In counting headlines, the -c- would count one, while the -’- would count one-half. They ran out of room on the one-column headline. Now that text can be electronically sized, I doubt they even teach counting headlines any more. Most lower case letters are 1 (i is one half, lower case l might be). Most upper case is 1.5, Upper case W and M count 2. You know what count fills a column for each type size. You want to come as close to a full line as possible.
So using a -c- there would have mean a complete re-write.
And that’s probably more than you want to know about the archaic practice of counting headlines.
I’ve noticed they tried to save characters by using shorter terms where possible. E.G. Foe instead of Enemy, Nazis instead of Germans, and as I will point out tomorrow, Solomons instead of Guadalcanal. They have on occasion used the full spelling of MacArthur in headlines or subheadlines.