The Charlotte News
Thursday, April 16, 1959
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Augusta, Ga., that the President this date had conferred with John Foster Dulles in the hospital regarding selection of a new Secretary of State, following the resignation of Mr. Dulles the previous day because of his cancer. Mr. Dulles had also talked by telephone with the President the previous night regarding a successor. The President continued to defer an announcement on a successor, but Undersecretary of State Christian Herter was reported still to have the inside track on the position following the consultations. Mr. Dulles had talked to the President from his room at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington and the President was at his vacation cottage at the Augusta National Golf Club. After this date's talk, the White House announced the President's formal acceptance of the resignation of Mr. Dulles, making public an exchange of letters between the President and the retiring Secretary. Reiterating his warm affection for the 71-year old Mr. Dulles, the President wrote to him: "You have been a staunch bulwark of our nation against the machinations of imperialistic communism. You have won to the side of the free world countless people, and inspired in them renewed courage and determination to fight for freedom in principle. As a statesman of world stature, you have set a record in the stewardship of our foreign relations that stands clear and strong for all to see."
In Washington, it was reported that Fidel Castro had been welcomed to the United States with a noisy reception which he said he had found delightful, beginning a two-week tour of the country this date to "promote Cuba" among Americans and Canadians. The Cuban Prime Minister had been greeted with cries of "Viva Castro" from a crowd of flag-waving Cuban supporters when he arrived on Wednesday night by plane. Wearing a familiar combat uniform, the smiling revolutionary leader told the airport crowd: "I hope in some way I can bring a better understanding of our program in Cuba to the people of the United States and that they will have a better understanding of our situation." Then, ignoring his waiting limousine, he headed for a wire fence behind which most of the spectators had been kept waiting. There, he hugged many of his admirers, shook their hands and patted them on the head. At the Cuban Embassy, he said that everyone was very nice, that the American people were very nice, that the Cubans were very nice, and that even the reporters were very nice, stating the latter with a laugh. Indications were strong that the economic phase of his "Sell Cuba" campaign would have top priority on his tour. Accompanying the Prime Minister were some of the leading economic figures of the provisional Government of Cuba.
In Miami, Fla., it was reported that four gunmen, three of whom were fugitives from firing squads of the Cuban revolutionary Government, had captured a Cuban airliner in flight this date and forced the pilot at gunpoint to fly to Miami. Aboard were 17 startled but unharmed American and Cuban passengers. U.S. border patrol members had immediately surrounded the plane when it landed and took the four hijackers into custody. Three gunmen said that they were members of the hated secret police force of dictator Fulgencio Batista. The other had been a former Air Force mechanic under the Batista regime. Fidel Castro's rebels had overthrown Sr. Batista the prior January 1 after a 25-month war and had forced him into exile in the Dominican Republic. The border patrol said that the gunmen would be held for a special investigation by the U.S. Immigration Service. The pilot of the plane, from Havana, said that one of the men had placed a pistol against his neck and ordered him to fly to the Dominican Republic. The plane was en route from Havana to the Isle of Pines, 100 miles south of Havana. The pilot had told them that they did not have enough gas for such a trip and then they had told him to fly to Miami. Guns also had been held at the heads of the copilot and the steward throughout the 225-mile flight to Miami. Passengers said that no one was roughly treated after the gunmen had taken over the plane shortly after it had taken off from Havana. A New Jersey stockbroker had told reporters that four men in civilian clothes had taken up stations in the front and rear of the plane and that one had pointed a pistol at the head of the pilot. A Castro soldier on vacation, 18, had grappled with the gunmen but had been disarmed. Three of the hijackers were brothers and they said that they had escaped separately from La Cabana fortress while awaiting threatened execution by firing squads. Their companion, a former secret police corporal, said that he had not been imprisoned.
In New York, it was reported that the New York Teachers Guild the previous night had called off a one-day strike scheduled for this date to emphasize demands for pay increases.
In Indianapolis, it was reported that the woman who was on trial for murder of her former married lover, had been convicted this date of voluntary manslaughter, a killing in the heat of passion. The conviction allowed a mandatory sentence of between two and 21 years in prison. The defendant showed no emotion when the verdict had been read. She would be sentenced later this date. She would be eligible for parole in 21 months. Defense attorneys said that any appeal of the sentence would have to be initiated by the defendant. She declined to discuss the verdict. Her demeanor was completely opposite that which she had shown during the trial which had started a month earlier. She had then talked freely and at one time was admonished by her attorneys to keep quiet. Even while the jury deliberated the previous night, the defendant had told reporters that she still loved her 54-year old playboy paramour, a drug firm executive, whom she had shot while she claimed they were struggling over her pistol, which she had previously threatened to use in the car to kill herself, when the man grabbed it, after which it had gone off. The jury had debated for approximately nine hours, with an hour and a half out for dinner, before agreeing on the verdict. The jury foreperson said that there had been more than ten ballots before they had reached the verdict. He added that at first, there were votes ranging from acquittal to first-degree murder, but at no time had any of the jurors mentioned sending the defendant to the electric chair. The prosecution, which had not asked for the death penalty in its summation, said that the manslaughter verdict was "fair and just". About 75 spectators had crowded the small courtroom to hear the verdict and see the defendant led away in handcuffs to return to her cell in the county jail.
Bob Slough of The News reports that two proposals to make important changes in North Carolina's income tax laws were before the General Assembly, one having a good chance of passing but the other almost certain to be defeated. The change which stood a good chance of becoming law called for the payroll deduction or pay-as-you-go plan of collecting income taxes. Given little chance of passage was a proposal the previous day put forward by State Representative Thomas Turner of Guilford County, which would allow state income taxpayers to deduct up to $500 of the amount they paid in Federal income taxes from their income in computing state income tax.
Mr. Slough, in the third of a series of articles on unwed mothers in Charlotte, reports that the previous year in Charlotte, 9.7 percent of all births had been illegitimate. White illegitimate births represented 4.7 percent of all white births and black illegitimate births represented 23.4 percent of all black births. The majority of the unwed mothers were young people, many still in their early teens. Several Charlotte ministers had been asked to comment on the rising number of unwed mothers. The Reverend Howard Chadwick, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, said: "While the complex nature of this illness [a growing moral decadence] defies any easy analysis, and the forces which combine to produce a situation are legion, religious leaders contend that for the most part the root of the problem is spiritual." He said that as Protestants and church people, they did not lay the blame on anyone in particular, but confessed their own failures. "We make our church membership easy, requiring little of moral purity of our members. We relax our personal discipline and make instruction of our children superficial." He said that leaders in the Protestant church, along with students of history, agreed that one of the first signs of the decline of a nation or civilization was a growing moral decadence. "The mounting tide of illegitimate births and cases of venereal disease, evidenced not only in the nation in general but in our community in particular, is therefore appalling and of serious concern," he continued. He suggested that religious education had been overly concerned that "this is my Father's world" and not enough concerned with the Biblical teachings regarding "thou shalt not's". He said that the situation was alarming and precarious and called for the combined efforts of all agencies, medical, social, religious, for a serious diagnosis of a prescription for the canker, which, unarrested, would consume the people. The Reverend Bernard Hurley, pastor of St. Paul Methodist Church, saw a moral failure on the part of young people because of the lack of constructive activities, indicating: "Their spare time is not consumed in wholesome work. If young people are given something constructive to do they will accomplish something worthwhile." He said that another reason for the moral letdown was the fact that parents at present did not seem sufficiently interested in their children. He suggested that they were perhaps too busy with meetings, social activities and appointments.
Julian Scheer of The News indicates that on this evening Charlotte Mayor Jim Smith would throw a slow curve toward home plate in Griffith Park, after which a drum and bugle corps would strike up with music and an umpire would yell, "Play ball!" Charlotte Hornets manager Phil Howser would light the cigar he had been gnawing on all day, then start complaining when the first three Hornet batters failed to hit home runs, and inquire, "How can we get the fans with that kind of hittin'?" He would mutter that he just hoped he would live through it. After 26 years in baseball, since 1938 in Charlotte, Mr. Howser had managed to live, and had gotten fat and sassy, and even more worried. He said that the team looked pretty good, but that he hoped he lived through the opener.
In Rye, N.Y., ten days earlier, a staccato knocking and banging had awakened a household at 5:00 a.m. The woman of the household wondered what it could be and her husband said that it must be the plumbing. But after the plumber was called in, he said that it was not the plumbing, and the second day at the same time, came the same noise. The husband called in a heating engineer but it was not the heating either. On the third day, the same racket occurred at the same time and they called in the gas man, but he also found no defect. On the fourth day, with the same noise at the same time, the man had donned his robe and hurried outside, finding the culprit, a downy woodpecker hammering like mad on the television aerial. He tried to shoo it away with rocks and hand-clapping, but his efforts had failed. On Wednesday, he consulted the National Audubon Society and was advised that the garden hose should be turned on the bird or that he should obtain a toy popgun and frighten it, or get a fireworks permit and shoot some Roman candles at it. The man decided to use the hose treatment first. The Audubon Society said that the bird was merely using the television antenna as a sort of sounding board to issue a spring love call. The spokesman continued that the hammering would not go beyond the next few weeks or so, that by that point, the bird would either have found a mate or would give up. More important to the household was that it would go away.
Lots of print on the front page, but not too much in the way of substance, now, is there?
Meanwhile this date, in what ought be an instructive lesson to the members of the Trump Cabinet who might fancy themselves beyond the reach of the law for the prospect of pardons at Administration's end, even if Trump, himself, is obviously too demented, like his hero of the Third Reich, to comprehend his own reality vis-à-vis history, this
"Playhouse 90" presentation
On the editorial page, "Herter Should Succeed the Ailing Hero" indicates that the President had no choice other than to accept the resignation of Secretary of State Dulles the previous day. It had been a painful duty, as Mr. Dulles had made a courageous effort to resume his duties and shoulder the burdens of U.S. diplomacy. The free world, it indicates, would long admire the Secretary's spunk, but had never entertained illusions about his ability to return to active leadership.
The President's own reluctance to relieve his old friend had been understandable. All the same, the die had been cast in February and to expect the return of the Secretary was to expect a miracle.
It regards it as regrettable that Mr. Dulles was not permitted to surrender his title eight or more weeks earlier, that if that had been done, a successor would have been able to accumulate the experience, seniority and prestige necessary to deal with the Western allies on some of the most critical global problems of the decade.
It regards it as folly to suppose that a subordinate acting in the name of Mr. Dulles could compose the potentially dangerous differences over measures to meet the Soviet challenge in Germany. It was true that, since the illness of Mr. Dulles, the President had assumed the direction of U.S. foreign policy, but he was neither the chief architect of that policy nor was it reasonable to expect him to become its chief operative force. Consequently, he needed a strong, able Secretary at his elbow, one who was intimately acquainted with the intricacies of U.S. foreign policy and one whose judgment would not outrun his knowledge.
It finds that particularly important in the meeting of Western foreign ministers in Paris two weeks hence. Momentous issues would be at stake, for it was a time of critical maneuver between the Western and Communist worlds. There was obviously no time to search for a new Secretary outside the existing organization of the State Department. A novice, no matter how eminent, would become lost amid the many delicate and intricate problems. Logic therefore suggested that Acting Secretary Christian Herter would be named the new Secretary and that the appointment would be made without delay.
It finds that Mr. Herter was intimately acquainted with the policies of Mr. Dulles and the philosophy from which they stemmed. He had held interim authority in the State Department often in the past during absences of Mr. Dulles and he had been Acting Secretary during his long illness. Unfortunately, during those times, Mr. Herter had not enjoyed any substantial prestige because of the uncertainty of his status. But it finds that he was an able and resourceful operator and, most important, was in touch with the approaching climax in relations with the Soviets regarding Berlin and West Germany.
Much had been said about Mr. Herter's crippling arthritis, but it had not disabled him. It was a handicap, but one he had risen above, as FDR had risen above his crippling polio. It finds it doubtful that the condition would seriously impair his efficiency as Secretary.
It indicates that the departure of Mr. Dulles from the scene would not mean his exile from the President's official family, as he would always be available for consultation and his vast experience would be valuable and his advice welcome. It suggests that it was likely that he would be accorded a special role, that of elder statesman in foreign affairs.
It wishes the former Secretary well and prays for his comfort, safety and peace of mind, indicating that he had served the country with great courage, endurance and dedication and the country could only hope that his successor would battle the hosts of darkness with the same degree of patriotic fortitude.
"It Was a Good Thing While It Lasted" indicates that a full-time purchasing agent to coordinate the county's buying had been authorized by the County Commission on February 23 after some noisy internal wrangling. On April 1, William Moss had gone to work at the new job and immediately tackled the task of saving the taxpayers' money. Two weeks later, the County was informed by the State Attorney General that the appointment was unconstitutional. As a result, Mr. Moss was out of a job and the commissioners who had held such high hopes about governmental efficiency and economy were out of luck.
It finds it a classic, if somewhat dreary, example of the lack of home rule under the state's antiquated legal structure. A more explicit method of smothering progress in elementary democracy and local government was difficult to imagine. If North Carolina county commissions had been more insistent in their demands for home rule in the past, that sort of thing might not have occurred.
Now the buck having previously been passed to Raleigh would have to be passed again and appropriate legislation providing for the employment of a purchasing agent would have to be sought in the General Assembly if the post which Mr. Moss had been filling was to be saved.
It urges that it should be accomplished in the current session of the Legislature either as a separate measure or as part of legislation authorizing Mecklenburg County to adopt the county manager plan of government. Meanwhile the County Commission ought take a somewhat greater interest in governing authority which was rightfully theirs, but, because of a legal quirk, resided illogically in Raleigh.
"A Present from Dr. Frankenstein" indicates that computer scientists had offered a report on a computer which did not think for mankind but rather thought like a man. It had been so wired that it made human errors in problem-solving and then proceeded down a human-like track in seeking the correct solution.
It could also be frustrated, according to its developer, Dr. Herbert Simon of Carnegie Tech. When that happened, the machine shuffled forth a printed answer of "quit evaluation". Dr. Simon had gone further and compared the computer's mental machinations with the spoken word of a subject at work. The primary difference, he had found, was in vocabulary, as the electronic model had yet to pick up any slang.
It finds it awesome and also disturbing, that once fed the entire vocabulary and current idioms of the English language, the machine might turn. Able to think for itself and not needing any type of cigarette to back its claim, it would not be long before it told its creator, "Who needs you?" It would be child's play to short-circuit the panic button, glue itself to the wall plug and maintain itself after the main switch was pulled. With that robot's reasoning, science fiction would become truth.
It suggests that the one bright light when machines would emerge would be the fact that mankind's progress had been a stumbling process at best and it would be an ideal time for humans to bow out. "At least it's better than being dissolved by some madman's cobalt bomb without even the opportunity of a curtain call."
A piece from the Christian Science Monitor, titled "For the Love of Laughter", indicates that as Richard Wagner had liked the music of Johann Strauss, William Shakespeare might have liked the librettos of Sir W. S. Gilbert. Whenever the spa orchestra at Herr Wagner's holiday resort turned to a Strauss waltz, Herr Wagner would get up from his table and insist on conducting it. It suggests therefore that had Shakespeare been present at a performance of "The Mikado", he would have echoed the famous Oscar Wilde comment, "I wish I had said that!"
It thus finds it apt of the opponents of a permanent copyright on Mr. Gilbert, as suggested in the British House of Commons, to point out that Shakespeare had to survive without the benefit of permanent copyright, and so it wonders why Mr. Gilbert should not also.
The librettist of "The Mikado"
Even so, Queen Victoria had not been amused and knighted Mr. Sullivan, but had ignored Mr. Gilbert. Yet, most of the delightful music which Mr. Sullivan had composed would never have existed were it not for the prompting of the Gilbert librettos. Most of Mr. Sullivan's efforts, other than the D'Oyly Carte repertory, were not forgotten.
It indicates that the petitions with half a million signatures asking Parliament for a permanent copyright added to Edward VII's knighthood of Mr. Gilbert a popularly bestowed honor. While posthumous, it finds that Mr. Gilbert would have gotten a laugh even out of that.
Drew Pearson indicates that as Fidel Castro had arrived in Washington the previous day, one of his fellow revolutionaries had been on hand to meet him. Rafael del Pino, who had journeyed to Bolivia with Sr. Castro to incite the student "massacre", was the unofficial reception committee for his old friend. On this occasion, however, the two young revolutionaries were on opposite sides. Sr. Del Pino was now bitterly anti-Castro and helped to arrange for pickets to come from New York with placards reading, "Castro go home". He had also hired an airplane and personally dropped anti-Castro leaflets over Havana telling Sr. Castro to kick out his brother, Raul, and the Argentine pro-Communist, Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
The story of the early revolutionary exploits of the two young men cast light on the still uncertain question of what made Sr. Castro tick, and told for the first time the inside story of the Bogota massacre which had killed 300 bystanders just as Secretary of State George Marshall had been trying to weld inter-American harmony at the Pan American Conference in Bogota.
Sr. Del Pino had said to Mr. Pearson in an interview that Sr. Castro was his closest friend and that earlier they were together when Senator Molinari of Argentina had come to Havana to attend the labor conference, and talked to some of them about going to Bogota to organize a student drive against the European colonies in Latin America. "So Fidel and I took the money sent by Peron and went to Bogota."
Along the way, they had stopped in Panama, where Sr. Castro fell in love with a Peruvian nightclub dancer. Finally, with only two dollars remaining, they went on to Bogota and there asked a taxi driver whether he knew of a hotel where they did not have to pay until the end of the week and which also had a restaurant. They were directed to the Hotel Claridge where, the first night, they had a steak and a large bottle of wine and by the end of the week, still needed money, and so tossed a coin to see who would cash in his return-trip airfare to pay the hotel bill. Sr. Castro had lost. Sr. Del Pino recalled that that they never did pay the second week's hotel bill. They heard the President of Colombia announcing over the radio that Fidel Castro and Rafael del Pino were responsible for the riots and so they drove immediately to the Cuban Embassy without their baggage, where they were granted asylum.
When asked by Mr. Pearson why he finally broke with Sr. Castro, Sr. Del Pino responded: "Because I could see they were going Communist. There were too many around. They weren't all Communists, but they were friendly to them. When I told them that, they tried to kill me. They took me out in the mountains about 500 miles from Mexico City, but I escaped. I walked all the way to the American border. Then I phoned Castro and told him what I thought of him."
Joseph Alsop, in Milwaukee, indicates that the first thing one learned from a political safari through strategically crucial Wisconsin was the present strength of Senator John F. Kennedy's Democratic presidential candidacy. That strength might wane or he might be overtaken in Wisconsin by the other hard-campaigning Democratic candidate, Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, who planned to cultivate Wisconsin before the 1960 primary as no political vineyard had been cultivated in recent memory. As of the present, however, Senator Kennedy's strength was highly impressive.
He finds almost equally impressive that which might be called the second-line strength of Adlai Stevenson. Since the two active Democratic candidates, Senators Kennedy and Humphrey, were almost certainly coming into Wisconsin to fight in the key primary, the local Democrats were making their first-line choices between those two. Barring unforeseen developments, Wisconsin could thus be expected to send either a delegation for Senator Humphrey or for Senator Kennedy to the Democratic convention in Los Angeles in 1960. But whether it was a Humphrey delegation or a Kennedy delegation, the band from Wisconsin would also, in an important sense, be a Stevenson delegation. In that respect, a minor episode of the Midwestern Democratic conference in Milwaukee some weeks earlier was usefully illustrative.
He indicates that in brief, virtually all of the grandees of the Wisconsin Democratic Party had gathered for a late drink after the conclusion of the Milwaukee rallies' evening sessions. The local party organization was not united, being divided both into adherents of Governor Gaylord Nelson and adherents of Senator William Proxmire, and into a pro-Humphrey and pro-Kennedy group. Nevertheless, the gathering was amiable and the argument about potential Democratic candidates friendly. One of those present said: "Come on, tell the honest truth. Leaving practical politics on one side, which Democrat would you really like to see nominated?" The whole room was polled and Adlai Stevenson's name was heard from everyone. That strong residual sentiment for Mr. Stevenson would have no effect, if one of the active Democratic candidates won the nomination on an early ballot. But if the situation arose, as hoped for by the supporters of Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri, whereby Senator Kennedy and Senator Humphrey could not make it and the convention was thrown wide open, the sentiment in Wisonsin for Mr. Stevenson would become very important. Mr. Alsop had found no Wisconsin Democrat among a large number confidentially queried who did not mean to go for Mr. Stevenson in tha event. Regarding Senator Symington, in contrast, there was no discoverable enthusiasm in any part of Wisconsin.
The sharp contrast between the unanimity of those in Wisconsin for Mr. Stevenson as a second choice and their marked lack of enthusiasm for Senator Symington seemed to raise a question which went beyond Wisconsin, regarding how much basis in political reality the Symington pre-convention strategy actually had, whether, in the event of a deadlocked convention, it was just as likely to turn to Mr. Stevenson.
He indicates that one could think of a very large number of key states where the position favored Mr. Stevenson rather than Senator Symington at present. California was a notable example, and Minnesota, Michigan, the Northwestern states, and some of the Rocky Mountain states also would likely fall under that group, as well as New England, leaning toward Mr. Stevenson rather than Senator Symington. Even in New York, where Carmine DeSapio had been sounding as if he were supportive of Senator Symington, the Tammany head would have an ugly fight on his hands with the numerous supporters of Mr. Stevenson in that state.
In short, despite the bitter opposition of former President Truman and many others among the older professional politicians, Mr. Stevenson would be a hard candidate to stop should the front-runners fall by the wayside. He might be a two-time loser, but he still commanded very much affection. Even among those who thought he would be a third-time loser, there was a significant feeling that he would make a good president "if I could only name the president myself," as one Wisconsin political leader had put it. For Senator Symington, all that perhaps meant that he had not gone far enough by going from being inactive to an active-inactive candidate and that he might have to get out and beat the bushes like a regular active candidate if his strategy was to have a serious chance of succeeding.
Robert C. Ruark, in London, indicates that the U.S. was sending out a reconnaissance team to find out what future long-term aid programs the new Africa would be needing, with special emphasis on the lands which had recently gained that which could be called independence. He believes that the whole tour of experts would start at Accra and consume five weeks to cover most of Africa. The exhaustive survey of Government lunches, native dances, and the local nightclubs ought, he suggests, warrant another extra billion or so of foreign aid to buy ingratitude.
"Perhaps the helter-skelter spreading of American funds all over the globe has done us some good in buying up an airfield here, a base there, but so far as friendship against future adversity is concerned, I think we might as well have spent most of the money on hula hoops."
He finds that the disgraceful occurrences in Bolivia had taught the U.S. the value of dollar diplomacy, "global do-goodness, and the reliance on charity cases for gratitude. As nearly anyone who has ever lent or given money to anybody knows, the almost inevitable end is enmity. Bolivia was supposed to be the dream state, and should be our foremost friend in Latin America, and all we have reaped is a vicious hatred."
He thinks that most of the money spent in Africa at present would be wasted as needs were not defined, order was not established, unity was not even contemplated except in speeches, and the people who might actually need help had not as yet been considered by their new masters as anything other than faceless throngs which could be useful in riots and mob demonstrations.
"Perhaps it would be a good idea if the United States allowed the African to build his own house of cards before we tell him how to tear it down on our dough."
Appoint Zorro
A letter writer wants to ask the News garden editor, Cora Harris, to walk past the "hardy hollyhock" which Julian Scheer had found beside the Bank of Commerce downspout, as he had chronicled on the front page of April 9. The writer says that he had walked past it for four years and had never seen it bloom, and was under the distinct impression that it was a cottonwood sprout. He suspects that the "hardy hollyhock" was Mr. Scheer's hallucination and wants to settle the matter.
As long as you wish to make it the subject of controversy, perhaps you could arrange with Mr. Scheer a contest to settle the dispute, a kind of duel whereby you put a shot
A letter writer indicates that the lawmakers at every level had the noose around the taxpayers' necks for many years, but had only recently begun to tighten it, that it was time for the people to take stock and see how freely the laws were handed out to further encumber the heavily burdened taxpayer and pinch off a few more of the individual's rights and privileges. He indicates that the Gestapo tactics of the police forces was another sickening situation, hiding behind bushes and pouncing on the working class people who had spent the day laboring for a meager existence, whose entire day's wages, plus those of the next, went to pay a fine merely for exceeding the speed limit by maybe two or three miles per hour. He says he did not condone speeding on the overcrowded streets, but it appeared that the officers were after the fine rather than safety. He concludes that everyone was becoming subjects of the state because of some group's opinion that they were not as capable of handling their affairs as their grandparents had been.
Framed Edition
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