via a skylight—"Naked City"-style—, opened the doors and apparently had driven off with the truck and groceries. The captain said that it appeared to be the work of professionals and that there were probably at least two men involved. He said that the police were checking the truck for fingerprints and possible clues late in the morning. No arrests had yet been made in the incident. It was the only theft of its type in the county during the previous five years, according to the captain, there having been about five years earlier an incident in which somebody had stolen 100 or 200 cases of cigarettes from another Charlotte grocery outlet.
In Halifax, N.C., it was reported that the boycott of a black elementary school at Hollister had continued this date, with about 7 of the 337 students of the school attending make-up classes. Both the County School Board and black parents planned separate meetings the folllowing Monday and the struggle over the date of construction of a new school might at that point come to a head. The school's PTA met privately on Friday night, and the wife of the president of the group said afterward that they had nothing to say the rest of the week. The Halifax County School superintendent reported this date that he did not know what type of reception the parents were giving to the School Board's plan presented on Friday. At a meeting with parents, the Board had asked that they circulate statements for all parents to sign saying that they would send their children to a proposed new school. The Board said that it had plans for a new 12-room school but could not proceed until it knew how many children would attend. The superintendent said that it was feared that many parents would claim that they were Halifax Indians and send their children to the State-supported school for Haliwans in adjoining Warren County. An attorney for the School Board told parents on Friday that teachers were allotted according to average attendance and that prolonged heavy absences could cause loss of one or more teachers the following year.
In Raleigh, legislators had provided smooth sailing during the week for a couple of items from the legislative program of Governor Luther Hodges. A State House committee endorsed a project for a new building to house the General Assembly and a bill for compulsory polio vaccination of young children had received approval from both the State Senate and State House committees. Both measures would have a long way to go before becoming law.
James A. Terrell, in this date's edition of the "Lenten Guideposts", indicates that seven years earlier he was last in sales in his office as a stockbroker and investment counselor, soliciting business in the best accepted traditions of selling. He sought to open the minds of his customers with the tools of high pressure, firm persuasion, and awesome facts. It was hard work and the results were poor. He had been unable to meet the taxes on their home, and his wife, a marriage counselor and lecturer on psychology in the Los Angeles public schools, had been contributing more than her share for their upkeep. He had thus begun an earnest search for spiritual answers to his problems. He had been a church member for 44 years and still was, but God had remained a Sunday acquaintance, unreal, shrouded in formality and very far away. Spurred by his defeats, he discovered that he needed God close at hand. Through inspirational reading and metaphysical study, he arrived at the day when that was true six years earlier when he decided to "Salute the Christ in every person!" He affirmed it to himself that everyone he met had within him the Christ spirit, the essence of good, part of God, and his recognition of that quality in others and in himself had immediately put their relationship on a higher level. Before making a call, he would eliminate from his mind all thoughts of resistance and conflict, would sit a few moments in his car and "salute" his prospective client, indicating to himself that if his proposition was right for the person, he would know it, and if it was not, he did not want the business. That method not only had made him a better salesman but also had given him inner guidance, assurance and given his clients an invisible service, protection. He recalled once when a client had recommended him to a gentle, elderly lady who called at his office, indicating that she had never made an investment in her life. In earlier days, his reaction would have been that it was like taking candy from babies. Instead, his new pledge to honor the Christ in every person took over and he asked in prayer to give him the perfect idea for her. As a result, the investments the woman had made had proved to be very good ones. The previous year, when he had been made manager of the mutual fund department of his firm, he had the responsibility for training the young salesmen, and he applied the technique which he had learned to them. The rest is on an inside page.
In Melbourne, Australia, it was reported that evangelist Billy Graham had devoted this night's service to "Bodgies and Widgies", the country's young hoodlums and their girlfriends, respectively, but only three had attended. Some of the rest, the boys in their purple pants and the girls in short, tight skirts, had instead attended the new Elvis Presley movie, "King Creole". The audience at the open air Music Bowl was comprised of teenagers and younger people, with more than 2,000 having made decisions for Christ after the evangelist had exhorted them with "bop" talk. As they filed in, he said: "Crazy man, crazy. Dad, you really blasted me this morning. You were really cool, Dad, cool, I mean, cool." This cat, like, has been listening too much to Kookie on the TV. No one except those in Squaresville, and perhaps a few weird, uninformed children under 12, really talk that way.
On the editorial page, "Traffic Court: A Primary Local Need" indicates that there were two primary faults with traffic citations, that they had no punitive effect on the person with money and were a hardship for the person without it. The police were aware of that problem but were powerless to do anything about it. It finds that an answer to the problem was one of the initial goals of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Safety Association, seeking to establish a traffic court.
The police were solidly backing the proposal as such a court would serve to correct the shortcomings of the traffic law enforcement system. It would be a control factor, as those who dreaded the thought of going to court would be deterred in their driving habits and actions toward pedestrians. In many traffic courts, appearance was mandatory for any moving violation. Thus, a session in court would also subtract from valuable time, impacting the person who would find little inconvenience from a fine. It would also serve as an instructional instrument for traffic safety, as a fine or loss of license might be suspended on condition that the person attend a traffic school. If elected, the attendance would be mandatory and truants would face the original sentence.
There would be the need for an additional judge trained for the traffic court, with intimate knowledge of traffic law and a flexible attitude toward the public, plus a thorough background in safety education, not burdened with all manner of civil and criminal cases otherwise as were the recorder's courts.
Of 51 cities in Charlotte's population group, between 100,000 and 200,000, reporting traffic data to the National Safety Council, 42 had reported fewer traffic deaths, 44 had listed a lower registration death rate, and 44 had reported a lower population death rate in 1956, with no indication that the 1958 tally was any better. But in cities with a functioning safety organization, of which there were 66 in Charlotte's population range, the traffic death rate had averaged 9.6 per hundred thousand, whereas the last local figure in Charlotte had been 16.9. It thus finds that a decisive step in trimming that grim percentage would be the establishment of a traffic court.
It took 17 million dollars yearly to pay for the senseless tragedies on the roads, and thus any action to lower those figures would be a boon.
"Scholarships: A Market for the Mind" indicates that a growing endeavor by industry and individuals was the establishment of scholarships for higher education, with more announcements of them coming each year in an expanding program, affording high school candidates many choices for monetary aid.
It finds that industry was smart to back such a plan, as any student who had received a college education from a given company was likely to become its employee later. Cynics might add that foundations afforded tax dodges, but, regardless, the dedicated student free of financial worries could do a better job.
It indicates that it had been told that it was still possible also to work one's way through college, but rising tuition and expenses had made it more difficult by the year, even more so for a student who had a wife and family.
It hopes that the future would find an ever-increasing number of such student grants, particularly for graduate students in medicine and scientific research, as all too often, those in the sciences struggled through long years of preparation in threadbare respectability. The scholarship route would afford the hope of success after the mind was prepared.
"Talkathon" provides an item "for the scientist who declared that the male is the wordier of the species": "A switchboard operator in Vancouver, B.C., reported the other day that two women had engaged in a telephone conversation for eight continuous hours."
"'Twinkle, Twinkle' and the Astronauts" indicates that at one time in its younger life, it had been collared into music lessons, with the first tune to be pounded out on the keyboard having been "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". Only now, it indicates, years later, did it have the answer to the mystery of the second line of the lyrics. "It's all caught up in a tangled skein involving misuses of astronautical terminology which have been protested by certain informed correspondents of the Aviation Writers Association."
The Journal of the American Astronautical Society had sought to make more precise the definition of terms which journalists had been using blithely for some time. "Outer Space", was "the regions outside galactic systems (our own galaxy, the Magellanic Clouds and attendant globular clusters, if any) … or, for practical purposes … intergalactic space." Then there was Inner Space and Middle Space, with subcategories for the former broken into Terrestrial Space and Proximate Space.
The latter was that region "just above the earth's (or other planet's) atmosphere, if any, and under their gravitational dominance. Proximate space for the sun or a star would really be 'Inner Space.'" Inner Space was "the regions outside the solar and planetary atmosphere … or, for all practical purposes … interplanetary space."
It finds that the answer was there, but it would have to regress and try to learn to play the rest of the song.
A piece from the Richmond News Leader, titled "TV or Not TV", indicates that the Old Vic Company of London had presented on television the previous night, the prior Tuesday, an abbreviated version of Hamlet. "And if the players finished in first place, the sponsoring du Pont Company in second, and Mr. Shakespeare a breathless third, the program nonetheless was a rewarding experience." It finds that du Pont was to be congratulated for recognizing that millions of viewers desired something more than the familiar round of Westerns, quiz shows, and situation comedies.
It suggests that those viewers who had been pleased with the production go back and read the play. "One of the hallmarks of Shakespeare's popularity, in his own time and over three and half centuries, has been his unique synthesis of action and insight—the simultaneous exposition of man-doing and man-thinking. Moments of broad farce and melodrama follow hard upon moments of sublime philosophical discourse." It indicates that the performance of Hamlet, for reasons of time, had been weighted heavily in favor of the visually exciting rather than the mentally stimulating. It finds no objection to it but indicates that much of the poetry and most of the subtle motivation of the chief characters had been discarded to fit the play into 90 minutes.
It allows that whole scenes and verses could be eliminated from Shakespearean plays without seriously injuring the sense of what Shakespeare had written, but it also finds that the Old Vic's necessarily close editing of the text had left half-said and ill-explained much which was essential. Portions of the play, notably the soliloquy involving the question, "To be or not to be?" were peaks which should not be disturbed. Also, important minor characters, such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, could not be demoted to spear-carriers without upsetting the delicate balance of the plot and subplots. Yet, given the rigid necessities of time, the Old Vic had faithfully preserved the essence of Hamlet's dilemma, if not all that contributed to it. It finds that the tragedy of the lead character had become part of the experience of many viewers for the first time and that it was sufficient tribute to 90 minutes of excellent television.
No doubt, in the aftermath of the presentation, the viewers found the rest to be silence
Drew Pearson tells of an untold story behind the payroll practices of Representative Leonard Wolf of Iowa, who received nationwide headlines for giving his wife a $13,334 per year job in his office. The harassed Congressman was struggling to pay off $50,000 in personal debts from his campaign for Congress, which had kept him away from his small farm-supply business until he lost it. Rather than enter bankruptcy, he promised to pay his creditors the entire amount he owed and his wife was helping to liquidate the debts by working in his office where she put in a full eight-hour day, with the Government salaries being the couple's only income.
Mr. Wolf had worried about the ethics of hiring his wife before placing her on the payroll, discussing the problem with local Democratic leaders. On election eve, he had announced that his triumph was a team victory and that his wife would work in his office. Later, he issued a press release announcing "with great personal pride and pleasure" the appointment of his wife as his assistant. He repeated the announcement in a newsletter which he sent to constituents. Mr. Pearson indicates that at least he was not trying to pull a fast one on the voters who elected him.
Congressmen who had been placed under scrutiny for placing relatives on their own office payrolls were wondering how Major John Eisenhower, the President's son, managed to stay on the Army payroll always close to Washington. Army rules were strict that every officer would be assigned to new duty periodically. Almost never would he be given the same duty in the same area for more than four years. Originally, President Truman had ordered Major Eisenhower to Washington for his father's inauguration in 1953. As commander-in-chief, President Truman had issued the order without telling the President-elect or anyone else, believing that the young major should be present for his father's inauguration. After that, the Army kept Major Eisenhower on various duties around Washington on various pretexts. For two weeks in 1954, he had been assigned to temporary duty at the White House. In the summer of 1955, the Army found a spot for him on the faculty of the Fort Belvoir Engineering School in nearby Virginia. In 1957, he was given a job at the Pentagon just across the river from the White House. Finally, in October, 1958, he was moved into the White House.
Congressmen thought it was fine to have the Eisenhower children near their grandfather, but they also wondered what the official Army explanation was for giving Major Eisenhower entirely deferential treatment, different from the average Army officer.
Joseph Alsop, at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, tells of flying with the Strategic Air Command aboard a B-52 from Westover Air Base in Massachusetts on a snowy day, as part of a group dubbed "Trombone 33", on a training mission. The pilot of the plane on which he was a guest was Lt. Col. Winston Moore. After an endless check of the plane's and the crew's readiness, it and the other seven jets suddenly took off.
As they leveled off at 36,000 feet, it was time to think of accomplishing rendezvous with the tankers of Alcibiades II, three specks having to find three other specks, the tankers, for refueling above Erie, Pa. The boom from the tanker, a KC-135, was extended toward the B-52 as the latter flew beneath it, until the boom was engaged and the coupling accomplished. The fuel then was transferred at more than a ton per minute, with both planes flying together at many hundreds of miles per hour.
As the planes broke off, the bomb-plotting center below at Columbus, O., tested the bombing accuracy of the plane's radar-navigator aboard via ground radar and computers. The theoretical destruction of target alpha, the northeast corner of a Columbus shopping center, was being assessed. The radar-navigator locked his cross-hairs on the target and the automatic targeting device took over to guide the plane to the proper point where the bombs would be released above the invisible target seven miles below.
The radar-navigator's average bombing error was less than 1,000 feet, with a weapon which could kill at nearly a mile. On this occasion, Columbus reported a bomb plot above the average. Something was wrong with the plane's radar-bombing apparatus and the purpose of the test was to determine the malfunction.
A sergeant aboard had the task of jamming the ground radar, which he performed well, rendering the radar at Kirksville, Mo., "Quiet", blinded during the plane's approach. At that point, the test was complete and the plane turned for home at Offutt AFB, SAC Headquarters.
Just before the farewells, Col. Moore was asked about the difference between the daily practice and actual performance, and he had replied: "Oh, we're here because we may have a job to do. We don't think about it much, but if they ever tell us to do the job, why that's what we're here for."
A letter writer indicates indebtedness to State Representative Frank Snepp of Mecklenburg and the other Representatives who had given a complete hearing to the perimeter area people who would vote in the coming city election. He hopes, being among that group, that they would keep in mind that in such issues, where principle was involved, they could search their minds and hearts and humble themselves enough to ask God, "What would thou have us to do?" He indicates that if enough people were to value their rights enough to act, write letters to the editors of the newspapers and talk with their neighbors about principal issues such as those, they would not have to worry about the rights of the coming generations.
A letter from the principal and assistant principal of Myers Park High School indicates that they were pleased at the national honor provided reporter Ann Sawyer of The News for her educational reporting, as her columns had been timely and informative. They indicate that the efforts of the newspaper in printing factual school information were greatly appreciated.
A letter writer responds to another letter, indicating that its author had been "entirely out of proportion with the facts and policy" of the newspaper, which he had the pleasure of enjoying for a long time. He says he had never seen an instance in which the newspaper had advocated lawlessness in any form, although he could not say the same for some unions in the country. When a worker failed to honor a picket line, in most instances, he was subject to being exposed to explosives thrown at his house or property, or faced being beaten by paid goons. He finds the country in far more danger from unions than from Communists, as the unions had more control over the people than the Communists ever would. He thanks the staff of the newspaper for their excellent coverage of news in every area.
A letter writer indicates that apparently inflation had started in the Federal and state legislatures and trickled down in a puddle around the feet of the wage earners. He thinks that there were so many conflicting laws that all legislatures ought be abolished for about a decade. That would give them time to pay off present debt and save money in the process, putting Senators and Congressmen on unemployment compensation. He thinks it would also allow cops and courts time to familiarize themselves with the present statutes.
A letter writer from Gaffney, S.C., indicates that recently, four State Representatives in Texas had stated that they would introduce a bill which would require school teachers to take an annual oath affirming a belief in a supreme being, coming after it had been charged that atheism was being taught in some Texas schools. He finds it indicative of the lengths to which religious dogmatists would go to suppress and persecute those who happened to have different opinions. He indicates that he was an atheist and could appreciate the predicament which the Texas school teachers were presently facing. Aside from the fact that they would probably lose their jobs, they would also become social outcasts, be labeled Communists, considered by many to be synonymous with atheism, and would likely be investigated by the Federal Government. Later, they might find jobs as waiters or sales ladies or truck drivers. He compares it to the Salem witch trials and suggests that the First Amendment, while guaranteeing the right of worship, apparently did not guarantee the right to deny the existence of a supreme being. He indicates that if the proposed Texas law were adopted, it would eventually leak into other professions and into industry, following which would be compulsory church attendance, with eventually, perhaps, Billy Graham opposing Oral Roberts for the presidency of the United States. While there was need for improvement in education, there was no need for a religious dictatorship operating from American classrooms. He indicates that what was needed at present was not more religion but more common sense. "And, as any atheist can tell you, religion and common sense are not compatible and never will be."
Framed Edition
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