The Charlotte News
Monday, March 23, 1959
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had proposed that the Western allies adopt a three-point approach to a summit conference during the summer with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. It had been learned this date that it was a compromise formula agreed on in talks between the two Western leaders at Camp David in Maryland on Saturday. Presently under discussion by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and French Premier Charles de Gaulle, it represented a compromise between Mr. Macmillan's urgent desire to meet with Mr. Khrushchev unconditionally and the President's reluctance to meet without promise of achievement at such a summit meeting. The three points were that the Big Four powers, the U.S., Britain, France and the Soviet Union, would open a foreign ministers meeting at Geneva on May 11, with which Mr. Khrushchev had already substantially agreed, that the foreign ministers ought reach agreements on the widest possible range of German and related problems, seeking to narrow Soviet-Western differences and prepare proposals for a later summit conference; that the heads of government ought hold their meeting when justified by the work of the foreign ministers; that the foreign ministers thus would have the responsibility of determining the time, place, and subject matter of the summit conference. The proposal covering those points had been drafted by the President and Mr. Macmillan for inclusion in Western notes presently expected to go to Moscow later in the week. Mr. Khrushchev had been pressing for a summit conference for many months. Some officials said that the forging of a summit meeting was one of the Soviet leader's objectives in stirring up the Berlin crisis, which had begun the prior November. Prime Minister Macmillan believed that the Western heads of government had to negotiate with Mr. Khrushchev even if the foreign ministers conference was a failure, while the President believed that every effort had to be made to get basic progress toward a solution of the Berlin crisis and that some start toward that end would have to be made in the foreign ministers conference, prior to the summit being held.
The President was expected to tell state governors this date that unless they soon broadened state jobless aid laws, Congress might step in and enact compulsory Federal standards. He invited the executive committee of the Governors Conference to the White House to explore ways to improve the Federal-state unemployment compensation system. He had repeatedly urged the states to improve the amounts and duration of benefits under their programs. They had responded but not to the degree which the President had wanted. Meanwhile, a number of Democrats in Congress were advocating Federal legislation, given the nearly 5 million presently unemployed. Under the current system, dating back to the Democratic New Deal, the Federal Government had levied a payroll tax of up to 3 percent on employers, with most of the money being returned to the states to spend on jobless benefits as insured workers were discharged or laid off. Within broad limits, the states fixed their own standards. Over 4 billion dollars had been paid out in such benefits during the 1958 recession, including some 400 million supplied by Congress the prior year to extend temporarily the duration of benefits. The payments and the duration varied widely between the states. The payments averaged nationally about $30 per week. In most states, the normal maximum duration was 26 weeks, but under the temporary Federal plan, which would expire March 31, it had been extended to 39 weeks. The House had passed a three-month limited extension of the temporary program, but in the Senate, there was a move to convert it into legislation permanently raising the level of benefits and their duration. The proposed permanent changes would carry out on a national basis substantially what the President had been urging the states to do, that is fix minimum weekly benefits at 50 percent of a worker's regular weekly wage, but no more than two-thirds of the average wage paid in a particular state. They also would lengthen the period during which the benefits would be paid. Thus far, the President had said that the program ought be a state responsibility, but Secretary of Labor James Mitchell reportedly had advised the White House that the states were moving too slowly, contending that if Federal standards were to be ultimately enacted, the Republican Administration might as well take the initiative before the Democratic Congress did so.
In New York, it was reported that a Jewish leader had asked Pope John XXIII to alter his proposed ecumenical council on unity of all Christians to "an all-inclusive council of world peace" which would include leaders of other faiths.
In Broadbeach, Australia, it was reported that evangelist Billy Graham's rest at the Gold Coast resort had already done him so much good that he would not require a medical examination. A doctor from the University of Pennsylvania, who was a personal friend of the evangelist, had arrived from the U.S. to visit the Reverend Graham, but a member of the latter's staff had said that the examination by the doctor, originally planned, was no longer necessary. Instead, the evangelist and the doctor would play golf together. The evangelist told reporters when he had arrived on March 18 that he had a spasm in a blood vessel behind his left eye which had been causing him loss of focus. The ailment had delayed his departure for his tour of Australia. He would interrupt his scheduled ten-day rest to preach to holiday crowds at Surf Beach on Good Friday and on Easter, would preach at a Methodist service in a movie house on the Gold Coast.
In Robbins, Tenn., it was reported that eight men had been killed this date in a coal mine explosion near the town, occurring in the Brimstone Mine. State police said that rescuers had not been able to reach the miners but that eight were believed to have been killed. There were no immediate reports on how many miners had been in the mine at the time of the explosion. The community was about 75 miles northwest of Knoxville.
In Fort Worth, Tex., one man was reported to have died and two others had suffered injuries in a pistol duel in a home the previous day between two longtime friends, one, 42, having died of a bullet wound in the abdomen, and the other, 40, having been wounded by five bullets. Also wounded had been the dead man's 14-year old daughter, who had suffered wounds in her right breast and left forearm as she tried to shield her father from the other man's bullets. Two other daughters and the other man's wife had also been present during the shooting in the dead man's home. The deceased's wife was not at home and she told reporters this date that the other man had come by their home on Saturday night to see her husband, but that he was not there, that he had stayed awhile and they had watched television, after which her husband had called for her to pick him up at a café. She told reporters that she and her husband had an argument and that she had left him and gone to the office of her husband's trailer company. She said that one of her daughters had called from a hospital to tell her of the shooting, which she said had come after the other man had called at their home at about 5:00 a.m. the previous day.
In Annapolis, Md., it was reported that Anne Arundel County police were working on the theory that an itinerant sawmill worker might have been the killer who had wiped out a Virginia family of four. The chief said the previous night that all three sites involved in the mass slaying, Mineral and Fredericksburg, Va., and Gambrills, Md., were located in the vicinity of sawmills. A 29-year old feed truck driver, his wife and two daughters had disappeared on the night of January 11 as they had driven to their Mineral home after a visit with relatives. On March 5, the bodies of the father and his 18-month old daughter had been found by two men gathering sawdust from a lumber mill pile in Spotsylvania County, two miles west of Fredericksburg. The prior Saturday, the ten-week search for members of the family had come to a grizzly end when the bodies of the mother and her five-year old daughter had been discovered in a shallow grave at Gambrills, about 8 miles west of Annapolis. Two teenage boys hunting with BB guns not far from the Army's Fort Meade reservation had made the latter discovery. Maryland's chief medical examiner said the previous night that all four members of the family probably had died within a period of several hours shortly after their disappearance. He said that the father had been beaten and shot and his arms tied with his own necktie. His body had been found atop that of his younger daughter. Police were unable to determine if the little girl had died of a blow, had suffocated under her father's body or was a victim of exposure. The mother had been beaten on the face and had been strangled with one of her nylon stockings, and her daughter had a fractured skull, probably caused by a blunt instrument. The location of the latter grave, off a lonely country road, was about a half mile from where the body of another woman had been found in June, 1957. The police chief said that if they caught the man who had killed the family, they believed that they would also have the murderer of the other woman. He linked the two cases, saying that the killer may have wanted to bury the family members near the spot of the earlier slaying. An Army sergeant, who was with the other woman when she had been shot and killed, had told police that the crime was committed by a "bushy-haired" man. The police chief said that he had been told by a Virginia State Police investigator that another family near Mineral, had been forced off the road by a "bushy-haired" motorist. That family had escaped, but police believed that the family who was found dead also may have been forced off the road. Police from Anne Arundel and Prince George's Counties were scheduled to meet in Washington this date to discuss the case with the FBI and Maryland and Virginia State police.
In Buxton, England, it was reported that three attempts to pull an unconscious college student from a cavern crevice 1,000 feet underground had failed this date, as rescue workers feared that he was near death. Three times, members of a 70-man rescue team had been able to drop a rope around the 20-year old youth and each time it had snapped when they sought to yank him from the funnel-shaped cleft where he was jammed 40 feet below. One of the workers said that it would be a miracle if they were able to get him out. The student of Oxford University had been wedged by his shoulders 40 feet down a funnel-shaped cleft some 18 inches wide in places, about a mile and a half from the mouth of Peak Cavern, at the end of a 400-foot long, two-foot high corkscrew-shaped tunnel named The Devils Hole. The student was trapped on Sunday while exploring the cave with a party from the British Speleological Association, which studied caves. While the others were taking photographs, the student had wandered off alone, apparently had crawled through The Devil's Hole and had fallen into the rock cleft. His companions had heard his cries and sought to extricate him with rope ladders, and another exploring party had joined the attempt, with one of the group having made a two-hour trek to the cavern entrance to obtain help. Firemen had brought an oxygen mask, but after seven hours in the hole, the student was too weak even to put it on. Finally a rescuer was able to get the mask over his face. Rescue workers who came to the surface for fresh air said that the student was trapped "in a coffin of rock." During the night, they had passed chocolate and sandwiches to him, but he was too weak to get them to his mouth. He talked to the rescuers for awhile but his voice had grown fainter and he had eventually lost consciousness. The rescuers got a light rope looped around him but it had broken when they tried to pull him out. They continued to work with ropes and grease, and meanwhile oxygen cylinders were sent down as the air had become foul.
In Salina, Kansas, it was reported that two 16-year old girls, who had broken out of a Nebraska industrial school and forced a farmer to accompany them on their flight, would be charged with kidnaping. The two, one of Omaha and the other of Lexington, Neb., were being held in Salina, awaiting the arrival of a Federal officer to return them to Nebraska. The FBI said that the kidnaping charges would be filed against them. The girls had been captured at a Salina roadblock a few hours after they had escaped on Saturday night. The victim, a 54-year old farmer, said, "It was quite an experience." The two girls, armed with two butcher knives and a .22-caliber pistol, had commandeered the farmer's car and forced him to go along as the driver. They had a knife at his throat and a gun leveled at his back, he said, indicating that he was not scared at first but got scared before they stopped. The two girls had been committed to the industrial school as delinquents and both were working as waitresses in a dining hall. After Saturday night's dinner, they had taken a knife and slipped away. At a nearby farmhouse, they had found another butcher knife, the pistol, and a change of clothes. Looking for transportation, they tried to steal a horse, but the animal had bolted. Later, the farmer, his wife and their four children had arrived home after having dinner at a restaurant, the farmer indicating that the children had gone into the house and his wife had put the car in the garage, that when he had walked into the house, it looked like the two girls were raiding the icebox, as its door was open. They had told the farmer that they wanted his car and suggested that his 16-year old daughter could be their hostage, but instead he went along. Too bad they could not have stolen that horse, as their getaway would have been assured, as that is the way, after all, Zorro each week manages to remain on the lam and outside the grasp of Sgt. Garcia and his Lancers. It could also have made for the foundation of a script for one of the various Westerns on television, or even maybe "The Twilight Zone" next fall. In any event, their place in the history of American crime would have thus been fixed as a polestar. As it is, they are just another couple of young kidnapers. Maybe one said to the other, "Don't they hang horse thieves?" at which the horse bolted. Fortunately, neither was hurt, as would have been the case along the South Coast out in California, where mountain lions are still in evidence.
In Raleigh, it was reported that Governor Luther Hodges had met with union and management principals this date in a new move to settle the bitter Henderson cotton mill strike. The president of Harriet-Henderson Cotton Mills and the Carolinas director of the Textile Workers Union of America, Boyd Payton, had met with the Governor to discuss the issues. Meanwhile, officers at Henderson reported that the start of work at the two mills had been quiet during the morning, with only the usual catcalls and jeers from strikers. The Vance County sheriff said, however, that it appeared that there was a drop in the number of people reporting for work. After a preliminary session of a few minutes in the Governor's office at the Capitol, a five-member group had ridden to the executive mansion to begin talks. In addition to the Governor, the president of the mills, another mill official, and Mr. Payton, Julius Frye of Greensboro, an international TWUA representative, had also represented the union. At a press conference just before the strike principals arrived, the Governor was asked if he had hopes of reaching an agreement to end the strike, and he said that he was a natural optimist, but that it was a "tough one". Mr. Payton, before going into the meeting, had said that he was "always hopeful", but added that he would not say he was optimistic at present. The Governor had announced on Saturday night that he was intervening in the four-month old strike and had notified union and company officials that it was "imperative" that they meet with him to effect a settlement. He had taken the action after mediators had reported that no progress had been made in a negotiation session on Saturday. The Governor said that because of the increasing threat to law and order which was resulting from the strike, he "must, with great reluctance, intervene personally into the negotiation." The last time a North Carolina Governor had intervened in a labor dispute had been the late Gregg Cherry, who had helped to settle a mill strike in 1946 between the TWUA and Erwin Mills of Durham. Mr. Payton said that they welcomed the opportunity to present their case to the Governor and pledged their full cooperation. The company president said that he hoped and trusted that the Governor would be able to find a solution and that they would accomplish something.
Julian Scheer of The News
reports that Saturday had been the first day of spring and that it
had been a pretty good day, that Sunday had been even better, cool,
windy, but sunny. "Spring, in Charlotte, is when the population
of Freedom Park increases. The park was a picture of spring
yesterday." It had been a day when the merry-go-round hardly
stopped, the hobby-horses rocked all day, a boxer and a setter had
tangled in a fight, a man had slept in the sun on a bench, purple
flowers, the size of dew drops, had nudged their way to sunlight from
a mat of green, the weeping willow trees, now bright green, shimmied
in the breeze, the ducks looked whiter and not so hungry, young
couples walked hand-in-hand around the lake, two boys patiently
fished, a child lost her footing, slipped on the water's edge,
fathers flew kites in the stiff breeze, the lake was choppy and ducks
bounced like boats, a sailboat had gone from one side to the other, a
football was lost to the water, robins pecked in the grass, a picnic
was spread on a cement table, a fire lighted, a pretty little girl
made her first trip to the top of a jungle gym, a youngster had lost
his boots in the sticky mud, a father had hit imaginary home runs on
the baseball diamond before his unconcerned, uninterested child, a
man and a woman had sat in a car and read the Sunday newspapers, two
girls had tanned their legs in the sun, a tennis match had been
close, and the park population had increased, "happy
But how did that 1956 Pontiac wind up parked like that against a house down in Gaffney? Someone needs to investigate, for it looks like the work of Martians insinuating themselves to wreak chaos from order. Was Mussolini hanging around?
On the editorial page, "The Question: Which Need Is Greatest?" finds that a great deal of flapdoodle was being dispensed in the debate regarding the proposed legislative building in Raleigh. The question was not whether lawmakers needed a better place to do business, as of course they did, but rather whether that need ought take precedence over the terrible deficiencies at Butner and Caswell Training Schools, with other areas of chronic neglect also in need of funding.
It favors putting first things first and funding those latter efforts before the new legislative building. It suggests that perhaps there might be a way to accommodate both interests and that would be fine, but that the latter efforts would not wait, whereas the legislative building would.
A convincing case had already been made by the North Carolina Hospitals Board of Control for the addition of 540 more beds at Butner and a classroom building at Caswell. Butner, although activated only a short time earlier, was filling rapidly. The mounting demand was so great that the additional beds would be occupied as fast as they could be provided. Caswell was already overflowing with children and its present classroom facilities were grossly inadequate.
Additionally, a new training school would need to be built in the western part of the state to relieve Caswell's waiting list of 350 children from the eastern part of the state. Plus, a new administration building and admission center was needed at the State hospital in Goldsboro.
The State House had already passed legislation to create a Legislative Building Commission, but that did not mean that the 4.5 million dollars recommended for the structure would be provided, and it urges that it should not be provided until the legislators first attended to the requirements of the state's mental facilities.
"UNCF: A Challenge and Bright Hope" indicates that there was a broad band of colleges across the South which were small satellites of the region's educational system, struggling and poor by many standards, able to afford only few scholarships, with a total endowment which would not approach that of a major university and in many of their plants having equipment which was the bare minimum, limiting instruction. They were all black schools. From crippling financial situations, some of them might have been shuttered long earlier, but had managed to scratch out an existence on small budgets. Only a handful even now had a solid financial base.
It finds that pride and hope had carried those institutions through many dark years, with all being alive with a single purpose, to improve themselves and, in turn, their graduates.
Of the Southern Negro colleges, there were 32 which were members of the United Negro College Fund, including some famous names, Tuskegee and Hampton Institutes, Fisk and Xavier Universities and Morehouse and Morris Brown Colleges. Six of the United Fund member schools were in North Carolina, with Charlotte having Johnson C. Smith University and close neighbors in Livingstone College at Salisbury and Barber-Scotia College in Concord. They were all four-year, accredited schools and were part of an organization established 14 years earlier in an attempt at a united front to reduce their needs. The United Negro College Fund had been the first drive of its type for public support of private higher education.
As with others in concept, the fund pooled its resources in the hope of providing at least 10 percent of the operating expenses of its member colleges. For example, while the UNCF goal in Charlotte was only $10,000, Johnson C. Smith would receive about $45,000 from the Fund. Those were modest sums and yet, while tuition costs were still comparably low, physical equipment to improve the curriculum was just as expensive as that for any other college in the nation. UNCF schools had few wealthy patrons and on a financial graph, their alumni could not match the national average. Primarily church supported, their allocations were small when placed in a denomination's overall budget.
Some means of financial help had to be found and the UNCF was the answer. It indicates that supporting that fund surpassed the boundaries of culture or race, region or religion, as it was one country and to progress and remain a primary force, the United States had to tap every available source for trained manpower, as students in higher education were the most valuable resource for society's leaders.
It indicates that to bring the support question closer to home, there was a selfish motive also, that being per capita income and the poor rank of North Carolina in that category. "Better educated people who command better salaries can help to lift economic averages. The future of this state rests on such a group."
It posits that no one could deny that there was a noble purpose in a people trying to better themselves through education. "American Negroes have made a remarkable transition in less than 100 years. The member schools of UNCF have led in this movement and have won the right of support through their dogged determination and steadfast hope of a brighter day."
"A Solution for that Locomotive Row" indicates that it was ready to chuff in as arbiters in the locomotive battle between Chattanooga and Atlanta. Chattanooga had The General, the pot-stacked Civil War wood burner which the Yankees had stolen in 1862. Capt. James J. Andrews and his raiders had commandeered The General in Georgia and had set off north to burn bridges behind them. But the Southerners had jumped aboard The Texas, which was now in Atlanta, and throttled the plot after an exciting chase and capture.
Chattanooga had said firmly that they were going to keep their locomotive, but Georgians were just as confident that they would have it soon.
It suggests a compromise which would bring national publicity and attract tourists by the thousands, that they ought ship both The General and The Texas to the Georgia Railroad where Walt Disney had filmed his interpretation of the chase. They would then fire up the old boilers and let them go, and if the Atlantans could capture the Chattanooga crew running The General, both locomotives would go south, otherwise, leaving things status quo.
It recognizes that everyone would hold The News editors responsible if one of the old machines split a gusset and came up lame. "But to show we've got the proper spirit, we'll offer as a loser's prize one of the rowboats from the Confederate Navy Yard. It'll look good paddled in a centennial parade."
W. E. H., writing in the Sanford Herald, in a piece titled "'Moonlighting'", asks the reader whether he or she was a moonlighter or had been engaged in moonlighting recently. In talking to Professor Joseph Morrison of the UNC Journalism School faculty at a recent meeting in Chapel Hill, he had confided to the author that a professor's salary was so low that he had to engage in moonlighting to make both ends meet. He had added as an afterthought, "And please sir, remember moonlighting is not to be confused with tomcatting."
He indicates that what Professor Morrison had been telling him was that he had to have an extra job on the side, part-time, to make sufficient money to meet his and his family's bills. In that sense, moonlighting might be more a Northern than a Southern colloquialism.
The dictionary revealed that a moonlighter was a person who followed an occupation or pastime by moonlight, as "in the U.S., a moonshiner." It revealed that moonlighters in Ireland in 1882 had perpetrated outrages on tenants who incurred the hostility of the Land League.
In the Western states, riding after cattle at night was called moonlighting by cow punchers. In the Southern mountains, those who made moonshine whiskey often referred to their activities as moonlighting.
"Well, in Mr. Morrison's lexicon, a perfectly legitimate and necessary job can be moonlighting, mainly because he's doing it when he ought to be either resting, sleeping or merely keeping his family company."
Professor Morrison, of course, would become, in 1967, the first biographer of W. J. Cash, W. J. Cash: Southern Prophet, published by Knopf. It was a short biography of 174 pages, with a "Reader" section appended which included 26 pieces by Cash, all of which are included herein and are noted as such.
You might, naturally, assume that
our note about Cash of the prior Friday, coming up quite incidentally
and obliquely, had, perhaps, anticipated this reference on this date
to Professor Morrison. But you would be quite mistaken, as we usually
do not read ahead, and did not on this occasion. Reading ahead takes
the fun and the surprise out of what comes next, leaving the mystery
story then without so much mystery, tending to spoil the whole thing,
just as if, in this episode
We live, after all, in a political world, where every daily bit of intercourse is engaged in politics
Drew Pearson indicates that Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had reported to the President that Premier Nikita Khrushchev by no means had complete control of the Kremlin, that when the Prime Minister had been in Moscow, he noted that it had taken four hours to get his joint communiqué with Mr. Khrushchev approved, that during that time the limousines of several top Soviet officials had been parked outside Mr. Khrushchev's office, probably meaning that the communiqué was not a one-man decision. He said that one reason Mr. Khrushchev had frowned on a foreign ministers conference was the lack of confidence in his own Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko. Mr. Macmillan had gotten the impression that Mr. Khrushchev was annoyed by, if not contemptuous of Mr. Gromyko and would not trust him to negotiate even a trivial agreement with the West.
What had come out of the Prime Minister's discussions with the President were concessions, but ones made far away from Washington and Camp David. Premier Khrushchev, at his press conference, had taken the peace play from Washington, at least in the eyes of most Europeans. West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer had privately agreed to two important compromises, first, that there would be semi-recognition of East Germany in return for a Soviet guarantee of permanent access to West Berlin, provided it did not create a permanent division of Germany, and, second, an agreement to hold off nuclear weapons for the West German Army, the latter being a major concession probably going far to placate Moscow.
The Russians and satellites had been both protesting and shivering over the prospect of atomic weapons in West German hands, their protests appearing to be genuine, basing them on the two world wars and the consequent terrific casualties. West Germany had already received Matador missiles, but those were virtually useless without nuclear warheads, capable of hitting within half a mile of a target 600 miles away, but not close enough for damage with conventional explosives.
The West Germans had also received F-84 fighter-bombers from the U.S., rigged to drop small atomic bombs, but Chancellor Adenauer had held off on a request for the actual bombs and warheads, and it was now indicated that he would be willing to forgo those atomic weapons entirely, provided he would get a reasonable settlement of the German problem.
There were some advisers to the President who had warned him in advance that Prime Minister Macmillan had a "swelled head", wanted to become the foremost leader of the Western world. With Secretary of State Dulles 71 and sick, and with the President at age 68 and not well, Mr. Macmillan had planned to step forward as the primary statesman for the West, according to those advisers. The State Department, however, did not accept that rendition. Furthermore, assurances had come from London shortly before the arrival of the Prime Minister that he planned no usurpation of leadership, and did not wish to embarrass the President with a discussion of difficult trade problems.
There were also reports in London that Mr. Dulles and the President were displeased with Mr. Macmillan and his visits to Moscow, Bonn and Paris. The State Department had sent emphatic assurances that such was not the case.
Mr. Pearson concludes that those were some of the irritants which usually plagued the high-level talks.
Governor Pat Brown of California had dipped his toe gingerly into the presidential waters the previous week, deciding that the water was warm, but not warm enough. He had lunch with Senator John F. Kennedy, who was definitely a candidate and a fellow Catholic, and he had liked him. He had breakfast with Senator Lyndon Johnson, a probable candidate, had also liked him, concluding that he was a loquacious charmer, but not a good listener. He scored big with the Gridiron Club, where new Republican House Leader Charles Halleck had fallen flat on his face. Governor Brown's conclusion, at the end of four days in Washington, was that he would do his best to be a good Governor of California and "let the presidential chips fall where they may."
Mr. Pearson indicates that people should not be fooled by the switch of Jim Rowe, the old Roosevelt brain-truster, from the camp of Senator Johnson to that of Senator Hubert Humphrey, that it did not mean that Senator Johnson should be counted out for the presidency, but rather that Senator Kennedy had become such a front-runner that Senator Johnson and Senator Humphrey wanted to knock him down.
He indicates that once before, Mr. Rowe, one of the ablest of the Democratic advisers, had been in on a big political cross-play, while working for Averell Harriman in 1952, though actually a supporter of Adlai Stevenson. When the time was ripe, he had switched Mr. Harriman's delegates to Mr. Stevenson, and since that time, had been the adviser to Senator Johnson, until the current month, when he had gone to work for Senator Humphrey.
A letter writer from Greensboro, president of Burlington Industries, indicates that Charlotte's recent special accent on the arts and cultural activities was an encouraging trend, important to those engaged in business and industrial development, as management at present looked at the whole community in deciding where to locate a new plant or expand a present one. He indicates that it was often surprising how much weight was given to the existence of well-organized cultural groups, as well as educational facilities in making such selections. He says that in the South, the region had been accused of a cultural lag. Charlotte, Greensboro and other progressive cities in the state were helping to erase that reputation by the increased attention given to organizations, facilities and programs devoted to the arts. He congratulates Charlotte for their energetic pursuit of those things, which added much in richness and enjoyment to living.
A letter from Raleigh, from the president of the North Carolina State Art Society, indicates a deep sense of pride as a citizen of the state in learning of Charlotte's program to raise, through united efforts, a fund adequate to finance all of the cultural organizations of the city, finding such a proposal an inspiration to all cities of the state and creating for them a challenge not only to admire but to emulate Charlotte, a pace-setter for the cultural progress of the state, finding it "the capital of our Piedmont Empire". He indicates that the diversity of the organizations touched every phase of the artistic and cultural interests of the people of the city, awakening in them not only their latent creative talents but satisfying their need for spiritual values which endured. He commends the city for its wisdom in making secure the future of its cultural organizations and for its vision and faith in the capacity of self-governing communities "to sustain man in his ageless quest for beauty, freedom and peace."
A letter writer from Chapel Hill, the head of the North Carolina Music Program UNC Extension Division, likewise expresses interest in the drive for Charlotte's Arts Fund. He says that Charlotte had long been a leading North Carolina city, growing greatly during his lifetime and would likely continue to do so as long as its people lived by St. Mark's admonition that "man does not live by bread alone." He says he had gotten his first singing "job" in St. Peter's Choir some years earlier when he was a lad, and since that time, music and Charlotte had been one to him. Now, it had the Charlotte Symphony, the Charlotte Opera Association, the Symphonette, the Oratorio Singers, the Choral Society, the Music Club, the Guild of Organists, the Little Theater, etc. He wishes they had been extant when he was a child living in Mecklenburg. He urges that Americans had to think more seriously about things of the soul, that it had the means to do so, provided there was leadership, and finds that Charlotte appeared to be furnishing just that.
A letter from Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr., in Washington, indicates that throughout its history, Charlotte had been known as a cultural center and as a consequence, those cultural advantages had meant much to the life of Charlotte and the state. "I rejoice in the efforts leaders of the Charlotte Arts Fund are making to continue Charlotte as a cultural center."
A letter from Raleigh, from State Senator J. Spencer Bell of Charlotte, indicates that he was glad that Charlotte had established an Arts Fund and was putting on a joint campaign for the many cultural activities of the community. He expected to participate himself and wishes the campaign every success.
A letter writer says that he was sitting in his favorite easy chair, munching cheese and bologna sandwiches, sipping his favorite beverage, as he read the latest issue of Science of the Future Magazine. He says that he must have fallen asleep and begun dreaming, as he thought he had received a moonogram from their son, telling them to meet him at the Moonoport within the hour, that we he was bringing home his bride and baby. Their son, like many other American GI's, had been in the Air Force for more than two years and had volunteered for space service for the extra money, and as with many others, had married a lovely young "Moongook". He and his wife had gone to the Moonoport to meet the arrival of the Moonjet. It had been a joyful scene as the GI's led their lovely brides up the ramp, and soon they saw their son and his bride, and their grandson, as "he stuck his little head from his mother's pouch like a young kangaroo." Having led the reader down the primrose path with this dream he had, he ends by saying that he still dreaded the time when they had to send their little grandchild to school. "If you think Roy Wilkins and the NAACP stirred up a mess, wait until the GIs start sending their little Moonstrosities to school. You know it could happen, too. Our GIs have brought home brides from everywhere else they've been stationed."
Some, back in the 1970's, used to
call then-California Governor Jerry Brown, "Governor Moonbeam".
Whether they were of the same ilk
A letter writer from Salisbury indicates that forced sterilization of unmarried women when they had a second baby would be undemocratic and un-Christian. "The government must not commit a crime that is worse than the one that they are trying to punish or discourage." He indicates that mistreatment of people who had done wrong was not a remedy for anything, that kindness and good treatment would go much further with people who had made missteps. "Most people who do what most of us consider to be wrong need a psychiatrist, a minister, a social worker or some other person who has been trained to give him the help that he or she needs." He finds it a poor method to sit around and condemn people who acted differently from one's own group. "We should never criticize unless our criticism will help and will be accepted by those for whom it is offered."
A letter writer from Fort Bragg indicates that upon arriving there, he was appalled to learn, through the newspapers, that North Carolina was considering a bill which would authorize sterilization for moral reasons. He stresses "moral reasons", as the state already had a law regarding eugenic sterilization. He indicates that his principal objection was not in the abuses and the mistakes in judgment which would inherently occur in the administration of such legislation, nor in the fact that the bill approached the problem with only a minimum of concern for rehabilitation, finding instead the greatest danger to be in a less prominent, but, nevertheless, certainly more serious area: that statistics were not available. "So when you hear these whispers, be sure to look at the drop in illegitimate children receiving state aid. It should be immeasurable consolation."
A letter writer from Cheraw, S.C., finds that the public was somewhat confused by the statements of textile operators and the remarks of an Atlanta publisher who had said that profits in the industry were the lowest since before World War II, while most of the annual reports indicated the best profits ever. Someone was making false statements and the question which concerned the public was why. He questions whether it was because the industry was afraid that the citizens would pass a law to increase minimum wages for the workers, and if not, it was long overdue, for the cost of living for everyone had continued to increase. The textile industry was the South's largest source of wealth for thousands of workers who had to pay as much for necessities as railroad workers or other highly paid people. Yet textile workers received less pay than skilled workers in other industries. Unemployment had increased to such a degree that a march was being planned by some in Washington to protest the Administration's "do-nothing policy toward those who labor."
Framed Edition
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