The Charlotte News
Wednesday, March 4, 1959
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President had said this date at his press conference that it would not only be futile but disastrous for the free world to engage in a general mobilization against possible attack. He said that the present 15-minute alert maintained by the Strategic Air Command was completely appropriate for world conditions. He had been asked if he believed that the SAC ought be placed on air alert with part of its planes airborne at all times. He responded that he did not believe that necessary under present conditions. He said that airborne bombers would be worse than useless against bombing attacks and were better off on the ground. He said that the time would probably come when it would be necessary to have some planes airborne at all times to counter possible missile attacks. He said that Russia's latest note on Germany had indicated a lessening of rigidity of their position and that the U.S. Government was taking an optimistic view of the outlook in light of the Soviet note. In that note, delivered to the Western allies earlier in the week, Russia had reluctantly agreed to a foreign ministers conference regarding the Berlin problem, but the Kremlin had specified its own terms as to what would be included in those discussions. The President the previous week had expressed pessimism about the chances for a foreign ministers conference. After commenting this date that there seemed to be a lessening of rigidity in the Soviet position, he went on to say that the Western allies would do everything possible to come up with a constructive reply to Moscow's note. He said, as he had before, that the country always was willing to negotiate when there was evidence that the other side was ready to bargain in good faith. Regarding Soviet propaganda, the President cautioned Americans against being taken in whenever the Kremlin cried wolf. He said that the country could not allow itself to become frightened when the Russian leaders made propaganda threats. He had also been asked if he believed that mobilization of NATO forces ought be one of the steps taken to ensure maintaining the Western world's access to Berlin and he had replied that general mobilization would mean that each nation in the free world would become a garrison state and that it would mean keeping each nation at readiness at all times, which would drain civilian resources. He said it would not only be futile but the most disastrous thing the nation could do. A reporter had asked him if there was any change in the tradition of the country that it would never strike the first blow in warfare and the President replied in the negative, indicating, however, that the matter of self-preservation entered the picture, that if it was known that the country was under the threat of attack from missiles or planes, it would act as quickly as humanly possible. (That tradition has obviously been stomped on and put to pasture, for the time being, by Trump, who obviously fancies himself the new Hitler of the 21st Century, taking over the sovereign territory of other nations to line his own pockets, while placing the nation at great risk of counter-attack somewhere down the line. There are reasons, El Presidente, why your predecessors have not engaged in the foolhardy mess in which you presently embark, and just because you are too old and decrepit to realize it or to be around for the inexorable ensuing retributive fireworks to follow are no reasons not to recognize the peril into which you are placing the free nations of the world with your sick, ad hoc, whimsical foreign policy adventures, whether undertaken as primers for the storm troopers in American cities or in unprompted Rotterdam-like total destruction abroad.)
In Leipzig, East Germany, it was reported that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had said this date that the Soviet Union would sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany if the West were to fail to come to terms on an all-German settlement. He accused the West of refusing his proposals on Germany without proposing any alternatives "that a normal human intelligence can agree to." The Western allies had refused to recognize Premier Otto Grotewohl's Communist East German regime as a legal government because it had never been installed by a free election. The West insisted that it would not deal with it on Berlin controls which the Russians proposed to give up in May unless the West meanwhile came to terms. The Soviet leader insisted in a 20-minute speech that his Government wanted only peace, and needed peace to carry out its seven-year economic expansion program. The Premier had just arrived for consultation with his East German Communist allies and a visit to Leipzig's trade fair. Speaking before a large crowd in a rain, he insisted that all that the Soviet Union wanted was peace. He said of the West, "However much of these people rage, nothing will come of it." A crowd, which the East German Communist radio estimated to be in the tens of thousands, heard the brief speech without marked enthusiasm, cheering and applauding, however, when he had spoken of peace. He said: "In the name of the Soviet Union, I declare that those people could be reasonable who are responsible for signing a peace treaty. The United States, England, France and all nations want peace. Now the government should listen to the voice of their people, and the peoples say we want peace, peace, peace." He declared that "only lunatics can seek solutions by war." He made the statement at an airport near East Berlin after arriving from Moscow, where he and Britain's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had concluded talks on cold war issues on Tuesday. He responded to a welcome from East Germany's Premier Grotewohl and Communist Party leader Walter Ulbricht. Officially, Mr. Khrushchev was present to visit the trade fair in Leipzig, 110 miles from Berlin. He told the welcoming party that a peace treaty with Germany was now "most necessary". He said that his talks with Prime Minister Macmillan had been fruitful, that naturally the viewpoints were not the same but that each had come away from the talks knowing better the standpoint of the other. Premier Grotewohl had welcomed Mr. Khrushchev with a declaration that his visit "will provide the opportunity to discuss questions connected with the conclusion of a peace treaty and other problems affecting Germany, such as the Berlin question." He demanded "the creation of democratic conditions in West Berlin", meaning the Soviet plan to end the city's four-power status, to cut it off from protection of the U.S., Britain and France.
In Henderson, N.C., observers said that about ten cars were stoned this date before Highway Patrolmen had arrived at one of the two strike-bound Henderson cotton mills. An angry crowd of about 250 had spread out along the street approaching the Harriet-Henderson Cotton Mills north side plant. Only about 15 persons were on hand at the South Henderson plant, the scene of recent disturbances. The North Henderson group had thrown rocks at automobiles carrying incoming workers, hitting several vehicles. Twenty patrolmen had moved into the scene and about 20 more were called from the South Henderson plant. The disturbance had been quelled when patrolmen had arrested two persons in connection with rock-throwing. There had been no injuries reported. Meanwhile, Government mediators had gone into separate sessions with union and management in an attempt to seek new approaches to settling the explosive 16-week deadlock over renewal of the union contract. They were expected to focus their attention on the key issue, arbitration. Highway Patrol reinforcements who had been sent in Monday night when strike violence had threatened to erupt out of control, had kept sullen crowds in check on Tuesday when the mills had opened and closed for the day. Two incidents had been reported on Tuesday night as violence flared anew. A non-striker had reported to police that the rear window of her car had been smashed while it was parked in her yard. Police reported that a window in a mill employee's home had been shattered by a tiny metal ball, apparently shot from a slingshot from a moving car, according to police. Meanwhile, 12 strikers were scheduled to appear before a Superior Court judge to show cause why they should not be held in contempt of court, having been cited for violating a restraining order prohibiting outbursts around the mill gates. Testimony in the cases had begun Tuesday.
In Melbourne, Australia, a downpour had flooded the city's new $45,000 outdoor musical bowl the previous night, and the crowds present who had turned out to hear evangelist Billy Graham had been blamed. The Reverend Graham had drawn a total of 250,000 people to the bowl for nightly meetings the previous week. The vast crowds had overflowed onto the grassy mound surrounding the amphitheater, trampling the lawn into fine dust. The heavy rain had washed away the earth, clogging the drains and blocking the electric pumps which had failed. Portable pumps were working this date to clear the orchestra pit and dressing rooms of half a foot of water. A member of the evangelist's crusade team had termed it "an act of God". The evangelist had shifted his meetings the previous night from the bowl in the center of town to the city show grounds four miles away and had suffered a sharp decline in attendance. Between 25,000 and 60,000 persons had been coming out nightly to the bowl, but only 15,000 had shown up the previous night. The rain at the time was only a light drizzle. Campaign officials felt it only partly explained the drop in attendance, and in an effort to swell attendance, the evangelist announced another special meeting for teenagers the following night. Hopefully, he will not again attempt that corny hip-dig talk, worthy only of corny TV, always several years behind the youth of the world. Like, that was yesterday, and yesterday's gone.
Bob Slough of The News reports that the General Assembly had arrived at the local airport during the morning and had set out on a whirlwind tour of the city. The first aircraft, carrying 32 legislators and their wives, had touched down mid-morning on an airfield bathed in warm March sunlight and brimming with excited citizens. Moments later, more planes had begun to arrive and excitement mounted as Chamber of Commerce and City officials moved from plane to plane to extend an official welcome. Governor Luther Hodges had arrived with a broad grin as he and his wife stepped from an Eastern Airlines Super-C Constellation. The couple had been greeted by the playing of "Dixie" and when the music stopped, the Governor waved his hat at the band and yelled, "Hooray for Dixie. This is a wonderful experience and is something on which I heartily agree. I think it's wonderful for legislators to visit various parts of the state." He saluted "all the people who have made this trip possible." A car carrying the Governor moved from the air terminal and headed for Ovens Auditorium where the first part of the formal program would take place. The legislators and state and city officials were met 10 minutes later by another group of legislators who had arrived by bus. The Chamber of Commerce president, Buell Duncan, who had led off the welcome speeches at the Auditorium, assured the legislators that they were not invited to Charlotte because it wanted special favors. Mayor James Smith also welcomed the legislators to the city.
Julian Scheer of The News
also reports on the visit, indicating that no better weather and
setting could have been desired for the unique legislative airlift.
One of the first legislators from the first arriving plane had been
Representative Carson Gregory of Harnett County, who had drawled: "I
hardly know what to say. This is the most wonderful thing I know of."
His voice had been drowned out by the Harding High School band which
had flanked the Charlotte sign atop the airport ramp. The band had
struck up "On Wisconsin" and the lawmakers had tipped their
hats. (Wisconsin? Seems a little cheesy
In Charlottesville, Va., it was reported that a man, who had said he "just doesn't like" Governor J. Lindsay Almond, Jr., and had just wanted to show it, had been arrested this date. He had shown it by throwing almond candy bars along main street. The arresting officers said that the 28-year old man had $300 in his pockets and planned to spend it on almond bars and then toss them all over town. He was fined $10 and sentenced to 30 days in jail, but was later released to the custody of his family. His political statement may have entailed the old, deadly maxim of robbing Peter to pay Paul to obtain maximum joy.
In Tulsa, Okla., it was reported that because the city needed the revenue, officials had swallowed their pride and honored a check of an irate citizen who had written: "Pay to the order of the thieves of City Hall, $13.50 for water from a bunch of crooks."
On the editorial page, "Benefits of Charlotte's Orderly Growth Will Be Shared by the Whole State" finds that the North Carolina legislators, holding their meeting in Charlotte this date, had seen too little, had heard too much and had paused hardly at all. But it finds that a nodding acquaintance with the city was better than none and that the transplanted General Assembly was quite welcome.
"Charlotte has to be seen to be believed. It is more than a large economy-size version of Greensboro or Raleigh. It is a budding regional metropolis, the one unifying element of a wide area of North and South Carolina."
Heterogeneity, concentration, specialization, tension, drive, it finds, were the characteristics of a city which were always damned in popular American morality, but had been accepted with good grace in Charlotte and Mecklenburg, "a country boy at heart" adjusting to urbanization. It finds that it was something more than passive acceptance and that there was a valuable lesson for other cities in Charlotte's demonstration of community spirit and nonpartisan teamwork, unprecedented cooperation between public and private interests, and industry's willingness to assume a sizable share of responsibility for the community and its welfare.
It indicates that it was unfortunate that the rest of the state had accepted Charlotte's swift, steady growth less well. "To blazes with your fur-lined trap, your chrome-plated merry-go-round," was a fairly typical reaction. But it finds it understandable as the state was still basically an agricultural state where urbanization was distrusted, never having been adopted as a desirable goal. "Better provincialism than chaos."
Geography had been a factor as Charlotte was in the corner near North Carolina's back door. The centrifugal movement of the city's influence was no respecter of state boundaries. To many North Carolinians, Charlotte was as much a South Carolina city as it was one in North Carolina. Charlotte was the anchor of North Carolina's rich Piedmont Crescent, an elongated area, beginning with Raleigh in the east, which might one day become a "linear city" of enormous significance.
The growth of Charlotte would entail many problems which would be different from any other North Carolina city in the near future. The struggle for space, for adequate channels of movement, for educational facilities, for social services, for housing would be intense and could be democratically controlled only through planning. It finds that there was still time to capitalize on the experiences of Northern and Western cities to avoid their mistakes and to profit from their successes in accommodating immense populations.
It indicates that Charlotte had to supply the creative energy and civic vitality to get the job done. But some help and great understanding would be required of the rest of the state. It is certain that the help would come because it made sense financially both to the state and its tax base, and to industry and its profit ledger. "Charlotte's urbanization simply can mean a sturdier economic future for all of North Carolina if it is well-planned." That was the lesson, it indicates, which it wanted to impart to the visiting legislators.
"Community Concerts Mark Our Progress" indicates that the Community Concert Association could bow deeply at present, as its program of membership had reached a state of near perfection. Presenting a "popular" schedule of attractions, the organization had an easier time in drawing music patrons, with such offerings as the Philadelphia Orchestra and Arthur Rubinstein.
It finds it unfortunate that the Opera Association and Symphony, while more well-defined in purpose, were less successful in attracting the casual listener. But those two groups were laying a reinforced foundation with their programs. Their process of acceptance would continue through unremitting hard work until the city's culture would broaden.
But it finds it heartening to see the Community Concerts so avidly accepted. The previous year, the membership drive for 2,500 names had been completed in 24 hours. In the current year, it had taken one dinner meeting, with victory and dessert arriving at the same time. It suggests that perhaps the next season, a dinner would be just for the social occasion, itself. It finds that it spoke well of progress in music and was another wave in a gathering tide for the local arts.
"A Clean Sheet in the Athletic Market" indicates that the editors of the Greensboro Daily News had advanced to question the presence of "real" basketball players on the Wilmington College team. The coastal community college had three boys making up high school credits, with the inference that one day they would join a Big Four basketball squad, that is one of either UNC, Duke, Wake Forest or N.C. State. The newspaper had inquired as to whether it was the role for the community college system.
It indicates that it did not know about Wilmington, but could report that probers were welcome to check the Charlotte College squad any time, though it might present a difficulty as the local club had wrapped up the season after mid-year examinations. There were only nine members of the squad and after reports had come in from examinations, only three had remained academically eligible. Those three had voted and decided that they would forgo the rest of the season. No appeals were made for players, and no outside talent was introduced. Nobody had lost his scholarship because nobody had one to begin with. No great gymnasium had been deserted by the action and no great number of alumni had joined in tearful refrain.
It finds that it was hardly in the spirit of the big time, but athletically, the Charlotte school had to rank somewhere below the American College of Tree Surgeons.
Things would dramatically change by 1977, when UNC-Charlotte would make the big time and reach the Final Four, only to lose to Marquette by two points in the semifinals. Oh, and when injury-riddled UNC, including star Walter Davis, uncle of the present head coach, with a broken finger on his shooting hand, lost to underdog Marquette in the finals by eight points in coach Al McGuire's swan song, there was the usual hue and cry, "Dean can't win the big one," and so let's fire him and see if we can get someone who can—maybe John Wooden.
To those numbskulls at present who engage in similar refrains, we suggest getting real. Most programs, with a head coach after five seasons with a 70 percent winning rate both in conference play and overall, would be breathlessly trying to hold onto that coach. You people who voice the contrary, we find, most often are closet fans of Duke, N.C. State or Wake Forest, hoping that UNC might take the bait and flounder for several years in mediocrity as a result, just as UCLA found itself, for instance, for the most part after the retirement of John Wooden, as has Indiana for the most part, following the departure of Bob Knight.
UNC does not want some current NBA coach to lead its program out of the abyss of a 70 percent winning average. Believe us when we say to these drunks of the podcasts, too steeped in their beers to pay attention much to sane logic, we like things very much the way they are, building toward the precipice, which will be reached in due course, honestly and without over-resort to professionalism, too much a part of the college game as it is. Get a life. We regard you as dumb, naïve, click-bait artists who know little or nothing about the history of North Carolina basketball or recognition that the first object always at UNC is to get a quality education, but decide to spout off amid your beers between games just to have something to say. Shut up and go away. We don't need you. You are not UNC fans. It is highly questionable whether you could have ever gained admission to UNC, Duke, or any other major school. And given the broken-English, girly-man, hysterical commentary typically appearing below such podcasts, worthy of a 12-year old, our opinion in that regard is always and inevitably confirmed. Low-q dumbbells disseminating inevitably and invariably false information or information filtered exclusively through the lens of negativity, doing back flips on the BS meter, venturing into the Trump red range, which is hard to do for anyone. Hush your mouth. Go away. It is, at the end of the day, after all, only an entertainment, a game. If you cannot play it fairly and with dignity, don't show up to play at all.
A piece from the Christian Science Monitor, titled "Paradise Interrupted", indicates that there were times, even on television, when the advertiser should not interrupt. Readers could probably offer a good many of their own ideas on the subject, it finds, but meanwhile sponsors of television shows might be able to gauge just how far they could go in pushing their products by following the debate in the House of Commons, where a bill had been introduced to regulate advertising on commercial television in Britain to avoid unnatural interruptions of the programming.
It suggests, for example, that after a dissertation on the wonderful symphony about to be heard, there would come a tense moment when the conductor raised his baton, the orchestra, which had been tuning up, suddenly becoming silent and attentive, and the audience watched to see the baton sweep into the crucial, portentous downbeat. Such was not the moment for a sudden switch to a picture of a man swinging a riveting gun into position and saying, "In my job, it's a good breakfast that counts…"
If British advertisers had been more
alert to appropriate use of a medium of communication, it finds, they
might have avoided Parliament getting into the act. The M.P. who had
introduced the regulatory bill had explained his action partly
because a Western
It concludes that the reader could see what a danger to culture the advertisements could be even when given a pertinent twist. (Bat and "Maverick", incidentally, did not air this week and so we had to find some suitable substitutes, with a twist.)
Drew Pearson indicates that O. Roy Chalk, Washington's streetcar czar, had enjoyed remarkable success in negotiations with the Federal Government since he had befriended First Lady Mamie Eisenhower's brother-in-law, Col. Gordon Moore. He had first persuaded the Civil Aeronautics Board to give his Trans-Caribbean Airways the only passenger certificate ever awarded to a non-scheduled airline. Yet hundreds of earlier applicants, including many with better records, had been turned down. Now, he had made a deal with the Weather Bureau to take two DC-6 aircraft which had been losing money, off of his hands for a year. The $51,000 rental he would collect each month from the airplanes would help him balance the airline's budget at the expense of the Government's budget. The deal had been concluded while Mrs. Eisenhower was vacationing at Elizabeth Arden's beauty resort in Phoenix with Mrs. Gordon Moore.
The Moores had been rescued from the brink of bankruptcy in 1952 by Mr. Chalk who recognized the public relations value of investing in the Eisenhowers' favorite in-laws. Mr. Chalk had made Col. Moore a vice-president of Trans-Caribbean, had then led him to set up his own business. It was no secret around Washington that Mr. Moore had benefited from the relationship to the first family. More than once, he had squeezed into the intimate Eisenhower family circle on coast-to-coast television.
Both Mr. Chalk and Mr. Moore had prospered greatly since the President had entered the White House, thanks in large measure to Government deals. Mr. Chalk had only one DC-6 when he had wangled the CAB certificate to fly a regular passenger route to Puerto Rico, that certificate having been all of the equity he needed to purchase four new DC-6's. To undercut the competition, he cut fares to $45 per passenger. He could not make a profit at that low rate unless he filled every plane over 95 percent capacity. But Eastern and Pan American also slashed fares to $45 for coach seats. Mr. Chalk could not find enough passengers to fill all four planes, and his load factor had dropped to 87 percent. The only way he could keep from losing money was to pack the passengers into fewer planes.
Then he heard that the Weather Bureau needed DC-6's as flying laboratories to fly into hurricanes. Unable to get the planes from the Air Force, the Weather Bureau checked with 100 commercial airlines and received 25 offers. Then Mr. Chalk had moved in with two of his DC-6's and leased them for $25,500 per month each to the Bureau. The one-year lease he signed was negotiated, not open to bid. But the Weather Bureau claimed that Mr. Chalk had offered the best deal. The Air Force figured that it cost $306 per hour to operate a DC-6, counting fuel, crew, maintenance and facilities. The Weather Bureau was not likely to fly them more than a few hours during the year. But they had to be outfitted with instruments and maintained on available status for immediate takeoff in case of a hurricane. The resulting research might help the Weather Bureau forecast future hurricanes more accurately and perhaps disperse them before they hit the coast of the U.S. But meanwhile, the hurricane research had provided a windfall for Mr. Chalk.
Marquis Childs indicates that before May, 1960, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and his Conservative Government would have to hold a general election, on which much turned for the West. The Labor Party was confident that if the election were held at present, it would win by a sizable number of seats. An objective judgment placed the Conservative chances at very best at 50-50. The reason was mounting unemployment, with about 600,000 workers being idled, roughly 3 percent of the total labor force.
In the marginal districts, the domestic issue would transcend the foreign issue. But if the Prime Minister's mission to Moscow had been even an atmospheric success, the situation would look differently. With Secretary of State Dulles incapacitated, the West was ready for a new spokesman. If the visit with Premier Nikita Khrushchev by Prime Minister Macmillan had been a success, returning with something approaching "peace in our time", the reference to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's September, 1938 meeting with Hitler in Munich, the visit could have furthered the prospect of at least a truce in the cold war. Premier Khrushchev had chosen the occasion of the visit to make a denunciatory political speech blasting the Western position.
Mr. Macmillan now appeared to be committed to a showdown on Berlin for which a considerable part of British opinion was not only unprepared but extremely reluctant. It was increasingly apparent to Britons that Mr. Macmillan had staked virtually his whole policy on interdependence with the U.S. A phase of that interdependence had come up in debate in the House of Commons while the Prime Minister was in Russia. With Labor attacking and the voice of the London Times raised in admonitory warning, it involved the British defense position on nuclear missiles. Discontent and distrust had been smoldering over the decision of Defense Minister Duncan Sandys to rely on the U.S. IRBM Thor rocket. The British had distrusted its accuracy and they had been unhappy regarding the need to build it into a fixed position.
When Laborite John Strachey, who would become the secretary for war in a Labor cabinet, had been in Washington recently, he had a sharp argument with Undersecretary of Defense Donald Quarles, the chief sponsor of the Thor. Mr. Strachey had insisted that British tests showed that 30 minutes were required to fire the rocket, while Mr. Quarles insisted that the time was only 15 minutes. The difference was vital, as a missile deterrent, if effective, had to be capable of being launched before a surprise attack could wipe out the missile bases.
The recent white paper of Mr. Sandys had declared that the Thors were being used only for training purposes while Britain's own Blue Streak rocket was in preparation. But the crux of the debate centered on the spending of vast sums for a nuclear deterrent which might not currently work given the great advances recently demonstrated by the Soviets in rocketry. While the latter's lunik shot to the moon appeared to have had little effect in the U.S., it had a powerful impact on opinion in Europe.
The consequences of a Labor victory in England could be foreseen in just a single plank of the Labor platform. The party favored admission of Communist China to the U.N. and if Britain voted for that admission in the General Assembly, the thin barrier which the U.S. had held thus far against the Communists would almost certainly crack. Several Western European powers, including New Zealand and perhaps Canada, would follow the British lead.
It was possible that Premier Khrushchev was deliberately calculating the disruptive effect of the Berlin crisis and had decided to let Mr. Macmillan come to Moscow to get the frigid treatment in person. What had occurred was no accident and now the Prime Minister returned to London to face a public which had allowed for a moment its hopes to rise.
Ernst Helge Schoenfelder, a University of Goettingen student currently studying at Davidson College on an exchange scholarship, from Wuppertal, West Germany, writes that the news of the illness of Secretary of State Dulles had been received with regret, not only in his own country, but also in West Germany. During the weekend, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of West Germany had declared that the news had saddened him greatly and referred also to the recent European trip of Mr. Dulles, an undertaking which was "all the more to be appreciated in that Mr. Dulles had been aware that upon his return he would have to undergo an operation," for his recurring cancer.
In contrast to some other European countries, Mr. Dulles was very popular in Germany. Almost all West German newspapers expressed that attitude of the German people by carrying lengthy editorials on the Secretary. During the previous six years, a person could not speak of American foreign policy without mentioning Mr. Dulles at the same time. During his tenure in office, the British Foreign Office had three chiefs, Moscow, four, and Paris, nine. As a strong Secretary of State under a weak President, he represented the American foreign policy, at least that was the opinion of some people in Germany.
He admits that Mr. Dulles had always been a controversial Secretary, but now, with his mission in such a decisive moment, the whole Western world had become aware of his significance.
He provides some comments from West German newspapers on Mr. Dulles. The Koelner Rundschau, an independent organ, had written: "Even in today's mass societies, the dignity and performance of individuals is strongly felt. A man like Mr. Dulles, no matter how his enemies have attacked him a short while ago, is shown respect and warmth of feeling even from his enemies when he becomes ill… Europe owes him a special debt of gratitude for his most recent trip here."
The Bild-Zeitung, the federal republic tabloid with the widest circulation of any German newspaper, had written: "'It is a terrible profession,' said the Italian Prime Minister, Signor Fanfani, when he withdrew from office. We remember this remark when we see the headlines telling us that Mr. John Foster Dulles, soon 71, is so very sick… The editorials are saying that he is hard to replace, because for so many years, all the threats of politics have converged in his hand… We are moved by the thought of the human being, lying there in the bed of a military hospital… Truly, it is a terrible profession to guide the destinies of people in the world today."
The Frankfurter Allgemeine, another independent newspaper, stressed: "Mr. Dulles' condition is even worse than was expected just after his return home from Europe. The sympathetic interest in his condition, felt perhaps especially in Bonn, the last European city he visited before returning, is made even warmer by the fresh remembrance of how calmly a man so ill took this trip upon himself. The destiny of an individual can at times indeed be very closely linked with world events at a great moment…"
Die Welt, also independent, wrote: "His behavior is bound to be admired by all who believe that courage is a virtue of civilians, too. But a deep anxiety remains."
The General-Anzeiger, of Bonn, had finally summarized the feelings of West Germans when it said: "With all their hearts, the people of Germany wish the secretary of state a speedy recovery. Over the years, Mr. Dulles has proved himself to be one of our most reliable and selfless friends."
A letter writer indicates that state socialism was on the march and that socialism led to communism. "Under the camouflage of liberalism, state socialism, which is always the open door to Communism, has reached the saturation point in our God-blessed America, and most people are too blind to see or realize it… Everyone knows that something radically is wrong with our Supreme Court… But what else could we expect from the appointment of boasted liberals to the Supreme Court by our last three presidents? No wonder Communists are having a high carnival celebration because of the court's decisions favoring Communist criminals." He says that the controlled press, radio and television, and even the National Council of Churches and ministers were aiding the "liberal left wing"—presumably in contrast with the conservative left wing. He had yet to hear a sermon preached from any pulpit condemning "godless communism". "Yes, liberal communism and modernism is leading our nation to destruction and our public officials and politicians know it but don't seem to care. It is time for all good Americans to come to the rescue of our beloved America before our enemies and traitors destroy it."
He would find a comfortable home, no doubt, today in Magaville, USA.
A letter writer from Salisbury finds no doubt that the time had come for President Eisenhower to appoint Adlai Stevenson as Secretary of State to unite the two parties in the effort against Russia. He also urges calling back to service all reserve officers and concentrating atomic cannons and atom bombs for an attack on Russia. He finds that the only kind of language which "these gunmen" would understand. "We must not let them get the draw on us or we shall be a dead pigeon. We would be better off destroyed than we would be as the slaves of these criminals." He finds that the Russians were the cruelest people to come to power in a great nation since the time of Attila, the Hun. "The peace talk of Russia is a part of their war strategy and should not be listened to. They know that many preachers have to talk peace and they plan to use all such preachers."
Framed Edition
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