The Charlotte News
Friday, April 10, 1959
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page
reports that the seven Mercury astronauts, all of whom were jet
pilots in their thirties and family men, had been introduced to the press the previous day.
Their mission would be to go into space and ultimately orbit the
earth at altitudes of between 100 and 150 miles and at speeds of
18,000 mph, then to return home safely. Their test flights might open
the way for future flights to the moon and to distant planets. At a
NASA press conference
In Tokyo, it was reported that millions of jubilant Japanese had rejoiced with parades and picnics this date over the precedent-breaking marriage of Crown Prince Akihito to a beautiful commoner who would one day share the ancient chrysanthemum throne. Celebrating throngs had walked the streets of flag-bedecked Tokyo long after a gold-encrusted carriage had carried the bride, Michiko Shoda, and the Prince to their suburban residence. Thousands had jammed motion picture theaters, bars and restaurants and some had spread box lunches along the banks of the Imperial Palace moat, while others headed for concerts and nighttime lantern parades. Only an unemployed 19-year old youth had marred the day-long celebration by hurling a stone at the Prince from out of the crowd. When it had missed, he burst into the street and leaped onto the moving horse-drawn carriage in a desperate lunge at the Prince. Police seized him immediately and he said: "I am opposed to the emperor system and have been since childhood, but I had no intention of killing." Police withheld charges pending completion of an investigation. There were suggestions that the youth might be mentally ill. The Prince, 25, and the new Princess, 24, had reacted with traditional royal aplomb, giving no sign of noticing the incident and continued to nod smilingly and wave to the crowd. With a sip of sacred wine at a Holy Shinto Sanctuary deep within the Imperial Palace grounds, the couple were wed. The origin of the ceremony had been lost in the centuries of Japan's past. The bride's rise from commoner status to the second ranking woman of the nation, unprecedented in Japan's 2,600-year history, had been heralded by Japan's youth as a sign of the nation's emergence as a modern democracy. The couple had met on a tennis court. Whether he carried a copy of the New York Times is not indicated.
In Benton, Tenn., it was reported that with the help of light rain, fire-fighters this date had gained control of a large blaze, apparently started intentionally, which threatened the southern end of the huge Cherokee National Forest. Estimates of the extent of burned land ranged between 1,000 and 2,000 acres. The assistant supervisor of the 600,000-acre forest said that crews were mopping up to ensure that the fire did not break loose again, with continued scattered showers forecast. The FBI had been brought in to investigate the possibility of arson, as suspected.
In Indianapolis, it was reported that the defendant in a murder trial for allegedly killing her married lover had testified this date that she had left her former lover's parked car without knowing he had been shot while they had struggled. The 44-year old double divorcee, in her long-delayed testimony about the shooting the prior July 31, said that her pearl-handled revolver had gone off while her former lover had twisted her arm. She said that he had hit her and that she remembered taking the gun from her purse, that simultaneously he had struck her and thrown her back across the seat, then grabbed her arm and the gun had gone off. She said that he continued to hold her arm and to twist it and she felt a crack in her upper arm and tried to break loose, until finally he had let go of her arm and she got out of the car. She looked back and the car was in motion with her lover sitting up. She was asked whether she knew how many shots had been fired and she responded to her counsel that she knew there was one shot and she was later told that there were three additional shots. Good luck on that one.
John Kilgo of The News indicates that one person had been killed and eight others had escaped injury early this date when fire had swept through an apartment house in Charlotte's Greenville section. A 30-year old man had been identified by officials as the victim in the blaze. The assistant fire chief said that the fire had been sweeping through the rear of the apartment house when firemen had arrived on the scene in the wee hours of the morning. The firemen had worked for nearly an hour to attempt to save the man's life but to no avail. The chief said that the fire had started from an oil stove.
In Raleigh, it was reported that the State House this date had postponed until the following Tuesday a final decision on the 75-cent hourly minimum wage bill for the state. Some supporters had joined with House members who opposed the bill on Thursday in a voice vote which had passed by 62 to 48 to postpone the third reading of the bill until the following week. The movant who asked for the postponement wanted to be able to mimeograph the much-amended bill with the amendments fitted into their proper places before the final reading. One of the bill's sponsors had said that he had told some members the previous day that he would not object to a delay, though another sponsor had opposed the delay on the basis that it would give everyone a chance to lobby except those most affected by the bill, who could not afford to hire a lobbyist.
Sunny skies had returned to the Rockies this date after a three-day storm had piled as much as three feet of snow in the mountains and chilled temperatures to record lows. Frigid air had rushed in on the area the previous night as the storm clouds moved east and south ahead of light breezes. Near zero temperature readings were common in the mountains, with the lowest having been nine below zero at Fraser, Colo. Denver's overnight low had been seven above early on Friday, a record for the date. Three days of continuous snowfall had ended on Thursday afternoon in the region. Colorado Springs had been buried under 23.3 inches of snow, a record for that city. Denver, with 14.5 inches, had now received more than 75 inches total during the year, more than double the normal figure. Three Coloradans had died as a result of the three-day storm, with one Denver man and another man of Colorado Springs having suffered fatal heart attacks while shoveling snow from their walks. An automobile overturned on a slushy road near Salida, in southern Colorado, causing fatal injuries to a woman. Winds had whipped up ground blizzards in northern Colorado, with an estimated 250 cars lined up west of Cheyenne, in southeast Wyoming, awaiting crews to pour sand on U.S. Highway 30. Schools were closed in many localities. The heaviest snowfall was 36 inches at the 9,382-foot La Veta Pass in southern Colorado. Wolf Creek Pass had 30 inches.
In Vernalis, Calif., it was reported that a plastic balloon 240 feet in diameter was soaring into the stratosphere with a payload of instruments to measure pressure, temperature and velocity. The instruments would make readings possibly up to 115,000 feet and at the peak of the balloon's flight, the instrument package would fall away and parachute back to earth.
Julian Scheer of The News indicates that there were hundreds of Charlotte residents who went bowling between midnight and seven or eight in the morning, a strange occurrence for the city, where the streets usually became quiet by 11:15 p.m. The North Independence Boulevard bowling alley did a brisk business during the night, its manager indicating that at least a third of the alley's business came after midnight. At 3:00 a.m. this date, Mr. Scheer had found a wrestling referee, a couple of waitresses, a surveyor, two diesel equipment men and a restaurant operator, bowling there. There was even a "Midnight League" of eight teams bowling on Tuesday nights into Wednesday mornings, going from midnight to five or six, including night shift men from local factories, police officers, newspaper and television people, and others who worked part of the night. One man said that when a person quit work at the usual hour of 5:00, he or she went out for the evening, but when you got off work at midnight or later, they went out for the morning. One young man worked a traditional 9 to 5 job, but was bowling the previous night, and often did from 2:00 a.m., on. The surveyor said that it was simply too crowded earlier. Just don't run into Walter. He takes the line seriously.
On the editorial page, "Children Come First but Have a Care" indicates that residents of the county would support any reasonable and prudent plan to provide needed educational facilities and that if the choice was between the child and the pocketbook, the citizens would choose the child. Nevertheless, the prospect of another multi-million dollar bond issue was not reassuring.
Mecklenburg County had issued 34.8 million dollars worth of bonds for school construction since 1946 and another 8 million dollar bond issue in the current year, as proposed, would add considerably to the public indebtedness. It was not a question of the legal limit as that was not presently in danger, but was a question of practical limits, sound fiscal policy and municipal credit ratings.
It finds that the voters would undoubtedly vote the necessary funds for emergency construction needs but should not be expected to vote without being informed to provide a general understanding of the local government's present plight and future prospects.
Once consolidation of the City and County school systems was achieved, it would be easier for the residents of the county to believe that the needs of both the city and the county were being given fair and equal attention, and early legislative action was required. "This sort of progress cannot be made overnight. But it will never be made unless there is a constant, unrelenting effort to build something better out of the status quo."
"Make the Government Fit the Times" indicates that endorsement of the county manager plan of government by Charlotte's Chamber of Commerce had come not a moment too soon, as the opportunity for action had never been so inviting. The expected truculence in local political circles had not materialized and there was even cautious interest in the plan on the County Commission. Passage of appropriate legislation during the current session of the General Assembly had become a public necessity, suggesting a permissive bill which would enable the county to switch to the county manager plan when and if it wished.
It finds that the county manager plan offered a simple, painless way to achieve reasonable goals, which it outlines, and urges that it should be explored in metropolitan Mecklenburg.
"Surplus Candidates Could Help Out" indicates that while there were a wealth of candidates for the City Council election, there was distressing news from suburban points, with one note having appeared from Matthews that the community had only four candidates for the five-seat commission, with the primary to be held the following day.
In Davidson, nobody had announced for office as the new registration book had not yet been prepared and officially there were no registered voters, with an election to be held on May 5.
At Pineville, filing would open on April 18 and close a week later, but no one had said anything in advance.
There were exceptions in Huntersville and Cornelius, where the incumbent mayors had opposition and there were slightly more candidates than available jobs. But in other locations, it appeared there was little excitement.
It finds that Charlotte could offer some help with some gerrymandering and elastic precinct lines or by waiving requirements for time of residence. At present, there were 19 candidates for the City Council, with several more still slated to throw their hat in the ring for five dollars, all for seven seats. It suggests that some of them perhaps ought enter neighboring races which were short on candidates, providing a basis for a farm system of candidates which might boost the batting averages of several old pros in the lineup.
"Gazetter Additions" indicates that it had been noticed in passing through out-of-town newspapers that imaginative names claimed by artists in the world of shedding costumes, that is striptease artists, included Justa Dream, Misty Ayres, Candy Barr and Blaza Glory.
Ms. Barr, incidentally, became acquainted with Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby in 1952 and became better acquainted with him after her release from prison in April, 1963—nine days before the April 10 shooting at the home of retired General Edwin Walker in Dallas—, following her marijuana possession conviction, stemming from a 1957 arrest, for which she was sentenced to fifteen years, serving 40 months before her parole.
And as a further aside, still tangentially on point, if at a considerably oblique angle, freighted with the potential to miss the entire planet upon re-entry, encountering huge G-forces in the process, the appearance depicted in "The Right Stuff" of famous fan-dance
Is there a wall somewhere out there, perhaps at the Alamo, where the tower men Speaking of Cuba
A piece from the Greenville
(S.C.) News, titled "The Heritage of the Charlotte News",
indicates that the announcement of the sale the prior weekend of the
News to Knight Publishing Co., which also owned the Observer,
marked the end of an era in Carolina journalism. It finds that for
many years, Charlotte had been the only city in the two states which
had two separately owned daily newspapers which competed bitterly
through the years.
The Observer, previously
under the direction of the late Curtis Johnson, had long earlier
established itself as the leading newspaper of the Carolinas from the
standpoint of circulation and advertising revenue, but had done so
only in the face of stiff competition from the News, for many
years owned and operated by the Dowd family until its sale in 1947 to
a group of investors, subsequently bought out by Thomas L. Robinson.
It indicates that the newspaper in
its heyday of the late 1920's and 1930's had probably produced more
outstanding writers and newspapermen than any other newspaper in that
part of the country. Readers of the News, it suggests,
probably would recall the searching editorials of the late W. J.
Cash, associate editor of the newspaper between November, 1937 and late May,
1941, "whose was a lone voice crying in the wilderness, when he
recognized the potential danger of Adolf Hitler long before the
outbreak of World War II. Cash was author of 'The Mind of the South',
a searching study of the South that won for him a Guggenheim
Fellowship for study in Mexico."
It also cites Cameron Shipp, who had
migrated to Hollywood where he had made a name for himself as a
free-lance writer and biographer of such movie stars as Lionel
Barrymore and Billie Burke. Marion Hargrove, whose See Here,
Private Hargrove had skyrocketed him to fame overnight, (and was
currently a screenwriter in Hollywood, contributing scripts for
"Maverick" among other popular tv shows), had for several
years been a member of the staff of the newspaper. Timothy Pridgen,
courthouse reporter and political writer for the newspaper for many
years, had authored several historical novels dealing with the
Revolutionary War days in the Cape Fear section of North Carolina.
Other former News staffers who had moved on to bigger things
included such able writers and executives as Reed Sarratt, executive
editor of the Winston-Salem Journal; Furman Bisher, sports
editor of the Atlanta Journal; Chauncey Durden, sports editor
of the Richmond Times-Dispatch; former News editor and associate editor Burke
Davis of Chapel Hill, a successful freelance writer and contributor to the Greensboro Daily
News; Pete McKnight and Tom Fesperman, editor and managing
editor, respectively, of the Charlotte Observer; and Harry
Ashmore, Pulitzer Prize-winning executive editor of the Arkansas
Gazette in Little Rock.
"It was men like these who for
many years kept The Charlotte News in the fore in the South
when it came to editorial excellence."
Drew Pearson indicates that in all
of the Congressional probes of national defense, no one had specified
the one reason why the cost of defense was so high, that being the
increasing monopolization of defense orders by big business and the
steady freeze-out of small business. Congressman Edward Hebert of New
Orleans, however, a defense watchdog, had called two of the large
airplane companies, Lockheed and North American Aviation, to see why
84 percent of the new missile manufacturing, plus missile parts, had been
going to the giants of industry, in many cases without competitive
bids. He intended to probe, among other things, charges that the big
missile manufacturers had hundreds of millions of dollars worth of
unfilled Government orders, dating back seven years. Some were
reported as being so long unfilled that the missile parts were
presently obsolete. Meanwhile, the big corporations had not farmed
out subcontracts to small companies.
The Congressman also wanted to
investigate charges that the big corporations had been holding back
missile parts specifications so that small companies could not bid.
One witness who would appear before
Congress for special cross-examination was A. C. Lazure, general
counsel of Army Ordnance and a key figure in the Army's missile
procurement. When an electronics manufacturer of Bridgeport, Conn.,
had complained to Mr. Lazure that he and other small producers were
being denied missile parts contracts by Army Ordnance, Mr. Lazure had
abruptly countered: "You have no inherent right to expect
military contracts." The man agreed that he had no inherent
right but that he did have a right to bid on them. He said that his
firm and other small producers which were able to produce quickly and
cheaply were not given a chance to bid.
Mr. Pearson notes that after
Congressman Hebert would finish with Lockheed and North American, he
had some other big defense contractors on his list for investigation.
Lenoir Chambers, editor of the
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, in an excerpt from a recent address
to the Order of the Golden Fleece honorary society at UNC, examines
the situation in the South regarding desegregation of the public
schools, and especially in Virginia, with its program of "massive
resistance" which led inexorably to the closing of schools.
He cites to a work by Avery Craven,
history professor at the University of Chicago and native of Randolph
County, N.C., titled Civil War in the Making, 1815-1860, in
which he looked at the antecedent events to the Civil War and found
that on the eve of secession, in late 1860, the moderate Southerners
were largely shut out from the debate by the radical secessionists,
Mr. Chambers finding a similar dynamic at work in the South at
present regarding school desegregation.
Mr. Craven had said: "Under
such circumstances, the advantage was with the smaller group of
determined, exasperated radicals who had talked loudly of southern
rights and Republican threats, and who were quietly, but not openly,
planning secession. They arrogantly assumed that they alone stood for
the honor, the interests and the rights of the South. They hurled the
charges of disloyalty, cowardice and weakness against all who would
not join their ranks."
Mr.
Chambers indicates that he had thought of those words recently when
he had read that Harry Ashmore, executive editor of the Arkansas
Gazette and former
editor of The News, had
been called a renegade.
He
finds that in much of the South, though less so in North Carolina,
the making of public policy regarding the desegregation issue had
lacked the minds and spirits of many of the South's persons of
excellence, with the guidance of the affairs too often in the hands
of "the extreme, the politically shrewd and ambitious, the
opportunistic, the ruthless." The moderates were too often
excluded by the leadership. He finds that the most clearly
demonstrable fact was that it did not represent the way of the
future, having broken down too often and in too many areas, slated to
break down further. He finds that to be the major part of the tragedy
of the Virginia program.
He
suggests that his audience look with a skeptical eye on any person
who claimed to know what the future would hold, that there was no pat
solution, that there were too many Souths and the problems were too
complex for one device to be wise or practical, even if
constitutional, for all.
He
suggests that there had been a possibility earlier for the leadership
of the President, if really exerted, to help make moderation more
respectable, and that perhaps it was not too late for it at present,
as it was never too late for statesmanship. It was never too late for
statesmanship among and by Southerners at all levels, wherever they
lived. They would have painful adjustments in any major changes and
the remainder of the country ought never forget that. "They need
understanding and they need time."
He
finds that primarily the South needed understanding of its own
destiny. "It cannot solve great regional problems in terms of a
past that will never return. It cannot solve them in terms of
extremism. He cannot solve them by closing the public schools as if
education were a matter of no account and the descent of the South
still deeper into the pit of educational deficiency could be borne
with complacency. It cannot solve them by excluding from its councils
the entire Negro citizenship, as if it did not exist and share
responsibilities. They cannot exclude its own educational leadership.
They cannot solve them by submerging all forces of moderation which
have been chiefly responsible for the improvements in the relations
of the races for the past 50 years. It cannot exclude equity and
justice.
"The
school segregation problems of the South are too important to be left
to the politicians alone. The South will make a genuine approach to
the ultimate resolution of all these perplexities only when it
enlists in effective order the influence of the wisest and most
intelligent people of the South—and of the nation—for
duties that will test their practicality, their patience, and their
courage to the limit. That is the hard but inescapable course. It is
the challenge to excellence."
A
letter writer from Mount Holly says that with the change of ownership
of the newspaper from Thomas L. Robinson to Knight Publishing Co.,
she would look for any change in the political editorial policy of
the newspaper and that should it stray far away from her political
philosophies or should either of her favorite columnists be dropped,
she would drop her subscription after having been a regular reader of
the newspaper for more than 25 years. She had long admired the
newspaper for its more or less unbiased stand regarding politics. "So
on your guard, gentlemen, lest there be many others who will feel as
I do if your policy 'takes a turn for the worse!'" She advises
to let the Charlotte
Observer
continue to lean toward the Republican side of the fence if it
desired and she would have no further quarrel with it, as in the
past, unless it were to become too outspoken. "But if you
continue your present policy, my blessings upon you!"
A
letter writer from Gaffney, S.C., finds that the American people had
the shortest memory of any on earth, that in 1952, they had forgotten
what a mess the Republicans could make of the country and had
forgotten how Hungary had stood in World War II, and now, apparently,
had forgotten Pearl Harbor, which he finds unforgivable. He says he
refers to the mention on radio and television and the uproar in the
press regarding Japanese Crown Prince Akihito. "To anyone who
remembers when all Japs were little yellow-bellies, the current rash
of Jap-worshiping is thoroughly sickening. Noting all the
glamorous publicity that is being heaped on the royal head of the son
of the son of the Rising Sun, one is inclined to wonder if Colin
Kelly and Douglas MacArthur were wasting their time (in the case of
Kelly, his life)." He suggests that the Government might invite
the Crown Prince and his bride to spend their honeymoon at Iwo Jima
or at Wake Island, or maybe at Pearl Harbor.
The
writer forgets that there were many Japanese-Americans who fought in
World War II for the United States and gave life and limb in that
cause, for instance, now-deceased Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, a
recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
The
writer's comments directed at all Japanese people, rather than taking
aim where it belonged, at the Japanese warlords, is quite
indiscriminate and sickly racist, not understandable fully 14 years
after the end of the war—when the Crown Prince was but 11.
A
letter writer indicates that the contents of the American Iron and
Steel Institute advertisement which had appeared on April 6 in the
newspaper had been practically meaningless, that if it intended for
newspaper readers to be fully informed on the effective wage
increases in the steel industry, it would have been better to offer
some rebuttal of published testimony given before a Congressional
committee regarding the method of arriving at increased steel prices.
He refers the Institute to the fact that steel prices had increased
by three dollars for every one dollar of added wage costs.
A
letter writer is in agreement with those who believed that one good
community college could more adequately serve the needs of all the
people of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County than having two separate
colleges of a similar nature, one for black citizens and one for
white citizens. He indicates that if a study showed that a high
school was necessary for evening courses, it could continue to be
operated at the present site of Carver College or moved to an
existing and more centrally located high school building, open to all
people who needed those services. He finds that the vocational needs
of the young people of the area would soon be met through the opening
of the vocational school at the present site of Central High School.
A
letter writer indicates that while the Legislature was proposing laws
for sterilization of women after a certain number of illegitimate
births, there should be pause to review Matthew
1:18. She suggests that perhaps one more law ought be passed, which
would require married barren women and married sterile men who were
financially able and mentally fit to undergo an operation which would
permit them to produce children. "Someone has to replenish the
human race. Or is this the beginning of the end?" Framed Edition
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