WEDNESDAY. MARCH 20. 1963
"""Everyone tn southern Oregon
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Flight o' Time
Mcdford and Jackson County
History from tho files of The
Mail Tribuno 10, 20, 30, 40
and SO yean ago.
10 YEARS AGO
March 20, 1953 (Friday)
Red Cross fund drive work
ers yesterday noon voted to
continue the campaign for
money this month, despite
the fact that it is a bad time,
and that the drive is not pro
gressing well.
The new Jacksonville fire
hall will be built by Medtord
Contractor Myron Corcoran,
who submitted a low bid of
$7,343.35.
20 YEARS AGO
March 20, 1943 (Saturday)
Two Medford girls leave
for Hunter college, New
York, to receive preliminary
training in the WAVES.
From Arthur Perry's "Ye
Smudge Pot" column: "Ra
tioning has put a stop to burn
ing of the midnight gasoline."
30 YEARS AGO
March 20, 1933 (Monday)
"Thousands" attend funeral
services' in Mcdford armory
for Constable George Prcs
cott, killed while serving war
rant in ballot theft case.
Communist plot to murder
Chancellor Adolf Hitler foiled
in Munich, Germany.
40 YEARS AGO
March 20, 1923 (Tuesday)
Oakland, Calif., firm sells
franchise for Rogue valley In
terurban trolley line, between
Medford and Ashland, to
Roscburg groups.
A. C. Allen, owner of the
first automobile In Rogue val
ley, gets ticket for traveling
13 miles an hour.
50 YEARS AGO
March 20, 1913 (Thuriday)
Mcdford-Jacksonville road
plowed up preparatory to
paving job.
New regulations on use of
city water for Irrigation pur
poses called "Injustice."
What's Your I.Q.?
Nina oi ton correct it superior;
leven or eiqht is eiccllcnt; five or
sis is good.
1. "The history of all hith
erto existing society Is the his
tory of class struggles, Is the
first line of what?
2. Is a male whale called a
ram, buck, bull, or torn?
3. Hours are divided Into
60 seconds; what Is the small
est commonly used unit of
time larger than a second that
is divided Into ten parts?
4. What manufacturing in
dustry Is historically conned
cd with Danbury, Conn.?
8. The person who starts a
suit in a court of law in a civil
procedure Is known as what?
6. Is hydrophobia a term
for rabbit fever, rabies,
parrot fever?
7. What purl of the Bible is
referred to as the Decalogue
8. An employer employee
contract In which workers
agree not to join a union
called what?
8. The treatment of disease
by physical methods, as op
posed to drugs, is known as
what kind of therapy.
10. Fayc Emerson was once
married to one of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's sons;
which son?
Answers: 1, The Communist
Manifesto. 2. Bull. 3. A dec
ade. 4. Hal manufacturers. S.
Plaintiff. 6. Rabies. 7. Ten.
Commandments. 8. Yellow
dog conlfacl. 9, Physio-therapy.
10. Elliott.
Irresponsible Indonesia
Indonesia, short of food and clothing, is buy
ing three luxury jet airliners for its profitless
passenger service.
The cost will be $3 million more than the
$17 million it is borrowing from the United
States to shore up its crippled economy. At the
same time it is threatening American oil com
panies with confiscation of their properties.
And Indonesians in this country are discus
sing with the International Monetary Fund a
stabilization program to ease their nation's stag
gering foreign debt.
I TNDER President Sukarno, Indonesia is show-
ing a remarkable knack for living in the best
of two worlds. She has managed to become a
client of both the Soviet Union and the United
States.
A Cold War neutral, Indonesia has built up
an army of 400,000 men. After much muscle
flexing, Indonesia with U. S. aid negotiated a
United Nations agreement last year to gain con
trol of West New Guinea.
Sukarno now is threatening the British scheme
for a Malaysia Federation, but it is not believed
that he's about to risk a military showdown with
a major power.
DUNG Karno, as he likes to be called the
"Bung" is for brother has used the army to
distract popular attention from gnawing poverty
and, in West Java, actual starvation.
In his flight from fiscal reality the Indonesian
President has indulged in other costly toys, in
cluding a $40 million stadium for the Asian
games in Jakarta last August.
Indonesia is in hock
about $1 billion, of which more than half was
spent for military equipment. Aside from the new
loan agreement, U.S. aid since 1949 comes to
about $773 million, about $402 million of this
in loans.
""THE Indonesia economy has deteriorated stead-
ily since the Dutch left in 1949. Exports last
year were off about 15 per cent from those of
1961. Of the $570 million
from the three Western oil companies operating
in Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo.
The official exchange
45 to the United States dollar, but the free market
rate is usually around 1000 to the dollar.
I he United States is
reform, including devaluation of the rupiah.
IRONICALLY, Indonesia is potentially one of
the richest countries in the world. But be
cause of a shortage of cotton, most textile plants
are operating: at only about about 20 per cent
of capacity. This is generally true of industry in
Indonesia. And the world's fourth largest grower
of rice is the No. 1 importer.
Indonesia already has
eign-owned oil companies 60 per cent of their
profits as against 50 per cent paid under Dutch
control. Now the government wants ownership
within ten years the companies already have
agreed to a 20-year turnover with immediate
nationalization the threatened alternative.
The American interests have a pretty high
hole card. Under Section 620 (e) of last year's
Foreign Assistance Act, U. S. aid recipients are
given just six months after expropriating Amer
ican private property to take appropriate steps
to compensate the owners or face loss of aid
funds. It could happen to Indonesia it already
has to Ceylon. E.R.R.
Farewell to
Back in 1958 King Mohammed V of Morocco
demanded "total and unconditional" evacuation
of U.S. bases in his country. The upshot was a
formal agreement a year later that the United
States would give up its four air bases and one
naval installation there no later than the end of
1963.
The whole matter will be discussed again
when King Hassan II of Morocco, who took the
throne after the death of King Mohammed in
1961, makes a 10-day state visit to the United
States beginning Tuesday, March 26.
The United Stales is ready to live up to its
agreement to get out of Morocco this year. But
there is some talk that King Hassan may be will
ing to renegotiate the 1959 agreement to provide
for a later withdrawal from the U.S. naval station
at Kenitra (formerly Port Lyautey).
CINCE gaining independence from Fiance in
1956, Morocco has received an estimated $325
million in American aid of various kinds. With
our bases gone, Morocco would lose pail of its
leverage for continued assistance.
A survey team, headed by William O. Baxster
of the Slate Department, was dispatched to Mo
rocco late in 1961 to study ways in which the U.S.
bases could best be converted to serve economic
and social development. Some elaborate propos
als were drawn up, but no firm commitments have
yet been made.
Five years ago the Moroccan government
would have been satisfied simply to see America
abandon her bases there. Now there is some feel
ing that this country has a duty to help fill the
economic vacuum which such a withdrawal cre
ates in the immediate vicinity of the basts.
E.R.R.
to the Soviet Union for
total, $90 million came
rate of the rupiah is
pressing for currency
wrung from the for
Morocco
MEDFORD MAIL.
i$ j L
jL PEACE CORPS
Communications
Letters to the Editor must bear the name and address 'of the writer,
although under certain circumstances the use of a pen name or initial
for publication Is permissible. The Mail Tribune reserves the right to
edit all letters with a view to clarification and condensation. Letters
submitted for publication must not exceed 400 words. The letters
printed in this column do not necessarily represent the views of the
paper, in fact the contrary is often the case.
A Great Question
To the Editor: No matter
what the results of any presi
dential election, the great
question of our time which
demands Immediate solution
is. Are we going to keep the
system of private ownership?
Shall we attempt to preserve
a social system that has
proved Its incapacity to solve
the problem of poverty in the
midst of plenty?
How many favor prolong
ing the life of a society in
which a few own all the
means of wealth-production,
in which labor-saving machin
ery, instead of lightening la
bor's toil, throws workers out
of their jobs onto the indus
trial scrapheap?
Must mankind pass through
still another vicious cycle of
depression, crisis and war? Or
shall we do the common-sense
thing-make the means of pro
duction our collective proper
ty, abolish exploitation of the
many by the few, and use our
productive genius to create
ieisure and abundance for all?
Abraham Lincoln recog
nized the injustices to work
ers under class rule when he
said: "Inasmuch as most
things are produced by labor,
it follows that all such things
of right belong to those whose
labor has produced them; but
It has so happened that some
have labored and others have
without labor enjoyed a large
proportion of the fruits. This
is wrong and should not con
tinue. To secure to each la
borer the whole product of his
labor is a worthy object of
any good government."
This is the very foundation
of genuine socialism. Today
our productive mechanism is
as complex as it is vast. It
cuts across all arbitrary
boundary lines and can no
more be controlled by Con
gress than a streamliner can
be driven with a bull whip,
to direct the huge and compli
cated industrial machine un
der a collective society re
quires an industrial, not a po
litical form of administration.
LydiH Burnham,
814 Warne St.,
Prescott, Ariz.
Scholarship Application
To the Editor: I have before
me a scholarship application
for Southern Oregon college.
To receive such a scholarship,
the applicant need have his
parent complete an account of
his financial situation. How
ever, the application is not
too demanding for most cases
and contains a promise of
strictest confidence as fur as
the parent's financial state
ment is concerned.
What concerns me is the as
sumption behind the require
ment of a parental financial
statement. The implication is
that in all cases the student is
supported by his parent and
that if this parent is finan
cially able to support the stu
dent completely, a scholar
ship is not necessary.
But this is not at all realis
tic in many cases. If a parent
is not willing lo fill out the
form, the student Is faced
with the handicap of having
lo work while attending col
lege, though GPA-wise he
may be more deserving than
the recipient. Whether Ihe
parent's motivations were
based upon the principle that
his financial situation is his
concern and his alone, wheth
er il is because lie sincerely
believes - whether validly or
not-that to reveal the Infor
mation would be financially
damaging to him, or whether
the parent simply refuses to
conform out of animosity, i
is the student who suffers.
As one matures he is ex
pected by our society lo be
come less and less dependent
upon his parents, yet is still
forced to ask them for hand
outs should they be able to
put him through college. His
only alternatives are to drop
out of school until he has
earned enough on his owrl or
to work while attending col
TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, OREGON
lege. Sometimes even the lat
ter is not sufficient to allow
the student lo support himself
completely, especially if nec
essarily living away from
home.
Assuming that scholarships
should be granted and assum
ing that they are to be granted
on the basis of financial need,
let them be granted on the
financial need of the student.
The girl who lives with her
lower-middle-class family and
has a $400 car (though her
only need for transportation
is to the campus four blocks
away) plus more than $1,000
in the bank actually needs her
scholarship far less than one
whose parents are relatively
wealthy but has no access to
that wealth or has the forti
tude to earn his own way.
1 do not mean to imply that
the girl with the large bank
account should not receive a
scholarship. Before complet
ing her education, even with a
scholarship, she will likely
need much more than the sav
ings she now has; few students
are able to (or should) live at
home for their entire college
career.
I say, rather, let us be real
istic and let us be consistent
in awarding scholarships to
the students-not the parents
who need and deserve them
most.
Janet Bobbett,
400 Liberty St.,
Ashland, Ore.
Building Collection
To the Editor: I enjoyed
very much the article on post
offices in your issue of Feb.
24. Please convey to Eva Ham
ilton my appreciation for a
masterful presentation.
In defense of the author I
rise to correct the informa
tion furnished by Mrs. Card
in her letter to the editor of
Feb. 7. Stephen P. Taylor was
not the first postmaster of
Phoenix. He was in fact fifth
in line, preceded by Samuel
H. Miller, Sylvester M. Wait,
Pat McManus and G. Gold
smith, in that order.
We are always pleased to
see material of this nature
since It adds materially to our
store of knowledge concern
ing our Oregon Country herit
age. We are building an ex
tensive collection of research
material relating to the postal
history of the Far West and
your fine article will be a wel
come addition. Your readers
will be interested to know
that our services are always
available in this and many
other fields. The strength of
our collections is based on the
contributions of public -spirited
and history-minded cit
izens, so we would welcome
any additions to our Postal
History collection. Old letters,
envelopes with postal or ex
press markings, business pa
pers dealing with post offices
or express companies, photo
graphs or objects having lo do
with these services would be
very welcome.
Harry E. Llchler
Chief Curator, Museum
Oregon Historical
Society
Bits of Wisdom
To Ihe Editor: Thank God
for small favors - and your
eminent columnist. . . , j. w. s.
The week Is brighter for the
bits of wisiom(?) he leaves
with us each Sunday. He even
frees us from a set of shackles
on occasion, like still being
impressed by news-paper's
outdated Pulitzer award!
A note for . . . j. w. s. to
pass along to his cannibal
chief: If any Peruvians pass
through Ihe jungle he might
try some "Lima beings" for
a variation in menu.
Mrjr Hehstttr.
CMXXIV Jspr si.
Mdfrd. r.
VII VII II - II 1X0 IX
Middle East Developments Not
Well for Kremlin; Fear China
By K. C. THALER
United Press International
London-TOPB- Things are not
going well for the Kremlin in
the Middle East, one of the
major infiltration targets of
Soviet strategy.
Having built up its influ
ence In Iraq with considerable
military and economic invest
ments, Moscow is currently
witnessing the fact that the
new Iraq regime clamped
down with severity on Com
munists and shot some of their
leaders. i
In the Day's News
By FRANK JENKINS
As this is written President
Kennedy, a c c o m panied by
Secretary of State Dean Rusk
and ranking members of Con
gress from both parties, are in
San Jose, capital of the little
Central American republic of
Costa Rica, where they will
discuss mutual problems with
the presidents of six Latin
American countries - Costa
Rica, 1 Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragus and Pan
ama. WHY the meeting?
It was suggested by Costa
Rican President Miguel Ydig-
oras Fuentes, who told a mem
ber of the staff of the U.S.
News' & World Report a few
days ago:
"The visit of President Ken
nedy to Costa Rica was pro
posed by me. I felt, and the
ieaders of the other Central
American countries agreed
with me, that the time was
ripe for President Kennedy
to come here to talk with us
about the Alliance for Prog
ress and what should be done
about Castro."
TIE ADDED:
11 "Perhaps it would be more
accurate if I said 'for Presi
dent Kennedy to tell us what
the U.S. proposes to do about
Castro,' since Cuba is now too
heavily armed for us in Cen
tral America to touch."
"The problem of Castro has
become worse, more serious
than ever before. The U.S.
obviously has its reasons for
behaving the way it doesj but
the fact is that Cuba has been
armed to the point where it is
now difficult to get the com
munists out. The Russians
have also LEFT AN ARMY
THERE, and that complicates
the problem even more."
TIE CONCLUDED:
"It is now difficult to say
how the Cuban problem can
be solved. The Bay of Pigs
was a magnificent opportunity
to get rid of Castro. The show
down last October over the
Russian missiles was another
great opportunity, and that
too was lost . . . Now we are
in a defensive position in Cen
tral America because Cuba is
much stronger than we are.
"What happens now de
pends on the United States."
1UIIS meeting in Costa Rica
ic r-iti-innclv Intorostintr
Back in 1824 - 139 years
ago - General Simon Bolivaf,
the great South American
patriot, issued an invitation to
the Latin - American govern
ments then existing lo attend
a proposed Congress of Amcr
ican Republics to be held nt
Panama. Delegates to this
Congress were to be empower
ed to discuss various questions
concerning American affairs,
particularly those relating to
liberal commercial inter
course among the nations of
the Western Hemisphere.
In the spring of 1825. the
invitation was extended to
the United States. President
John Quincy Adams was im
mensely interested in the idea,
and when the All-American
congress met in Panama he
sent in a message saying that
the invitation had been ac
cepted, and naming the U.S.
delegates.
IV'HAT happened?
" It's at least interesting.
When President Adams sent
his nominations as delegates
to the senate, they were re
ferred to the committee on
foreign affairs, which repori
ed against them on Ihe ground
that participation in the All
American Congress would
draw us into entangling rela
tions with other countries.
The senate debated the com
mittee report in secret ses
sions for about a month and
finally CONFIRMED the
nominations, and voted funds
for the delegates' attendance.
But by the timf the ruckus
was over il was too late for
the delegates to reach Panama
before adjournment of the
congress.
IT'S INTERESTING to specu-
late on what might have
happened if there had been
more statesmanship and less
politics in connection wilfi
Simon Bolivar's proposal
The new Syrian regime also
has tightened its grip on Com
munists and is tracking them
down.
After accepting quietly an
anti - Communist policy o f
President Abdel Gamal Nas
ser in Egypt, Russia now finds
things are getting out of hand.
One Eye on China
This development has come
at a time when Moscow has
become ostensibly more sen
sitive to anti-Communist pol
icies of the countries with
whom it is doing business, for
fear of Red China's reaction.
One of Pekings arguments is
that Russia is doing too much
business with the so-called
bourgeois circles in develop
ing countries and ignoring the
proper revolutionary move
ments. But there is a lot more at
stake for the Kremlin in the
Middle East presently than
the future of the local Com
munist movements.
The Kremlin has been
working hard to gain and to
extend a foothold in the Mid
dle East. It forced its way into
the oil-rich and strategically
important area by supplying
Nasser with arms back in the
late 1950s, to help undermine
Western influence there.
But Nasser, after accepting
aid on a sizable scale from the
Today & Tomorrow
By Walter
(c) 1963.' The
CASTRO AND THE
AMERICAS
The President is in Costa
Rica to confer with the lead
ers of the five Central-Ameri
can republics,
which lie, we
must note,
not only
across the
C a ri b b e an
but between
Panama and
Mexico on the
mainland. For
some time,
Lippmann trouble has
been brewing in Panama over
the canal. In the future, it
could become quite serious
trouble. And Mexico, which
is a friendly neighbor, is at
the same time the critical
link in air communications
between Cuba and the rest of
Latin America.
Without the cooperation of
Mexico, a tight containment
of Castro's agents is virtually
impossible. For once the
agents are out of Cuba and
on the mainland, the admin
istrative task of checking
them in 20 different countries
is gigantic. One of the un
discussed problems of diplo-
mancy is how to persuade
Mexico to cooperate in the
containment of Castro. For
Mexico maintains diplomatic
relations with Cuba and is
unimpressed by our anxiety
about Castro.
'
SINCE the October crisis
about the Soviet missiles,
American anxiety about Cuba
has shifted. In October, the
anxiety was about a military
threat against the united
States. Since then, the anxi
ety has turned to Cuba as a
staging area for revolutionary
movements in Latin America.
It is fair lo say that there
is no clear and certain solu
tion in the present phase of
the Cuban problem. That is
because there is only one
way to get rid of Castro
quickly, and no responsible
person, not Senator Gold-
water and much less Senator
Keating, wants to take that
way. It is to invade Cuba, oc
cupy it and govern it.
The trouble with invasion
is that it would be illegal;
it would be very costly, not
only in men and money, but
in influence all over the
world. Above all, invasion
would be inconclusive. For
Castro's men are good guer
rilla fighters, and they would
be given help from many
American countries and of
course from the Soviet Union.
We should have on our hands
the kind of nasty war which
the French had In Algeria,
and the great majority of our
people, though they are much
disturbed about Cuba, know
that unless Castro commits
overt aggression against some
other American state, the
remedy of invading Cuba
would be worse than putting
up wilh the cxistance of Cas
tro.
nearly a century and a half
ago to create a Congress of
the Americas.
In that event, the Monroe
Doctrine might have become a
living reality that would have
endured down through all
these intervening decades. It
might still be a living reality.
If so, we would have known
what to do about Castro and
would have had Ihe pow?r
and the WILL to do it at the
time when it should hve
been done.
Kussians, clamped down on
the Communists and outlawed
the party. Moscow did not like
it but swallowed the blow for
the sake of political consider
ations. But when Abdel Karim Kas-
sem's revolution ousted King
Feisal in Iraq the Kremlin at
once approached the new re
gime in Baghdad and has since
poured into Iraq large quan
tities of modern arms and
economic aid.
Maneuver Failed
. There were very strong in
dications that Moscow was in
effect seeking to build up
Kassem as a counter-weight to
Nasser. This game has come
to naught. Kassem is dead and
the new regime looks to Cairo
for cooperation.
"Spontaneous" demonstra
tions against Iraq in Moscow
last week are a measure of the
anger of the Kremlin leader
ship. The setback in the Middle
East comes after a series of
failures in Africa, where Rus
sian infiltration strategy has
not paid off either. In the
Congo, in Guinea and in some
of the other newly emerging
African nations Moscow has
to pull out or at least to pull
back.
With Peking watching, the
Kremlin's embarrassment
must be all the greater.
Lippmann
Washington Post
THERE are many who
think that a substitute for
invasion would be a blockade
of goods, and especially oil.
The blockade would be de
signed to bring about the
collapse of the Cuban econo
my. The President has called
this an act of war, and the
advocates of a blockade reply
that the October quarantine
of offensive missiles was also
an act of war, which fortu
nately the Soviet Union
did not choose to fight.
Of course, it might be that
once again the Russians
would choose not to fight and
that they would accept a
blockade designed to destroy
the Cuban economy. But
those who are sure that they
wouldn't fight can't possibly
know that. What we do know
is that it would be much
harder for the Soviet Union
to accept a blockade lo des
troy the Cuban economy than
it was to accept the very
specific quarantine of offen
sive missiles last October.
Moreover, a blockade
would bring us into direct
conflict with Soviet ships, and
therefore to the verge of a
great war. Yet it would not
necessarily eliminate Castro.
II can be argued, in fact, that
as between invasion md
blockade, invasion would be
the lesser risk. Either way,
however, the risk would be
incalculable. That is to say,
while it would be easy
enough to launch an invasion
or to institute a blockade, no
body would be able to calcu
late the consequences, to for
see the course of evenls and
to define the conclusion.
SO WE are left with surveil
lance, containment and the
effort lo immunize the hemi
sphere against communism
by promoting the Alliance for
Progress. This is a long, frus
trating course to take. Again
and again we shall be looking
around for some sharp, de
c i s i v e, surgical solution.
Those who think Ihey have
such a solution will sound
like a brass band with all the
flags flying as compared with
an organ grinder and his mon
key. They will have all the
good tunes, and the prosaic
plodders will have to do the
dirty work of keeping the
peace.
iry and
By BENNETT CERF
pETER LIND HAYES delights in reminiscing- about his
erratic old friend, stuttering Joe Frisco. Joe was in
constant terror of being robbed, says Haves. One night he
checked into a flea-bag
in Altoona, and searched .,
every corner of the room
before retiring to make
sure no robber was lying
in wait for him.
Then he double-locked
the door and dove into
bed. He took one more
precaution even then. In
the darkness he called
out. "Oh, Lord, here I
am in Altoona again
dead broke!"
t
Dann.v Kaye, touring the
world in behalf of the UN
International Children's Emergency Fund, encountered one mean,
old curmudgeon who derided the whole idea. "The diseases,
famines, and floods of the Far East," he Insisted, "were alwava
nature's way of counteracting overpopulation. Now you do
gooders are upsetting aU the scales and what's the result? Seven
hundred million Red Chinese! I don't mean to sound heartless,
but ... ."
"Your logic is infallible." interrupted Kaye testily. "Why not
put it to the test the next time your own child get sick ?"
Fran Merriam insists that ever since her cow swallowed a,
transistor radio. when she Is milked, ehe givea three quarts of
news flashes and a pint of roci and roll. i
C 19N, by Bennett CerC Distributed by King features Syndicate
Going
Reaction
Strictly
Personal
By Sydney J. Harris
'e' Field Enterprises. Ine.
FOOLISH VENTURE
Driving down one of the
main streets in Fort Lauder
dale, Florida, last month, I
spied the
large sign of
a front: "Anti
Communist Booksh o p."
It was Sunday
and the store
was closed, or
I would have
stopped in to
browse. Com.
liirn- munism is a
way of life we dislike; but
anti-communism as a way of
life can be just as repulsive.
Nobody can build a life on
negatives, on being against
something - for when that
something collapses, then
tnere is nothing left to hold
us together.
An anti-communist book
store strikes me as a foolish
venture, if nothing worse. Cer
tainly the American public
ueeds educating about world
affairs, about the virtues and
defects of competing systems;
wnat it does not need is more
anti-communist propaganda.
The best way to fight
communism - and I am talk
ing here about the ideologi
cal threat, not the military
one-is to comprehend our
own system, and to live up
to it. If we genuinely under
stand the open, dynamic,
egalitarian basis of our
American commonwealth,
we will be immune lo ihe
ideological virus of commu
nism. The worst way fo fight it
-and the only way that the
super-patriots seem to know
-is to persecute it as a re
ligious heresy, with anathe
mas and witch hunts and
loyalty oaths and all the du
bious techniques that are
more appropriate to a fas
cist system than to our own.
If we really understand
what the founding fathers
were trying to create, what
they believed in, and how
they expressed it, we will
not be seduced either by the
communist corruptions of
the left or the perverse
birchings of the right.
To be "anti-" anything as a
basic creed is insufficient and
self - stultifying. The worst
kind of Protestant, for in
stance, is the "anti-Catholic"
one, who is so busy being
against he does not know
what he is for. In fact, the
way in which many people
avoid practicing their own re
ligion is by castigating other
religions; it makes them feel
zealous, and doesn't impose
upon them any obligation to
act like a Christian in their
daily lives.
It is just too easy to be
anti-Communist" in America
today; too easy to use this slo
gan as a justification for ig
norance and bigotry and bul
lying and hatred of all dis
senters and non-conformists.
And this is precisely what the
zealots have in mind-to crush
anyone who disagrees with
them by branding them as
'communists" or sympathiz
ers of one sort or another.
The cure they offer is just
as bad as the disease tney
want to eradicate. What the
country needs are more book
shops of all sorts, so that peo
ple will be induced to read
and judge and evaluate for
themselves-not an "anti-com
munist" bookshop. For it is
education rather than propa
ganda that is the most effec
tive prophylaxis against dis
eases in the body politic.
Stop Me
it 'if j