The Charlotte News
Thursday, April 30, 1959
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports from Paris that the four Western foreign ministers had ended their pre-Geneva consultations this date with an unexpectedly quick agreement on a common front for their talks with the Soviet Union on Berlin and other problems of Central Europe. The four-power meeting, which had opened the previous morning with tentative plans for a three-day meeting, had been adjourned at shortly after noon. The secret Western package proposal contained some Western concessions and counter-concessions which the West expected of the Soviets. But the U.S. spokesman emphasized that they were not going to Geneva with the idea of falling back. Drawn up by foreign ministers of the U.S., Britain, France and West Germany, the package would be presented to the Soviets at a foreign ministers conference which would open at Geneva on May 11. Spokesmen for all delegations at the Paris conference agreed that complete accord had been reached by the ministers. A final communiqué, in the same vein, provided no details. The U.S. spokesman told reporters that they had reached their common position without wrangling and that there was nothing left up in the air, all of it being down on paper. The last snag had been cleared away during the morning when a British proposal for a Central European security zone was watered down. The U.S., France and West Germany had objected to the original British proposal, fearing that the West would be put at a disadvantage militarily.
Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon had said this date that the President had failed to grasp the implication of what he called the President's "inexcusable mistake" in naming Clare Boothe Luce as Ambassador to Brazil. Speaking in an almost deserted Senate chamber, the Senator said that the President's press conference comments of the previous day regarding the matter had demonstrated his failure to grasp the mistake. The Senator posed a series of questions which he said newsmen had not asked the President but which the President ought answer, including whether he thought FDR had lied to the country to get it into war, whether he thought he had no obligation to the American people to make a statement of his position regarding Mrs. Luce's slanderous remarks against President Roosevelt, whether he thought he had an obligation to the history of the presidency to do what he could to clarify that situation, whether he thought he had led Americans to their deaths under a commander-in-chief who had "lied the country into war", whether, if he did, he ought say so, and whether, if he did not, he should tell how he could justify sending a slanderer of FDR to Brazil. It was the fourth straight day during the week that the Senator had spoken in the Senate about Mrs. Luce, whose nomination had been confirmed on Tuesday by a vote of 79 to 11. The President's principal comments on the subject the previous day were that he did not believe Mrs. Luce's usefulness as an ambassador had been seriously impaired by the Senate row over her nomination, and that her jibe about Senator Morse had been ill-advised but only human. She had said of the Senator that her troubles had started with him years earlier when he had been "kicked in the head by a horse". That had been in jocular reference to his having originally been a Republican before becoming an independent in 1952 just before the general election, eventually becoming a Democrat. In opposing the confirmation of Mrs. Luce, the Senator had made much of an assertion she had made in a 1944 campaign speech for Congress, that FDR had "lied us into war". Senators appeared agreed that the uproar over Mrs. Luce was likely to sharpen the Senate investigation of other diplomatic appointees.
The House this date had upheld the President's veto of a rural electrification bill, by a vote of 280 to 146 in favor of passing the bill over the President's veto, the vote thus falling four short of the necessary two-thirds for override, killing the bill. The President had vetoed the bill on Monday and the Senate had overridden the veto on Tuesday by a vote of 64 to 29. The House decision maintained intact the record of the President for never having had a veto overridden. The bill was the 138th which had been vetoed by him since taking office in 1953. The bill would have stripped from Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson the power to veto loans to cooperatives for rural electric and telephone service. Four Democrats had joined 142 Republicans in upholding the President's position, while six Republicans and 274 Democrats had voted to override. There had been no debate before the roll call vote. Both sides recognized before the vote that it looked like a tossup as to which side would win. Republican leaders had centered attention on 16 Republicans who had voted for the bill when the House had passed it originally on April 15 by a vote of 254 to 131, three votes short of the two-thirds needed to override. They claimed privately that they had reason to expect that at least eight of those members who had voted for the bill two weeks earlier would change their position and vote to uphold the President's veto. But a Democrat believed that they would override by a margin of 2 to 4 votes. The bill would have left the Rural Electrification Administration under Mr. Benson's general supervision, but would have given the REA administrator final authority to approve or disapprove loans. In his veto message, the President had called the bill "a major retreat from sound administrative policy and practice" because it would provide a subordinate final authority.
Senators voted unanimously this date to halt the reduction of the Marine Corps ordered by Pentagon leaders in defiance of Congress. They tacked onto a big catch-all supplemental money bill a rider sponsored by Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana which would tie up Navy personnel funding unless the Marines' strength was increased to 200,000. By a similar voice vote, the Senate the previous day had added a rider sponsored by Senator Russell Long of Louisiana which would require a minimum Army of 900,000 or tie up the Army's operating funds. Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson said that he thought the politicians who were running the Army ought to sit up and take notice. Congress had provided more funding than sought by the President the previous year and directed that the Army be maintained at 900,000 and the Marines at 200,000. Instead, civilian defense leaders had been reducing both forces, aiming at an Army of 870,000 and a Marine Corps of 175,000 by the end of the current fiscal year the following June 30.
In Whitesburg, Ky., it was reported that dynamiters had attempted to blow up a non-union coal truck this date, several hours after unidentified men, hanging to the side of a fast freight, had tossed two dynamite bombs into a loading ramp. Their second bomb, comprised of 26 sticks of dynamite, had failed to explode when the fuse had sputtered out. The truck had been headed for a ramp when the dynamite had gone off under its wheels. One of the guards on duty at the coal company ramp was injured slightly by the midnight explosion. His companion said that if the dud had exploded, neither of them would still be alive. He declined use of his name because of the tense United Mine Workers strike seeking a new contract in eastern Kentucky's coal fields. The UMW wanted a two dollar daily wage increase to $24.25 daily. One of the co-owners of the ramp said that the explosion had damaged his scales but that they would be operating this date even if they had to estimate the weight of the trucks. A volley of gunshots, fired from a truck mine on a hillside about 3 miles away, as the train had approached, had sent one of two State cruisers away to investigate. The other had been at the ramp when the bomb exploded. National Guardsmen, who had patrolled the ramp since four battalions had moved into the coal fields the prior Saturday, were not at the ramp when the blast had occurred as there were no National Guard patrols at night. Several operators had called for a change in Guard tactics under which soldiers would accompany them into the hills to investigate shootings.
In Tokyo, it was reported that the Japanese Government planned to raise monkeys on three uninhabited islets to help increase domestic production of Salk vaccine needed to combat a steady rise of polio cases which had baffled health authorities. More than 2,000 new cases had been reported in Japan the previous year, particularly numerous on Kyushu, the nation's southernmost island.
In New York, it was reported that
surgeons this date had found a cancerous tumor in the left lung of radio and TV
personality Arthur Godfrey and had operated to remove it.
At noon, 3 1/2 hours after the exploratory surgery had begun, it was
announced that another hour would be required for the removal of the
tumor. An early report said that a portion of his lung also was being
removed, but the noon announcement gave no further details on that
point. In a statement issued during the operation, a doctor said that
the lesion in his left lung had been identified as a malignant tumor
and that the section of the lung containing it was being removed,
that his condition was excellent. Three physicians, three nurses and
an anesthetist had attended the surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian
Medical Center. It was understood unofficially that chances were
favorable for complete and successful removal of the tumor. Mr.
Godfrey said that he would not mind one bit the fact of not having
part of his lung as long as it did not cripple him so that he could
not ride or swim or fly. At 55, he had been a broadcasting
personality for almost 30 years and thanked his audience in his final
television program of the week for their prayers and good wishes,
promising to see them again soon. He could see clearly
Bob Slough of The News reports that City Manager Henry Yancey had joined his wife for a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice, departing from his normal routine for many years of having the coffee and orange juice alone. It was a special morning for the Yanceys because at the end of the day, he would retire from his position after 35 years in City Government management, 12 of which had been spent as City Manager. Mr. Slough interviews him regarding his reflections and recounts others' statements regarding his service.
In Owasso, Okla., it was reported that Little Richard, the hound dog freed from its predicament in a rock crevice the previous day after six days of being stuck there following its being lured to the spot by a smart raccoon, had encountered other prior difficulties with the wily critters. In the future, Little Richard probably would go into the same rocky bluff crevice which had trapped him, according to his owner. He was presently under the care of a veterinarian in nearby Tulsa, who said that he expected the dog could be released within a few days. He had been freed after his owner and 200 volunteers had chipped away at limestone and stubborn granite in a persistent vigil. Dynamite charges and jackhammers had been used to expand the crevice inch by inch, and an air hammer had removed the last boulder, enabling Little Richard to crawl freely into his master's arms, whining affectionately. Despite having lost 10 of his 60 pounds, he had every chance to pull through, barring complications, according to the owner. He confirmed that a coon had lured him into the crevice, that the coon knew exactly where to go when he ran from the dog, as they were smart. "They have a good idea where it's taking a dog. It's all part of their maneuvers. That coon probably got away from a lot of dogs there." Why wasn't he named Elvis?
On the editorial page, "Here Are Seven Men Who Can Turn City Hall into a Symbol of Progress" endorses seven candidates for City Council, including the four whom it had endorsed for the primary, the four newcomers running under the heading "Citizens for Better Government", plus three incumbents, Claude Albea, former Mayor Herbert Baxter, and Steve Dellinger, providing its reasons for those endorsements.
It also endorses two men for the City School Board, Ben Huntley and Jones Pharr, Jr.
Speaking of elections, El Presidente, the King of Spain, now sends his personal representative to "investigate" the free elections in California, seeking to intimidate the counters of the ballots. But there are penalties
"Herter Needs an Official Identity" indicates that Secretary of State Herter, in Paris during the week, was looking not only for Western unity but for his own official identity, seeking to emerge from the shadow of former Secretary Dulles. Other than the Senate's vote of confirmation, Mr. Herter's initiation to the "team" was dishearteningly tepid. The President had dallied, making it painfully clear of his utter dependence on Mr. Dulles, and only at a comparatively late point in time had he mustered any enthusiasm about the new Secretary. Even so, that expression of confidence was less ceremonious than the elevation of Mr. Dulles to the role of senior adviser on foreign policy.
It finds that Mr. Herter was thus on the spot, knowing that between him and the President was Mr. Dulles with undiminished influence. There were questions as to whether he would remain well-behaved and humble or would be a prodigal regarding the Dulles mantle, and whether the rumors of wavering confidence among the NATO allies was true.
It indicates that his diplomacy would naturally have recognizable links with what had gone previously, but within constitutional limits, he deserved to be free to make policy without a crippling legacy. Neither the President nor the public ought expect Mr. Herter to be a mere remote-control diplomat striving to copy Mr. Dulles. His style would differ. He was less a lawyer than Mr. Dulles and more an orthodox professional diplomat. To judge by his public statements, he took a less apocalyptic view of the East-West differences and seemed unlikely to be the type of democratic evangelist which his predecessor had been. Perhaps it was less crucial to him that Communism was "godless" than that it was making severe political threats to the free world. He was also unlikely to perform his role in the isolation of Mr. Dulles but would rely more heavily on the professionals at his command than on his mobility or intuition.
It finds therefore that he would be a different kind of Secretary of State and was entitled to evolve his own policy and give his own style room for making itself felt across the world.
"Literally True" indicates that three post-teen girls had returned to Seattle after a trip to Moscow where they said they had enjoyed Russian rock 'n' roll and learned the phrase, "skachi krooglye sootki", meaning, according to the Communist hipsters, "rock around the clock". It finds, however, that the best which non-rocking linguists could make of it was "up all night with a sick friend."
A piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled "Blue Chips at Las Vegas", indicates that Gamblers Anonymous, a new organization which sought to do for chronic victims of games of chance what Alcoholics Anonymous had done for drunks, had opened a chapter appropriately in Las Vegas.
"In a sizzling desert surrounded by snow-capped mauve mountains lies modern Babylon with its single basic business—legalized gambling. In this oasis thrive two dozen major palaces of chance. Along The Strip and on Fremont Street the visitor may dine well in them at low cost, see a top floor show and stake his money on cards, dice, roulette and slot machines. G. A. may be able to help those Vegans who fall prey to the lure of living day after day in the atmosphere of America's own Monte Carlo. As the gambling proprietors of the million-dollar establishment say, it would be a good thing for everybody if the compulsive gamblers who stake every cent they get were out of the picture. Few as they are, they probably do hurt what is widely advertised as 'friendly Western atmosphere.'"
But what they lost at the tables was not even a pittance of what the tourist and vacationer carried to the casino, being taken for some 200 million dollars annually, being mostly the type which Texas Guinan, the nightclub queen of New York's Prohibition era, would have greeted with, "Hello suckers!"
It suggests that if Tourists Anonymous or Suckers Anonymous was formed to divert the trains, planes, buses and automobiles from Las Vegas, that would be when the owners of the palaces would protest long and loud. "For Babylon, over-built as it is, could revert rather quickly to what it was 20 years ago—just a whistle stop on the Union Pacific."
Drew Pearson indicates that Pennsylvania Congressman Dan Flood had collected a new hat recently from Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy, after wagering the latter a hat the previous summer that the Secretary would not make good his claim that the nation's 1,500-mile range Thor missile would be operational in Britain by Christmas. After the Christmas holidays, Mr. Flood had telephoned the Secretary and demanded his hat. But the Secretary responded that the Thors had been deployed in Britain, to which Mr. Flood responded that it was not the bet, that the missiles were supposed to be operational. The Secretary said he could not give him a hat as the Russians might learn of it and they would then know that the missiles were not yet operational. After the Thors had become operational, Secretary McElroy happened to be strolling by a hat store in Tucson and spotted a hat which seemed to go with Mr. Flood's waxed mustache. In mock concern over security, the Secretary finally presented the hat to Mr. Flood behind closed doors, saying that he wanted all present to witness that he was not admitting that he owed him the hat but was presenting it to him because he had walked by a store in Tucson, had seen the hat and thought it would look good on Mr. Flood.
It now appeared that the Navy's Polaris missiles would not be ready on schedule to install in the atomic submarines which were supposed to carry them. The Polaris program had slipped further behind schedule than any other missile, and although over a dozen experimental models should have been fired, only five had actually been tested. Of those, only the fifth was announced as a success, and that was stretching the truth, as it was supposed to go 750 miles but had fallen into the Atlantic after traveling only 350 miles. Eventually, the Polaris would have a range of 1,200 miles and would also be capable of being fired underwater from submerged submarines.
The Senate Anti-Monopoly Committee and the House Small Business Committee were keeping an eye on secret meetings in New York during the week between steel magnates and representatives of the largest scrap-iron company, which was hatching a chain store scrap set-up whereby many of the independent scrap-iron dealers could be squeezed out. The steel magnates were meeting, despite proceedings by the Federal Trade Commission to break up the scrap-iron monopoly.
Marquis Childs, in London, indicates that with the foreign ministers conference in Geneva on May 11 approaching, the problem of the Western foreign ministers remained as acute as ever. Though obscured by official silence and unofficial assurances, the negotiating position it would have to present to the Russians remained unsatisfactory to almost everyone concerned. The British had their proposals, evolved following Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's reconnaissance mission to Moscow earlier, whittled down almost to nothing. Having been steadily pushed back from what they believed to be a reasonable and reasonably flexible set of proposals, the British were now maintaining a stiff upper lip. They were anxious to avoid any further public widening of the differences in the alliance on the eve of the meeting with the Russians, those differences having been accentuated by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's angry speech in Bonn accusing the British of something akin to a conspiracy of hostility against West Germany.
The Germans, who had come to the London preliminary four-power working group to fix a negotiating package, had kept peering back nervously to be sure that the venerable Chancellor was not frowning. The unofficial report was that the working group had come up with a minimum proposal for some form of arms limitation and inspection in Central Europe, conditional on a phased reunification of the two Germanys, that last provision ensuring that it would never be accepted by the Russians as even a starting point for negotiations.
What was now becoming clear was a sequence of events in the weeks ahead which would be likely to take the pattern that while the Western foreign ministers at their meeting in Paris during the current week would try to put more attractive wrappings on the Western negotiating package, it would remain pretty empty. At the end of the second week in Geneva, it would be unveiled, probably after the Russians had revealed their official position which would contain little or nothing new. It would be a confrontation therefore of sharply differing viewpoints with no suggestion of negotiation.
At present, British officials suggested that the conference would recess for ten days to two weeks during which the foreign ministers would return to their respective countries and attempt a second effort by the West to reach a position which would have a chance of initiating real negotiations, provided the Russians wanted to negotiate.
While they were not explicit about it, the British suggested that they were resigned to the necessity of a first inning simply as a demonstration of the futility of standing on the past. In theory, that demonstration would not be lost on the Russians who would return for a second go-round with something more realistic than the propaganda posture tiresomely reiterated during the previous months.
During the preliminary negotiations, Chancellor Adenauer stayed out in his vacation retreat on Lake Como in Italy. As the London Times had made clear in an amusing dispatch from Bonn, the Chancellor was not precisely alone with his solid thoughts of the solid past of a restored and determined Germany, as a whole procession of officials from Bonn had gone to the Lake to talk with the Chancellor. The assumption was that they had gone to persuade him to yield and accept the more or less innocuous proposal of controlled disarmament or limitation of arms tied to German reunification. Foremost among those going to see him was U.S. Ambassador David Bruce, who, perhaps more than any other diplomat, had the confidence of the Chancellor. Another visitor was Wilhelm Grewe, the West German Ambassador to the U.S., who would presumably head the unofficial West German delegation to Geneva. A brilliant international lawyer, Ambassador Grewe's difficult task had been to align himself with the Chancellor's alternating moods, shifting from the not quite hard-line to the hard-line, and even for a skilled diplomat, it had meant embarrassments not always concealed.
He indicates that to think of a second inning was all very well, but the immediate concentration was on obtaining agreement on at least a respectable position for the opening of the conference, and reaching that position promised to go on with increasing intensity behind closed doors until the very last moment.
Walter Lippmann indicates that the foreign aid bill which called for money to be spent in foreign countries was an annual spring headache for the Congress and in the current year, was more of a headache than ever given the deficit which put the President in the position of wanting to save at home so as to be able to spend abroad. That difficulty was compounded by the fact that the bill, as it had come from the Administration, inspired no enthusiasm and little confidence, being a poor cause for those assigned the task of leading the fight for foreign aid, as the Administration bill had been shaped not by the State Department but by the Bureau of the Budget, resulting in an inefficient bill.
It provided for foreign aid in annual installments, preventing a consecutive use of the foreign aid which required the long-term planning of investment. The amount of aid provided was inadequate and in its allocation between military and civilian aid was in some part misdirected. Thus, in the debate with those who opposed all foreign aid, the supporters of the bill found themselves burdened with something which would not achieve its professed objectives and was in that sense a waste. It was necessary, therefore, to amend the President's bill to produce a measure behind which the believers in foreign aid could with good conscience rally. That was the purpose of the amendments offered by Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, introduced the prior Friday.
Mr. Lippmann thinks it fair to say that those amendments took into account what the Administration bill did not, the findings of the Draper Committee which the President had appointed, reflecting also the views of Secretary of State Christian Herter and of Undersecretary Douglas Dillon. The Fulbright amendments followed two main principles, one being to provide for a period of five years enough funds to permit development loans at the annual rate of 1.5 billion dollars, making possible orderly financing of investment programs which, in countries such as India, could bring about a substantial increase in the standard of living. The other principle was to de-emphasize without abolishing the military part of foreign aid, the amendments not reducing that amount and one of them giving the President the authority to transfer up to 30 percent rather than the present authorization of 10 percent of military aid to civilian use. Another provided U.S. ambassadors greater control over the recommendations for military aid made by the American Military Mission in the country to which the ambassador was accredited.
Those amendments dealing with the military side of foreign aid, he suggests, ought open the door to a better supervision of the aid agreements made by the military men and the local military commanders. In the official propaganda of the Administration, all of the programs were lumped together under the general notion that they enabled military allies to encircle and contain the military power of the Communist states. No distinction was made between genuine allies such as Britain, Canada and France, and political clients, such as Pakistan. It was an unhealthy pretense to plead that the U.S. was arming Pakistan so that it might defend itself against Soviet attack or that Pakistan could or would do anything substantial to defend Iran and Turkey if they were attacked. The principal reason for providing arms to Pakistan was to keep the Pakistani Army commanders friendly to the U.S. rather than to the Russians. What was being done was to subsidize the ruling powers who, in many underdeveloped countries, were the leaders of the army.
He indicates that it was not always a wicked or unnecessary thing to do, but Congress was not a good judge of how necessary it was to do it in each of the countries where aid was being furnished. And neither was the Pentagon a good judge. The judgment ought be made by the President and the State Department and should be a cool political judgment, not a hot and excited one. Above all, there ought not be self-deluding propaganda that if the U.S. gave jet planes to Latin American dictators, it was helping the free world to defend itself against Russia and China, when what it was doing was providing jet planes to the dictator to help the dictator defend himself against his internal enemies, which might or might not be a good thing for the national interests of the U.S.
A letter writer wonders why the people of South Carolina always tried to mess up the world, suggesting that if something was not done to stop them, he did not know what would happen. They had already taken all of the jobs, houses and bus seats in Charlotte and now the Governor of South Carolina, future Senator Fritz Hollings, was in Washington trying to louse up the civil rights bill.
A letter writer advocates electing the four-candidate citizens slate to the City Council in the upcoming municipal general election.
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