The Charlotte News
Wednesday, May 13, 1959
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President, in a special message to Congress this date, called for swift action to avert "serious disruption" of housing and highway construction and an "impending disaster in wheat". He called for immediate action to provide a temporary increase in the Federal gasoline tax from three cents per gallon to 4.5 cents, to head off a looming deficit in the highway trust fund which could disrupt the vast highway building program, a six billion dollar increase in the Federal Housing Administration's authorization to insure home mortgage loans, and "corrective legislation" revising the wheat price support and crop control program, which, he said, had failed utterly to prevent mounting surpluses. The latter, he had indicated, was the most critical situation of all because the wheat problem threatened to "crash of its own weight" and destroy the whole farm program. He said that because Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson was required by law to announce a continuation of the thoroughly discredited program by May 15, he had urgently recommended in January corrective legislation, but that now that the deadline was only two days away, no such legislation had been passed.
Bill Hughes of The News reports from Myrtle Beach, S.C., that three F-100 Sabre jets on a training flight had crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the South Carolina coast prior to daylight this date, apparently killing all three pilots. The planes had been part of a large flight which roared from Myrtle Beach Air Force base in the wee hours of the morning. The three jets had been airborne for only a few minutes when squadron mates saw them go into a rapidly descending turn and hit the water almost simultaneously, the crash scene being about ten miles southeast of Myrtle Beach. Although the Air Force did not list the flight's destination, it was learned that the squadron was scheduled to take off for Italy during the morning. The Air Force said that other planes in the flight had not landed late in the morning. The first word of the crash to reach the base had been by radio from another plane in the flight. Search aircraft which rushed to the scene observed oil slicks and wreckage, but no sign of life. Although the Air Force had given no explanation for the crash, it was not the first time that multiple flights of high-speed jets had crashed under similar mysterious circumstances. In previous incidents, the cause had been ascribed to vertigo, whereby pilots flying on instruments became confused by the instrument maze and body forces which occurred in high-speed flight. Late in the morning, aircraft were still searching the scene and a Coast Guard cutter from Charleston was on the way to the scene. The Air Force said that Col. Francis Gabreski, commander of the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing and war hero, the primary unit at the base, had been on the flight, though not among the three pilots presumed killed. The Air Force did not disclose the number of planes on the mission but termed it the "major part of a squadron effort". A squadron normally consisted of 18 planes. A board of Air Force officers had convened at the base to begin investigating the incident. The flight to Italy had been designed to replace another squadron in a normal Tactical Air Command rotation movement, according to officials.
In Baltimore, it was reported that a Capital Airlines Viscount turbo-prop airliner, flying nonstop from New York to Atlanta, had blown apart in storm-swept skies over Maryland late the previous day, spraying wreckage and bodies of the 27 passengers and four crewmen over a two-mile area. Less than an hour before, another Capital airliner, a four-engine Constellation, had plunged over a 200-foot embankment at the Charleston, W. Va., Airport and had burst into flames, killing two persons and injuring at least six others. That flight had also been bound for Atlanta. One official at the Civil Aeronautics Board said that it was the first time in his memory that a single airline had two fatal crashes in one day. The Constellation had crashed at Charleston in the late afternoon and the Viscount had torn apart less than an hour afterward, while flying at about 14,000 feet over a patchwork of small farms about 15 miles east of Baltimore. Weather was suggested as a factor in both instances. A thunder squall had been sweeping across Maryland when the Viscount had come through and apparently the turbulence was causing rough flight. No one had seen the plane at the instant it disintegrated with a fiery flash, as the sky was covered with low-hanging rain clouds, but aviation engineers and others speculated that a sudden, violent downdraft or updraft had torn off part of a wing, rupturing a fuel line, causing kerosene fuel to enter an engine, apparently igniting with a roar, tearing the plane to pieces.
In Pittsburgh, Pa., it was reported that a police officer had handed his gun to a comrade early this date and walked unarmed into an apartment where a 30-year old man had barricaded himself and his four children, aiming a German-made P-38 automatic pistol at the officer and telling him: "I'm not coming out. I want to die and I don't care who goes with me." The police officer argued with him for several minutes and persuaded him to let him hand the children through the door to their mother in the hallway. Then, for 40 more minutes the two men talked, the while with the man covering the police officer with the gun, saying he was despondent over losing his job and separation from his wife. At one point, he spoke of his mother and the officer offered to take him to see her. The man agreed and the officer shouted that he was coming out with the man and did not want anyone to touch him. Police officers waiting outside the apartment scattered as the two emerged, with the man still aiming the pistol at the police officer. As they reached the parking lot, the police officer found his opportunity and struck the gun aside, capturing the man and placing him under arrest. The man was jailed for a hearing on charges of assault, resisting arrest, pointing firearms and disorderly conduct. The man's estranged wife said that she had run out and called police when her estranged husband had entered her apartment by using a duplicate key, threatening to kill her.
In Raleigh, it was reported that Governor Luther Hodges would address the people of the state this night with a plea for his "incentive fund" for encouraging more local support of public schools. He would deliver the 15-minute address statewide on television, originating from Raleigh station WRAL-TV. The speech would deal with the "school incentive fund, and other public school problems", according to the Governor's office. The Governor had pushed hard for the recommendation of a special study commission that a ten million dollar state fund be created to offer matching grants for school purposes to the counties. The amount each county would be eligible to receive would depend on its economic ability to pay.
In Henderson, N.C., it was reported that first-shift workers, guarded by long lines of National Guardsmen, had quietly entered the struck Harriet-Henderson Cotton Mills this date and that there had only been occasional jeers and catcalls from small clusters of pickets who had turned out at the mills' two plants. The scene contrasted sharply with Tuesday night's shift change when Guardsmen had faced hundreds of shouting strikers with fixed bayonets, despite there having been no violence. Police said that some rocks had been thrown in an area not policed by the Guard and that five persons had been arrested, one charged with inciting to riot. The Guardsmen, numbering about 300, had been ordered there by Governor Hodges as a result of a new outburst of violence on Monday night. Police said that the man charged with inciting to riot in the rock throwing incident was placed under a $5,000 bond. Two other men were charged with interfering with law enforcement and another man was accused of throwing a rock. The wife of one of the two charged with interfering with law enforcement was charged with loud and boisterous conduct. A rented car carrying a crew of cameramen from WSOC-TV in Charlotte had been pelted with rocks by people outside the area policed by the Guard. No one was hurt, but a window of the car had been broken. A United Press International photographer had been surrounded by a crowd of strikers and threatened, but a union official had broken up the crowd. Workers leaving the plants were pelted with rocks and their cars were fired on. Local officials said that the situation was beyond their control and had asked for the troops. An official of the striking Textile Workers Union of America had charged that the Guardsmen were sent "to help the unreasonable management to operate his cotton mills, and provide strikebreakers free access to the plants." He denied that the troops had been needed. The commander of the Guardsmen would not say how many troops were present in Henderson but newsmen had estimated 300. The 1,200 employees of the mills had struck the previous November 17 when the company had insisted on removal of an arbitration clause from the new contract. Subsequently, other issues had arisen, including the job status of new workers hired when the plants had reopened on a one-shift basis on February 16. Violence had erupted repeatedly since the plants had reopened. A detachment of Highway Patrolmen had been on the scene for several weeks until Governor Hodges had withdrawn them the previous Friday, at the time warning that troops would be sent if necessary to prevent violence.
John Kilgo of The News reports that the sensational February robbery of $13,000 worth of cigarettes from the Associated Grocers Mutual building on Raleigh Street in Charlotte had been cleared up this date with the arrest of seven men allegedly responsible. Four of them, held on various charges, were from Cabarrus County and three were from Mecklenburg. Police had recovered about $3,000 worth of the stolen cigarettes and expected to recover more sometime during this date. A County Police captain said that the men were disposing of the cigarettes in Rowan and Cabarrus Counties. The exact details of how the case had been cleared were not immediately available at noon. Police said that at one time one of the arrested men had been employed at the Grocers Mutual warehouse and that another, a local taxi driver, had rented a house in the county for the purpose of storing the merchandise. During the night of February 28, the robbers had broken into the building, loaded the cigarettes into a van and hauled them away. The truck had been recovered the next morning.
Bob Slough of The News reports from Concord that a man there had dreamed up a new toy he said was destined to replace the once popular hula hoop, a variation of the old paddle ball. He called the new toy the "Slotnik" and had registered it with the patent office in Washington. B. and W. Manufacturing, Inc., was turning out the device at the rate of 50,000 per day in a cement block building west of Concord. The inventor expected his new toy to sweep the country, with Slotniks already on the market in the Carolinas and in New York. He had no doubt that it would replace the hula hoop and planned in consequence to produce 7.5 million Slotniks by the end of the year. He had gotten the idea for the new toy about five years earlier and had been perfecting it since, getting the idea by playing with his children. The device consisted of a paddle with a hole in the center and a slot running to the hole from the large end, with a string connected to a rubber ball anchored at the large end of the paddle. The object was to flip the paddle up and down gently, causing the ball to pass through the hole in the center without touching the paddle. That ought to last about five minutes before the child throws it in the corner. Don't expect too much. It is basically paddle ball with a hole in the middle. Big deal. Besides, the name sounds Commie. "Vas ist that?" "Slotnik, Comrade."
We'll stick to trying to learn to twirl our Bat Masterson
In New York, it was reported that singer Eddie Fisher and actress Elizabeth Taylor, flying to Europe for their honeymoon, had stopped off between planes this date and claimed that they were very happy. They had been in flight almost continuously since their wedding late on Tuesday in Las Vegas. First, they had flown to Los Angeles and then taken a jet to New York, arriving early during the morning. Accompanying them were a friend and 112 other passengers. A crowd of about 200 persons gathered to watch them leave the plane at Idlewild Airport. Reporters carried on a kind of running interview as the couple hurried through the throng to a limousine for the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
On the editorial page, "Jim Smith Is in Tune with the Times" indicates that the re-elected Mayor of Charlotte had kindled a roaring fire under the new City Council with his 12-point program of municipal goals unveiled the previous day, representing a direct challenge to the genius and resourcefulness of the seven gentlemen who had taken office on Monday on the Council. It finds that the list was in tune with the times and kept faith with the vision of those who insisted that Charlotte had to shake off its lethargy and plan boldly for a new cycle of growth.
It finds that the task for the Mayor and the new Council was tremendous and could not be diminished by seeking to minimize the preparations which would be required of them by seeking relief in panaceas, requiring sustained faith and perpetual effort to make Charlotte what it could be.
"Questioning the Easy Distinctions" finds that a Phi Beta Kappa key had never made a coed's heart flutter the way a monogram did and that Red Grange had more fans than Albert Einstein, at least the way many people had once looked at it, drawing clear distinctions between "brain" and "brawn" or between the bookish sort and the more earthly sort who could not only think but do.
But now that the society had grown some, though still providing the keys and the monograms, it questioned easy distinctions. The newspaper's selection of 29 All-Star scholars from Charlotte and Mecklenburg County schools was itself such a questioning of those distinctions. It congratulates the chosen scholars while also questioning whether Charlotte or North Carolina or the whole country could enjoy the rewards of cultivated intelligence without encouraging and recognizing it at the source, young people who were not content to be mediocre in school.
In looking at the list of the scholars it notes uniform excellence in grades, but also that the "A" students were tennis players, student officers and jurists, journalists, radio hams, taxidermists, poets, musicians, artists, track athletes, football players, youth leaders in their churches, and actors. It finds that intelligence was not a sign that other interests were lacking, on the contrary often a sign that gifts had been used in many ways.
As staff writer Ann Sawyer had noted in her report on the matter, the outstanding young people "know where they are going and what they are going to do." They knew that they wanted to be scientists, engineers, teachers, doctors or other functionaries. It hopes that they kept their dreams intact and yet the professions to which they would soon add their contributions also demanded that their energies be absorbed in fairly small specialties. It feels certain that they would excel but hopes that they would keep their interests as broad as they seemed at present to be doing.
"Shine On, Shine On Diamond Pipes" indicates that before the disastrous news of the previous week, it had a good time picturing the historians of 4050, ringing themselves in smoke from their pipes, in speculation about what had made 20th Century man journey to the moon.
"Being after the moon, space explorers would be after a symbol linked to a thousand airy things—most importantly to love, as in 'th'inconstant moon' of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' and to madness, as in the women without shadows who inhabited moonlit Gothic gardens. It would be clear that there had been a mystique about the moon and attempting to sort the motives for reaching it, these future historians would note for 'psychological' insights that the moon had been described by 20th Century songwriters as silvery for love, yellow for harvests, and blue for the jilted. They would note that Carolina, indeed, claimed to have a superior view of it. They couldn't ignore the political implications. The moon might be a station from which we could spy on the Russians, or the Russians on us; or it could simply be a refuge for the survivors of a final, fiery holocaust on earth."
But the previous week, Drs. Kuiper and Urey had decided that there might be diamonds in the moon, acres of them, lodged in "diamond pipes", such as in the South African Transvaal. It finds it sad, but almost inevitable that if they were there, the diamonds would be found and that if they were found, they would be claimed, and if claimed, to be fought over. It suggests that the future historian might find no mystery at all, "drawing his pipe in an emphatic arc while his colleagues nod in grave agreement. 'Just another exercise in greed.'"
A piece from the Mattoon (Ill.) Journal-Gazette, titled "Physical Education? It's Stupid!" tells of the Illinois General Assembly shortly to pass legislation saddling the people of the state with a staggering tax, with the explanation being that there was no choice as the money was needed for education.
It finds that they did have a choice and that now was the time for all people to advise the representatives in Springfield that they had a belly full. It finds that one of the silliest laws ever passed in the General Assembly was the one concerning compulsory physical education in public schools. Particularly stupid was compulsory physical education for girls, as few parents were rearing their daughters to be "lady wrestlers or muscle gals with bumps on the backs of their legs" and other places where girls should not have bumps.
"Back in our day girls managed to develop without compulsory physical education, and they developed pretty well. Why was such a silly bill passed? It was passed under pressure of various lobby groups to make jobs for college athletes taking physical education courses because they weren't smart enough to get passing grades in English and algebra and other subjects which a generation or two ago [were] considered essential for an educated person." It indicates that the newspaper had always advocated higher salaries for teachers and would continue to do so, but opposed any increase in the tax rate as long as the education boards and administrators refused to give an inch in curtailing "silly frills".
Whether the person inditing this editorial weighed in excess of 300 pounds and had never found much purpose in undue physical activity, we do not know, but the notion of eliminating required physical education among growing lads and lasses with lots of energy to burn during the course of 6 to 6.5 hours sitting otherwise in their seats within the institutional framework of a school, was not wasted effort at all. It not only provided immediate release of tensions and pent-up energy, preferably toward the middle of the day if possible, it also provided a structure for otherwise unguided natural tendencies among youth toward competition, with rules of fairness governing that competition, and inured the physical being, as well as the mental being, to a continued desire, when the regimen was followed implicitly by the individual student, for such activity later in life, preventing all manner of diseases in the process and making for a better life experience generally for such individuals. That it also provided "bumps" for girls in places which this writer does not seem to appreciate, places other than the belly, was only a rather pleasant by-product of the activity, at least to most of their male contemporaries.
Drew Pearson indicates that over an early breakfast eaten behind closed doors, South Carolina's Dixiecrat Senator Strom Thurmond had drawn a spiritual lesson recently from the two great leaders of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee and Abraham Lincoln. The Senator had spoken to a handful of Senators who met privately each Wednesday morning to worship together, with their discussions maintained in privacy between them, none of the Senators attending for political favor. But Senator Thurmond's remarks had so impressed his listeners that Mr. Pearson reports the highlights: "As Lincoln in the North would likely have done had he lived, Lee did his best to heal the wounds of war. On many occasions, unhappy, disillusioned Southerners attempted to get fuel for bitterness from him…" The Senator then said that when General Lee had been asked by a Southerner whether he ever felt bitterness toward the North, he had responded, "I believe I may say, looking into my own heart and speaking in the presence of God, that I have never known one moment of bitterness or resentment."
Senator Thurmond spoke of General Lee's humility. In an earlier talk to the prayer group, he had described Mr. Lincoln's faith, despite the latter's lack of popularity in some parts of the South. He said of General Lee: "The more one studies the character of Robert Edward Lee, seeking to probe its depths, discover its ultimate touchstone and secret, the more one is convinced that the foundation of the man's whole nature was a deep religious humility… He was a great soldier and a great strategist. But, more important, he was humble. Humility enabled him to get the maximum effort from his men, and this humbleness made him a saint in the eyes of his men… As Lee rode by a campfire, a Confederate private remarked: 'Well, boys, the rest of us may have developed from monkeys, but I tell you only God Almighty could make a man like Marse Robert!'"
Senator Thurmond said that after the sad surrender by Lee, he had accepted the presidency of Washington College in the Shenandoah Valley, with a salary of $1,500 annually when funds were available. The Senator said that he had accepted the position only after explaining to the trustees his serious doubts as to whether he could do full justice to the job. He had first built a chapel and then lived only five years after taking the position. His vigor, clarity of vision and wisdom of policy in those few years had nevertheless earned for him and his college a position in the history of American education, according to the Senator. The latter summarized: "As the worshiped leader of a defeated people, Lee held his head high and set out to give an example to his people… It was his simple humility and humbleness of character which set him apart, and ahead and above his fellow men."
Of Lincoln, the Senator had earlier said: "He was always a good man with the highest moral principles. Shortly before the death of his mother, he promised her that he would never drink liquor, and he kept that pledge to his death. His strongest profanity, if you wish to call it that, was his use of the phrase, 'By Jing'. His honesty was legendary, as was his kindness. He was a great and good man… He studied God's word and tried to apply it to his own life until, finally, it became the foundation for a strong and unshakable faith."
Unfortunately, as time would proceed, the same things could not be said of Senator Thurmond, who maintained a blind spot with regard to civil rights for all for much of the remainder of his life, a blind spot which inspired others, such as Jesse Helms in North Carolina, to follow suit, probably inspiring such others to this day, making discrimination by race, color and ethnicity fashionable and acceptable, even in the United States Senate, even in 2026.
Walter Lippmann indicates that the question of whether the foreign ministers conference would take place at a round table, as the Soviets had desired, or at a square one, as preferred by the West, had not, in itself, been important, but had been interesting as an early example of the type of negotiations which were presently beginning in Geneva and would continue until the summit meeting, perhaps to be held in San Francisco later in the summer. It would be a negotiation not so much concerning what would be done as about how it would be done.
Thus, in Bonn and Paris, as well as in London, Washington and Moscow, it was an accepted fact that the two German states could not be united during the present negotiations. The real controversies between West and East and also to a degree within the West, would turn on how to deal legally, politically and psychologically with the fact of a continuing partition of Germany. It was also equally well understood in Moscow, as in the West, that West Berlin would not be abandoned by the Western allies and that the Allied token forces would remain as a witness to that decision, and that a blockade by the Soviets of the access routes to Berlin would be considered an act of war. The real problem regarding Berlin would be how to deal legally, politically and psychologically with the fact that West Berlin would remain within the Western community while located within the Eastern community.
He posits that those were not insoluble problems in that, at bottom, both sides would accept in substance the status quo. The problems, though not insoluble, were, however, complex and subtle. If, for example, the partition of Germany were recognized publicly and definitely, the political consequences in West Germany would almost certainly be serious, marking the total defeat of West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and his Christian Democratic Party, and no one could foresee in what that would eventuate during the coming German elections of 1961.
If, on the other hand, there was no recognition of the fact that there were two German states and if the Soviets openly abandoned East Germany as a state, treating it as mere occupied territory, there would be a strong incentive and great provocation for an East German revolt. When West Germany was rearmed, perhaps with nuclear weapons, an East German revolt would be a very great danger to the peace of the world.
He finds that the moral was that the real problems would require a high degree of statesmanship and that they could not be solved by pounding the table and playing to the gallery. The hard part of the negotiations, to be carried on primarily behind the scenes, would consist of devising juridical and political formulae which would accommodate the political and psychological imponderables. He finds that it would not be easy to do, especially if it had to be done with constant stamping, whistling, and catcalls from the gallery about who had won what and who was a fool or a knave.
A letter writer indicates that the President had the right idea and urges support of him completely, realizing that Russia was ahead of the U.S. in missile development and that its lead was rapidly increasing. Russia was engaged in education of many more scientists than the U.S. He finds that since it appeared that war was inevitable, the sooner the U.S. would fight Russia the better, as the U.S. would be proportionately stronger. He posits that the mass of American people were timid and not appreciative of the situation and would not support a preventive war, and thus the task of getting the war started would become more difficult. The President's astute approach was to remain silent but to release information to newspapers that the U.S. had bombers flying around the world constantly ready to attack Russia, with some bombers said to head toward Russian bases and then turn back on a regular basis. Meanwhile, U.S. radar stations around the world were evaluating blips on the screen and based on that evaluation, the President would order bombers to strike before an initial blow could reach the U.S. He finds that it would thus be easy to misinterpret a blip on the screen and the U.S. could fight Russia while it was still stronger, avoiding the burdensome problem of obtaining authorization from Congress.
Of course, what this writer proposes, obviously having studied assiduously the "strategy" of General "Bombs Away" LeMay from World War II, in combination with that of General MacArthur in Korea, is monstrous, that there should be a deliberate misinterpretation of a blip on a radar screen so as to involve the country in a nuclear exchange with Russia while it was "stronger", all while deliberately bypassing Congress and thus the people in the process, even if such an action would risk the utter ruin of the country and all or most of the inhabitants within it, those who would survive the initial blasts to be consumed in time by radioactive fallout, whether "safely" tucked away in fallout shelters or not. It rather sounds like the premise for the novel Fail Safe or the movie, "Dr. Strangelove (Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)".
A letter writer indicates that a non-partisan taxpayer revolt which had mushroomed suddenly from the grassroots in the State of Washington could spark similar revolts around the country. It had begun on February 11 with a salesman who had made a speech on government and taxes to members of the Lions Club in Ritzville, Wash. Some of the listeners had been so impressed that they decided to discuss the matter further over coffee the following morning. Some 20 men had shown up and soon were joined by another 40, including Republicans, Democrats and independents. They raised $300 to print form letters to be signed by citizens and sent to the governor and members of the Legislature. Within two weeks, legislators had received more than 10,000 letters and Governor Albert Rossellini had received 1,358. The Governor replied with a form letter indicating that the revolt ought be realistic enough to understand that increased taxes were necessary to maintain a minimum of services already rendered, his letter, however, only adding fuel to the fire. The revolt started quickly in Spokane, where a goal of 75,000 letters was set. Afterward, other towns followed and plans were announced to carry the campaign to Seattle. There were signs that the movement already was having its effect on legislators, who could not ignore the numbers of letters being forwarded. The campaign also had alerted all citizens of the state to the tax situation. It was grassroots democracy in action, the type envisioned under the republican form of government. He suggests waiting to see if the "Cuban bandit who has shot down more than 500 men" did not turn out to be a Communist. He finds that he had done a neat job of pulling the wool over the eyes of all of the bigwigs in Washington who should have known better, always falling for Communist traps.
We're not exactly certain either of his transition from a taxpayer revolt on a local level in Washington to the situation in Cuba, but there was no transitional thought or paragraph, except that he had mentioned that the American people were not under obligation to pay taxes to the Government which paid billions to foreign nations who claimed to be the nation's friends. No extensive foreign aid at the time was being paid to Cuba, even if there was a fair amount going to Latin America generally to avoid the prospect of the Soviets getting there first with dollars and thus cultivating individual countries. Regardless, the letter writer makes absolutely no sense. He proposes to cut foreign aid, thus giving entry to the Soviets, while cynically proposing that the recipient countries did not respond positively anyway, in some cases correct, but not the general rule.
A letter writer from Alexis finds that the newspapers for the previous several weeks had been filled with "rape-beating cases", citing the case of a 13-year old boy, an honor student and Boy Scout. The person, who withholds their name, indicates having small children and that reading something like that made their heart sick. The writer wonders how long it would take adults to realize that they were the only ones who could do anything about such situations. "The whole world, children and adults, are more sex-conscious these days than anything. All of us are. It's nothing new, it's been happening for generations, but what better time is there to put a stop to it than now! The scientists and doctors of the world are doing wonders. They found cures for some of the most dreaded diseases in the world. Right now, our social world has a dread disease, and that is our 'abnormal views on sex.'" The writer finds that girls were brought up to believe that their bodies had to be displayed in revealing clothing, that their eyes had to have a certain flicker, suggesting that they got the ideas from some of the nation's leading magazines, not the so-called "sex magazines", but rather those found in nearly every home and every doctor's office. The writer finds that those magazines, while having wonderful news in them, also had many articles complete with pictures of semi-nude chorus girls or movie stars who had on next to nothing. The adults provided them with the bosomy half-naked women who did nothing to teach them of what sex really meant, only arousing a need in the growing boy and to make the teenage girl do exactly what she saw the sexy creatures do. That caused teenage boys to do things they might not otherwise do. "How many 'really fit' movies do we have for our teenagers to see? Half of the movies are deep, serious ones involved around adultery, sex before marriage and tempestuous women. Why can't we have more movies like 'A Man Called Peter,' or some of the lighter comedies, or movies that portray sex in the way God meant it to be?" The writer indicates that sex should not be hidden and children never allowed to see the wrong things, which would only make them more curious. "But if every man and woman in the United States would join together and sign a petition stating we would no longer buy these leading magazines unless they cut down on some of these 'sexy' articles and if all of us would band together and not patronize these sex movies at all, they would eventually stop." The writer indicates that parents also had to substitute the wrong sex ideas with good ones, hard to do, but perhaps made easier through trained counselors and psychologists who could guide parents to teach their children properly about sex.
But it must be noted that, though the result of many variables, most pointedly the advent of the U.N. and use of its good offices to avoid the worst conflicts, as well as the nuclear deterrent, there has been no world war since 1945. One could posit that, psychologically and sociologically, the presence of more "sexy" fare has acted as a release for the pent-up sexual anxieties which, when done, tend to make people, generally, especially men and their testosterone, less bellicose with one another. There is always an exception to prove the rule, so please don't waste time citing individual exceptions, as we are referring to general societal trends across the world. The Arab nations of the Middle East, where cultural norms, such as the wearing of the burqa, strictly forbid women to show themselves as sexually attractive publicly, have, as we know, the highest rate of bellicose violence in the world since World War II. Perhaps more female semi-nudity in those environs would cause the males to be less likely to pick up machine-guns and fire at each other over ancient wrongs and territorial disputes. Repressed sexuality is usually directly correlative to physical violence.
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