PAGE FOUfHE DAILY REFLECTOR. GREENVILLE, N. C

Saturday, April 23, 1960

Saturday, April 23, 1960

Whirlwind In West Virginia

Few Southern Demos Favor Bolt

There are a gootf many Demcrata who would like to see a major part ol tne i>outnern delegation walk mit O the Democratic national convention tnis summer and boycott the pHy.

The surprising thing, however, is that most of those who would like to see such a split are not Southern Democrats, but some of the more liberal factions of the party from other sections of the country.

It is true that most Democrats in the South are sick and tired of the needling by National Chairman Faui butler. They are also tired of spokesmen for the Democratic Party of other sections of the country declaring what the Democrats from Southern states should and should not'do. Most Southern Democrats have about had their fill of demands being made on them by other elements within the party.

But when you come down to the core of the matter, there are few Southerners who want to leave the _ Democratic party which is the only political faith they have ever known. Most Southern Democrats, we believe, realize that the only way they can help steer the party in the direction they would like for it to go is to hold their ground and fight against changes other elements are seeking to impose. <

The elements which do not like the Southern ideas within the Democratic party are also aware of this fact. If the Southerners would walk out, these factions^ that lean more to the left would have an easier time imposing their will upon the party , as a whole. They

North Carolina Gas Chamber

By LYNN NISBET,

GAS CHAMBERN(h^ Car-oUna has not abandoned capital punishment or .the lethal gas chamber at State prison, al-although it has been invoked less frequently In recent years. A reader said the other day he was under the impression the chamber had been abandoned.

Actually there are five men on death row. All are waiting

-for outcome of appeals or for new trial. The present occupants are OUs Manning, white, of Edgecombe convicted of murder and now waiting for a new trial; Clarence Pugh, white, of Lee, convicted of miur-der and waiting a new trial; Jesse Graves, colored, of Alamance, convicted of rape, on appeal: Elmer Davis Jr.. colored, Mecklenburg, convicted of murder and on appeal; Leroy

* Jones, colored, under two sentences for murder in Harnett and Scotland, one on appeal.

The most recent execution was that of Matthew Bass. Wake county Negro, convicted of rape and put to death on December 5, 1958.

HISTORYThe gas chamber has been in use as the meUiod of executing capital felons for a quarter century. It replaced the electric chair, which had been in use for a quarter century. in 1935.

Prlw to 1910 executions were by hanging in the county where the crime had been committed.

The 1909 General Assembly outlawed the gallows and local hangings, substituted the electric chair in Central Prison-at Raleigh, and required all executions to be there.

The first victim of the electric chair was Walter Morris of Robeson, colored, convicted of

. rape. He went to his death on

March 18. 1910. The last man

. * electrocuted was Wiley Brice,

coloi^, convicted of murder in ^ Alamance county and execut- ^ ed on July 1, 1938. Between Morris and Brice the electric chair claimed 170 victims.

TRANSITIONThere is a bit of interesting political history

- in the 8ubstituti(m of the gas chamber lor the electric chair. It is one of the very few instances in this century of a ma-

- Jor statewide bill of such im-

' port sponsored by a Republican

being enacted ^Into law; Dr. Charles A. Peterson of Mitchell county introduced the bill early In the 1935 session. At first the Democratic leadershU) didnt pay much attention. Dr. Peterson assembled and present-

^ ed testimony of medical authorities, outstanding sociologists and humanitarians from all over, and built up a case that could not be successfully challenged in favor of gas over electricity as the method of legal killing. The Peterson bill was enacted into law, and the

gas chamber was installed.

There Iras a transition period of more thwi two years when facilities for both methods of execution had to be mair^ain-ed. There were prisoners on death row who had been sentenced to death by electrocution before the method was changed, but had not been put to death. So it was that Allen Poster, Hoke county Negro convicted of rape, became the first victim of the gas chamber on January 24, 1936, nearly two and a half years before Wiley Brice, Alamance murderer, was electrocuted on July I-, 1938. After Brices death the electric chair was dismantled and all executions were by gas.

The gas chamber has claimed a total of 189 victims, including two Negro women executed for murder Rosanna Phillips of Durham on January 1, 1943, and Bessie Williams of Mecklenburg on December 29, 1944.

Records are not immediately available on number of women executed by hanging prior to 1910, but the total is known to be small. Since all executions were held at Central Prison records are complete and accurate.

BREAKDOWNThe total is 361, of whom 172 died by electricity, 189 by gas. Of this to tal 279 (including two women) were executed for murder, 71 for rape and 11 for burglary. Further breakdown shows that 73 white men, 281 Negro men, two Negro women and five Indian men ended their lives in the lethal room at Central Prison.

The' records offer a interesting study in capital crime incidence. There were no executions in 1913, 1954, or 1959. The big years were 1936 and 1947, in each of which 23 persons were put to death by the State. Runners up were 1934 with 20 executions and 1938 with 19. Penologists are not sure about why this wide variance occurred. Most acceptable explanation is tha .delay in court cedure, rather than incidence in crime, accounted for the heavy accumulations some years and the blanks or near blanks in others.

Only five executions have oc-, curved since 1953. This is attributable to the 1955 act which permitted juries to recommend mercy In capital convictions for murder and rape, carrying automatic life time sentences, following earlier removal of arson and burglary from the mandatory death sentence list.

The death penalty for heinous crime has not been abolished in North Carolina. Chances are it will not be for a long time to come. It will be invoked less frequently, as indicated by the trend of the past decade.

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would find the strength of those who oppose them greatly depleted by the 19^3 of the Southern delegation.

As a .whole, the South has stood by the Democratic party through the decades when other sections of the country deserted it. The Solid South has been a vital source of strength to the Democratic party which could be depended upon when the party was in charge of the banjfluet table.

Most Democrats throughout the South are fuily a'ware that they cannot change what they do not like about the Democratic party by leaving the party. As long as the South remains a vital part of the Democratic party, however, it has its voice in party affairs, and it may be able to realize gradually some of its goals for the party.

As an important segment of the Democratic party the South should no more be subject to criticism for seeking to have the party embrace its proposals as other elements within the party.

If the Democrats of the South are to be of service to their party, they must remain in and#fight for their principles rather than pulling out of the party and leaving it to those who would steer the party away from the fundamentals which have made it a positive and powerful political organization.

One Word That Fits Pres. Charles DeGaulle

If there is a greatest living Frenchman" in the world, hes visiting the United States now.

That would be President Charles DeGaulle, of coLirse.

And what makes him great"?

Weve thought on it.

His fame certainly is not due to military genius; and as for statesmanship or political acumen, only history can decide.

Neither literature, nor music, nor medicine, nor law claim him. He has found science useful, but he has not served that field.

So in what way is President DeGaulle great?

The answer can be boiled down to one word:

Faith.

He was unswerving in his faith that France would rise again,* even during the darkest days of World War II.

He kept faith with France when peace was restored by refusing to assume the dictatorial role which was open to him. Nor did DeGaulle involve himself in the political upheavals which followed the war; instead, he said that France called him he would answer.

Eventually, when revolution threatened. General DeGaulle was given the reins of government by the overwhelming will of the French people. The faith DeGaulle had in France was mirrored by the faith of the people in him.

Aside from giving France the greatest degree of interior stability it has known since the end of WWII, DeGaulles work in exterior matters remains a ques-tionmark.

But he has faith; and the French people have faith.

Its something no one can discount.

This Visit By ?res. DeGaulle

Sacco, Vanzetti Ooera

By ALVIN TAYLOR

Seoul Then And Today

As we read of the near revolt which swept through one major South Korean city after another this week, we couldnt help but recall the time we spent in that cpuntry during our army days.

The Koreans always struck your colunist as being polite, happy, peace loving people. However, the .riots of this week show they can be aroused to violence as more and more of their liberties disappear.

One thing that makes the riots so awesome is the huge number of participants the dissatisfied element could muster apparently spontaneously.

We read accounts of thousands of students and others

bearing down on the presidential mansion and on the bombed out capital building. It brought back memories of the old Korean capital on quieter days.

We could recall driving by the empty capital building and down a wide boulevard which was one of the few real wastes of ground space in the heavily populated country. Government buildings lined the boulevard on each side. They, like the capital, were bombed out and not In use.

We also remember having the presidential mansion pointed out to us at one time.

Now we try to Imagine the thousands of demonstrators

Other Editors Sciying. Classroom Shortage

By JAMES MARLOW

WASHINGTON (AP) Its like a visit by the Grand Canyon when President Charles de Gaulle comes to Washington. Hes one of the wonders of nature. But its doubtful hell work any wonders here.

Right now towering, 69-year-old De Gaulle is Frances indispensable man, a kind of miraculous human glue keeping France stuck together. It may not be permanent. In the end he may finish with his prestige badly diminished.

He became the rallying point for his countrymen, the symbol of their dreams for a resurrected France, when it fell in 1940. Two years ago he was recalled from his self-imposed seclusion to save his tottering country from anarchy.

He had lived out of sight, above parties, aloof, keeping alive in himself and his countrymen a vision of himself as the supreme and final custodian of French granduer, ready to make it a reality "if called upon. He was called.

It would have been pathetic if he hadnt been and, instead, had died in seclusion with his mystical belief in himself and his county unused.

What has he done? He has sought to keep three balls in the air:

1. To make France an atomic power. He succeeded, but only because the foundations had been laid long before he took office. He simply kept the program going. Now France has had two nuclear explosions,

2. To convince the world France must be treated as an equal. His importance in this effort has been overplayed and grossly exaggerated. France is not actually the equal of the biggest powers, the United States and t^e Soviet Union, in man

power, strength, or resources.

And, since it still has no nuclear arsenal, it is not militarily equal. Nevertheless, the United States and Britain, which do have nuclear weapons, have brought Prance into its considerations. They did this before De Gaulle.

3. To restore tranquility to a France which was torn apart over the Algerian crisis and badly split internally over its domestic problems when he took office two years ago.

He still hasnt solved the Algerian problem and may never be able to before he leaves the presidency. The Algerian war is now In its sixth year. French farmers are restive under his economic policies.

And the French political partieseven though his leadership remains unchallenged as of noware getting restless under what is practically his one-man rule

In short, despite his pride and his enormous self-confidence in himself and Prance, he may wind up settling nothing and leaving his countrymen with the memory of a grand illusion that he was accomplishing what he didnt accomplish.

He will discuss with President Eisenhower the Western position at the summit in Paris May 16 when they meet with Premier Nikita Khrushchev and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

But that may prove to be nothing more than a pleasant chat, and for this reason:

The Western position was agreed to recently when the Western foreign ministers, including De Gaulles, met here and agreed on summit strategy. What they agreed on was neither imaginative nor startling.

They agreed to stick to the positions they had held for months in dealing with the Soviet Union.

(HeBderson Dispatch)

Arguments are being revived over the question of classroom shortages in the nations public schools. The Council of State Chambers of Commerce claims that "solution of the problem fe already well under way without Federal assistance. and a spokesman for the National Education Association charges the council is playing with figures.

NEA has for years been trumpeting for Federal aid and marshaling an array of statistics to prove its point. It has gone so far as to give the impression that it is more interested in the available cash than in meeting an actual need, and that claims that have been made are exaggerated. Almost anything can be proved with statistics when properly manipulated, and that goes for both sides in this particular argument.

It w'ill be noted that a sizable percentage of the funds that would be made available from Federal sources would go to pay teacher salaries. We believe that holds, too. in the current agitation in North Carolina, where a frenzy has been whipped up in favor of colossal appropriations to meet what are described as urgent school needs. The heat has been and is being turned on in all directions. Many of those who are falling in line are swallowing statements given them without knowing firsthand what the true conditions are.

Calfculations are presented to show what the school population will be in the next few years. The Council of State Chambers says the classroom shortage has not only failed to grow over the past five years as predicted, but has actually declined. Its con

tention is that States and local communities have provided for construction of more classrooms each year than the many so-called authorities argued would be the mximums, and that alleged shortages and projections of need were grossly exaggerated.

Advocates of Federal aid are at least as interested in getting Federal funds for paying teachers salaries as they are in school construction assistance, the council charged, adding that the projections of classroom needs in the years ahead cannot be a cause for alarm. f>Yet many people are allowing themselves to be taken<^i* by contentions advanced by school authorities.

It has been our conviction aU along that the whole principle of Federal aid is wrong, and that centralized government is overstepping the bounds when it barges into this field, which is essentially, that of local communities, or certainly no higher up than the State level. There may be those who would exchange local control for government aid in the hope of profiting personally by enhanced salaries.

Public education in this country has always hitherto been looked upon as the responsibility of cities, towns and counties, and the States. We do not believe there is such an emergency now as to demand or justify government funds. When that is granted, local control will largely vanish. Those who walk blindly into the trap that is being set for them will one day awake to the evil consequences of the surrender to which they > shall have assented.

pouring down that wide boulevard toward the till empty capital.

We can almost see the determined horde of demonstrators marching toward the presidential mansion where an old, old man resides.

And we can see the army troops opening fire as the rioters come forward and dozens of young men falling before the bullets.

The mobs of this week in Korea have brought harshly to the attention of the free world that the Oriental nation is still a troubled land.

And with American troops still there, left over from the days of war with North Korean

^ and Chinese communists. South

Korean problenos could mean troubles for the United States.

Strength

For Today

By EARL L. DOUGLASS ACCURATE MEASUREMENT

Someone wrote a book some years ago entitled, Money the Acid Test. It was a book on the Christian use of money. The title was an apt one. The words acid test suggest a lot of things about the nkture of money, in addition to its being used as a medium of exchange.

For instance, we can usuMly arrive at a pretty accurate estimate of a mans character by observing the way he conducts himself in a money deal. Also we can gauge the real Interest people have in good causes by contributions they make to support them. Money is an acid test of character. That is why Jesus uttered so many parables on the subject of money. Watch the way a man reacts to situations in which profit and loss arc Involved, and we can be quite sure the kind of man he is on the inside of his heart.

There are a lot of people whose idea of friendship is handshaking, backslapplng, and gadding about to parties. There are others for whom friendship is a matter of gushing sentiment. 'The true worth of friendship is revealed when the bottom drops out of the stock market, or when the mortgage on the house is about to be foreclosed, or when an estate is being settled. The way people behave toward their alleged friends when these friends are in trouble, or toward their relatives when the patrimony is being divided constitutes an acid test of character.

Money measures a lot of things, including the character of the people who handle it.

By GEORGE E. SOKOLSKT COPYRIGHT. UMu RING -FEATURE SYNDICATE. INC.

It would seem that the reason for underwriting the forth-comlmg Sacco Vanzetti opera by the Ford Foundation and for producing tt at tne Metropolitan Opera is that Khrushefaev needs to be shown that we are not like Russians. In other words, to prove that we are very good, we have to do things that are very bad. For to an inquiry on this subject, the Metropolitan replied:

. . Neither the Ford Poun-dation nor the Metropolitan Opera asked Mr. Blitzsteln to write an opera on Sacco and Vanzetti. It was he who chose tiie subject, and I dont think you would want to see our country aligned with Russia and the other dictatorshipa which tell their artists what and what not to do and suppress works which do not agree with their views.* This reply has this peculiarity, namely, that no opera bouse in the world needs to purchase an unwritten work on an unsuitable subject by a composer whose operas have never before been produced in any majt* opera house in the world. (Blitz-steins operas have been played In the New York aty Center under Ford Foimdatlon auspices.) The question here arises as to whether the Metropolitan, in this instance, decided that the Sacco-Vanzetti incident was suitable operatic material or did the Ford Foundation do it? Actually the opera had not yet been written when It was optioned by the Metropolitan and the Ford Foundation. It was in the condltiOTi call in process. which can mean anything. It is not expected that any of It wl be ready until the Pall. None of the Ford or MetropoliUn officials have seen it.

The Metropolitan letter also said:

What concerns us most is whether or not the work will be good, and I think you must agree that a subject which still arouses strong feelings more than thirty years after the event must have some dramatic value,

TIm Sacco-Vanzetti theme is not good theater. It Is not particularly dramatic. Here were two anarchists engaged in a robbery. The excitement was not over the facts; it was over the court procedures. Did they have fair trials? The consensus is that they had fair trials- The issue has been captured by Cwnmunists to denounce American justice. Just as the Chessman Case is now being used by the Communists to denounce American justice, so in another decade the Sacco and Vanzetti trials were used for that purpose. Chessman is a rapist; Sacco and Vanzetti were robbers. How much trial is needed to convict men on the facts or do we need to go beyond ths facts into their political allegiances to do them justice? Will the judge stab himself, as they do In Italian operas, to prove that moral justice ties at the end of a stiletto?

The Metropolitan is our principal opera theater. It is one of the glories of the human race. I witnessed a performance there recently of Madama Butterfly, with Dorothy Kirsten in the title role, which was, in staging, acting and musicianship. beyond anything that one could anticipate. The word, glorious, is not an exaggeration for it. Why does such a theater need to pollute itself by contracting to produce an opera subsidized by the Ford Foundation the Sacco-Vazetti Ciase? Is Uiere nothing beautiful in American life?

Why not have an opera on the love life of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, or on Pollys restaurant in Greenwich Village when Hypo-lite Havel was king of little Bohmia. Or perhaps an opera, like Carmen, might be done about a gun-moll who looked after DilUnger, or Virginia Hill Bugsic Siegel, or even about Mayor Jimmy Walker whose joys and tragedies are still recalled in dinner party conversations. If Rudolf Bing, gerneral manager of the Metropolitan, will study American history, he can find dozens of themes and the one that comes to mind is (Continued on page six)

More Inflation Due This Year

Opinions In Brie.

No wonder government gets complicated. We read that a door in a government building in Washington is labeled: 4156, General Services Adminlstra-tiMi, Region 3, Public Buildings Service, Buildings Management Division, Utility Room, Custodial.* Its a broom closet.- Augusta (Oa.) Herald.

(Md.) Herald.

There are some folks who have intens faith in evolution. Among these are some who assure us that it wdir not be long until shaves and haircuts will be so costly that beards and long hair will return to the common run of mankind. Somerset (Pa.) American.

Freedom is a luxury we all delight in. Yet its maintenance often can be inconvenient. If we are not read^ to endure that inconvenience, are we entitled to the luxury? Hagerstown

A womans hat tells you much about her, including whether her husband was along when she bought itMattoon dll.) Journal-Gazette.

By ELMER ROESSNER

There will -be more inflation this year.

All the talk about inflation being halted is more wishful than realistic, more politics than economics.

The rate of inflation has been slowed down considerably. The consumer price index has actually dipped In recent months. From an all-time high of 125.6 in November. 1959, it dropped to 125.5 In December, 123.8 in January and 123.7 in February.

Money has become slightly easier and interest rates are a whisker lower. This is an important sign that inflation has abated, for the moment at least. NO ABATEMENT IN PAY RISES

But ahead is the steel wage rise In December, part of the steel strike settlement. It does not seem probable or even possiblethat this Incrkse will be absorbed by tftr steel companies. Some advances In automation may enable producers

to absorb part of it, but the rest will be met with higher prices.

Higher steel prices will mean higher autos<> higher appliances, higher hardware and higher prices for other items with steel or iron components. ,

Higher wage for steel workers will mean higher wages for other workers: steel union settlements are a common pattern for other demands.

It Is true, as was pointed out here recently (April 18), few major labor agreements expire this year. The one big dispute that of the railroads and. the operating unionsseems to be moving more toward a moderate settlement. It was also pointed out that there will be greater stress on demands for fringe benefits this year, and the" cost of fringes must be packed Into prices. *

BUDGET AND T.\XES

In the Federal government, the budget appears to be getting into balance &o there ie not

much danger of any great increase in Federal borrowing, which is directly inflationary.

In states and cities, however, there are strong pressures for higher taxes and greater borrowing to meet demands for higher pay ft* employees, more employees to provide . services for expanding services, and for more construction.

There are few states and cities that do not face demands for higher pay from janitors up to mayors and governors. In New -York City, for example, practically, all salaries have been increased^ and taxes have been increased by increasing property assessments. Where these increases boost the cost of doing business, they will be reflected in higher prices.

There are other increases ahead. Railroads generally we demanding higher commutation fares: hospitalization Insurance

Is rising rapidly with higher w'ages for hospital workers, his her fee for doctor*, and a

growing inclination of going to hospitals for a vast number of ailments.

So if anybody tells you that inflation is over, uspect poUt-ical bias. Neither the Democratic majority in Congress nor the Republican Administration has fully checked Inflationnor can it as long as labor can freely win deimnds for more money and employers can pass the increases freely on to consumers in the form of higher pric es. ft

footnote on THREATS OF MORE INFLATION

In a study on Causes and Effects of Higher Interest Rates, a New York University study by Drs. Jules I, Bogen and Paul S. Nadler observed:

In the 14 years from 1946 through 1959, the increase in debt in this country was larger than during the entire history of the United States to the end ol 1945.

\ .