Abilene Reporter-News from Abilene, Texas • 19

lb Mm Reporter 38tetoB PAGE ONE ABILENE TEXAS SUNDAY MORNING MARCH 4 1956 SECTION VIOLENT REACTIONS SPLIT GROUPS Dntegration Ds Moving lowly Ahead aim Texas Dr Bluke Smith pastor of the Uni-1 Here are some fields and oeca-versity Baptist Church in Austin I siuns in which segregation patterns HISTORY IS MADE Operators take over the board for the new Stamford dial Ehone system Mrs Ruby Gay standing chief operator observes the work of Mrs Ora 'ell Rector (foreground) night chief operator and Mrs Lola Lowe operator (Photos by John Clifton Anson) HERE'S HOW IT WORKS Stamford Gets Dial Telephones nounced strong support of interposition This is a legal theory which claims the federal government is unconstitutionally stepping on states rights It could nullify the Supreme Court decision some think Probably the most unexpected blow to integration forces came from Dr A Criswell pastor of the huge rich and 'influential First Baptist Church of Dallas Probably no pastor in the South has as much influence on Southern Baptists and Baptists from a great segment of the region Dr Criswell said integration is thing of idiocy and He was speaking of integration in churches Other Baptists quickly asserted he spoke only lot himself But it would be beyond reason not to believe that the many thousands who consider him a spiritual leader will not weigh his remarks in forming their opinions ki all fields of segregation Some Baptist and other ministers disagreed with Dr CriswelL peared to disappear Still only a fraction of the stale's school districts were desegregated at the start of the fall term A great many sdioot boards are actively preparing for integration That possibly is why the NAACP has not gone to court vigorously In this specific and since the Supreme Court decision indicated the court did not believe all schools should he integrated at once Athletics: Net much notice has been paid in recent years to state bus against Negroes and whites competing against each other in athletics on the professional and college level Negroes are prominent on pro baseball teams and mixed boxing and wrestling matches are permitted At schoolboy levels there have been some cancellation of games where integrated schools were scheduled to play all-white schools These have been few The Inter- fee STATE Pg 2B Cel 3 was one of four speakers to withdraw from a recent religious emphasis program at Mississippi State College because they were asked not to say they favored integration As Gov Shivers and Dr Criswell were speaking the NAACP started a drive fur 22000 new Texas members Strong language has been uttered on both sides of the question But it is to the credit of Texans both Negro and white that no violence has occurred All recent incidents involving whites and Negroes have been well investigated and authorities repeatedly have denied that racial tension was the cause The slaying of an officer of a dormant NAACP chapter in Southwest Texas had some earmarks of a racial issue murder Investiga tion proved that another Negro killed him because of a family feud and for money in Texas are changing The NAACP has forced state colleges to accept Negroes in every case it has fought An estimated 17 public colleges in Texas now accept all races On the other hand Texas Southern University at Houston a state school for Negroes did not vote until Jan 10 to admit white students and integrate Hs faculty and administration The school had one application from a white etudniL The NAACP won 1U biggest Texas test of integration of public schools below rfhe college level in the Spring Decision'' last fall In that decision upheld by the state Supreme Court Charlie Sullivan ruled that elementary and high schools which integrate may receive slate financial aid the same as segregated schools Wording of the state aid law had brougld up the question After that all questions of a cal board's rights lo integrate ap By ROBERT FORD The Associated Press It's now more than six months since Negro children sat down with white children in Texas public schools for the first time Forces fighting segregation called it the greatest breakthrough for personal freedom since emancipation Shocked segregationists called it an illegal decision forecast that breakdown of Southern culture and way of life would follow Historic though it was the school decision is only one port of the whole racial question Not within the memory of this generation has the issue caused such violent reactions or split so many groups Where does Texas stand on segregation 10 months after the Supreme Court ruling of May 17 1935? No One Answer There's no one answer A member of the National Assn for Advancement of Colored People might say Texas desegregation is too little and much too slow A more moderate desegregation advocate could point to partial elimination of segregation in scores of fields the trickle which could wipe out the racial dam A survey of segregation in Texas covering the last year or less points to two significant developments: 1 Integration is taking place in Texas in many public and semi-private fields but slowly and certainly not over the whole range of the issue 2 The NAACP hasn't lost a Texas college desegregation fight yet in the courts While these changes were going on integration forces suddenly faced battle on two new fronts last week Shivers Speaks Gov 6hivers who up to then had taken no strong positive action to preserve segregation an RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS IN SOUTH be greeting friends last' minute preparations are hurriedy being made and there are constant glances at the clock which seems to stand still one minute and race madly the next Finally the viry minute arrives Everyone is ready the switch is pulled the old- goes out and Stamford is completely out of for perhaps 13 seconds Then as everyone waits breathlessly the new system is in It works and for a split second there is that feeling which is always among telephone people when they work together like a bond It's felt in their daily work in times of stress or disaster but never more strongly than on completion of a job As this night begins to fade away into telephone history a familiar sound is heard oh Tom did you get that etc etc Pattern of Church Integration Follows That Set by Schools particularly in the semi- gation naries By HUGH MULLIGAN NEW ORLEANS March 3 -Clergymen of the South generally hailed the Supreme Court's decision against segregation in public schools when it was handed down nearly two years ago Did churches have any obligation in an order directed only toward public schools? Were they bound morally or socially to make adjustments because of the New Houses Al Merkel On Exhibil decision? These are some of the great questions in the South today If they were obligated have they practiced what they preached? Have they wiped out segregation in the pew in the choir in religious schools in hospitals orphanages summer camps? Thurgood Marshall chief counsel for the National Assn for the Advancement of Colored People has one answer: churches are passing lovely resolutions and doing no tiling about They could clean up this whole thing in five minutes Is Marshall's view a balanced assessment of the situation or is it the biased view of a partisan? What are the facts? Birarial Church Brils Church bells in the South like school bells still for the most part have a biracial tone calling Negroes and whites to worship the same God at separate altars and ing His praises from segregated choir lofts The patten of church integration-blurred here and there by has been almost the same as the pattern of public school integration There are numerous Instances in the border stales where Negroes are a small minority little or none in the Deep South where they constitute a large minority if not a majority Scattered through the South there have been signs of change Every major church group has taken some steps toward ending si-gre- Catholic lawmakers said the decision will be appealed and the appeal (ails then we'U come up with some new segregation There have been other moves to- ward integration The Southern Regional Council studying the problem under a Ford Foundation grant lists more than SO while denominational colleges that now accept Negroes and a dozen or so Negro colleges that accept whiles Negro doctors and Negro patients ere being admitted to church hospitals in some areas Many church camps Sunday schools and youth meetings have erased the color line There have been instances where Negro parishes and congregations were abolished and merged with white nciglibors Ministerial associations in some cities similarly are issuing invitations to Negro clergymen and many church cohferences and committees are accepting Negro delegates Nrgre 'Firsts' The Rev Funderburk presiding cider of the African Methodist Episcopal Church became the first Negro president of the Moore County (NC) Ministerial Assn A white woman enrolled at Philander Smith College a Methodist Negro institution at Little Rock James A Hamlclt Spanish Instructor recently became the first Negro faculty member at See SOUTH Pg 2-B Col 1 ulthough at the same time witnessing demonstrations of outrage by factions within its membership Archbishop Joseph Francis Hummel ol the New Orleans diocese in a letter read last month in every Roman Cattuilic church in the archdiocese called racial segregation wrong and Spokesmen for the archbishop had announced plans earlier to integrate Catholic schools sometime after 1936 The archbishop's letter gave no more definite date but his first pulrfic denunciation of segregation as sinful drew rapt attention from listeners The archdiocese has a Catholic population of more than half a million All of Louisiana has more than half the South's Catlwlics and one in five of the nation's Negro Catholics but two other Louisiana dioceses Lafayette and Alexandria are not under Archbishop Hummel's control Despite the archbishop's denunciation a group of Catholic laymen has said it will continue to try to have Catlwlic schools put under Louisiana's 1954 school segregation laws when tlie Legislature meets in May Catholic schools were nut Included at the archbishop's insistence when the laws were drafted The move is going forward even though a three-judge US Court of Appeals held the laws unconstitutional in February Rep Gravolet Jr speaking for other the use of the dial telephone Four men are spending the days calling customers and having them caU back This is done by temporarily disconnecting the phone from the old system onto the new All four men are continuously yelling out their code name and the subscriber's numbers to another man who is doing the connecting and disconnecting After the connection is made to the subscriber the conversation may go something like this: Please CaU Back is the telephone company We are testing your telephone WiU you please call me back on telephone No 3-3810? No ma'am the number is 3-3810 Hello hello! You did not hang up before you started dialing What's that? You say you don't have a dial on your phone? We must have missed you We will send a man right out to install one" While conversations are going on with customers other phrases are heard all over the room 'Hey this number does not a workman is saying me pull a jumper to you and see where it goes Where did my soldering iron go? Now where is that it has to be in by 10 tonight And so it goes To the outsider it might seem like bedlam but not to the phone men Each has his own job to do and goes about it with his own requirements About the first thing a telephone man learns in not to be distracted by that which goes on around him even though the person right beside him may be carrying on conversation completely different from the one he is engaged in New and Old As time and work draw nearer the end Chandler must have one eye on the new and the other on the old There must be someone to coordinate the work as it goes on someone to answer phones as the outside men installers and repairmen call in He must keep dupicate records as men are dispatched from one phone to an other This fellow might get so absorbed in what he's doing he doesn't realize the pipe he is smok ing burned out 30 minutes ago Meanwhile prints by the hundreds must he sorted and filed A new kind of paper work has to be set up new bulletins painted and everything cleaned and inspected for tho big event is amost due One part of the department Is quiet and smooth the desk of Carpenter's clerk She goes on with her work but spends much of her time paying company bills and is suing vouchers for the pounds of steaks consumed by the out-of-town employes helping in Stamford At last the long awaited night arrives and at the stroke of mid night the long awaited cutover will be made Company officials from all over the area will be there friends will By JOHN CLIFTON STAMFORD March 3 Stamford now has the dial telephone system! Service was switched to the new equipment Sunday 1:01 am and as Stamford folk awake Sunday they will be able to dial fur the first time What does it take to put dial system into a town? Wed it is not done with black magic or the sudden flip of a switch in a bos It is accomplished through months of tedious work planning reading of blueprints and tremendous expense And all this becomes the headache of the local wire chief In this case the wire chief is a thin dark fellow known to all his associates simple as Tom Chandler must have heard his name called so many limes in the last few months that at times he hated the sound of it The fact he was able to remain calm and even crack a few jukes with his men is in part responsible for the efficient system Stamford people find with their telephones Sunday morning provid ed they remembered to use the dud Started Months Age It all started several months ago when dials were being placed on all 2200 Stamford phones At about the same time the telephone building was being enlarged to accommodate the new equipment began arriving every day stacking up in storerooms Now the building is finished and Western Electric people begin installing equipment Men swarm all over the place and soon telephone men from other towns come in to help test and work out the new system Engineers are in and out Tom Chandler needs to be in about a dozen places at one time Long distance calls come in from phone officials all over Uie state percent of the office is complete?" Chandler is asked we on schedule? When do you expect to be through? Do you need more Training Operators About this time operators are being trained Many have never seen a long distance board in dial office and even those who have must get acquainted with all the new methods They do not even have dials on their boards now just push buttons like a cash register And there is all the new inlcr-toll dialing equipment and dozens of little iloms every girl must learn As new numbers are being connected in the plant room men are all over the frame running wires and testing Deadline is nearing and every minute counts hut still the service customers now have must be kept up Each customer must be railed and his phone tested Oltcn this requires instructing the customer in in Lincoln Junior High Editorial Charges Pedestrian Underpass Is Dirty Unkept MERKEL March 3 RXS' -Merkel will show off its new housing project to the public Sunday as the first five of a large group of homes to be constructed here are unveiled Herman Carson president of the Merkel Development Co said Carson said open house for the five houses will commence at 3 pm and people from this area are invited to attend and see the first step in a project designed to alleviate the housing problem in Merkel Horace Boney insurance nun and general manager of the project said the homes which will be constructed here win range from 19000 to $13000 "We plan to start another group of homes in the near Boney said The homes are located in the southwest part of Merkel The development company also has purchased additional land in the area and houses will be built on a 40-acre tract which is under development Boney stated There will be a merry-go-round on the grounds for the entertainment of children and soft drinks will be served free Boney said The housing project is a dream of several Merkel businessmen who last year formed their own corporation to promote building in Merkel These houses are a result of a year's planning and work As the houses are sold additional homes will be built Boney said OILBELT DISTRICT 7 Teachers of 23 Counties Meet in Sweetwater Couple of weeks ago we com-' plained in this column that the students of Lincoln Junior High School 1st and Peach Sts weren't using the pedestrian underpass under 1st St 1st St and the Texas Pacific Railway We deplored the fact that the pupils are swarming out into 1st SL which is a part of heavily traveled Highway 80 endangering themselves in traffic Comes now the "Longhorn Roundup" student newspaper of Lincoln Junior High School giving Its version of why the pupils don't use the underpass In an editorial entitled or the publication calls the underpass of the dirtiest most unkept places in public use in just once but many times it has been used si an outdoor the editorial charges Dirt waste paper and water also collect there from the street It is indeed not a very sanitary place Gases from auto exhausts collect there also" The editorial relates that sometimes the school janitor goes under there 'to try to clean the place out but that little if any cleaning is done by the city it rains you almost have to swim if you walk there because of the inadequate drainage" the article soys part of the underpass under 1st is tower than the drain system thus all the water runs there or into the underpass that goes under the railroad tracks Here is another low place This has flooded almost every time it rained for years" It is further alleged in the itu-dent editorial that not too long ago the section of the underpass under 1st SL filled up with an overflow of sewer Cement on the floor has cracked and buckled up inches high in some places the article says At night it is so dark there you cannot see these obstructions They could cause serious injury the editorial declares dark you do not know whom you might find there1 it goes on to say are sometimes found there Trains hurl rocks from under the wheels into the underpass with great force" In cold weather ice and enow form on the steps making them dangeroue and besides the on the walls isn't such desirable reading the article avers The editorial urges: 1 A regular clean up service from the city 2 Better draioage system 3 Installation of lights where needed 4 A regular police patrol both day and nighl Health Physical Education Safety SWEETWATER March 3 The 13th annual convention of Oilhclt1 District 7 Texas State Teachers Assn will be held here Friday and Saturday School teachers and administrators from 23 West Central Texas counties are expected to attend Theme of the 1956 convenUon is Freedom's Hix of Abilene is president of the district Other officers are A Reaves of Wichita Falls past president Mrs Johnnie Quizcnber-ry of Seymour vice president A Hefner of Graham secretary Johnnie Mae Long of Wichita Falls treasurer and Frank Utter of Abilene membership chairman Counties In the district are Archer Baylor Callahan Clay East-land Fisher Foard Hardeman Haskell Jack Jones Knox Mno-taguc Nolan Scurry Shackelford Stephens Stonewall Taylor Throckmorton Wichita Wilbarger and Young The first general session begins Friday at 10 am in Sweetwater Muniripul Auditorium with Hix presiding Dr William Van Til director of teaching and curriculum for George Peabody College will make the principal addrrss Dr Glenn Blough professor of education at the University erf Maryland will be featured speuker at the second general session starting at 7:30 pm Friday The final session will begin Saturday at 10 am Mrs Billie Davis Hobo Kid" will be principal speaker alize a better form of citizenship training than this Other phases of Sliotweli's Job included: 1 Overseeing the teaching of physical education throughout the school system 3 supervising the classes in health 3 acting as liaison man from the public schools with the city civil defense director in working out school plans fur handling tornado emergencies and other disasters 4 teaching class for boys in high school in the art of refereeing and assigning these boys to bo referees for the football basketball and baseball games of the elementary schools and working with the city and in designing traffic patterns around schools (locations of the crosswalks parking arrangements etc) The position which Shot-well has filled for the Abilene public schools is a very valuable one indeed We hope the School Board will select a good repliccment for Shot well now that he has resigned to become McMurry College's athletic director effective June 1 Name of the public scltool job Is of health physical education and That's a mouthful and the work is as voluminous as the name sounds One of Shot well's duties has been to supervise the safety poinds which students In the elementary schools operate The pupils honored with becoming patrol members direct pedestrian traffic of their fellow students at street crossings adjacent to their schools It would be hard to visu DR GIEW BLOl'GII Maryland professor versify Miss Myrtle Williams San Angelo Dr Joe Humphrey academic dean McMurry College Also Dr Robert Curiam professor of education University of Texas: Dr John McFarland superintendent of schools Vernon Mrs Sholwcll Abilene Trot Burnant chairman of 11-SU part meat of mathematics Also Charlotte Dubois assistant professor of music education University of Texas: Boyce House Fort Worth Dr Sterling Price Abilene: and Dr Empress Zedler Southwest Texas State Teachers College DR WILLIAM VAN Til George Peabody director Breakfasts luncheons and dinners will be held by several school groups Friday and Saturday Section meetings will begin Friday at 2 pm Sections to meet include deans and counselors geography industrial arts library iqfcty education school nurses science social science and speech Other convention speakers include Dr Madge Davis professor of English and journalism at Midwestern University Dr Glenn Barnett associate dean University of Texas Dr Smith department of ait Hardin-Simmoos Uni- TOM CHANDLER at last It's done I.