davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1956-12-30
Answers to Questions
Segregation Was the Big News

figuring in the original Supreme
Court decree, also was carried fur
ther in the courts through technical
legal maneuvers.
Republican Again
Politically, it was a good year for
Republicans in Virginia--as else
where. President Eisenhower won
386.459 Virginia votes. or 55.4 per
cent Of the total. while Adlai Ste
venson received 267.760. or 38.3 per
cent. This represented a 81 per
cent drop for Mr.. Stevenson from
1852. This year. a Virginia presi-
Dental candidate, T. Coleman An
drews Of Richmond. who carried the
States rights banner, ran surpris-
ingly poor. picking UP only 1879
votes.
At the Democratic National Con-
vention Of 1856, as in 1852. the
State organization headed by Sena-
tor Harry F. Byrd. held out TO the
bitter end against the nomination
Of Adlai Stevenson. In both conven-
tions, after a landslide had devel-
oped for Mr.. Stevenson, stubborn
Virginia delegates refused to change
their votes.
Aside from Mr.. Eisenhower's VIC
tory, Republican successes were not
spectacular. The @. o. p. succeeded
in retaining two of the 10 seats in
the House OF Representatives but
failed (by a narrow margin) to pick
up third.
Republicans seemed to be build
ing UP for the gubernatorial cam
palgn of 1857 with the hopes Of
putting State Senator Ted Dalton
across. Mr.. Dalton nearly succeeded
in his race in 1858.
Many had thought there would
be a serious intra-party fight for
the Democratic gubernationial no.
mination next year, thus working 10
the Republicans advantage. But,
State Attorney General j. Lindsay
Almond. jr.. formally announced in
mid-November as candidate for
the 1857 primary. Other announce
ments quickly removed potential
candidates from the race---Senator
Gray, Lieut.. Gov. A. z. s. Stephens
and then the anti-organization
Democrat. Delegate Robert White
head Of Nelson County.
The elincher came this month
when Senator Byrd, himself. gave
Mr.. Almond q pat on the back and
urged the faithful 70 start cam
paisning early. A the rear closed.
Evening star., 1956-12-30

Justice to Hungary. but efforts to
send observers to that strife-torn
nation were rebuffed by the Kadar
regime and by the Soviet Union.
Thousands Of refugees poured
across the border into Austria, and
Western governments and private
relief agencies began the big task
of finding them new homes.
Overwhelming Victor
1t was no surprise that President
Eisenhower won reelection. Neither
did it surprise many when the DEM
ocrats retained control of the House
and apparently the Senate.
The way it happened, however,
surprised Just about everybody.
Mr.. Eisenhower, in sweeping
everything before him. proved much
stronger than many of his own sup
porters had ever imagined. First,
he won a number of States that had
been counted safely Democratic:
Tennessee, West Virginia, and-of
all things-Louisiana. He left the
Solid South shattered, taking five
Of the IL Southern States, and
most of them easily.
The totals: Mr.. Eisenhower,
33,927, AL and Asst electoral votes;
Mr.. Stevenson, 27,314,992 and 73
electoral votes. Zone electoral vote
subsequently was cast for Federal
Evening star., 1956-12-30
VIRGINIA
BY ALEX R. PRESTON

The battle over public school seq
regation provided Virginia's big
gest headlines during the past IL
months.
AS the year closes, the State Is
still grasping at every legal sire
in an attempt to circumvent the
United States Supreme Court de-
segregation decision.
When 1856 began, Virginia had
a plan to meet the problem-the
Gray Commission plan. AS 1856
bows out, that plan has been
virtually scrapped, its key pro-
visions renounced by the commits
sion's own chairman. q majority OF
Its members and Gov. Stanley.
Instead. after a regular session
and special session OF the General
Assembly. State Constitutional
Convention and q Statewide refer
endum, Virginia has a new set Of
laws. far more stringent than the
Gray Commissions proposals. Key
provisions Of the new laws are to
withhold State funds and close pub
lie schools where integration may
occur as a result of a Federal court
order.
Ramiflcations Of segregation de-
velopments were too numerous to
detail in this column. There were
such side Developments as the re-
peal Of Arlingtons right to elect its
own school board.
Until this year. Arlington was the
only one Of Virginia's 80 counties
with the right to elect school board
members. In January the school
board said there would be limited
integration. providing State Law and
policy allowed II.
This awakened the Legislature 10
the fact that integration would be
possible under the Gray plan. The
Arlington boards action probably
was the largest single factor that
led to abandonment Of the plan.
In retaliation against Arlington,
the legislature passed the bill OF
Delegate Frank p. Moncure OF Stat
ford which placed the naming OF
school board members in the hands
Of the local governing body.
Several segregation suits were
filed during the year By the Ma
tional Association for the Advance
ment Of colored People. They were
directed against Arlington. Char
lottesville. Norfolk. Newport News
and other localities. A suit against
Prince Edward County, one Of ave
Evening star., 1956-12-30

Council. Mr.. Dulles bespoke re-
newed and firmer ties among the
nations Of the West, but tempered
his remarks with words of reassur-
ance to Moscow that the free world
intended no fishing In troubled sat-
elite waters.
India's Prime Minister Nehru,
growing in stature as the Afro
Asian bloc gained more and more
say in world politics, came to visit
President Eisenhower. The two
carried on long and very confiden-
tial talks. and the man who speaks
for the uncommitted "neutralist"
world departed seemingly much
pleased with his visit.
The Arab world seemed disposed,
in part. to press measures against
Israel as the price for their CO.
operation with the U. N. The Syri-
ans refused to allow repairs to the
damaged IraQ-Syria oil pipeline un-
til Israel departed from the GAIA
Strip. This the Israelis said they
would not do.
Japan was seated in the United
Nations, ending her long journey
back into the comfy of nations.
And the rulers of the Soviet
Union met in the Kremlin amid
STRINGS and uprisings, challenges
and protests from the restless satel-
htes. The Central Committee of the
Communist Party. real ruling body
for Communist world policy as we'll
as Soviet Union directions, decided
that the Red industrial accomplish
ments were not all they should be.
New Defense Roles
At home. the years end found
the Army and the Air Force study
ing 4 new definition of their roles
laid down by Defense Secretary
Wilson's most sweeping reassign-
ment of military service missions
since uniflcation.
Mr.. Wilson had, in effect, told the
Army that it was essentially q
ground force and must begin spend
ing less time in the air. AS for the
Air Force, It's goal of 1877 wings
should be reconsidered, the Secre-
tary said.
Last week the Army proposed
cuts in the manpower of It's 10
divisions.
In other developments:
. An aftermath Of September viol-
ence in Clinton. Tenn. over school
integration, resulted In the arrest
of 16 pro-segregationists. They were
arrested on charges Of violating q
Federal court order.
. A big battle was shaping I'D
in Democratic congressional ranks
between the liberals and the con-
servatives in the party.
. Adlai Stevenson said that he
had had it. The wice-defeated
Democratic standard bearer an
nounced that II will not run again
for the presidency. The announce
ment had been expected.
. Segregationists in Birmingham,
Ala, chose Christmas night to bomb
the home of militant Negro leader,
Baptist Minister F. L. Shuttles-
worth. The following day Negroes
in Tallahassee. Fla, ended
months-long boycott Of segregated
city buses. In both cities, race ten
sion increased during the last days
of 1856.
Evening star., 1956-12-30
Review Of 1856

it a means to bring Col. Nasser to
his knees, while the American posi-
ton was limited to guaranteeing
continued use Of the canal.
The turmoil in the Soviet satel-
lites picked up in tempo. After sew
eral days of quiet talks between
Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito and So
Wet Communist party chief Khru-
shchev on the Adriatic island of
Brioni. Marshal Tito few with his
guest to Yalta. in Russia's Crimea,
where the biggest of Soviet bigwigs
gathered for mysterious confer
ences.
In Nicaragua, Dictator Anastosia
Somoza fell victim to an assassin's
bullets and died of his wounds.
Evening star., 1956-12-30
OCTOBER
Revolution
And War

October, 1856, stands q good
chance of becoming one Of the big
months in history.
1t was then that the Communist
empire came unstuck, perhaps never
to be welded together again. And
1t was then that the abortive
Middle East war began, shaking
the Western alliance and giving the
United Nations an opportunity to
vastly increase its stature as a
peace-keeping agency.
In the Communist world the
restlessness and confusion born
with the Khrushchev denunciation
OF Stalinism in March erupted with
a bloody violence which made the
June Poznan riots comparable to
the mere sputtering of a fuse.
The developments began with a
surprise flight to Poland by almost
the entire hierarchy of the Soviet
collective leadership. In Warsaw,
the Russians met in stormy session
with Wladyslaw Gomulka, the Po-
lish Communist chieftain lately re-
leased from Stain imposed prison
term. They went back to Moscow
as silently as they came, but it
was clear from available informa-
ton on what went on at the con-
ference that Soviet control over
Poland's Communist Party was
shaken. Poland's new nationalistic
version of independent commu-
nism" was about to flower.
Then. on October 26, the smol-
dering embers of rebellion in Hum
gary burst into flame. First in
Budapest and then across the ma
tion, workers and students set off,
apparently without organization or
central direction, a full-scale up
rising against their Communist
bosses.
Evening star., 1956-12-30

Continued From Page Ais
campaigning hard and the post
convention elation had not yet been
punctured by a vigorously cam
paigning President.
democratic campaign theoreti-
clans we're able to blueprint
victory contingent on a number Of
hopeful ifs. They we're counting
on Solid South (48.5 per cent of
victory, Midwestern strength in
unhappy farm areas. and the big
Northern cities with their heavy
minority votes.
The Republicans didn't seem
worried in the least, but this very
lack of apprehension prompted
Chairman Leonard Hall to warn
his party against "complacency."
Republican confidence was shaken
on September 10 when Maine, long
regarded as a political bellwether,
reelected a Democratic Governor
for the second time since the Civil
War. elected a Democratic Con-
gresham and came very close to
electing another one.
Now it was the Democrats who
needed some warning against COM
placency. Strangely, it was during
this same week of good news that
their campaign began to slip and
the party's own leaders began to
question their previous confidence.
RoeioI Violence
AS always, September days were
school days" again. But this Sep
tember they were far from being
the golden rule days" Of the song.
Racial violence was visited on a
number of towns that for the first
time tried to send Negro and white
children to the same schools.
In Clinton, Tenn, 633 National
Guardsmen with full combat equip
ment-including machineguns and
seven tanks-were sent in to re-
store order after a mob of segre-
gationists had virtually taken the
town over in protest against the
integration of IL Negro children
into the Clinton High School.
Tanks parked in front of the
school and the Negroes were es-
corted to class by squads of rifle
toting troopers. The violence, it
developed, had been the work of
outside instigators.
Plons for Suez
At a short and unproductive
meeting in Cairo, Col. Nasser re-
jected the London Conference pro-
posal for Observation-Disclosures of the
Suez Canal. In the ensuing con-
fusion as to what to do next, there
appeared plan for a Users Asso-
ciation," presumably fostered by
Secretary of State Dulles, to pilot
its own ships through the water
way. 1t came to nothing, as Brit
ain and France seemed to see in
Evening star., 1956-12-30
MARYLAND
By GENE GOODWIN

Looking back over Maryland's
1856, political story stands out
above the rest-the story of MilIard
E. Tydings and his unfulfilled
comeback.
Mr.. Tydings had represented
Maryland in the United States Sem
ate for "a years until his defeat in
1850 by Republican Senator Butler.
In order to gain a 1856 rematch
with Senator Butler, Mr.. Tydings
first had to defeat hard-campaign-
ing George P. Mahoney in the Dem
ocratic senatorial primary last
spring. He accomplished this, by
the narrowest of margins, after
campaigning at pace which
proved to be too intense and swift
for his Sc years.
Evening star., 1956-12-30

Soon after the May primary,
doctors sent Mr.. Tydings to bed
with an infected tooth. which then
developed into a very severe and
painful case of facial shingles last
ing all summer. His ailments we're
attributed. at least in part, to cam
paign fatigue.
Reluctantly, in August, he issued
statement from his sick bed,
withdrawing as the Democratic
nominee.
This put the choice of his sue
cessor up to the Democratic State
Central Committee, a majority of
whose members had been committed
to Mr. Mahoney in the primary.
Most of them stuck by him and he
won the nomination on the first
ballot over the opposition of Mrs.
Tydings, who then did all she could
to help Mr.. Mahoney in the general
election.
AS it turned out, of course. Sen
ator Butler easily defeated Mr..
Mahoney in the November 6 ballot
ing. That election also returned all
seven Maryland Congressman -four
Democrats and three Republicans)
to Capitol Hill.
Roods SeondoI Aired
The year 1856 saw the conviction
Of Constas tGus) Basiliko and Max
Gutenberg in the much-publiciZed
Maryland roads speculation scandal.
Their appeals still we're pending as
the year closed.
Chief witness for the prosecution
in the Rockville trial was Ben Du
Pre-, former State Roads Commits
sion right-of-way engineer, who
claimed he gave advance informa-
ton TO the accused pair on the
routes Of some Montgomery and
Prince Georges County highway
projects.
Acting in response to increasing
public criticism OF the roads COM
mission. Gov. McKeldin last June
forced the resignation Of two OF
the three commissioners. He
named Robert o. Bonnell, Baltimore
banker. TO be the new chairman at
$4,000 year, making him the
highest paid State roads chairman
IN the Nation.
Russell II. Mccain. the old chair
man. was taken into the Governors
office as an administrative assistant
The 1856 session OF the Maryland
General Assembly was highlighted
by the beer fight and the grand
inquest
The first involved a powerfully
lobbied bill sought by Maryland
breweries TO keep the Canadian
controlled Carvings Brewery Co.
from opening a new brewery in the
Free State. The bill was passed.
after a heated debate in which
Delegate Warren Browning, Demo-
crat Of Montgomery. charged that
the State House was being flooded
by free beer.
Gov. McKeldln vetoed the meas
ure, after some pressure from Fed
eral ofi1cials concerned about eco-
nomic relations with Canada Since
then. the Maryland breweries have
said they will not seek 70 get the
legislature 70 override the yeto
in the 1857 session. which opens in
Annapolis on Tuesday.
The grand inquest Is the name
given 70 a special power the LeEis-
lature has under the Constitution
70 cit as a State grand jury and In.
vestigate almost anything II pleasel
IN the public interest. Il was IN.
voked last winter for the frst tim,
In many years 70 investigate ths
causes OF The Baltimore Transit Co
strike. n lasted almost Q month
Evening star., 1956-12-30
BY HECTOR MCLEAN


One year ago the District Com
missioners asked Congress to set
UP a publicly owned Washington
metropolitan transit authority to
take over Capital Transit Co.
Thus Washington was off to a
1856 in which a transit mess-for
the second year in row-domi-
mated District news.
The old CTC franchise had been
ordered revoked by Congress dur
ing the previous summers 52-day
strike. effective August IA, 1856.
and the Commissioners had not
been able to find any private oper-
atol willing to run the system under
the economic. and regulatory con-
ditions which had produced the
strike. Therefore they called for
public ownership.
The Senate passed the public
ownership bill with several re-
visions, largely designed to give
special breaks to the transit labor
union. but the House baked. It's
Interstate and Foreign Commerce
Committee worked out a deal to
give the company tax relief and to
modify its regulatory control. The
House passed bill to restore the
franchise to Capital Transit under
the ownership OF Florida multimil-
lionaire Louis Z. Wolfson.
The tax-relief deal attracted
some potential private buyers. and
the House vote came just as a syn
dicate of local businessmen headed
by Daniel w. Bell, president of the
American Security a. Trust Co..
was trying to buy the company and
keep it in private hands.
The Bell syndicate dropped out
OF the bidding after CTC itself
worked out a sale with National
City Lines. Nationwide transit
holding company. for $l3.440, 900,
thus boosting the price about 81
million.
Then, with a couple of other
bidders suddenly on the scene. the
House Senate conference commit
tee which was trying To reconcile
the two widely divergent bills asked
the Commissioners to handle me-
gotlations.
They did so. insisting on modifi-
cations in the House restoration
bill, and finally gave the nod to o.
Roy Chalk. n dapper New York
millionaire who owns real estate
there and runs TRANSIT Caribbean
Airways, now semi-regular nom
scheduled airline.
Mr.. Chalk beat out one other
potential operator in a midnight
bidding match. which ran the price
up another 100000. and took over
the company August Is. winning
from the union a 75-day contract
extension and later a three-year
contract for which he paid 81 cents
an hour in wage increases.
AT year end Mr.. Chalk was
irving TO get the city 10 approve a
nine-point program 70 speed serv-
Ice cut costs and increase business
--and was encountering special re-
luNldiCt 10 Try Suggestion tnat
lanes on nine streets be reserved
for buses only
A New Commissioner
At the height Of the transit
furcr the CITY eoi a new Commits
sioner. David B Karrick. who was
appointed when samuel Spencer
determinedlg ended his three year
tour OF duty This brought the
election Of Robert +. Mclaughlin.
former chairman OF the Public
Utilities Commission, who had been
blamed by the Capital Transit
Co. for the eIty's muddls. a. presi-
dent Of the Board Of Commits
eionert
Mr., Ksrriek took over super
Evening star., 1956-12-30

vision OF Health, Welfare and Cor
rectionS Departments and acquired
several major headaches.
Most urgent was the replace
ment Of DR.. Daniel L. Seckinger,
who announced he would retire at
the end of next January because
of i'll health. After several months
OF hunting the Commissioners
finally chose DR.. Daniel l.. Finu-
cane, superintendent of the city's
Glenn Dale Hospital, as the new
health officer.
Mr.. Karrick also picked up a
suggestion that the city might
save about $40 million for a new
prison if it could expand parole
and probation programs to get
third of the prisoners out of the
overcrowded District Jail and
prisons. AS the year ended he
was chairman of a special COM
mittee trying to find some other
ways Of handling the city'S minor
offenders. especially drunks.
Also the city was restudying its
standards on how much it ought
to give relief recipients to keep
them alive and healthy. This was
ordered when the Commissioners
increased the amount Of monthly
payments from rs to 83 per cent
Of minimum subsistence standards.
Earlier District residents got an
unusual thrill when, for the first
time in 83 years. they went to the
polls in May to vote in a Govern
ment-sponsored election Of dele
gates to the Democratic and Re-
publican conventions.
Democrats, ignoring the fact
that former Commissioner F. Jo-
seph (Jiggs) Donohue was Senator
Estes Kefauver's national campaign
manager. went strongly for Adlai
Stevenson's slate. The Republicans,
with no presidential contest, stuck
with the Old Guard leadership of
Col. George l.. Hart and turned
back rebel uprising led by Attor-
ney George Lamb.
The School Hearings
District schools came in for some
national publicity when a Southern
dominated subcommittee Of the
House District Committee held pub
lie hearings on racial integration
here The subcommittee heard a
great deal OF testimony to indicate
that ending OF segregation had
dragged down standards in white
schools. counterbalanced by other
testimony that the lower standards
Of the colored schools had been
caused by segregation itself. At
years end, the subcommittee was
considering a controversial report
assailing integration.
Meanwhile. pushing a campaign
for more teachers and more schools.
the Board OF Education backed a
plan to ask for construction loans
from the Treasury or through bond
iSsues-to speed up the school
building program. using $40 million
and five-year plan as target.
The next points Of attack we're TO
be the Commissioners and Con-
gress.
All this was viewed darkly by the
District budget Office. which, during
the year, supervised a new method
OF preparing the city's annual
spending program blue -penciling
departmental requests before a
public hearing and before final
consideration by the Commission
ers. Thus. for the first time. the
public had a chance 70 debate q
spending plan related 10 the eitys
expected income OF about t205
million for the coming year.
This level OF income had grown
out OF increases imposed BY Con-
Eress last spring. designed 70 boost
city revenues about tio million .