The Charlotte News
Friday, April 3, 1959
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Henderson, N.C., that spirited but orderly crowds had jeered at incoming workers this date in the wake of a breakdown in negotiations to settle the Henderson cotton mill strike. Crowds of about 100 persons each had gathered at the two plants of the Harriet-Henderson Mills, shouting at non-striking workers, but without any violence. Tension had been high as a result of the announcement the previous day that mill management and the Textile Workers Union of America remained deadlocked. The strike scene was quiet the previous night as a "night watch" of about 200 Henderson citizens had assisted law enforcement officers in patrolling the city's two mill sites. No strike-connected incidents had been reported. Formation of the "night watch" team of local citizens had been announced after Governor Luther Hodges had reported failure in his efforts to mediate a settlement of the strike and had withdrawn from the negotiations. A mass meeting of the two local TWUA units had been scheduled for this date to hear a report on the negotiations and to map out a future course of conduct. The Governor announced at a press conference in Raleigh that the negotiations had broken down and he later had met with State, Henderson and Vance County officials, indicating that he had called them together "to discuss our fear that we were going to have further violence and to set up our preparations." He said that the negotiations had finally broken down over the issue of job rights of the workers presently working in the mills as compared to those on strike, and also the question of the check-off of union dues. The Governor had met with union and management leaders for six days at the executive mansion and said that the differences between them were "still serious and are of long-standing." Boyd Payton of Charlotte, the Carolinas regional director for TWUA, had said on Thursday night: "Unless the company can change its position, there is really not much need to negotiate any further. We made a rock-bottom proposal to settle it." He added that they were not defeated, that 95 percent of the people who had gone on strike were still on strike. The Governor told the press conference that both sides were at fault and that both sides deserved credit for concessions made in an effort to reach agreement on a contract. The strike had begun on November 17 following disagreement on an arbitration clause which the company sought to omit from the new contract.
In Wellington, New Zealand, it was reported that SEATO military advisers, nearing the end of a three-day secret meeting this date, had announced that naval exercises later in the month would be the largest in the history of the Southeast Asian defense alliance.
In Tokyo, it was reported that the Japanese Government had asked the Japanese Supreme Court this date to reverse a lower court ruling that the presence of U.S. bases and troops in Japan was unconstitutional. The district prosecutor's office had appealed directly to the highest court, bypassing an intermediate appellate court, thus hoping to speed up a final ruling, which under normally slow Japanese court procedure could take months or even years. If the high court upheld the decision of the Tokyo district court, it could result in Japan's removal from the non-Communist world's defense set-up and would undoubtedly result in an urgent campaign to amend Japan's Constitution, which some in Japan had been urging for some time.
In Ijmuiden, the Netherlands, it was reported that the 14,000-ton American-owned liner Atlantic had run aground this date in dense fog after hitting a 40-foot high jetty guarding the entrance to the port of Amsterdam. The liner was re-floated under its own power and two tugs had been sent to tow it into Amsterdam.
In North Little Rock, Ark., a carefree holiday had turned into a near nightmare on Thursday night for a businessman who had been mistaken for one of the FBI's ten most wanted fugitives. The man of Wichita Falls, Tex., had been mistaken for a 29-year old bank robber who had been on the most wanted list since September 10, 1958. The man was arrested after his four-passenger plane, which matched the description of one in which the wanted man had been hopping about the country, had crashed nearby. Police had become more certain that the fugitive was in the area when the plane's occupant did not arrive at a hospital for which he had started. He explained later that he had simply changed his mind. He and his pilot, of Columbia, S.C., had left the crash scene with a staff sergeant and a woman who offered to take them in their car to the Little Rock Air Force Base hospital. On the way, the two decided that they were not hurt badly and would drive into Little Rock. They were on their way when police, armed with shotguns, stopped them. The pilot said that the plane had either run out of gas or developed engine trouble and he had crash-landed in the best spot he could find. The wanted man was charged with a $25,000 robbery in Hamilton, O., and other crimes.
In Indianapolis, it was reported that 12 male jurors had taken turns this date in testing the trigger pull on a French revolver with which the female defendant was accused of killing her wealthy lover. The clicking of the gun had echoed in the silent basement courtroom as the 12 married men decided for themselves to check the strength of the trigger pull. It had been a key point through which the State hoped to prove that the gun could not have been fired accidentally in a struggle between the defendant and the man she was accused of killing. The .25-caliber French revolver had been given to the jury after a legal battle on the question of what the jurors could do with the gun. The judge sided with the defense in ruling that the jury ought not be asked to test the trigger, as it would, in effect, be making witnesses of the jurors. But the judge made it clear in his ruling that the jury of 12 married men could check the gun as they wished, overruling a defense objection to providing the gun to the jury.
In Fayetteville, N.C., it was reported that a man accused of robbing a branch bank at Fort Bragg and slaying the teller on February 20 had escaped from the Cumberland County jail early this date. The State Highway Patrol said that the accused bank robber, 28, and another man, who was being held on an automobile theft charge, had overpowered a jailer and tied him up. The escapees were said to be armed with two pistols and two blackjacks. The FBI special agent in charge of the Charlotte office said that the two men had overpowered the assistant jailer in the wee hours of the morning, had bound him and gagged him and taken his .32-caliber pistol. They had then taken the elevator down from the jail and escaped in the assistant jailer's car, which contained a .32-caliber revolver. Officers said that two Hungarian refugees being held on a charge of rape had aided in the escape and had left with the two men, but had returned to their cell a little over an hour later. The assistant jailer said that the latter two men had told him that they had decided not to go and said that the other two had tossed the keys to the cell on top of the courthouse. The jailer said that he had told them how to get out onto the roof and that the two had retrieved the keys and opened the cell. He had not been able to free himself until about 90 minutes after the escape, when an alarm was sounded. Roadblocks had been set up over a wide area for the two escapees, and a description was given by the FBI. The automobile which the two were believed to be using was a 1953 Ford Tudor sedan with a cream lower section and blue top. Approach with caution.
Dick Young of The News reports that Mayor Jim Smith had announced this date that he would seek re-election, to run as an independent in the April 27 city primary and the May 5 general election. As a neophyte in politics, he had outrun all candidates for the City Council in his first bid for public office in 1953. He was then named mayor pro tem and repeated his feat in the 1955 election, making him the first mayor pro tem to serve twice in succession. In 1957, he had run for mayor and won easily. He said that he was seeking re-election to carry to completion a number of city projects planned or started during his administration, such as initiation of the railroad grade separation program by construction of Southern Railway's crossline south of the city, promotion of the extension of the city limits scheduled to be done on January 1, 1960, construction of a new health center costing close to $750,000, and completion of a 4.7 million dollar water filtration plant at Hoskins, which would be dedicated the following week. He said he would work in harmony and cooperation with the members of the City Council chosen by the people.
In Las Vegas, it was reported that Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher this date had made plans for a private wedding which would take place probably on May 11, both expressing gratitude to Debbie Reynolds for deciding to grant Mr. Fisher's desire to obtain a quickie Nevada divorce so that he might marry Ms. Taylor. Ms. Reynolds said that she wished both of them happiness. She had turned 27 during her transpolar flight from Spain, where she had been making a movie. Her manner was matter-of-fact and her initial announcement was simply: "Yes, I will consent." She then expressed some bitterness because she had learned of Mr. Fisher's latest entreaty from reporters, indicating: "This has caught me a little by surprise to say the least. However, this will be my last statement on the subject. I'm sure everyone is exhausted by this topic as much as I am." Amen, and we only heard about it yesterday. But the tabloid news just goes on and on and on…
In Charlotte, a 13-year old boy had a horse but did not know how to wash it, complaining of the problem to a man who operated a service station near his home. The man told him to bring the horse to the station, that they washed cars and trucks and so could also wash horses. A couple of days later, the boy did just that, riding the horse to the station. The operator of the station led the horse to the wash rack, pulled out the hose and soap bucket, and went to work, using the white-wall tire brush on the horse's hooves. An hour later, the horse was washed and appeared to enjoy being squirted full blast with the hose. The service station operator said that they would wash all they got for two dollars, with 50 cents extra because a horse could move around whereas a car would stand still.
In Washington, it was reported that the Army, which had abolished the cavalry years earlier, had used old-fashioned horse sense in answering a boy's plea for help with his horse. The 11-year old from Madera, Calif., had addressed a letter to the "chief of cavalry" of the Army in Washington, explaining that he had two brothers, ages twelve and six, and a 19-year old horse. He said that the horse "rides well in the field but when we are coming home he wants to run back to the corral." He wanted to know how they could stop him from running back to the corral. Although the Army had abolished its chief of cavalry before World War II, the boy's letter had gone to the adjutant general's office, where Brig. General Frank Henry, whose present job was handling the assignment of general officers, had taken it upon himself to answer the letter after it had been passed around in the highest Army circles. General Henry had started his military career as a cavalryman and had been rated as one of the best horseman in the Army. His present specialty involved tanks and armored warfare. He told the boy, in a letter sent from the Pentagon the previous day, that his problem was "readily appreciated", because the Army in previous years had frequently had the same problem with its horses. He offered two suggestions to solve the problem, that, first, he ought use a double bridal with both a curb and snaffle bit, urging the boy to talk that suggestion over with his father "because some horses do not react too well with these bits." A snaffle bit was a more complicated version of the simple curb bit which fit into the horse's mouth. His second bit of advice was that the boy and his brothers, when returning home after a ride in the field, pull the rein on only one side, which would turn the horse in a small circle until it slowed its gait. He said that he fully realized that it was "pretty hard to teach a 19-year old horse any new tricks, but I believe that if you will follow one or both of the suggestions, you should get a slower ride home."
We have to ask whether there was something beyond coincidence in the fact that Ms. Taylor's first starring role was in "National Velvet" and the presence of two horse stories also on the front page. The newspaper, of course, could not foresee that one of her future husbands, and a husband again, would one day appear in "Equus"—which we think was about a horse possessed, in need of an exorcism. Or maybe that was "The Godfather".
In any event, Grandma
On the editorial page, "Henderson's Hotspurs Must Cool Off" indicates that the sudden withdrawal of Governor Luther Hodges from negotiations to end the bitter Harriet-Anderson Cotton Mill strike was regrettable, as it had fractured the public's high hopes for an early settlement and had removed the one sure element of constraint in a dangerously explosive situation.
The issues had now been thrown back to the same social quagmire from which they had been hopefully rescued the previous month by the entry of the Governor to the mediation. It finds that rant had again replaced reason, despite the Governor having done his best. His intervention had removed the problem from what had been rapidly becoming a combat zone, and his presence had symbolized the public's unusual interest in the strike. Furthermore, there was reason to believe that a pattern of possible agreement had been provided which would have caused neither management nor labor to lose face. Some progress had been made as both sides had given a little, but the deadlock had finally returned and the previous day, the Governor had walked out.
His exit did not mean that the public had less concern about resolution of the strike, as it was no ordinary labor dispute. The bomb blasts and gunfire around Henderson had made the strike front page news throughout the country. By late February, it had no longer been just a strike but had developed into a civil disturbance. The lives of innocent people had been endangered and violence was erupting throughout the area. Local law enforcement officers could not begin to cope with the situation alone and even the scores of State Highway Patrolmen on duty had not prevented the continuation of the strife. It finds that the conflict had shamed the combatants and soiled the state's name in the eyes of the nation.
"There is no place for this kind of imbecility in North Carolina. The state cannot allow hoodlums of any persuasion to make a battleground out of a peaceful community and threaten the lives and limbs of its citizens."
Such behavior might have been commonplace in the 19th Century, when hired gunmen, Molly Maguires, robber barons, and the like had fought each other for various causes in an era of anger and bloodshed, moving masses, grassroots upheavals, martyrs, and, ultimately, poems and programs possibly worth the suffering. But a more enlightened time had come in labor-management disputes such that the skirmish line had given way to the conference table.
The participants in the Henderson dispute could not be compelled by law to agree, but could be compelled by law to follow the rules of civilized conduct. The Governor, in withdrawing from the negotiations, had sounded a somber warning to the ruffians who would break the peace, whomever they might represent. He said: "In North Carolina whoever seeks to break a strike by violence must be restrained. Whoever throws dynamite at Henderson or elsewhere within our state must be stopped and prosecuted. Peace and order must be maintained."
It indicates that decent people throughout the state would support the Governor on those points, that violent civil strife would not be tolerated and that whatever steps were necessary to maintain law and order ought be taken at once, as public safety and the state's good name were at stake.
"Charlotte's Rank & File to the Rescue" indicates that Charlotte's ambitious Arts Fund drive would have to be rescued by the rank-and-file citizens, though significant progress had been made toward a goal of $128,000. Most of the money raised thus far, however, had come from a well-heeled minority. For the most part they were the same people who had been generous patrons of individual cultural organizations in the past. It would not be enough.
It finds that the campaign would not be a success until the base of support for the leading cultural enterprises was broadened to include citizens of practically all income brackets. It made good sense in more ways than one, as it would broaden the base of appreciation of the arts and would encourage purchase of tickets for concerts and other occasions by giving more people a reason to expose themselves to the pleasure of artistic sights and sounds.
It suggests that appreciation of the fine arts had become the birthright of any claimant, not just a handful at the top and that the masses thus ought chip in to help the community's finest cultural organizations survive and serve.
"The Reason 'Two' Looks Like
That" indicates that recently Dr. George W. Crane, who wrote the
column "The Worry Clinic", had given some examples of "more
effective writing", pointing to his own college textbook in
pressing for the use of Arabic numerals, especially from (1) through
(9)
It indicates that inadvertently, perhaps, he had challenged the last real citadel of newspapermen, the use of writing style. It was an "inside" thing, but newspapermen would argue for hours over capitalization, punctuation marks, compound and hyphenated words, colloquial expressions and sentence structure. It doubts that any two newspapers in the country presented the written word exactly alike or that the public could care less.
It finds that there were interesting examples of that inherent individualism. The Chicago Tribune, under the late Col. Bertie McCormick, had used such words as "thot", "rite", "altho" and "thru". The Kansas City Star had hyphenated "ski-ing". There was a fable of the Memphis papers which gave readers an important clue to river traffic, it having been said that if a newsworthy tugboat was going upstream, it was written as one word and if downstream, as two words, and if in berth, hyphenated. It finds those cases perhaps extreme but illustrative.
It concludes that it would go on
spelling out numerals, "one" through "nine",
except when it was something like "4th St.
"Seasonal Sign" indicates
that there were many signs of spring, one of which it had just
noticed which ought prove warm weather had moved into New York, as a
short news item had told of how the FBI had arrested a pair of
suspects for the theft of 210,000 golf balls
A piece from the Christian Science Monitor, titled "Le Jazz Declasse", indicates that the rise of jazz to the level of "culture" could be a prelude to it taking off for the utter silences of outer space, as had the waltz in earlier times. The Washington Jazz Jubilee, which had made social as well as cultural history in the nation's capital, had been preceded by lectures and exhibits on the "Seven Ages of Jazz", reflecting something of the same "court" interest which once Vienna had given the waltz the aristocratic kiss on which it had expired a generation or two later.
At present, the "cats", it finds, might be surprised to learn that the waltz originally carried all the flavorful connotations which "now beat and bleat from frantic drums and claustrophobic saxophones." There had been a time when the waltz was hardly more respectable than the unparented cacophonies which first issued from New Orleans honky-tonks but now crowded Carnegie Hall and titillated top-level tastes in Washington society.
"Just having a low origin is no
guarantee of survival, even in high society. As the addicts
themselves are wont willfully to cry out at times: 'Look out,
there
Drew Pearson, writing from Ciudad Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, indicates that the last time he had seen former dictator of Cuba Fulgencio Batista was at Sancti Spiritus in the interior of Cuba when he had still been a hero. For miles down the road, traffic had been jammed and in front of the reviewing stand, a parade had milled and saluted El Presidente Batista who had come through the crowd, his white suit mussed and mauled by friendly hands which had reached out to greet him, in the late summer of 1955.
Four years later, he had met Sr. Batista walking in the garden of the Hotel Jaragua in Ciudad Trujillo, in exile and very much alone. He reminded him: "The last time I saw you, the crowds were saluting you with great enthusiasm. You were a hero. What happened in between?" He had replied: "You are a newspaperman. You know what the press can do. When the press continually calls a man a dictator—people eventually believe it. Most of the people of Cuba were with me even at the end. Three times Castro called for a general strike and there was no strike. Workers' living standards had reached the highest point in history—according to your own Department of Commerce. I had built more hospitals and opened more schools than any President in history. You were there. You saw those schools. Finally, the impression prevailed that the United States was against me. And you would be surprised what happens in a country when the people believe the United States is against you. You have no idea the power the United States can wield by cutting off the supply of arms. I could not buy arms; Castro was smuggling them from Venezuela, from Mexico and from the United States."
Mr. Pearson had then asked him how he explained the great crowds who had welcomed Sr. Castro in Havana and all along the road to Havana. Sr. Batista responded: "He was the winner. Crowds always hail the winner. Crowds are fickle."
Mr. Pearson had then asked him whether he made the mistake of staying in office too long and would not have gone down in history as a great President if he had remained out of office when he had first retired from the Presidency in 1944. He responded: "Maybe. A man can always look back and figure that he should have done things differently."
He had talked about other revolutions, saying: "When Castro led the first coup against me on July 26, 1953, and killed six policemen in Oriente Province, we captured him, tried him, and he got 18 years. Then after one year I gave him amnesty. However, Castro is a butcher. He killed two of his own roommates in the university, one of them in front of his own mother—merely to get control of a rival student faction. And he led the massacre in Bogota. All his life he has been a killer. Yet, not knowing this, I gave him amnesty."
Mr. Pearson asked him about the reports of mass executions by his own troops. He said: "I would like to get all the widows and orphans killed by Castro and put them side by side with those killed by us. Of course there were some killed by us. This was war. But we did not go in for torture and mass murder. This is a butcher. When the court did not immediately sentence Sosa Blanco, Castro announced 'I'll shoot the trial court.' So Blanco was sentenced to death. Yet your newspapers build this man up as a great liberator, a Christian. You will find that he is a madman."
Doris Fleeson indicates that the success of Governor Nelson Rockefeller in persuading a reluctant Legislature to enact his controversial tax program for $250,000 had given new life to his possibilities as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination for 1960. It had been no minor achievement as the tax program, compelling as it was from the standpoint of state finances, had been unpopular with the public and with Republican politicians. It had come under sharp attack at its outset, and at times it appeared that the Governor would suffer an ignominious defeat before his gubernatorial career had much started.
Governor Rockefeller's initial success was in great contrast to that of Democratic Governor G. Mennen Williams of Michigan, who had been in office for ten years and was faced with a Republican Legislature. Michigan had no income tax and the Legislature was not about to enact one. It did have a 3 percent sales tax, but five-sixths of that went to school districts and local governments. The State Constitution forbade borrowing more than $25,000. The recession had been a real blow to Michigan, where unemployment remained high and the population was still growing.
All of it had led some partisans to term Michigan as "bankrupt" and cite the welfare state of the Governor as its cause. She indicates that it was far from the truth, that Michigan was far down the line in welfare state benefits and yet the national image of Governor Williams had been damaged because the Legislature had refused to increase taxes.
Meanwhile, the image of Governor Rockefeller, because he had fought with the Legislature for more taxes and won, was more viable than ever.
Robert C. Ruark, writing from London, finds that the current occupation in England was to take Africa from the Africans, white and black, and hand it over nearly intact to the Russians. But even England was a better bet at the moment than New York, which appeared to him about to embrace Tom Mboya of Kenya as a savior for all black people everywhere, when he would speak soon as an honored guest. He sees no more reason to dignify Mr. Mboya in America than to import Charlie Chaplin as an expert on modern moving pictures or to retrieve Paul Robeson from Russia to talk on the problems of the El Molo tribe of Lake Rudolph and their troubles with fluorine in the water and a steady fish diet.
He finds that there were enough highly vocal trade unionists in America and doubts that it needed Mr. Mboya just because he was black. He doubts that his speech would touch on the progress of American culture in the outback precincts he had never seen any more than the self-styled martyr, Dr. Hastings Banda, could tell about the incidence of cirrhosis among the Nayasalanders, largely the result of a cereal diet and the propensity of native beer to ferment in the stomach causing harm to the liver. He also doubts that Mr. Mboya, who confined his knowledge of Africa largely to political activities in Accra and some of the outlying football fields of Nairobi, could tell about the African progress of American culture in terms of soft drinks, though Mr. Ruark says that he could, not being a politician.
He indicates that a dukah was a shop mostly run by Indians, sometimes by Africans, in tiny places like Garba Tulla, Baragoi or Shaffa Dinka, selling everything from hair oil to Manchester sarongs, but mostly soft drinks. He says that the African was mad about sweets, and the Americans had competed fiercely for African favor in the beverage market, natural because of the heat, teetotal Moslemism and some tribal laws which frowned on hard liquor.
He indicates that when he had first come to Africa, every dukah he had seen in the bush had been plastered with Coca-Cola signs. Then, because of the efforts of an enterprising young man, whose name he had forgotten, Pepsi-Cola largely replaced Coca-Cola on the fronts of the dukahs. Then some person of a forgotten name in Canada Dry had managed to incorporate nine flavors into one trade name.
He finds the snobbism appalling. "You pull up beside a dukah at Kom or Myrti, say in the northern frontier, and ask, 'Iko coca (have you got any coke)?' 'Hapana iko, bwana (ain't got none, sir), Pepsi iko hapana, Canada ndio, bwana, mingi mingi sana (loaded with it).'"
He doubts that Mr. Mboya would be able to inform of that sort of folklore when he expounded on his causes, even though he might be organizing the people which bottled it. But he also supposes that he would return to tell local throngs that all Americans were rich and happy except blacks, who were downtrodden. "Which will be just about as accurate as anything he will tell you about his own people and his views for what he calls undiluted democracy among 90 percent illiterates."
A letter from the president of the League of Women Voters of Charlotte congratulates the newspaper on its lead editorial on foreign aid in the March 27 edition, indicating that in their opinion it was the best brief evaluation they had seen anywhere of the world situation, making a well thought out program of foreign aid a necessity of U.S. foreign policy. She indicates that they wanted to see a copy of the editorial in the hands of every member of Congress. She also indicates that the sentiments were in line with those of the League regarding foreign aid. The League's concern for the economic health of other countries had been put forth prior to World War II by its work for expanded world trade. After the war, the concern had taken a more direct form in support of the U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and the more long-term program of economic assistance provided by the European Recovery Program. When the emphasis had shifted from the needs of the war-ravaged countries to the equally urgent plight of the economically underdeveloped nations, the League had recognized the importance of and supported the U.S. program of technical assistance, Point Four, as well as the U.N. Expanded Technical Assistance Program. The League had given its support increasingly to the economic aid and the technical assistance provisions of the Mutual Security legislation. It was currently studying U.S. foreign policy, the aim of which was to take a look at U.S. foreign policy as a whole to see how it could be geared to a more realistic evaluation of the world as it was and as it was in the process of becoming, with dynamic and rapid changes taking place.
A letter writer indicates that he had just mailed an included letter to State Senator J. Spencer Bell of Mecklenburg County, urging the defeat of the proposed sterilization bill which would be before both houses of the Legislature soon. He indicates that the passage of the bill would set the state back many years because it was a bill based on the same type of reasoning which decreed cutting out a man's tongue for lying, chopping off of a person's hands for stealing or plucking out the eyes of a peeping Tom. Some Senators were claiming that silence on the part of all religious sects and all laymen indicated approval of the measure by the religious people of the state. He prefers to think that most people in the state had overlooked the dastardly proposal and that few, if any, would approve of it. His letter to the Senator indicates that he was a member of Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Charlotte and obviously urges the bill's defeat. He suggests that Democrats could decide that the surest way to ensure election was to sterilize all Republicans, as surely the Republican Party would shortly die out, reminding that Hitler had sterilized the Jews.
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