Pag« 2
Portland/Obsorvor
CUTBACKS
Thursday, March 29, 1973
The Great Society
CARE CENTERS
R T Y PROGRAM Y ’
___ J N G
;
YOUTH SUMMER PROGRAM
COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAM
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by Bayard Rust in
DM the Great Society suc
ceed in making our society
mors equal — in providing
the poor with le tte r housing,
quality schooling. Improved
medical care and other ser
vices? o r was the Great So
ciety a highly touted, well
meaning, hut expensive fa il
ure?
T ie Nixon Administration
is currently engaged in a high
pressure campaign to per
suade Americans that tie li
beral social legislation of the
Johnson Administration ac
complished little heyondwast-
ing the taxpayers'money. F o r
Instance, the President said
in one recent speech: " Ame
rica is still recovering from
years of extravagant, hastily,
passed measures, designedly
central planners ami costing
billions of dollars— but pro
ducing few results." Nixon
concluded that "thehigh-cost,
no-result boondoggling by i t *
federal
government
must
end."
C riticism of tlie Great So
ciety is not limited to con
servatives;
some liberals
question whether Johnson’s
social programs accomplish
ed anything more than rais
ing the expectations of the
poor, without fulfilling their
needs.
But it is Nixon who Is most
bent on discrediting the pro
grams of liberalism . He de-
-N O CUTON UNEMPLOYMENT
POVERT Y OFTEN DEPRIVES
~
WE SEE THE WORLD
THROUGH BLACK EYES
W hite business:
Race before
The U n ite d States is o fte n c a lle d th e " m e ltin g
p o t" —
b ut it is m o re lik e a pressure cooker.
The pressure is racism th a t does n ot a llo w the
U n ite d States to b e co m e th e "L a n d o f th e fre e and
the H om e o f the b ra v e " fo r a ll its p e o p le .
Blacks a re ke p t o ut o f th e e c o n o m ic m a in s tre a m
n a tio n a lly a n d in O re g o n .
Business, la b o r and
p u b lic o ffic ia ls h ave co n sp ire d to p re v e n t Blacks
fro m ta k in g th e ir rig h tfu l p la ce in society, th ro u g h
refu sa l to h ire Blacks, d is c rim in a tio n by la b o r
unions, a nd e lim in a tio n o f Blacks fro m p u b lic
e m p lo y m e n t th ro u g h the m a n ip u la tio n o f tests a nd
c iv il service lists.
G o v e rn m e n t has lo o k e d the
o th e r w a y as Black p e o p le h a ve s u ffe re d d is
c rim in a tio n in e d u c a tio n , h o u sin g a n d e m p lo y
m ent.
W h ite businessm en, u n io n le a d e rs a n d p u b lic
o ffic ia ls a re still in c o m m a n d .
Black businesses
a nd o th e r e c o n o m ic e n d e a vo rs m ust re ly on w h ite
support or fa il, yet this su pp ort is not fo rth c o m in g .
A n d the sam e p e o p le w h o h ave sys te m a tic a lly
kept Blacks o u t o f the e c o n o m ic life o f the
co m m u n ity , accuse us o f fa ilin g to h a v e the
in itia tiv e to b e co m e businessm en.
W h ite s s till d o not lo o k on Black business
se riou sly.
If th e y d o business w ith a Black
c o m p a n y or a d ve rtise in Black m e d ia , it is on a
to ke n or ch a rity basis.
If th e y c o u ld ta ke Black
business se rio u sly, th e y w o u ld fin d sources o f
goods a n d services as w e ll as an o u tle t fo r th e ir
products in th e vast "B la c k m a rk e t".
But racism e ve n in firn g e s o n th e p ro fit m o tiv e o f
the w h ite businessm an. W e a re o fte n to ld , " I d o n 't
w a n t Black cu s to m e rs " or " I h a ve a ll the Black
custom ers I n e e d ."
W h e re as h ig h p o w e re d
a d v e rtis in g c a m p a ig n s a n d a ll kind s o f g im m ic k s
a re used to e n tic e the w h ite cu stom er, e v e n those
w ith lim ite d a b ility to p ay, th e re is g re a t h esita ncy
a b o u t w h e th e r the Black cu stom er is re a lly w a n te d
or n e e d e d Rather cut p ro fit th a n e n c o u ra g e Black
tra d e
The sam e is true o f th e w h ite a ttitu d e to w a rd
Black business.
W h e n goods a n d services are
a v a ila b le fro m a Black c o m p a n y, e ve n if a t lo w e r
cost, re a l c o n s id e ra tio n is n ot g iv e n by the w h ite
businessm an. He m ig h t g iv e a sm all d o n a tio n , but
a rea l business re la tio n s h ip w ith a Black c o m p a n y
is so m e h o w d e m e a n in g .
This is tru e in a d v e rtis in g as w e ll.
Som e
co m p a n ie s ta k e an ad in th e Black m e d ia o nce or
tw ic e a ye a r (a little c h a rity ), b u t th e y d o not
b u d g e t fo r an a d v e rtis in g sch e d u le in th e Black
m e d ia . They d o not a c tiv e ly p ursue th e m o re th an
20,000 Blacks in P ortland a lo n e , w h o m ust b uy
th e ir fo o d , c lo th in g , cars a n d o th e r item s s o m e
w h e re
This g ro w in g m a rk e t is n e a rly u n to u c h e d ,
c e rta in ly not c o rn e re d by a n y re ta ile r or p ro v id e r
o f services; yet w h ite businessm en in O re g o n seem
to p re fe r " w h ite m o n e y ".
Across the n a tio n som e o f th e m a jo r c o rp o ra
tions, a n d th e sm e ll businesses a lso , a re d is
c o v e rin g this m a rk e t a n d are. c a te rin g to it. But not
in O re g o n .
As in m ost o th e r aspects o f life in
O re g o n , w e are sta g g e rin g b e h in d th e rest o f the
n a tio n , c o n tin u in g in o u r o w n n a rro w , s e lf-s ty le d
w a y o f th in k in g . Even the p u rsu it o f th e d o lla r w ill
not b rin g e q u a lity o f o p p o rtu n ity to O re g o n .
sum m er
W ith Ron Hendren
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: BACK FROM THE DEAD
W A S H IN G T O N -L a s t week, less than a
year after the Supreme Court struck
dow n capital punishment, President
Nixon sent legislation to Congress that
would revive the death penalty for a host
o f serious crimes.
The action came on the heels of a
United Nations report which revealed
that executions, far from being on the
way out among U.N. members, are in fact
a widespread and increasing form of
punishment throughout the world.
Only 27 o f the U .N .’s 132 nation
members have done away with the death
penalty, either by law or in practice. Of
the remainder, 101 still employ execu
tions routinely and for many crimes of
varying severity.
I f the report is to be believed, most
people in the world favor the death
penalty, and that is why their govern
ments employ it as as “ efficient” tool of
criminal justice. Even where it is not
legal, says the report, the death penalty
has been resorted to, often without pub
lic knowledge.
The paradox between Mr. Nixon who
favots capital punishment and a Supreme
Court, made up largely o f his own ap
pointees, which believes the death pen
alty is unconstitutional is somewhat akin
to the U.N. paradox: these same govern
ments which continue to employ the
death penalty have voted in the world
body for the eventual abolition o f capital
punishment.
The contradiction is an interesting
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SB 475 authorizes the can
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state liquor licenses where
the licensee refuses services
and facilities because of race,
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PORTLAND OBSERVER
The bj„ t„ rpd, trift
P.O . Box 3137 P o rtlan d , Oregon 97208 J |ativ,. districts in Muitnomai
_
Alfred L. H enderson,
E ditor and P u b lish er
A ll entries of the previous weeks are eligible
!
County proposes to éliminât«
(
|
•
the Black community and
place an area approximately
the Model Cities area intc
((np |egjs|atiVp district. The
|
lhe
i
J
|jn„
h id in g
.......................................................................................................... g
purpose of the bill is tc
enhance Black voting power.
|
Contact Representative Welly
PHONE
Priestley.
most deplorable slums. Fe
deral
education programs
have played a significant role
in reducing the previously
wide gap between the school
ing of Whites and Blacks. In
great part because of theGreat
Society, Black high school
graduates now attend college
In about the same proportion
as their U hlte classmates.
The weakness of the Great
Society was not that It tried
to do too much, but that in
too many cases It did not
go far enough.
Federal
efforts to txiild
housing,
and
to stimulate
the building
industry,
for
instance, produced a housing
supply averaging one twentieth
of the annual need, a situation
which creates nearly as many
problems as It solves.
Some
of the programs
were misdirected. Therew aa
too much emphasis on refonn-
ing marginal institutions In
an effort to correct a "c u l
ture of poverty," a concept
for which we still Isck ade
quate definition.
We would
have been better off to pro
vide the poor with, first, an
adequate standard of living in
the form of a guaranteed an
nual Income, and, second tlie
services which hear most di
rectly on day-to-day life —
|ohs, medical care, housing,
ami tlie like.
Another problem was that
some programs were formu
lated to give [lie poor a sense
of psychological comfort ra
ther than to advance their
economic status. T l * anti-
poverty program particularly
suffered because of the un
willingness to attack, head-
on, t l * basic causes of im
poverishment.
President Nixon has not bo
thered to c ritic ize these as
pects of the Crest Society.
Syndicated 19? J by
WASHINGTON W EEKLY, Inc.
All rights reserved.
HB 2398 on Financing la w
and Moderate Income Hous
ing was introduced at the
request of the Governor to
finance the construction, sale
and rehabilitation of 14,000
low income housing units
through the sale of $200
million in tax exempt reve
nue bonds.
The primary
m arket will be moderate
income families, with direct
service to lower income fami
lies through re h a b ilita tio n
and rent variation. Contact
House Ixjcal Government and
Urban Affairs Committee.
and phone.
All entries must be received no later than 5 p.m.
W ashington
apprehending cnminals. as is often the
case with drug traffickers, or, once
caught, we have found ourselves unable
or unwilling to produce convictions and
penalties that will stick.
Capital punishment, if it is reinstituted
in this country, is not by itself likely to
change that fact o f life
Perhaps renewed
discussion of the death penalty on Capi
tol HUI will be sufficient warning to the
courts and penal institutions that they are
not doing their job. But that is not likely,
because so long as courts are crippled by
impossible case overloads and conflicting
criminal codes, there is little they can do
by themselves.
In the final analysis, Congress may go
along with the President, because of the
public mood, because they share his
frustration about growing crime rates,
and because Mr. Nixon possesses unusual
clout for a second-term Republican Presi
dent But there are many congressmen
who. if they succumb to the public and
political pressures which are sure to be
brought to bear on thia issue, will not do
so enthusiastically. They know that capi
tal punishment is not among the real
answers to the crime problem, and that a
careful restructuring of the criminal code
would be a far more effective deterrent.
Ponding
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Publisher's Column (The Observation Post) and the Editor's
Desk. Any other m aterial throughout the paper is the opinion
of the individual w rite r or subminer and does not necessarily
reflect the opinion of the Observer.
Any erroneous reflection upon the character, standing or
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the Portland Observer w ill be cheerfully corrected uponbeing
brought to the attention of the Editor.
one. and its explanation may lie. at least
in part, in a key conclusion from the U N.
report that “ the death penalty is always
used when a particular problem seems to
grow cut o f proportion . . " Certainly a
host of new capital enmes have cropped
up in the last decade, ranging from
hijacking and skyjacking to dope ped
dling. So far, little headway seems to have
been made by law enforcement officials
to stem this growing tide of international
lawlessness, and it is natural enough to
tum back to the gas chamber, partly
perhaps in frustration because all else
seems to have failed.
And yet, no important new studies
have come to the fore to support the
long-disputed thesis that punishment by
death is itself a deterrent. Other U.N.
studies show, for example, no demon
strable differences in crime rates between
countries which employ capital punish
ment and those which do not. Likewise,
the before-and-after picture in countries
which have lived with and without the
death penalty is pretty much the same
It is this question of deterrence that
concerns many thoughtful members of
Congress. They believe and there is con
siderable evidence to support them that
the effectiveness o f punishment as a
deterrent lies not so much in its seventy
as in its certainty. And one major prob
lem with many present-day systems of
criminal justice is that the certainty of
punishment has been seriously eroded.
Either we have not perfected means of
E-Z-W inner Contest Ï
enter.
fl YO ung view of
voted each recent • pooch to
an attack on this or that pro
gram which, he asserts, turn
ed "the federal government
into a nationwide slumlord"
and gave the poor, " little feat
broken promises."
Whatever its shortcomings,
the Great Society was not
a failure. It disappointed the
expectations of many; some of
its programswere poorly con
ceived; others wore nevei
adequately funded.
But the successes of i t *
G reat Society were notable.
| I k > federal housing program
did not make the government
a "s lu m lo rd ." It rather pro
vide.! the only decent a lte r
native for thousands of low in
come fam ilies who are unable
to afford anything else but the
DR JEFFREY
1 MU
M ODERN
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atFaa DNNdl
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soowm rnroTWM
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DR JEFFREY
BRADY
DENTIST
SIMtER BUILDING
S W ' Jrtf A M o rn tn «
Portland Orrqon
Phone:
228 7545
SHOP
lENOW'S
Notice
The OBSERVER welcomes
comments from our readers.
A ll letters submitted to the
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Deadline fo r articles and
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preceding publication.
Deadline fo r advertlsment:
Tuesday, 5:00 pun. preceding
publication.
lie has, rather, tried to de
pict tlie Great Society as do
minate.! by a distant lairsau-
cracy, dictating Its wishes to
local communities, with little
Interest In, or understanding
of, local needs.
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