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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (June 19, 1963)
PAGE t A HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Fall. Ore. Wednesday, June 19, 1963 EPSON INI WASHINGTON . . . Civil Rights Adds To Congress' Log Jam Patience, My Son Somo who speak out on the racial issue use the words "tokenism" and "gradualism" as if they were synonyms. They are not. The consequence of their misuse could be consid erable misunderstanding. The dictionary defines token as some thing which serves as a "mere sign or sample of the real thing." Tokenism obviously de scribes a policy or practice limited to token moves. On the other hand, gradualism is defined as the "doctrine of proceeding by gradual dc grees" toward a particular end. : Tokenism plainly can be quite static, a "single gesture or two. Gradualism unmistak ably implies steady, fluid movement. A good many militant white and Negro advocates of desegregation are saying things like: "The gradualism of token effort is not good enough." The conflict in terms is self evident. It Is a risky misuse, for most of history is written in gradual steps. Evolution in so : ciety is the rule. Revolution, explosive or oth erwise, is the rare exception. ; Gradual change is going on all the time, ;Ulie pace varying according to many circum .'stances. Revolution is likely only when change :is impeded severely for a long, long time. - ' Sometimes, when developing roadblocks are suddenly removed, the pace of change may be greatly speeded for a while in a kind of "catchup" effort. That may be as close to ; (The Christian Science Monitor) ! Apathy? Complacency? Is this the mood ;Of most Americans today? It must be so be cause the news commentators say it is. On the suTface at least this is a moment of relative jcalm, which means econoniic curves that I trend upward and cold war issues that lie 'coiled and sleepy in the summer sun. But what lies under the surface? There is an unprecedented concern about the slow growth rate of the American economy, and both parties are ready to take extraordinary steps through new tax legisla tion to spur it. A new and courageous ap proach to Europe's dynamic Common Market is at work. The Uniled States will go out and , compete and not retire behind its hedgerows. '': In the South of Hie United Stales Ihere ,3s not a whiff of apathy to be found. The great global revolt of the colored races against arbi ."trary white suppression has rolled up out of :Asia and Africa onto the American scene. It is collapsing the timetable of social change for the American Negro. On the international scene Mr. Khrush chev has been making the most of the Beard ed One why? Because conquest by force was stopped at Berlin and Cuba and else where, and Fidel Is his only exhibit for the IN WASHINGTON . . . By RAI.IM1 dr TOI.F.DANO In Jackson. Miss., Ituhy Hur lee, a speaker for ttio National Association for the Advancement ot Colored People, loWi a mass rally of Negroes: "Tlie two most effective weapons we have arc the buck and tlie ballot. Some people say we should use a ;lhird means the bullet, hut we -are not ready for tlmt yet." Twenty lour hours later, a bill- let had ended the life of Modgar Evers, a Jackson Negro leader, who was ambushed outside his house, after an NAACP meeting. These two events are evidence of what U happening to America today. Two extremes are at war and by a kind of political Grcsh s'm'i law tliey are corrupting the moderates who seek to bring equality of opportunity to the Negro without trespassing on the rights of tlie majority. Now violence has entered the scene and with it has come lear The two combined make an ex plosive mixture, or nun moti vated by them cease to reason In fact cease to do what is Im'sI for themselves. It is lamentable that In addressing himself to the wrongs worked against tlie Ne groes throughout the nation, the President did not also offer sonic cautionary advice to Ihose who are determined to tear apart the fabric of law and orderly proce dure. If civil rights legislation is needed, then it cannot he enact ed under tlie threat by Negro leaders of mass civil disobedi ence in the cities and rioting out 'ide and inside the Capitol. Con gressmen today are talking of falling out tlie troops if (he ISO, ;ooo Negroes menUoned by their ;)eader descend on Washington ;and attempt to force passage of the kind of legislation they want. Making Haste Slowly a "peaceful revolution" as we ever observe. But to argue against gradualism as a general proposition is to contest against the natural processes of an orderly society. There is hardly anything more horrible in modern industrial history than the now dis carded practice of child labor. Yet it took many decades of painful effort to get laws on the books here and in Kuropc banning it. The story is the same in countless realms of en deavor through the long course of history. Tokenism is something else. Any develop ment which qualifies as mere sign or symbol can serve, it seems clear, to provide the look hut not the substance of change, it is at once a first and final step. In whatever field, tokenism is never sat isfying except to those who do not want change. Against tokenism the same pressures that beat against total resistance are felt. Since gradualism is pleasing neither to the total resisters nor to the militant "chang ers," it hardly offers "happy" solutions. But through its processes most of the world's work gets done. This strange, fumbling, halting kind of movement keeps society in a curious yet ef fective equilibrium. It is the only good ce ment we have in a world that otherwise would be ripped apart by its conflicts. No responsible leader should deplore gradualism except in the direst extremity of social stagnation. That we do not have in 1963. An Illusion Of Apathy theory of peaceful conquest that he is defend ing against the Chinese. Elsewhere it is the ring of the builder's hammer that is chiefly heard in the develop ing world. Even the basic struggle to bring the population rate under control is now, for the first time, a subject of almost universal effort and concern. It is only an illusion of apathy that stills the barometer. It is a momentary balance of huge, turbulent forces. It exists because broad, constructive policies are at work in today's society holding the more violent forms of ex plosion in check. Wo would like to remind people of the genuinely terrible years when a weak world yielded continually before Hitler, and to' re call the wild, uncontrolled economic swings of the twenties and thirties, and to suggest that today's apathy be put in context. As a society we have shortfalls, many of them. We ought to be working harder at them. But this apathy, if that's what it seems to be, is also earned. It rests on an already enormous ef fort to keep the ugly side of human life un der restraint and to free men so they can cope with society and with themselves. We are not doing so badly. Unions Hold Negroes Back It would be ironic to dehate civil rights behind a wall of bayonets. It is M'rhaps sad that Negro leaders chose to use the dramatic issue of scliool integration as the focus of their major c a m paign. Kor If evei-y school and college In tlie 50 states were to lower the color bar and admit all qualified Negroes, it would be at least three decades or more lie lore this had any real cltect on the living standards of the Amer ican Negro. A handful of elite Negroes in tlie colleges would do lit.ie to improve tlie social pat tern of Negro living. Tlie rise must be on a lar broader base, and it must open lor Negroes tlie economic doors which many American labor un ions have slammed shut. For years. Herbert Hill, an NAACP ollicial, has by his writings and sH'0ches shown that tlie worst discrimination and the most crippling has been in the ceo nonuc sphere. There are unions in the building tr.idcs and in transportation which do not admit Negroes to their apprenticeship programs or to membership Tlh'telor, Negroes are contined to tlie most vulnerable o! all wtuk categories, the unskilled labor force In the early years of Ihe sec ond Eisenhower Administration, the President's Committee on Government Contracts ichair man: Vice President Kichard Nix on i sought desperately to bring down discrimination in hiring by building trades unions doing fed eral construction in Washington and by such contractors as Mat threw McCloskey. then treasurer of the Democratic National Commit tee. Mr. McCloskey argued con vincingly that he would be glad to comply but that his hands were tied by the unions. AFL-C10 President George Meany, a memlier of the, Presi dent's Committee, refused to take any action against discriminatory unions in his federation and ex pressed himself with some an ger on the subject to those who brought up the subject. Through the vice chairman. Secretary of Labor .lames Mitchell who al ways scratched when Mr. Meany ili lied action to bring work to Negroes in federal building was blocked. The NAACP. fcartul of embarrassing the labor move ment, prelerred to cry out against Mr. Nixon, whose energetic ef forts against discrimination were torpedoed by the Meany-Mitchcll axis. This was a golden opportu nity missed because politics came fust. Once the Negro has been given the means to rise above the un certain and ill-pav ing unskilled la bor category, his economic situ ation will improve He will be able to keep Ins children in school ae.d alford a higher education which. II won tixlav. would he prohibi tively expensive Tlie other civil rights would follow. In tact, had the WAIT and other Negio groups stressed this aspect in tlie years since the Supreme Court's desegregation decision, a sub stantial advance would have lieen made by now and today's riots would lie unnecessary and un thinkable. The past Is, of course, past Rut as the summer grows hotter and as passions grow more inflamed -the tendency will be to brush aside new alternatives which can succeed without embroiling this country in civil turmoil. A wrong that is followed by another wrong simply creates a third wrong This is something to consider be fore it is loo late QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q What traditional ruler of Ethiopia is mentioned in Ihe Bible? A It is a legend that the royal Abyssinian line comes from a son who was born to King Solomon and the Queen of Shcba. Q Is II true that Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Ad dress on the back of an envelope during his train trip to Gettys burg? A This is a myth. It was written in the White House. Q How did the orangutan get Its name? A Orangutan is Malay for "wild man of the woods." Q The tall ot which mon key Is most highly developed for grasping? A The spider monkey. By LEON DKNNEN Newspaper Enterprise Analyst NEW YoltK NEAi Even in Red China love blooms in the spring. Hut romance, alas, caused only heartache to young Hsiao Li who married her man without the blessing of ihe Com munist party. "It was a ca.-c of love at first sight." .uid an angry editorial in Mao Tse-lung's journal. Women o! China. Hsiao Li married the young man in a hurry only to discover that lie was "capitalist minded." Should Hsiao Li, a devoted com rade of the Communist Party, con tinue to lavish her love on a man addicted to the "capitalist wav of lile?" a-ked the editors of "Wom en of China." According to Mao Tse-lung's latest dictum, if seems, physical love is a capitalist impulse just another imicrialisl invent I'on In enslave the proletariat unless, of course, it is sanctioned by tlie Red party. Thus, "politi cal incompatability" discovered even after the act of matrimony can get comrades of both sexes into real trouble unless the mar riage is dissolved at once Tlie editors of Women of China. ii their advice to lovelorn and romantically inclined lieds, de nounced Hsiao Li's "rash act" ac an "abuse of the right to marry " In the interest of Com munis virtue, t':cy said she must leave her spouse or be guiltv of violating the "sacred rights" bestowed ii(ioii lier by Ihe Com munis Party They asked: ' Slwnitil a class-conscious wom an talk about love with a bad el ement and even cohabit with him "How could lie he such a fool as to fall in love with a man with oat tirst investigating his political background'"' In a subsequent issue of "Wom en of China" a number of obvious H injured "letters to the editor" slmwed complete lack of sympa thy with Uie young wife. One letter from an irate female comrade said "Hsiao Li's mis lake is due pnmarily to tlie lad that she completely ignored the very important class angle in choosing a husband. That is why she continues to live with him even alter discovering that he is a Kid soul." f I EST H ltv SYDNEY J. HARRIS A recent issue of the "Saturday Review" devoted a special sec tion to "The Education of Wom en," with articles by a number of male and female educators, including the director of the Amer ican Association of University Women. 1 don't care at this point to be come involved in the general phil osophical questions of how much education women should have, what kind, and what opportuni ties should be opened to her after special training. It would take , a book, not merely an essay, to explore these subjects. What has perplexed me Tor a long time, however, is the rela tive fewness of professional wom en in American life, as compared THE GLOBAL VIEW . . . Chinese Love Bloom Has Capitalist Tinge Another letter accused Hsiao Li of following Confucius' advice that "since the grain has already been cooked into rice" she might as well enjoy it. Rut Red China's Marxist-Leninist rulers take a dim view of such . capitalist attitude. They warned Hsiao Li that by remaining loyal to the bonds of matrimony she was abusing "too blindly and loo freely" the Party-given right to marry. They urged her to "cut all physical and social relations vilh her husband and draw a r'emarcation line between him and r.crself." Will Hsiao Li heal their warn ing and leave her husband? Even in Red China, it seems, love of the sexes capitalist or Red is stronger than love of Mao Tsc-tung and ol the Com munist party line. Hsiao Li is apparently deeply in love with her capitalist-minded husband. Despite threats and hu miliation she still lived with him at the time the last batch of abusive letters against her were printed. "I Juel tiart STRICTLY PERSONAL with many European societies, where opportunities would seem to be more restricted, A statistical profile in the mag azine, for instance, showed that we have only 8 per cent of fe male doctors in Uiis country some 16.000 out of a total of 200.000. Yet, educationally, wom en receive 36 per cent of ail bach elors' and first professional de grees, 31 per cent of all masters' degree's, and even 11 per cent of all doctors' degrees. 'Female lawyers arc even scarcer, com prising only 2' a per cent, some 6.000 out of a total of 2116.000 qualified attorneys in tile United States.) In Canada, which is roughly similar to us in economic and so cial composition, there are twice as many female doctors in ratio to male doctors 12 per cent uf the total. And in some Euro can countries Russia especial ly Uie percentage is again doubled to 25 per cent. One out of every four Russia physicians is a woman. There is, as everyone knows, a drastic shortage of doctors in the United SUitcs. Reporting re cently in the "American Journal of Public Health," Dr. Martin Cherkasky, director of New York City's celebrated Montefiorc Hos pital, observed that: "One of our most critical problems is the doctor shortage. Unless this is solved, no real progress can be made. We need twice as many new medical schools as we have, for unless doctors are available in ample supply all of our medi cal care hopes are in jeopardy." As far as male students are concerned, there are some stag gering personal financial obstacles to becoming a doctor. It is likely that only Federal support of medi cal students will be able to main tain an adequate supply. Yet if more female college students were encouraged to enter medicine and, most of all. if they lelt that a rightful place would be made for them this shortage micht be eased considerably. There is no reason that a wom an should he relegated to the role of a nurse. Esiecia!ly with so many second rate male doctors aiound. hil Junt utddim'." By PETER EDSON Washington Correspondent Newspaper Enterprise Assn. WASHINGTON (NEA) - For the President to . send a major civil rights message to Congress this late in the session is to pile a new burden on an already over loaded Senate and House. It w ill take tlie rest of this year and much of the next session to dig out from under the existing load before it's time to elect a new Congress in the fall of 1064. Developments in race relations during the past few monUis, how ever, give additional civil rights legislation a new number one pri ority. There is every likelihood that this program will run into de lay. Another Senate filibuster is a possibility, tieing up action on oth er must legislation. There are over 120 civil rights bills in the congressional hopper right now. This indicates not only the diversity of opinion on what ought to be done, but the amount of interest in the subject. The main bills are the adminis tration program, a separate pro posal by House Judiciary Com mittee chairman Emanuel Celler, D-N.Y., and two measures intro duced by Senate and House Repub licans. Boiling all these ideas into one act that Senate 'and House can agree on will take some doing. Nobody has a complete answer to race relations and no single piece of legislation is going to solve the situation. A piecemeal approach is possible, with a voting rights bill coming first and other measures later. Before the civil rights issue be came critical, passage of a tax cut bill had the number one pri ority. A new tax law of some kind is considered certain to pass. Whether it will look anything like the President's , recommendations is doubtful, but it may include some minor reforms. Up to June 1 the President had signed only 33 new public laws this yeur. Only three are considered important. They were extension of the draft act. raising the national debt limit and the feed grain act. The equal pay for women legis By FULTON LEWIS JR. Anonymous Congressmen last week demonstrated once again that charity begins at home. By an overw-helming non-rollcall vole, they rejected an amend ment that would prohibit swim ming pools in the third House Of fice Building now under construc tion. Rising from a deep pit olf In dependence Avenue, the squat Ii. tle building will cost taxpayers S131 million, or $50 million more than the world's largest office building, the Pentagon. It is the brainchild of George Stewart, whose official title is Architect of the Capitol. He is a former Delaware Congressman dcsenlied by Sen. Paul Douglas as "the most expensive, most waslelul architect whom we could possibly engage." Stewart disclosed in 10511 that tlie building would cost M mil lion. This seemed a fantastic lig ure. esiecial!y when compared with the cost of tlie First House Ollice Building iR8 million! and the Second '$7.8 million1. It soon turned out the figure of SM million was misleading. Lett out of Stewart's estimate was M million for architectural and en gineering fee, the cost of buy ing, clearing and grading tlie site, and miscellaneous other items. The latest estimate is SI31.S million, which pays lor at least one swimming pool and gvmna smin. Congressmen now have a gvm. supervised by a "sjiorts recreation leader" who is paid more than S7.0O0 a year. The prime contractor for the building is McCloskey and Com pany ot Philadelphia Tills is the same firm that constructed a fed eral hospital in Rosinn. Shortly after its completion in W.V1, the Army Corps of Engineers learned there had been defects in its con struction: that damage had al ready occurred and wouid get progressively worse unless re pairs and corrections were made. Subsequently the Corps of En gineers estimated tlie repairs and collections uould cost M million Congressman H. R Gross. Iowa Republican, urged the govern ment to try to recover Uie sum honi t!e huuders. Gross points mil that McCloskey and Company is the family lum of Matthew McCloskey. a former Finance Chairman of tlie Demo cratic National Committee who now serves as Ambassador to liciand. Congressmen discovered I o weeks aen that they will have no lation passed by both houses in . May had just been signed by the President. Some of the other acts of Con gress this year are good deeds like conferring American citizen ship on Winston Churchill and in corporating the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation. But most are government housekeeping op erations like redefining the boun daries of Big Hole National Monu ment or trickytrack like desig nating National Harmony and Ac tors' Equity weeks. y Separately, the House has passed a 10-year, $667 million aid program for medical education and a pay increase for Uie armed services. The Senate has passed a three-year, $750 million mass transit bill, the wilderness bill, Youth Conservation Corps bill and a 10-ycar matching grant bill for construction of mental health cen ters. Still in committee are the en tire package of aid to education proposals, medical care for the aged. National Service Corps, whatever arm legislation can be decided on and the foreign aid program. While a foreign aid pro gram of some kind has to be passed this year, the outlook is that many of the others will have to ride over till next year. in addition, individual congress men have introduced 10,000 other bills, 99 per cent of which will die. This isn't much of a record for five months. Assuming that Con gress is willing to work till the end of summer, it is now past mid-point in the session. Congress has a way of untangling itself at the end of a session and cram ming through a lot of bills nobody expected to pass. It could happen again. But with a legislative log jam building higher and higher every session because Congress is given more and more complex prob lems to deal with, the movement for reform and reorganization of Congress so it can operate more efficiently is getting no place. The outlook is that this, loo, w ill have to wait till next session for action. WASHINGTON REPORT . . . Costs Skyrocket For New House Building way lo get from their private of fices to their staff odicos in Uie new building. Slight slip-up, con ceded Stewart. He proposed new doors be cut in 169 suites at a cost of (169,000. The doors will be two feet wide, which prompted Representative Gross lo observe that "some memlicrs of this House are going to have a hard time getting through." The new building is equipped with sink pipes, but no sinks, in every olfiee. Congressman Tom Steed asked why a member needs his own sink. "There is. after all." one in the bathroom right across the hall." he said. Note: Testimony before t h e House Appropriations Committee revealed that taxpayers foot the hill i $25,000 a year to supply Congressmen and their wives with floral arrangements. Philip Roof, executive assistant lo Architect Stewart, disclosed that the members and their wives ore supplied bouquets and pot ted plants free by the Botanical Garden at an annual cost to the Treasury of $23,000. When it runs n il ot flowers, tlie Botanical Gar den buys them from commercial florists at the taxpayer's expense. Al manac By United Press International Today is Wednesday. June 19, the 170th day of 19M with 195 to follow. The moon is approaching iti new phase. The morning stars are Venus, Tlie evening star is Mars. Tnose born today include Lou Gehrig, one of the greatest play ers in American baseball history, in Unci On this day in history: In lBtfi, the first baseball game between organized teams took place in Hoboken. N.J. In 1912. the U.S. government adopted the eight-hour work day for all its employes. In I'.ob. the German boxer Max Schmclmg knocked out Joe Louis in the 12th round at Yankee Sta dium in New York City. In 19.V1. Julius and Ethel Rosen berg were executed at Suig Sing Prison for giving secret informa tion to the Soviet Union. A thought for U-e day The Eng lish dramatist. William Shake speare said: "If love be blind, love cannot hit the msrk "
