Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 1970)
Opinions/Analysis Nicholas Von Hoffman Illinois race strange indeed WASHINGTON— The best thing about him was that nobody ever heard of him and if they had, they forgot. A klutz, what comes out of 15 sleazy years of statehouse politics, Mr. Forgettable. But Ralph Tyler Smith, the heir to Everett McKinley Dirksen’s seat and all his vices but none of his entertaining virtues, couldn’t be hidden forever. The way everybody is finding out is via a piece of Smith’s campaign literature—a coloring book called Ralph, The Story of a Boy from Southern Illinois Who Grew Up to Become a United States Senator. Watch boats and chew gum Drawn in the style of Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts,” the book then urges the voters of Illinois to vote for him because, “Ralph was lucky. He lived near a big river. Sometimes his father would walk him to the river. Here they would talk and look at boats and chew gum. Would you like to write a letter to Ralph? If you do, he’ll write you a letter, too.” So much for Ralph, who can’t be ac cused of making any dishonest campaign promises. If you write, you’ll get an an swer. But what about the other man? The theory is that if one of the candidates of fers ice cream and bubble gum, you expect the other Joe to have a little more heft to him. In this instance, the other Joe is Adlai Stevenson III. Mr. Three has his famous father’s bald dome, and a reputation for packing as good a set of brains underneath it. Not too long ago, Ralph and Mr. Three met on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” This resulted in some dialogue which goes a long way toward explaining why ad vertisers will spend 12,000 dollars a minute to sponsor pro football. Foran works for Stevenson David Broder, political analyst from the Washington Post and guest panelist, nudged the boys into their act by saying, “Mr. Stevenson, I noticed that when Thomas Foran, the prosecutor of the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial, joined your campaign as co-chairman, you were asked how you felt about the statute under which those seven men were tried you were quoted as saying that if you’d been a member of the senate in 1968, you would not have voted for it, but that you would support it today. Does that answer not really back up Sen. Smith’s charge that you are a Johnny-come-lately to this question of law and order?” Mr. Three: No, I’m not a Johnny come-lately, and I resent the suggestion. When I was in the legislature, I led the fight against crime. I received the best legislator award...for that fight against crime...Vice President Agnew...accused me of being soft on crime; he said we need a law on bombs. I wrote the law for Illinois on bombs when I was in the legislature five years ago. I even put my opponent’s name on as co-sponsor. Ralph: I put my name on that. Don’t you put my name on the bill. Mr. Three: I have condemned student violence from one end of this country to the other—from Berkeley to Harvard. My opponent was quoted the other day as having said that if the campuses of Illinois were quiet this fall that he would claim some credit for it because he started speaking out against student violence six months ago. Ralph: I have not said I’ve been talking six months on campus violence. That’s ridiculous and he knows it, but it is typical of the type of innuendo he’s been using. (Earlier in the show, Mr. Three had accused Ralph of demagoguery, tissues of lies and insinuations, so this made them even.) In a way, though, Mr. Three is yet more of a bane than Ralph. Ralph, at least, can’t be forced into condemning the John Birch extremists and law-breakers. As far as is known, the John Birch people, while they may be nutty, while they may be fanatics, don’t break any laws, but Mr. Three’s tendency is to suggest that they, and all the other law-abiding people on the far Right and the far Left, have something to do with bombing and rioting and should be rejected, cast out and in effect repressed. No ideas for 30 years Yet, it is the far Eight and the far Left who raise the hard questions about public life that Mr. Three’s “vital center” is too inert and to compromised to bring up. Vital center politicians hold almost every governmental job in America and none of them, in either party, have had an idea or raised an issue in 30 years. Whether it’s prayer in schools or war profits, every controversial and therefore every fruitful idea that we now argue over comes from some group that the vital center considers extreme. We did all this 20 years ago, threw out the extremes and listened to the politicians accuse one another of being soft on this or ihat. The result was a rapid nullity with diminishing numbers caring to go to the trouble to cast a vote. There are a lot of people around Washington who get very nervous at any plague-on-both-your-houses talk; they think it demeans authority at a time when too many people already think they’re clowns. But what are people supposed to think when the candidates hand out coloring books and fight like 3-year-olds over who said what first? Los Angeles Times—Washington Post News Service ON THE RIGHT: William F. Buckley, Jr. Front pages show odd contrasts LONDON—Today’s newspapers en deavor to give all the news. The Daily Mirror’s American reporter adivses that before being admitted to do a story on a sexual resort in Southern California, he was asked to prove his “sincerity” by, er, consorting with the wife of the owner director, which he said he did, “twice.” The Daily Telegraph confirms that every Englishman will do his duty, twice if necessary, no matter what the pursuit. “By command of the Queen, the Lord Hamilton of Dalzell (Lord in Waiting) was present at Heathrow Airport, London this morning upon the departure of the President of Zambia and bade farewell to his Excellency on behalf of Her Majesty. By command of the Queen, the Lord Hamilton of Dalzell (Lord in Waiting) was present at Heathrow Airport London, this evening, upon the arrival of the President of Pakistan and welcomed His Excellency on behalf of Her Majesty.” That’s a lot of Heathrow in one day for poor Lord Hamilton, but it was certainly worth it to get the President of Zambia out of the country. The President of Zambia— one Kenneth Kaunda—had come to town to instruct the Prime Minister, Mr. Heath, on South African policies. They had had dinner at Number 10 Downing Street, and that dinner is the talk of the town. There are several published versions of what went on, my favorite naturally being the most garish. Personna non grata I have had a special place in my heart for Mr. Kaunda ever since learning, a year ago, that I am not allowed to set foot in his country, my offense having been to publish—as a matter of fact, to republish— in this space, the remarks of Dean Acheson denouncing America’s boycott of Rhodesia. I have never been persona-non grata’d before, at least not by entire countries, and since on the whole it is a lot more fun to be forbidden from going to Zambia than to go there, I think I’d have Oregon Daily Emerald egged Mr. Kaunda on if I had been hiding behind the curtains at Number 10, as we call it here. It is everywhere agreed that the dispute was over the projected sale of arms to South Africa, Kaunda’s point being that to do so would outrage black Africa, and cause the dissolution there of the Commonwealth. Heath’s point being that he has not been elected Her Majesty’s First Minister in order to take orders, on matters affecting English security, from nattering nabobs of negativism. One story goes on to say that Mr. Heath turned to Kaunda and said, Look buddy, do we bring up the fact that your country is trading every day with South Africa? And via Rhodesia at that? Eh? Mr. Kaunda at that moment called for his retinue and his limousine, and went back to the hotel, and was next seen by Lord Hamilton of Dalzell (Lord in Waiting) at Heathrow. ILM*® ORDER /WEAtt*WrwSR***Bt£ iH whole op FORAHY KIUJH65 | (uwx&fl"08 owa?wi<E) in<u«tw»t*KP,rt6' THE PfW^ TMEtAW^6^ That dinner partv shares the front pages with the news from Canada. When Mr. Trudeau gave himself the War Emergency Powers, I was under the impression that the British press would attack him quite unanimously, inasmuch as the assumption is that war emergency powers are for use in war emergencies. Lots of bleeding hearts around To begin with, consider what Trudeau actually said. “There are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don’t like to see people with helmets and guns.” He said that without once quoting Baudelaire, and Mr. Agnew could not in fact have said it better. “All 1 can say,” Mr. Trudeau went on, “is go on and bleed.” Here Mr. Trudeau sounded like the late Westbrook Pegler. And yet more: “But it is more important to keep law and order in the society than to be worried about weak kneed people who don’t like the looks of...” Enough. But Pierre Trudeau using the rhetoric of Lester Maddox has not frightened the English, who ask their brother Canadians to do to the separatist organization what they would never permit the Americans to do, say, to the Black Panthers. “Much will depend,” says the Times, “on the speed with which the police can now seize the terrorists and smash their organization”—smash their organization. And the Telegraph, “The Prime Minister has acted with a vigor and determination which any democratic leader must show when presented with a direct conspiracy against the state. . . The Canadian government has as a result suspended most of the rules—and rightly.” Not that it should have surprised anyone. The Canadian government spent the late 40’s vigorously prosecuting a Communist spy ring, suspending the rights of everyone in sight , and most of the 50’s criticizing the horrors of McCarthy ism. The English don’t fool around. Salus publica lex est. Page 7