The Charlotte News
Tuesday, April 28, 1959
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Paris that Secretary of State Christian Herter had arrived from Washington this date to help wrap up Western proposals on Germany for the Geneva foreign ministers conference with the Soviet Union, set to begin May 11. In a brief statement upon arrival, Secretary Herter said that he was confident the West would approach the Geneva meeting "with unity and firmness of purpose." He referred to disagreements among the allies regarding proposals to be made to the Soviets saying, "It is wholly natural that the Western countries should regard the questions to be discussed with the Soviets from somewhat different points of view." He said he had no doubt that the Western allies would "agree wholeheartedly" on the position they would take in Geneva. He stepped from the Air Force plane and walked easily down the ramp, with a broad smile and warm handshakes for the welcoming party. With the aid of crutches for his arthritic condition, he walked over to a group of photographers behind the police barrier and posed for several minutes. He then went to an airport reception room and made his statement, first in slightly accented French and then in English. He expressed confidence that the allies would "reach the right result" as he had left Washington on Monday night for his first foreign assignment as Secretary of State. He was to meet for three days beginning on Wednesday with the British, French and West German foreign ministers. He said that the allied ministers would be primarily concerned with reaching final agreement among themselves on a common Western position on outstanding questions related to the German problem which could be expected to arise during the Geneva four-power meeting. The four Western ministers would work on recommendations drawn by a team of experts at London meetings which had ended the previous week and would also have suggestions from their NATO partners who had studied the recommendations of those experts. They might also have a new inkling of the Soviet views on the Berlin and German problems from the Warsaw Pact conference which would open in Warsaw the following Monday, expected to end quickly with a declaration of Communist unity, having apparently been called to approve the decisions of the Kremlin. Informants in Paris said that there was broad allied agreement to present a package of German proposals to the Soviets in Geneva, including a resolve to maintain Western occupation rights in Berlin and an agreement to negotiate on the German question provided those rights were not impaired, a proposal for a step-by-step limitation of forces in central Europe, linked with progress toward German reunification, and a proposal to create an all-German committee to build contacts between East and West Germany and to study the prospect for eventual free elections.
Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson this date told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that Congress would appropriate less than the 77 billion dollars budgeted by the President for the coming year. He said that he believed in a balanced budget, addressing the 2,000 businessmen at the Chamber's 47th annual meeting in Washington. His words were applauded warmly. When questioned by reporters afterward, the Senator said that he did not mean that he was forecasting a balanced budget in fiscal year 1960, beginning July 1, indicating that they might not raise all the money which the President wanted them to raise, but that they would appropriate less than he had asked them to spend. The budget which the President had presented to Congress the prior January as balanced had called for an increase in the tax on highway fuels and higher postal rates. Senator Johnson told the Chamber that since 1955, Congress had cut every budget submitted by the President, for a total decrease in appropriations of 10.6 billion dollars and he predicted that the current Congress would be no exception. He said that Democrats and Republicans alike had a stake in a sound economy and a balanced budget, that it was not a partisan issue, "except in the headlines." But he also indicated that there was more to balancing the budget than just creating savings, that it involved "bold and imaginative action" to increase the wealth of the country, "prudent steps to release the full productive capacity of this country—and to convert resources now wasted into positive assets. One of those resources is the productive ability of 4 1/2 million unemployed men and women. I mention them here specifically because I believe we should use our efforts to find them jobs in private industry, not on a government dole. I believe we should explore our tax structure to find out what can be done with adequate incentives. We should call in our businessmen to find out what can be done to develop new world markets. We should re-examine our trade and aid policies to find new customers."
In Poplarville, Miss., it was reported that FBI agents had questioned several students at the Pearl River Junior College, only blocks from the jail where a defendant charged with raping a pregnant white woman had been kidnaped and taken away by several masked and hooded men the prior early Saturday morning. A dance had been held at the campus of the junior college late on Friday and early on Saturday when the man, who had maintained his innocence, had been kidnaped. In another development the previous day, officials had announced that a prisoner who had witnessed the kidnaping would be released from jail on bond during the current week. He had been held on a charge of murder and had given officers the first account of the beating and kidnaping. He had been in jail for six months and his trial was scheduled for the following day, but had been postponed until the next term of criminal court for November when the judge had adjourned the court term the previous day. The lawyer for that witness, the attorney for the county and Governor J. P. Coleman had authorized the release of the man. Meanwhile, Highway Patrolmen guarded the Pearl River County Jail on a 24-hour basis to prevent any intimidation of the prisoners who had seen the fight or the 8 to 10 hooded men who had broken into the jail on Friday night and brutally beaten and kidnaped the missing man. The jail normally was unguarded and no one had been on duty on Friday night. The 23-year old kidnap victim was scheduled to go on trial the previous day on a charge of raping a 24-year old white mother. Officers still apparently had found very little to help them in their search for leads on the trail of the abductors and the missing man, who was feared dead. More than 60 FBI agents were presently at the scene working with Highway Patrolmen and county officers. Agents also returned to Bogalusa, La., the former home of the rape victim, declining to reveal the extent of the probe in that town, 20 miles from Poplarville. Agents had gone there on Saturday on the premise that the kidnapers might have taken the defendant from the state. As indicated, within a few days, the body of the man would be discovered in the Pearl River and subsequent investigation would produce admissions of participation by some of the abductors, pointing the finger at others involved, though no prosecutions were ever undertaken by the State or by the Federal Government, though in the latter case there was statutory ground to do so under 18 USC 241 on the basis that the mob of abductors deprived the man of his constitutional rights to due process and a trial, even if such a prosecution would not have permitted more at the time than a ten-year prison sentence.
In Columbia, S.C., it was reported that an address to the Columbia Rotary Club this date by the manager of the Savannah River plant of the Atomic Energy Commission disclosed that the plant might "some day in the future" be engaged in recovering valuable unburned fuel from nuclear wastes from the Navy's atomic submarine fleet, as a type of project, along with others already underway, which would help ensure stability of the plant located near Aiken. A progress report on the plan had been delivered by the plant manager as it neared its ninth birthday. He said that fuel elements from privately owned power reactors, in addition to Navy submarines, might also be processed at some point in the future. Noting that the plant was "basically concerned with the production of materials for potential use in atomic weapons", he said that it was not its sole activity, that new operational projects might develop from time to time in the field of peaceful uses of atomic power. Touching on experiments to preserve food without refrigeration through irradiation, he disclosed that peaches from Clemson College had been so treated in an experimental project. He said that maintenance of the freshness of the peaches for even a few days would mean enormous benefits for the industry, that the whole field of food preservation by irradiation offered tremendous possibilities. Just ignore the glowing nature of the food thus preserved. It won't cause you too much cancer, no more than your pack-a-day habit of cigarettes in any event.
In New York, it was reported that a two-year old girl had slipped a small plastic bag over her head and had suffocated to death the previous day while her mother was away from their Manhattan apartment on a ten-minute shopping trip.
In Raleigh, it was reported that the State Senate Labor Committee had listened for 45 minutes this date as opponents ripped into a 75-cent state minimum wage bill, the group then having given a favorable report in about 15 seconds. The Committee had approved a motion by a State Senator to give the bill a favorable report, with only one Senator casting a negative vote. The bill had squeaked out of the House Labor Committee by the tie-breaking vote of its chairman and then had survived three days of sharp debate before obtaining a 66 to 39 approval earlier in the legislative session. Proponents of the bill said it would increase the wages of approximately 55,000 retail and service-industry workers by an average of about 15 cents per hour, amounting to an average increase of about six dollars per week or $300 per year for each affected worker.
Bob Slough of The News reports that incumbent Mayor James Smith had been elected to a second term in the mayoral primary the previous day, albeit in a close race with Councilwoman Martha Evans, the Mayor winning by only 926 votes out of the 15,700 cast. It had been the closest race in the municipal primary and meant that only the Mayor's name would appear on the May 5 general election ballot. In the race for City Council, the four-man "Citizens for Better Government" slate had come out with the top four spots among the 41 candidates seeking the seven seats on the Council. In addition, three incumbent members, Claude Albea, Steve Dellinger and former Mayor Herbert Baxter had been among the top seven, with the next seven candidates also to appear on the May 5 general election ballot.
On Saturday, a lieutenant who was the director of the Youth Bureau for the City Police Department, had bought a new station wagon, and on Sunday, as he went to church in the new vehicle, found that someone had swiped all four of his hubcaps during the night. He went to the police station and made out a report about the theft, and one of his detectives told him that if anything turned up, they would let him know. That way, we suppose, you do not feel so alone at police insouciance regarding your reports of minor thefts or property damage to which the police typically take a jaundiced attitude, tending to yawn and place the report in the files, never to be seen again.
In London, it was reported that two young cows had strolled down Park Lane this date and into the ballroom of the Dorchester Hotel, thus causing a traffic jam of significant proportions. The hotel was a glittering home-from-home for potentates and princes of industry, visited by cows only once per year when the National Milk Publicity Council held its annual convention. On the current occasion, the cows had been a couple of high-born heifers named Buckingham and Ethelyne, after the Duke of Bedford's high-class dairy farm at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. Ethelyne was a two-year old Guernsey, with the eyes and coloring of a fawn. Apart from the 18-year old national dairy queen, the cow was easily the prettiest thing in the ballroom. Buckingham was of the Chartley breed, white with a spattering of black spots. At 2 1/2, it was somewhat more matronly than its smaller companion, but fine looking all the same. In the ballroom, the two heifers were ensconced in portable straw-lined stalls, where they stood contentedly chewing their cuds. The human guests had stood at the bar, contentedly downing whiskey and gin provided by the National Milk Publicity Council. The show had lasted 90 minutes and passed without incident. A reporter questioned whether one could train a cow not to have "incidents" in a ballroom, with one of the attendants replying that it could not, "But I'll tell you this: They'll be mighty hungry when they get out of here."
On the editorial page, "Voters Chose Wisely in Mayor's Race" indicates that the victory of incumbent Mayor James Smith in the previous day's municipal primary had been a hopeful expression of confidence in a leader who had yet to leave his brand on the city. It finds it a wise choice, despite some reluctance by Mr. Smith during his first term to seize the initiative and battle boldly for his program.
With a strong City Council behind him, it suggests, he ought be able to offer Charlotte the type of confident and constructive leadership which a fast-growing city needed. It indicates that the voters now had to provide the auxiliary manpower to accomplish the task.
The challenger in the mayoral race, Councilwoman Martha Evans, had been disappointing, having failed to conduct the aggressive campaign which residents of Charlotte had expected. Although the newspaper had supported Mayor Smith, it would have felt better if the incumbent's policies and programs had been subjected to sterner tests, it having hoped that the campaign would bring out the diffident and dazzle the disaffected, whereas it had not, having been merely dull. Thus, many voters had gone to the polls the previous day without the slightest notion of what the issues were or that there were any issues.
It indicates that the service provided by Mrs. Evans during her two terms on the City Council could not be overlooked as she had a remarkable role, that of a sharp questioner, frequent dissenter and lively champion of lonely causes, having devoted great time and energy to her job, leaving a long remembered record behind. Her agile mind and usually vigorous approach to community issues would be needed for a long time to come.
Meanwhile, much would be expected of Mayor Smith as he grappled with problems of the future of the city, having to translate his experience and knowledge into conviction and finesse. It would require partisanship and a willingness to take aggressive stands when the common good was threatened by selfish interests, with the Mayor having to be a practicing politician, not always standing above the fray. It believes that Mayor Smith was capable of that sort of leadership, of which he had shown flashes in the past, the latest examples having been in February when he came out swinging on threats to the successful operation of Douglas Municipal Airport and the community's new juvenile diagnostic center. Charlotte citizens would be looking for more of that aggressive spirit in the future.
"Fortune Picks a Man at Poplarville" indicates that while Theodore Bilbo's old hometown of Poplarville, Miss., had slept early the prior Saturday morning, an untried black man accused of rape had been kidnaped—and as would soon be revealed, had been murdered before dawn that day.
It indicates that once again, Southerners could expect headlines to appear far and wide about the South's penchant for mob violence, a generations-old accusation which it questions.
One miniature drama across the street from the Poplarville Courthouse had made the question more to the point than usual. An elderly farmer, finding himself the only eyewitness as the prisoner was dragged away feet-first, had told the FBI: "I realized I was in the wrong place. I went on. I didn't look back."
It finds that except, perhaps, to believers in heroics, his refusal to look back would appear natural enough, as he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and had fled. It finds that poet W. H. Auden had captured his position perfectly in writing of how suffering "… takes place/ While someone else is eating or/ opening a window or/ just walking dully along."
It finds the chances small that the average Southern newspaper reader would see himself as the bystander who continued to walk dully along while the prisoner was hauled away. "And yet fortune has made him the symbol of all of us, going on with the workaday world while a catalog of major tragedies and black marks is compiled against the name of the region. If the South is, as she so proudly boasts on occasions, a confederacy of defiant and isolated souls, where does the lynch mob come from? Somewhere individuals must be counted. Somewhere, even in a world of committees, there is a line at which organized forces stop and individual consciences become troubled."
The piece calls to mind a piece written by W. J. Cash in 1935 for the Baltimore Sun, regarding a lynch mob at Louisburg, N.C., operating that year similarly to the mob in Poplarville, save the fact that in the former instance, the mob did not wear masks or hoods, even if still hiding in plain view within the safe embrace of the mob with its sanction of mutually-assured destruction always dangling as the Sword of Damocles over the first snitch. A sample of the editorials of which Cash wrote in 1935 appearing in The News and the Charlotte Observer bear out what he found to be a progressive attitude on the subject at that time.
Query whether the same can be said today of the maniacs on the far right in Magaville these days in 2026 as their egomaniacal, demagogic leader, reminiscent of George Wallace and others of that cowardly stripe in the 1960's, leads them into unrestrained hate and division, cultivating those ungoverned passions always lying just beneath the surface in an ungovernable small minority of the country given to venting leftover superannuated adolescent emotions governed typically only by gin and bourbon or stronger dosages of something more than that, rather than suppression of such tendencies through thought and self-analysis, witness the occurrences on January 6, 2021 at the Capitol and the continuing efforts of the Trump Administration and its breathless followers to whitewash and revisit that episode and its nonsensical predicate that there was a "stolen election" in 2020, unsupported by even a shred of credible evidence, nevertheless still a mantra for these far-right nuts who support Trump in his unremitting effort to rewrite that history in the insane perspective of his followers, meanwhile dragging the country not into "greatness" but rather into a nightmare resemblant in relatively recent history only to the Third Reich and Fascist Italy and the inevitable destruction of those societies which followed, which will always follow such dictatorial attempts to reshape a culture and a society to fit the view of a small minority of insane extremists bent on revitalizing a past which never actually existed in the first place except in the vivid imaginations of the nuts at the forefront of such movements and those pols bent on exploiting and capitalizing from those nutsy imaginings.
Speaking of which, Johnny
"Undying Symbol" finds that more than 80 designs had been submitted, according to S. C. Johnson & Sons, Inc., makers of Johnson's Wax, in the search for a corporate symbol, the winning symbol having been a double free-form diamond in black and vermilion.
It has another symbol, always attaching Johnson's name to Fibber McGee and Molly and the sound of a landsliding closet.
We are very sorry, old geezer, but
that means absolutely nothing to us, as we came along after the age
of radio
"Church Rituals Still Serve a Purpose" finds that Dr. George Crane, who provided the syndicated "Worry Clinic" appearing in the newspaper, had recently come to bat against church liturgy which had become habit and "clutters up fresh thinking", having added inquiringly, "… do we waste too much time on Sunday morning chanting old-fashioned ritual that is almost meaningless to modern people?"
It finds that he had swung at a camel and come up with a loose straw as almost every church or religious gathering would follow some form or ritual to get a certain number of things said and done in a limited amount of time. Even the informal Billy Graham services fell into a pattern, with singing and prayers followed by the evangelist's sermons.
The ancient rituals of Christianity did not need to be meaningless and if a given church had a strong educational program, the timeless ceremonies would take on new meaning with each instance of use, being retained as the most thoughtful, beautifully worded expressions written by man to God. They were reverent works and could provide more soul-searching than any "fresh thinking" conceived by those whose precept was to keep pace with the present times. They represented the order which religion formed from chaos, which it finds was the only thing meaningless.
A piece from the Washington Post, titled "Do-It-Yourself Car", indicates that a do-it-yourself automobile, which the British were planning to market in the U.S., would undoubtedly appeal to people who liked to tinker, but the thought of putting together one's own car appalled it, as it could not even assemble a bicycle which arrived in the semi-knocked down state in which the one-cylinder Nobel 200 would be available.
It wants to see the instructions which would accompany the automobile, as it had found that such instructions typically accompanying a bicycle or a child's wagon had been prepared by those resolutely dedicated to obfuscation. It provides a sample of what it would expect from such instructions: "Take Bolt A1, Nut Ya and Cam C and place… And think, too, of all the fun that the man in charge of forgetting to put Cam C into the box is going to have. We'll still take our cars FOB Detroit or POE New York rather than SKD Britain."
Drew Pearson finds that it took an expert at jigsaw puzzles to follow all of the operations of Admiral Lewis Strauss and his friends in the field of atomic energy. But the pieces, when patiently put together, formed a revealing picture of favoritism for certain large corporations and such an intimate interchange of Atomic Energy officials with those corporations that it was difficult to ascertain where Government interest stopped and private interest began. He finds the most interesting part of that jigsaw puzzle to have been that regarding a gas-cooled atomic reactor, the revolutionary peacetime atomic plant to be used for the generation of electricity, for merchant ships and the atomic airplane.
For some years, Admiral Strauss, as head of the Atomic Energy Commission, had opposed development of a gas-cooled reactor. He had stalled so long that he had allowed the British to get far ahead of the U.S., despite the Congressional atomic watchdog committee needling him, even having introduced legislation requiring him to build a gas-cooled reactor. But the Admiral had been adamant and as late as August 3, 1957, had written Congressman Sterling Cole: "The commission opposes inclusion of this project in the bill." On June 26, 1958, four days before leaving his position as chairman of the Commission, the Admiral had awarded a contract for a gas-cooled reactor to be built by General Dynamics for an atomic merchant ship, letting the contract under circumstances whereby 18 companies had submitted proposals, and, though General Dynamics had no experience with atomic reactors, got the contract without competitive bidding, after which some of the Admiral's friends had gone to work for General Dynamics. Those included Dr. Frederic de Hoffmann, close associate to Dr. Edward Teller, both of whom having always been available to back up Admiral Strauss's policies and had been hired by General Dynamics; C. Arthur Rolander, special attorney used by Admiral Strauss in the purge of Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, hired by General Dynamics as its representative in Washington right after the contract had been let; Everett Hollis, the former public relations advisor to Admiral Strauss at the AEC, now working for General Dynamics; W. Kenneth Davis, head of the atomic reactor program under Admiral Strauss, who had left the AEC to take a job with the Bechtel Corporation, which, together with General Dynamics, had received an important contract from the AEC to build an entire atomic power plant for Philadelphia Electric and a gas-cooled reactor as part of it.
Thus, General Dynamics had received two gas-cooled reactor contracts, one for a merchant ship and the other for Philadelphia Electric and associated companies. Significantly, it had received the contracts only after Admiral Strauss had opposed building any gas-cooled reactors and had resisted considerable pressure by the Congressional watchdog committee to build them. Only after General Dynamics had come into the picture had Admiral Strauss decided to reverse his previous policy and by that time, Britain was far ahead of the U.S. The British, however, had obligingly traded the U.S. gas-cooled reactor secrets for the U.S. atomic submarine secrets and the AEC, then under Kenneth Davis, gave General Dynamics access to that British secret research, the latter company thus obtaining an important advantage over its competitors.
Joseph Alsop indicates that there was some good news for Vice-President Nixon in a poll conducted a few weeks earlier on behalf of Senator John F. Kennedy in Wisconsin, showing that Mr. Nixon would defeat any of the Democratic rivals, except Senator Kennedy, while all of the Democrats would defeat New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, a reverse of the trend in polling data across the country.
The poll showed that Senator Kennedy would defeat the Vice-President in Wisconsin by 53 to 47 percent, while the Senator would defeat Governor Rockefeller by 63 to 37 percent. It showed that Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota would be defeated in Wisconsin by Mr. Nixon by 52 to 48 percent, while the Senator would defeat Governor Rockefeller by 54 to 46 percent. Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee would be defeated by Mr. Nixon 51 percent to 49 percent, while the Senator would defeat Governor Rockefeller 56 to 44 percent. Governor G. Mennen Williams of Michigan would be defeated by Mr. Nixon in Wisconsin by 55 to 45 percent, while the Governor would defeat Governor Rockefeller 53 to 47 percent.
The poll had been produced as a byproduct of a statewide opinion poll taken by Louis Harris, who had made other polls for the Kennedy organization. The name of Senator Kefauver had been included in the poll because of the strength he was known to have among Wisconsin Democrats. Governor Williams had been picked as another unwitting contestant because there was vague talk that he might try to enter the presidential race on the Democratic side by entering the 1960 Wisconsin primary. A notable omission from the poll among the shadow candidates had been Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri.
The Wisconsin results almost exactly reversed the results of another Harris poll of eight West Coast cities. In that poll, taken early in the winter, Mr. Nixon was significantly beaten by all three Democrats included in the list, Senators Kennedy, Humphrey and Symington. Governor Rockefeller defeated both Senators Symington and Humphrey, but lost to Senator Kennedy.
Wisconsin Republicans, who were proportionally represented in the more recent poll, also included a high proportion of the admirers of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, who would have favored Mr. Nixon over Governor Rockefeller. Yet the spread between the vote for the Governor and that for the Vice-President in the Wisconsin poll was sufficiently great to suggest something larger than a local Wisconsin reaction, suggesting that voters across the country had been less impressed by the wisdom and courage of the Rockefeller legislative program than by the simple, painful fact, that the Governor had asked New Yorkers to pay new taxes. If other polls continued to show that Mr. Nixon had a better chance to win than would Governor Rockefeller, the Vice-President could consider himself nominated before the convention even would begin.
That good news for Mr. Nixon was slightly poisoned by the character of the good news for Senator Kennedy. Another Harris poll, taken in Wisconsin during the summer of 1958, had shown much the same broad pattern of Mr. Nixon losing to Mr. Kennedy but beating all of the other Democrats. In that latter poll, however, Mr. Nixon had lost to Mr. Kennedy by only a small margin, 50.4 to 49.6 percent, whereas in the 1959 poll, the Senator had won by six points. The margins by which Mr. Nixon had defeated the other Democrats were also substantially smaller in the recent poll than in the 1958 poll. If the latest results could be trusted, Mr. Nixon was gaining on Governor Rockefeller, but his party was losing ground badly in Wisconsin.
Other results in the same poll placed an interesting light on the strategically important Wisconsin Democratic primary. When asked which of the Democrats they preferred, 40 percent of the Democratic respondents picked Senator Kennedy, while 16 percent chose Senator Humphrey, 15 percent, Senator Kefauver, 4 percent, Senator Lyndon Johnson, 3 percent, Senator Symington, and another 3 percent, Governor Williams, with 19 percent remaining undecided.
Marquis Childs, in London, reports that the Anglo-American alliance, taken for granted behind a façade of amiable platitudes, was in trouble, perhaps more acute than anyone in official positions on either side of the Atlantic would be willing to admit. In normal times, it might not matter, but in the competition with Soviet Communism, the normalcy of the times could never again be taken for granted, particularly true on the eve of a major negotiation with the Russians, the upcoming foreign ministers conference, set to convene in Geneva on May 11.
A series of pinpricks added up to deep resentment and distrust, presently accentuated by differences in approach to the latter conference. As officials insisted, the press had overplayed those differences, with the sensational newspapers in London headlining charges against American generals who allegedly wanted to prevent negotiation and start a nuclear war. Nonetheless, the differences were real and contributed to the crack in the Anglo-American unity. What was particularly maddening to the British was that actions which deeply affected their lives were taken with what appeared to be a casual disregard for the consequences. News which was on the front page in London scarcely had come to the surface in the U.S.
The latest example of that was the announcement by the President of an import quota on British woolen goods. The cutoff point was 700,000 pounds lower than the previous year and 500,000 pounds lower than the level established in 1957. Douglas Hood, chairman of the National Wool Textile Import Corporation, described it as a bitter disappointment to the British industry, an industry in which great reliance was placed for dollar earnings. It had come after Prime Minister Harold Macmillan only a month earlier had taken up specifically with the President at the Camp David talks the whole question of higher tariffs and import quotas. The British had the impression resulting from those talks that the President was taking the whole problem under sympathetic consideration.
Mr. Childs finds it surprising to the American visitor that the man in the street was aware of those things. In casual conversation, the action of a Civil Aeronautics Board administrator, for instance, in ruling against the right of British Overseas Airways Corporation to put Tokyo on its round-the-world route was brought up. Good-naturedly enough, but nevertheless pointedly, the American was asked how America expected to get away with that sort of thing. Earlier in the year, a British bid to construct turbines for the Greers Ferry Dam in Arkansas had been rejected on the grounds of "national security", although the British bid was nearly 15 percent lower than the closest American bidder. The nationalistic press had fanned the fire under that deal but it did not take much fanning. The conviction was growing that while Americans preached cooperation and freer trade, they practiced protectionism and the quota system.
That complicated the already complicated political situation which Mr. Macmillan and the Conservatives in Britain faced. The Labor opposition was charging that the negotiating position which the Prime Minister evolved following his "renaissance" mission to Moscow had been almost completely eroded by combined American, French and West German pressures. That was the other edge of the "appeasement" charge, with Mr. Macmillan accused of yielding until there was little or nothing left of the negotiating position.
The previous weekend, the Prime Minister had made electioneering speeches in Lancashire textile towns where unemployment was considerably above the national level and where many mills were shut down. Britain's unemployment was sharply underscored, first by reports of American tariff barriers and second by the fact that West Germany's export trade had recently come to exceed that of Britain.
Since Mr. Macmillan appeared definitely to have decided to put the election over until October or perhaps even until the following spring, the current troubles might not be too important. If the negotiation with the Russians made even a small contribution toward easing tensions, they would be forgotten. But at the same time, in the view of Mr. Childs, they could not be ignored. New Secretary of State Christian Herter was an unknown quantity and the question repeatedly asked in Britain was whether he could bring the Germans into some kind of reconciliation with the minimum position which the British believed was essential for negotiating with the Russians. He finds that only events in the immediate future could answer that question, but if Mr. Herter were to find time to come to London before May 11 to make a warm and friendly speech on American policy and American intentions, it would make a world of difference. Such an effort, he suggests, was required in the present moment of doubt and uncertainty.
A letter from J. R. Cherry, Jr., comments on an editorial of April 24, titled "North Carolina's Patience Is Exhausted", concerning the labor turmoil in Henderson. He indicates that his sympathies were on the side of liberty and traditional Americanism, with the president of the Harriet-Henderson Mills, John Cooper, and his right to operate his own mill as he deemed best, and on the side of the workers who wanted to work without having to join a labor union, who were suffering the contemptible and cowardly act of being fired on as they left a job which provided their families with sustenance. He indicates that were he a textile worker in Henderson, he would be tempted to "put a .45 caliber slug between the eyes of each cowardly goon whom I knew was responsible for attempting to deprive me of the right to earn a living for my family. And should intolerable circumstances require that the temptation be executed, I don't believe there'd be a decent, honorable jury in the land who wouldn't deal relatively lightly with the offense."
He best move to Mississippi or Alabama, or at least to South Carolina, for North Carolinians, regardless of the situation, generally speaking, do not and did not then take kindly to bullets to solve problems, unless actually employed in self-defense or defense of others, according to the law—the cold-blooded Greensboro shooting and murders by the Klan and Nazis of Communist Workers Party members in 1979, as captured on videotape, and their subsequent acquittal, notwithstanding. But the laws, especially laws with which he disagrees, such as collective bargaining protections and decisions of the courts requiring desegregation of the public schools, do not seem to move Mr. Cherry very deeply, save, perhaps, in the direction of violence.
Framed Edition
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