The Charlotte News
Wednesday, April 22, 1959
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Washington that Teamsters Union official William Bufalino had asked the Senate this date to expel members of the McClellan Rackets Committee who had accused him of an alliance with racketeers. Mr. Bufalino, president of Teamsters Local 985 in Detroit, said that both the House and Senate ought investigate its investigating committees. He said that they should oust committee members found to have engaged in conduct which he contended amounted to "the desecration of the Bill of Rights." He made his appeal in a document which he termed a petition for the redress of grievances, contending that he had suffered at the hands of the Rackets Investigating Committee and its chief counsel, Robert F. Kennedy. He filed his petition in the office of Felton Johnston, the secretary of the Senate. The McClellan Committee had wound up its investigation of Mr. Bufalino on April 15, with a charge by Senator John McClellan of Arkansas, chairman of the Committee, that Mr. Bufalino had given evasive answers to questions about testimony which linked him with Detroit mobsters and jukebox racketeers.
In Henderson, N.C., it was reported that about 350 workers, many of whom were riding in bullet-scarred automobiles, had gone to their jobs this day without incident following the worst outbreak of violence in the 23-week Harriet-Henderson Cotton Mills strike. Clusters of strikers had watched in a steady drizzle as the first-shift employees had entered the North and South Henderson plant gates under heavy police protection, with occasional jeers and shouts of "scab" aimed at them. The scene had contrasted sharply with Tuesday night, when rifle shots had hit cars carrying non-strikers and homemade gasoline bombs had burst on the streets inches from some of those cars. No one was reported injured, although an official said it was a miracle that no one had been hurt. One woman shouted: "This is just a sample. There'll be more tomorrow night." A meeting was planned in Raleigh this date for a solution from Governor Luther Hodges and officials of the mills and the Textile Workers Union of America. A strike settlement had been reached the prior weekend, but had fallen apart on Monday when the union complained that few of its thousand or so members were getting their jobs back. The new contract had been ratified on Sunday by an overwhelming vote of union members, based on the assumption, according to the union, that most of them would return to their old jobs. Boyd Payton, the Carolinas director of the union, complained to the Governor that the mill management had hired new workers for the second and third shifts. The Governor had asked the company president, John Cooper, to bring all data on available jobs, along with copies of the proposed contract, to the meeting in Raleigh.
The cost of living remained unchanged in March, as reported by the Labor Department this date, with the consumer price index at 123.7 percent of the 1947-49 average base period, completing the longest time of relative price stability on record, as the index had not fluctuated by more than two points during the previous nine months, and presently was two-tenths of a point below the all-time high of 123.9 percent of the prior July, reached again in November. In March, falling food prices had offset higher prices for some other consumer items. At the same time, spendable income of factory workers reached the highest level in history, with buying power setting a record in March, seven percent higher than the same month in 1958 because of rising hourly wages and longer hours worked, together with the stable cost of living index. Meat, poultry and fish prices fell 1.2 percent while eggs fell 3.1 percent.
In Panama, it was reported that the Panamanian Government had shipped British ballerina Margot Fonteyn out of the country by plane this date and pressed a search for her Panamanian husband, wanted on charges of trying to lead a revolution. The famed dancer had taken off for Miami prior to dawn, with earlier reports indicating that she had been released from custody the previous night, it later appearing, however, that she had been held in Panama City until the departure time. A minister of the Government had escorted her to the airport and National Guardsmen had prevented newsmen from taking pictures. Ms. Fonteyn had been held since Monday night and questioned for three hours about the activities of her husband, former Ambassador to Britain Roberto Arias. President Ernesto de la Guardia's Government had said that Dame Margot's presence in Panama was "inconvenient in the present circumstances" and ordered her out of the country on the first plane after her release from jail. According to officials, the 39-year old world-renowned ballerina denied knowing anything about anti-government activities which her husband had allegedly carried on during yachting trips which the couple had taken the previous week off Panama's Pacific Coast.
In San Quentin, Calif., two small-time burglars, who had escaped from the prison and held a woman hostage at knife point for six hours at the end of a fishing pier before surrendering on Tuesday, said that they had been bluffing, one stating, "We really didn't want no hostage, just a car to get away." The 54-year old woman said: "I hope these boys get a break. They didn't hurt me. They gave me a break." At the beginning of the ordeal, she had said that she was scared and felt sick and faint, but when she almost fainted, one of the escapees, a 24-year old prison trusty, had wrapped her coat around her. The two had broken away from work parties outside the walls of the prison 20 miles north of San Francisco, one having fled from a grass-mowing party and the other from the prison quarry, with guards in hot pursuit. Failing to find a car, they had run down the half-mile wharf which jutted into San Francisco Bay near the prison entrance. The woman, a beauty shop operator, had been fishing there with a man who had been her friend for 35 years. Her husband was working as a hotel bellman. Her friend recalled that she had let out a scream and he had seen that one of the two men had a knife at her neck and had told officers not to come any closer or he would kill her. But the woman's friend said that he believed they were just bluffing the whole time. He carried messages between the two and the guards, the messages demanding a speedboat with plenty of gas and at another time, the keys to the woman's car and a half-hour start. With guards blocking the end of the pier and Coast Guard boats and a helicopter patrolling off the pier and in the air, prison officials had refused the demands and the stalemate continued. Finally, the prisoners had given up when the Marin County prosecutor promised not to prosecute the two for escaping and to provide them a chance to communicate their grievances to reporters. The warden said that the two would go before a prison disciplinary committee but assured them that none of their fellow prisoners would beat them up and that no one would lock them in a padded cell. They might lose some good-time credit.
In Davidson, N.C., it was reported that Davidson College had named its 13th president this date, David Grier Martin, who graduated from the College in 1932. Mr. Martin had been treasurer and business manager of the College since 1951 and had been selected as the president the previous May, with this date's inaugural exercises making it official. An editorial on the subject provides further information.
Julian Scheer of The News reports that there had been a few raised eyebrows when Mr. Martin had been named the president of the institution the prior May. Davidson was a denominational college with a high academic standing and the man chosen as its leader was neither a minister nor an educator. But he had devoted nearly an entire lifetime during his adult years to his alma mater and as the former treasurer and business manager, had given it service with talents which educators and ministers agreed were essential in modern education. A deeply religious man with a great sense of the academic, he combined the best attributes of a businessman, educator and religious leader. He would neither be the campus religious leader nor its educational peer, but his friends said that he would become its overall leader in more than name only, expecting him to become one of the dominant personalities in the history of the college. At 47, he was one of the nation's youngest college presidents, but brought with him to the job vision, experience and feeling for educational-religious life on the college campus rarely found in one individual. In the years to come, Davidson would be a college of 1,000 students with a broader program, new buildings and all of the steps forward with traditional Davidson spirit and drive. The new president had been born in Covington, Ga., in 1910, had attended public school in that town and had graduated cum laude from Davidson with a B.S. degree in history. While a student, he had been editor of the student newspaper, The Davidsonian, a varsity letterman in basketball and track, on the cabinet and board of directors of the YMCA, a captain in the ROTC, an assistant in history, tapped for the Omicron Delta Kappa leadership fraternity, and a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon social fraternity. After graduation, he had attended the graduate school of Emory University for a year of study in history.
Mr. Scheer also reports that a 17-year old girl had written a composition which was pretty good, being the first she had ever attempted, as she was not living under ordinary circumstances. The composition related to her neighbor, 15, her best friend. The story was light, witty and casual, and Mr. Scheer imparts quotes from it. The writer was almost completely paralyzed from polio contracted in September, 1949. Only the previous October had she been able to return home to reunite with her childhood friends. Seven of the intervening years had been spent in a hospital in Greensboro, during most of which she was confined to an iron lung. She now used a chest respirator at night. She had received almost no schooling in the meantime, only receiving from a family friend an hour of English lessons weekly. The girl confided that she was "really pretty dumb", but her friend contradicted that assessment, saying that she always joked, that she was very intelligent, more so than most 17-year olds. They had both laughed. She had received a "B" from her English tutor on the composition. Her friend said it was because the teacher did not want to start her off with a big grade. Because polio had taken the use of the girl's hands, she had written the composition with a pencil clenched in her mouth. It was nevertheless in a small, neat script, legible and clean. It was important to her, not only because it was the first she had ever composed, but because it was concerning her best friend.
On the editorial page, "Year-Round System of Public Schools Deserves Thoughtful Study in Tarheelia" finds that the proposal before the Legislature that the state adopt a 12-month system of public education had generated more heat than light. There were sneers and cheers but no dependable information regarding the advantages and disadvantages of such a plan, with legislators shooting from the hip.
It was a complicated notion involving complete revision of the school calendar and deserved serious study by people genuinely concerned about the crisis in education. The problems of overcrowded schools, obsolete facilities and a shortage of teachers, were not being solved by the "conventional" techniques left from earlier times. The time was fast approaching when some boldly unconventional ideas would have to be put to work.
One remedy suggested by many experts was year-round use of the schools, contending that the present nine-month schedule was outmoded, binding the state to an earlier mode of living now out of date, resulting in wastefulness in educational facilities. Those experts believed that a 12-month system would serve the dual purpose of relieving overcrowded conditions and of reducing the teacher shortage.
As early as the 1920's, some communities in the country had experimented with variations on the year-round plan, but those trials had been somewhat haphazard in application and there had been no conclusive evidence which would either confirm or deny the claims of the proponents of such a program. It suggests that the state could serve the cause of education generally, as well as its own special interests, by initiating a comprehensive study of the plan, which might even include a trial run in one or more communities.
One possible approach was a "four-quarter plan" which would place the schools on the system of four 12-week quarters, in which students would be required to attend three of the four, with each student consequently in school the same amount of time as under the present system, but enabling the schools to accommodate about a quarter more students, with vacation schedules staggered accordingly.
A second possibility was the "12-month plan" whereby there would be a 12-month academic year consisting of two semesters of 5 1/2 months each, with all students given a one-month vacation at the same time, or could be varied to establish four quarters with one week of vacation between each quarter. Although that plan would not permit the schools to handle a larger enrollment immediately, it would enable students to complete their public schooling in either nine or ten years with the requisite days of attendance.
Both plans offered the advantages of greater utilization of school plants, facilities and trained personnel.
It was possible that many teachers would object to the stress of year-round teaching and find it difficult to receive the required graduate training. But year-round employment would also mean a substantial increase in salaries and it was likely that graduate courses could be redesigned so that teachers could continue their studies without difficulty. Colleges and universities could place more emphasis on extension work, Saturday and evening classes, and in-service programs for graduate credit. Furthermore, leaves of absence every two or three years would provide opportunity for study or travel.
Those were only a few of the many factors involved, but the possibilities were attractive and deserved thoughtful examination in the state.
It indicates that the tremendous waste of laying off teachers and letting multi-million dollar buildings stand idle for portions of the year made little sense from a practical business standpoint. D. B. Markham, a leader in California's campaign for better schools, had said recently: "Education in 20th century America—despite its purpose—is still big business, costing billions of dollars in salaries and facilities alone. Isn't it time that we put education on a businesslike footing and get our money's worth for a change?"
The piece agrees.
You can take those notions and send them back to Communist China where they belong. We don't need or want year-round school. When school is out for the summer, it is out for the summer. Moreover, consider, from a business standpoint, the need to air condition all of the schools for the summertime swelter, and the need to maintain that equipment summer to summer. Additionally, the strain on the minds of young students, already tasked with a struggle to remain attentive for 6 to 7 hours daily, with time off for lunch, would only be worsened under such a plan. Dollars and cents do not compute the balance of such intangibles. There would, undoubtedly, be a marked increase in the dropout rate under such a system and the rate of juvenile delinquency would likely increase, as youth would become the more frustrated with school.
Next, they will be proposing the holding of classes 16 hours per day and punching a time clock, leaving no time for independent study, independent reading, and quiet contemplation during the summer of what one had learned and experienced during the fall, winter and spring. Such a time of quiet meditation is necessary to recharge the batteries. It is a time to visit Walden Pond, or the functional equivalent. Schools are not businesses, any more than is the government. Those who want to run them as such are purblind fools.
Besides, then this song
"Student Force Shames the Legislature" indicates that on Saturday, the State House had three members present when 74 Wilmington students had marched into the gallery, and that the best which could be done was to have all in attendance rise and repeat the Lord's Prayer. In the Senate, there were only two present, and Senator J. Spencer Bell of Mecklenburg had tossed the ball to Senator Arthur Kirkman of Guilford County to explain the situation, the latter having said that they had held their session during the morning, lasting about two minutes only because it was required by law and that he regretted that the 74 students had not seen the Senate in session during the week.
The piece finds that it was a pity that the General Assembly could not use Saturdays, Mondays and most Friday afternoons for floor action. Admittedly, the members had to return home on occasion for it was costly to stay at the Sir Walter Hotel in Raleigh for three straight months, and it was a long trip to the western part of the state. But a legislative system which operated on a 3 1/2-day week for three months of every 24 was at best a casual kind of operation.
It suggests that if delegations of students were pre-announced on Saturdays as visitors to the Legislature, there would be legislators available to greet them, as they were the voters of the future. Once assembled, the delegates might realize that they could transact the public business, if only "because it is required by law."
"Davidson's Martin: A Happy Salute" indicates that for more than 100 years, Davidson College had concerned itself with producing graduates of uncommon rank, its success being measured in men of every field who had proved superior.
Now, the school honored one of those graduates, breaking its own tradition to install a president who was neither a professional educator nor a minister. David Grier Martin, it finds, was a good choice to lead the college on what appeared to be a broadened path to a great era. He had been outstanding as a student and had become a successful businessman, returning to Davidson as business manager in 1951. He was the popular successor to Dr. John Cunningham when the latter had resigned to direct the Presbyterian Foundation. It finds that Davidson's future was secure in the hands of Mr. Martin.
A piece from the New York Times, titled "Spring Plowing", indicates that back in the hills to the north, the farmer said that oats had to be in the ground by April to produce a decent crop, but that before they could plant, they had to plow. With the season the way it had been, the current year's spring plowing had been a struggle with rain and mud, plus a deep frost which had been slow in coming out of the ground. But, as always, the plowing got done and the farmer, despite his troubles, got satisfaction from the job, just as the gardener received intangible dividends from his own lesser work with the soil.
The tractor had not removed man's contact with the soil, as a person did not have to walk a furrow all day long to know the feel of the land, and not even the exhaust from the gasoline engine could smother the smell of fresh-turned earth on an open hillside in April.
Any man who worked with the soil came to respect it, knowing that seed and sun, rain and soil were the prime essentials of life. Farming methods changed and seed was improved and yields vastly increased, but earth remained the basic element of growth.
"And every time the farmer prepares the earth-bed for that seed he knows it. That's one reason that spring plowing, even in a late-season, still has its satisfactions. It is a kind of renewed contact with the earth's own vitality, with the substance of life itself."
Drew Pearson indicates that Congressman Frank Boykin of Alabama was considered the top champion of the Klan and the White Citizens Councils in southern Alabama. Governor John Patterson was considered by many the top Negro-hater in Alabama, but the previous week, the top black Congressman in Washington, William Dawson of Chicago, had supported both of them in sidetracking a grand jury investigation working for clean government in Alabama.
Arthur Perlman, an investigator of the House Government Operations Committee headed by Mr. Dawson, had gone to Alabama to investigate a corrupt highway situation. The Governor's campaign manager and present finance director, Charles Meriwether, had been charged with trying to increase the appraisal of a piece of Federal highway land from one dollar to $180,000 so that he could pay a political debt to another of the Governor's henchmen, Bill Delaney of Mobile. The Federal Government would pay 90 percent of the $180,000, thus causing the Federal Government, in effect, to pay off the Governor's friends. The charge had been made officially in the Alabama Legislature by a preacher turned legislator, Charles Trimmier of Mobile.
When Mr. Perlman had arrived in Alabama, he had been received on Sunday, April 5, at the Governor's mansion in Montgomery, where he questioned Mr. Meriwether in the presence of the Governor for two hours. The key question had been whether Mr. Meriwether had telephoned one of the land appraisers on February 8 to say that the state would not appeal if Mr. Delaney was awarded $180,000 for the dumping of highway muck on his land. Mr. Meriwether had denied making the phone call. Two days later, Mr. Perlman was in Mobile and asked the manager of the Admiral Semmes Hotel for the record of Mr. Meriwether's phone calls on February 7 and 8. The manager hesitated, but after consulting with his attorney, produced the records, which had been tampered with. Mr. Perlman asked whether anyone else had asked to see the records and the manager responded that Mr. Meriwether had done so on Sunday night, two hours after the conclusion of the session at the Governor's mansion, having flown the 180 miles from Montgomery to Mobile in the interim. Mr. Perlman had checked all commercial flights and found that Mr. Meriwether had not taken a commercial flight, concluding that he must have gone by National Guard plane, thus with the Governor's approval. Two National Guard planes had been sent to Mobile on the day of Mr. Trimmier's charges, to obtain alibis.
Despite that record brought back to Washington by Mr. Perlman, Mr. Dawson had teamed up with Governor Patterson and Congressman Boykin to sidetrack the Mobile grand jury seeking to ascertain the guilty parties. After huddling with race-baiter Boykin, Mr. Dawson had either sent or authorized to be sent a telegram directed to the grand jury, stating: "There is not a scintilla of evidence in the land case. We washed our hands of this case on the floor of the House yesterday."
Walter Lippmann indicates that there was no question that the role of Secretary of State Christian Herter in the forthcoming negotiations regarding Germany would be difficult, and could become insurmountably so if in the U.S. and abroad he were judged by the measure in which he duplicated the role of former Secretary Dulles and was judged on specific questions as to whether he adhered to what were supposed to be the views of Mr. Dulles had he been the U.S. representative.
Mr. Lippmann indicates that there were two things which needed to be borne in mind, one being that it was impossible to duplicate the role played by Mr. Dulles in the Administration and the other being that if he had been able to conduct the coming negotiations, he would not have and could not have stood pat on all of the old formulae, having said as much while still active.
The relationship between the President and Mr. Dulles had no precedent since the U.S. had become a world power following World War II. Although Mr. Dulles had been loyal and scrupulous in deferring to the President, the fact was that in foreign affairs, he was actually the person at the top and the world had become accustomed to that role being what a U.S. Secretary of State was supposed to be. It created a special obligation on the President to convince the world that he, himself, was participating in the decisions and that what the new Secretary said would be authentic and authoritative.
If the President, seconded by Mr. Dulles, dealt clearly with the question of authority, then there was every reason to believe that Mr. Herter would succeed, as he was highly qualified for the office, having been a successful and experienced politician as Governor of Massachusetts, and having had long experience in foreign affairs, an unusual combination. Neither Secretary of State Dean Acheson under President Truman nor Mr. Dulles had been politicians and both had paid dearly for it, Mr. Acheson in being persecuted by the Congress and Mr. Dulles in appeasing those who had persecuted Mr. Acheson. By contrast with both of them, Cordell Hull, Secretary of State under FDR, had been a very astute politician, but with little knowledge or aptitude for foreign affairs.
The office of Secretary of State was not one which called for an expert in foreign affairs for the most part. Under any President, but particularly President Eisenhower, who had come to the office out of a military career, it was necessary that the Secretary be an old hand, in fact a professional, in the art of politics. He did not need to be an expert in foreign affairs to know, as one might say, the precise differences between the Arabs and the Kurds. But he had to be an educated man with a trained mind who could work with experts and decide between them.
In all those respects, Mr. Herter seemed to fit the bill admirably. Mr. Lippmann indicates that he was fortified in that estimate by knowing how excellent Mr. Herter's relations had been with Congress and how greatly he had restored the morale and discipline of the foreign service since he had come into the State Department as Undersecretary.
There had to be a recognition that any departure from the official formulae of the past would lead to a cry that flexibility was appeasement and that anything different was another 1938 Munich. There were a lot of people in the U.S. and abroad who were opposed to negotiation with Communists, liking to believe that it was the actual view of Mr. Dulles, ready therefore to invoke his name against any effort to work out by compromise a new modus vivendi regarding Germany. They would have to be made to understand that while nothing substantial could or would be compromised in the two Germanys and the two Berlins, the existing situation needed to be repaired if it was to endure. It was akin to a house which needed a new roof and a coat of paint, without which, while it would not be the same old house, it might be no house at all.
Doris Fleeson indicates that intense dissatisfaction with the situation at the State Department was being buried in the interest of national unity during the forthcoming discussions with the Soviets. The same Senators who were praising Secretary Herter and probably had persuaded the President that Mr. Herter had to be appointed, expected little more from him that a holding operation and would settle for that.
Few Republicans attempted to defend seriously the present management of the country's destiny and thus the Administration was not being held to a high standard of accountability for its management of the Government.
Candidates for the presidency in 1960 and their friends who had busily cultivated the nation's editors in Washington the prior weekend, thought that they had found what amounted to a fever of frustration, foreseeing a time of popularity for new people, even those of untested efficiency. One conservative editor, who had recently returned from an Asian trip, had borne out that opinion with complete candor, saying that to get vigor and fresh ideas, he would be reconciled to about any of the younger persons who aspired to the presidency and hoped that the responsibilities of high office would evoke the abilities commensurate with it.
Even before the editors had met, the politicians who hoped to be at the helm for the next few decades were embarking on ambitious programs of travel and campaign organization. Vice-President Nixon was going to the Soviet Union in July and hoped to be present at any summit meetings. He had said nothing to disassociate himself from the Administration, but had also done nothing to tie himself to its day-to-day routine or its failures. His defense of it was composed of generalities and he was rarely specific regarding policy or persons. Democratic candidates for the presidency were in similar fashion fanning out into the states for their campaign organizations.
Senator John F. Kennedy had returned from a successful foray into Wisconsin and other Midwestern states. Senator Hubert Humphrey was heading toward California and Senator Stuart Symington was also going on a tour of the country. What they found was not just that times had changed but how very greatly they had changed, discovering what those in charge of the routine in Washington had not noticed, that the great names of FDR and Harry Truman, and even the Eisenhower era, were not compelling any longer. There were new political ideas springing up without either a strong stand or decisive coloration, but present and waiting for leaders.
No candidate was going to say anything unkind about the old pros whose names were attached to the New Deal, which had been a success, and the Fair Deal, which had represented its "final feeble flowering". But they expected in their plans for 1960 to bypass such men wherever they could.
A letter from J. R. Cherry, Jr., indicates that the editors were capable of some "bright and admirable editorializing" when they put their mind to it, and so congratulates them on their editorial tribute to John Foster Dulles. He says that during his tenure as Secretary of State, he had been "like a sturdy oak, weathered a terrific critical gale from the left wing establishment." He finds the criticism to have reached a climax about 15 months earlier when the left, almost in unison, had clamored for his resignation. His "brinksmanship", the critics claimed, was leading the nation on a straight path to hell and destruction. He says he would not contend that the nation in general was not charted toward such a destination, but believed that the previous hysteria and criticism from the left toward the general foreign policy of Mr. Dulles had not been well-founded. Now, the same left was paying tribute to Mr. Dulles and expressing profound regret that it had become necessary for him to step aside. He wonders, with the announcement that West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer would step away from the chancellorship—subsequently withdrawn—, whether Western civilization could afford to announce the departure also of Mr. Dulles in such a short span of time as three weeks, finds that it could only do so if the basic wisdom which the two men had taught and the examples they had set would largely be adhered to by their successors.
He should become pleased, therefore, with the brinksmanship practiced at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962 by the Kennedy Administration, with the advice of former CIA director Allen Dulles being taken during the course of it. We shall see 3 1/2 years down the pike what Mr. Cherry has to say about that. We are not holding our breath.
A letter writer finds that the several candidates for the City Council who were not incumbents did not know what faced them and that it would be better to elect the incumbents who were experienced and could usually find a way out of a muddle. City Manager Henry Yancey, he suggests, had seen the handwriting on the wall and had resigned. He advocates retaining the incumbents and voting for Mayor James Smith.
A letter writer indicates that if Virginia and Arkansas had spent as much money and time fighting the upsurge of the Communists as they had the black children, people would not have to worry about bombs falling after the May talks regarding Berlin.
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