The Charlotte News

Monday, March 30, 1959

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from London that Russia this date had handed notes to the Big Three Western powers agreeing to an East-West foreign ministers conference beginning in Geneva on May 11, according to the Soviet news agency Tass. It said, "According to information received," the Soviet Government had agreed to the parley "in order to consider questions concerning Germany, including the peace treaty with Germany and the Berlin question." It said that Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko had received the U.S., British and French ambassadors and had handed them the Soviet notes in reply to the three Western notes of March 26. The notes had differences in emphasis, but all had looked beyond the foreign ministers conference to a summit meeting later in the year. The Soviet Government expressed regret in its notes "that complete mutual understanding has not yet been reached on the question of the participation of Poland and Czechoslovakia in the conference of foreign ministers." The allies had suggested that the two Communist nations ought join the later stages of the talks. Moscow had said that it "considers it possible that the question of the participation of Poland and Czechoslovakia should be solved during the conference." But it added: "The question of the representation of the two German states at the conference of foreign ministers can be regarded as mutually agreed." The West had proposed that both West and East German representatives participate in the conference as observers.

The nation's military chiefs had told the free world this date that U.S. air, nuclear and growing missile strength could break Russia's back and destroy it "many times over", were the Kremlin to initiate World War III. The assurances had been made as members of the 15-nation NATO conference prepared to open on Thursday a strategy conference in Washington marking the 10th anniversary of the NATO pact. By intent or coincidence, the confident statements had placed Russia on notice that the Western Big Three would be leading from strength if they took seats at a summit conference later during the year. Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy had told a Detroit audience that the U.S. had airborne nuclear power, poised and ready, in sufficient force to "destroy the Soviet Union if it should attack us." Mr. McElroy said that it was coupled with mobile forces which had proved their ability to land by air or sea and stamp out brushfire wars in the world's far corners. A more explicit, though heavily censored, picture of U.S. strength had been painted in testimony by the chiefs of the uniformed services before the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee the prior January and February. An abstracted transcript had been released of that testimony during the weekend. Admiral Arleigh Burke, chief of Naval Operations, had asserted that if Russia launched an all-out war "we can destroy her many times over with the weapons we now have in existence… We would break her back." General Nathan Twining, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, had summed up the Administration's cause for optimism, saying that a Soviet nuclear assault, if delivered at present, would come almost entirely from manned aircraft, and that the Soviet Union's air threat was "not half as big as ours and not nearly so effective."

William L. Ryan of the Associated Press, in the first of a series of five articles on Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, indicates that long before anyone dreamed that Mr. Khrushchev would be a future czar, a Western diplomat had sized him up shrewdly as "that brilliant bonehead." He could bluster and guffaw his way with a terrifying air of carelessness toward the edge of global disaster, but was no genius, as his career had been dotted with bonehead plays. In a meeting at the summit, nonetheless, Western statesmen would face "a formidable antagonist, a dynamic bundle of reckless energy and dazzling paradoxes, far less predictable, potentially far more dangerous" than Joseph Stalin. One of his success secrets seemed to be an astonishing knack for blaming his own mistakes on others and getting away with it. Another had been scorn of weakness and what he would regard as bourgeois morality. Mr. Khrushchev knew of only one truth, having referred piously to his "Communist faith". In propagating that faith, he had shown himself a true disciple of Vladimir Lenin. World communism, as developed under Soviet control, had one basic aim, to impose its political philosophy on the whole world. To accomplish that, any subterfuge, any lie, any deceit, any tactic was justified in the view of Communists. Through a combination of that faith and his political agility, Mr. Khrushchev had survived revolution, civil war, bloodbath purges and dark intrigues. Nearing age 65 in April, he sometimes seemed like an amiable hippopotamus on a tightrope—which calls to mind his metaphor to President Kennedy during the October, 1962 Cuban missile crisis, that the rope of war had been drawn too taut from both sides pulling at each end and had to be relaxed before the knot would have to be cut, unleashing the forces of both sides on one another. Mr. Ryan finds Mr. Khrushchev to be as Russian "as a bowl of borscht", and, for the moment, a master not only of the Soviet Union but of the world conspiracy which went by the name of communism. By Soviet standards, he was an "otchen umny chelovyek", which meant a very smart fellow. He boasted the physique of a Russian bear and combined seemingly boundless energy with a taste for intrigue and a talent for turning defeat into victory. Those attributes, along with his native peasant shrewdness, a stubbornly dogmatic mind and a lack of scruples, had made his life story a Communist-style saga of rags to riches. The Khrushchev era in the Soviet Union was now about five years old and in that time, the 5'5", 220-pound former coal miner had zoomed like a political Sputnik to the top of the Soviet heap. Mr. Ryan suggests that perhaps he had gone too far too fast, that he was not yet the sole inheritor of Stalin's awesome power. Those who stood in the way of his climb had been silenced, but not eliminated. His victories had been dazzling, but their foundation was flimsy. Mr. Khrushchev had inherited a complex Soviet society, its needs being enormous and its demands frightening. Unschooled until he was in his mid-twenties, Mr. Khrushchev could not hope to understand the complexities of a new generation, doubting, searching, questioning, arguing and wondering. His world had been far different when he was a ragged boy tending sheep and learning the trades of blacksmith and locksmith. He had been born in a hovel in Kalinovka, in Kursk Province, not far from the Ukraine, on April 17, 1894. His father, Sergei, might have owned a small plot of land around the mud and reed hovel and thus have been a "kulak", a landowning peasant. But his chief trade was that of coal miner. His grandfather had been a serf, one of the agricultural slaves freed by Czar Alexander in 1861. At age 17, the young Nikita was working as a locksmith in a factory at Kharkov in the Ukraine. From there, he had traveled to the Donets Basin to work, as had his father, in the coal mines. He was there, as a young man of 23, when the Russian Revolution had begun. He took no active part in the Revolution against the Czar, but in 1918, when the Bolsheviks were striking for power, had joined the party and served in the First Proletarian Regiment in the Donets Basin during the first part of the bloody civil war. Somehow he had managed to bring himself to the attention of his superiors and while the civil war still raged, had become head of the agricultural section of the Kursk city Soviet. He was then placed in command of a battalion to fight White forces in the Ukraine, where his battalion was wiped out. But his talent for blaming his mistakes on others had come to the fore, and he became political commissar of a major guerrilla detachment. After the war, he worked for awhile in an iron mine and for the first time, at age 27, had obtained a chance to go to school. He studied at a workers' faculty for three years in Kharkov, and then had gone from there to party jobs in Stalino and Kiev. His party work had come to the notice of Lazar Kaganovich, the dreaded "iron commissar", then first party secretary in the Ukraine. The latter had Mr. Khrushchev sent to Moscow's Industrial Academy in 1929 for further studies. Under such important auspices, Mr. Khrushchev had become a member of the Communist Party committee in the Academy. Once again, he had chosen a winning horse and had led an attack against those in the Academy who sided with Leon Trotsky and other enemies of Stalin. His studies had been completed in 1931 and he became secretary of a regional Moscow party committee, once again the protégé of Mr. Kaganovich, then secretary of the Moscow committee and member of the ruling Central Committee. Mr. Khrushchev had gone to various industrial centers to root out Stalin's enemies. He had also thrown himself with a will into Mr. Kaganovich's program for transforming Moscow, doing much of the work of organizing labor for such projects as the celebrated Moscow subway. That had won him the Order of Lenin. Nevertheless, twenty-five years later, Mr. Khrushchev would repay his benefactor by bouncing him out of the post-Stalin hierarchy, labeling him an enemy of the party. But in 1934, Mr. Khrushchev was just a Kaganovich man, and his boss had gotten him finally on the powerful Central Committee. He now had a firm grasp on the first wrung of his ladder to power, his life having begun at age 40. The editors indicate that the following day's entry would be titled "All-out for Stalin".

In Tokyo, a lower Japanese court had ruled this date that the presence of U.S. bases and troops in Japan was unconstitutional. The decision, if upheld by higher courts, could wreck the U.S. defense system in the strategic Far Eastern nation. It also would bring under review all of the international commitments made by Japan since it had regained its independence in 1952. The surprise verdict had been made by the three-man Tokyo District Court in acquitting seven men indicted in 1957 after they had broken into the U.S. Tachikawa Air Base outside Tokyo to protest its expansion. The court, in freeing them, said that the presence of U.S. base personnel in Japan violated the famous "no-war" Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which had been largely written by the U.S. occupation authorities following the war. It also declared that Japanese citizens had been discriminated against by special laws connected with the treaties giving the U.S. the right to station troops. It was under one of those laws, the special criminal code, that the defendants had been indicted. The Japanese Government had 14 days to appeal. The U.S. Embassy said that any comment from it on the actions and decisions of the Japanese court would be improper. Any appeal would be filed first in the Higher Court, and that tribunal's decision could be appealed in turn to the Supreme Court. Both the Government and the defendants could appeal, and it might be years before a final decision would be reached.

In Milwaukee, it was reported that Captain Herman Marks, who had risen to the post of executioner for Fidel Castro in Cuba, had left a long criminal record behind him in the United States. The warden of the Wisconsin State Prison, where Mr. Marks had served 3 1/2 years for a morals offense, described him as "a real stinker". A native of Milwaukee, Mr. Marks had made no secret of his Wisconsin connections, nor of his police record. Files at the prison and at the Milwaukee County Sheriff's office showed that the 37-year old firing squad boss had at least 32 arrests in the U.S. His record included arrests for automobile theft, robbery, burglary, assault, drunk driving, and disorderly conduct. The prison term of 1 to 4 years had been imposed on January 12, 1952 on a charge of carnal knowledge and abuse of a minor girl. The warden of the Wisconsin State Prison said that during his term, Mr. Marks had frequently caused trouble and had refused to work. He had been discharged on June 6, 1956, the last date on his official file in his home state. Perhaps, he coincidentally benefited from his name in Cuba, maybe translating it into its Russian equivalent.

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Nehru this date rejected Communist China's attempt to cut off discussion of the Tibetan revolt in the Indian Parliament, but still had taken no firm stand on the Communist military campaign to suppress the revolt. Criticism had mounted in Indian newspapers against Nehru's failure to back the Tibetan rebels' attempt to free the Himalayan country of Communist control. The Hindustan Times, considered closest to Nehru's Congress Party, said: "Let us hold our heads low today," calling for a "realistic reassessment of the basis of our foreign policy." Nehru had told Parliament that he would make firm statements on Tibet when he was in a position to make them. He said that India's sympathies "go out to the Tibetans." But he voiced no condemnation of the Chinese and declined to comment on Peiping's announcement that the Dalai Lama had been ousted as head of the local Tibetan Government, and had told a questioner that his Government had made no inquiry to Communist China on that ouster. Nehru also denied Communist Chinese charges that the "commanding center of the rebellion" was in Kalimpong, the Indian town near the northeast border where many Tibetans had taken refuge. Russia's official Communist Party organ, Pravda, had echoed the Peiping charge that Kalimpong was the seat of rebellion and also claimed that Nationalist Chinese planes had been flying arms to the rebels. Western observers in Hong Kong had discounted the latter charge because of the considerable distance between Formosa and Tibet. Communist China was expected to launch an all-out drive to communize Tibet following its replacement of the fugitive Dalai Lama's rebellious Government by a puppet regime headed by the country's other spiritual leader, the rival Panchen Lama. Despite Communist China's claim that the rebellion had been quelled on March 21, two days after it had erupted in Lhasa, widespread resistance was reported to be continuing in various sectors outside the capital. Border reports said that Chinese rule extended only 20 to 30 miles south of Lhasa. A rebel "national defense army" was said to be collecting taxes in the south, where a rebel radio was reported to be operating.

Christians over much of the world had celebrated on Easter Sunday with services and prayers for peace. Outside American churches there had been the usual Easter parades. Pope John XXIII, in the first Easter Mass of his pontificate, pleaded for peace, but declared that "the good Christian does not yield and is wary of compromises." Despite an all-day downpour, 100,000 persons had turned out in St. Peter's Square for the pontiff's blessing. Among them had been 65 contest-winning newsboys from 58 U.S. newspapers. Afterward, the newsboys presented an Easter egg to Italian movie star Gina Lolobrigida. In West Berlin, a record 100,000 tourists had converged on the city, 110 miles inside Communist East Germany. Pilgrims of numerous denominations had hailed the Resurrection in the Jordan-occupied old city of Jerusalem. Coptic bishops had held services at the far end of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, while Greek Orthodox and Armenian Christians conducted services in other parts of the building. Among those attending a later pontifical high mass in the Basilica had been Eleanor Roosevelt and her 16-year old granddaughter, Nina. Jordanian newspapers had protested Mrs. Roosevelt's visit because of her friendship for Israel, but there were no incidents. Lutherans held sunrise services at the Garden Tomb outside the walls of Jerusalem and mid-morning services in the Church of the Redeemer. Anglicans had worshiped in St. George's Cathedral and Protestants of other denominations had met at the Garden Tomb for interdenominational services. Rain had dampened the day in parts of the U.S., but the sun had broken through over New York while cool temperatures kept Fifth Avenue Easter paraders down to an estimated 800,000, compared to the record 1.2 million in 1957. A parade stopper in the Avenue's chapeau department had been two live chicks on a hat designed as a basket covered with pink lace, worn by a woman of Goteborg, Sweden. In Gettysburg, a crowd of 300 had watched the arrival of the President and Mrs. Eisenhower, with the couple's son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren, at the Presbyterian Church. Mamie Eisenhower had worn a pink violet wool suit with a small hat of pink violets with green velvet trim.

In Palm Springs, Calif., it was reported that the cry of "Kidnapers, Kidnapers" had echoed along a swanky street in the desert resort, followed by a chase. Two men, holding two screaming boys in a station wagon, had roared from the scene and held the lead for four miles. Several carloads of citizens had pursued in a horn-honking posse. Four miles away, an accident blocked the station wagon's path and the members of the posse had called police. The police, after much investigation, said that they had unraveled the story. An executive vice-president of a steel company of Morgantown, W. Va., had been visiting with his sons, ages ten and six, at the home of a friend, orchestra leader Eddie Le Baron. A private detective of San Jose, Calif., said that he and a railroad conductor of Warm Springs, Calif., had been offered $5,000 by the executive's former wife to bring the boys to her custody in Florida. The private detective said that she had told him that a court in Dade County in Florida had granted her custody of the children and he said that he and the railroad conductor were merely trying to effect a "change of custody" when the boys' yells had prompted the chase by neighbors the previous day. Police booked the two men on suspicion of child-stealing and returned the boys to their father. (Child-stealing is a lesser form of kidnaping, charged when a party with some colorable claim to a child but who lacks proven legal custody, takes the child away from the parent or guardian with ostensible legal custody.) They said that the younger boy had evaded the two men by jumping into Mr. Le Baron's swimming pool.

In Gastonia, N.C., it was reported that a college student from Alabama had guessed in New York that a 1959 red and white convertible would cost $6,100, his guess on a national television program, presumably "The Price Is Right", having been the closest to the price tag, $7,075.26, and he had won the car. On Sunday morning, the student and a fellow student at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, were riding back to school in the flashy new convertible, with the winning student asleep on the back seat and the other student driving. But the driver had dozed off also and the car had drifted across the four-lane U.S. 29 highway between Gastonia and Charlotte and smashed into a pine tree. Both students were bruised and cut, but not hurt seriously. Patrolmen guessed that it would cost $2,000 to repair the car. The car in question was not some little Fuzzvugen or Terraplane, but was a full-bodied, full-throated Lincoln convertible that he had won. Make no mistake, he can find around, probably in Statesville, an expert Lincoln fixer, from our childhood memory of a matter, who'll do you sound garage work and only charge ye about ten prices for the repairs, though exceptional in every other respect, sure to last at least until you reach the outskirts of Spartanburg before the fender glue gives way. Or, perhaps the apparent mishap was not that but in fact inspired by that depicted the prior fall in an episode presented by Mr. Hitchcock, perhaps part of the quiz show scandal, as the show's producers sought to recoup some of the expended prize money via kickbacks from roadside assistants eager to please along the fractured phillipic way home, keeping everyone hush-hush and on the q.t. about the actual precipitating cause to avoid worse consequences with the locals. Or, maybe the kindly waitress at the last stop, whose friend ran the local Lincoln dealership, had slipped a little something extra beyond the sugar in the one more cup of coffee for the road.

In Rochester, N.Y., it was reported that ten rabbits had been stolen from the Rochester Zoo on Easter Sunday.

On the editorial page, "Our Legislators Are Ready To Look Alive?" indicates that the Legislature had come alive recently and it was about time, after nearly two months of both houses being afflicted with ergophobia, with leadership at best languorous and no major legislation enacted. As late as the prior week, the size and shape of the appropriations bill had been anybody's guess.