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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (June 25, 1963)
PAGE I HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Falli, Oregon Tuesday, June 25, 1KJ EPSON IN WASHINGTON . . ; Civil Rights Message Tremendous Job CALL TO ARMS x Civil Rights Effort Stepped Up President Kennedy's broad civil rights proposals represent just about the heaviest down payment any modern-day president has fver made on his party's civil rights plat form planks. j The Democrats' 1960 platform was a sweeping affair in this field. And the Pres ident's new message, together with earlier proposals and actions, leaves almost no part of that party document untouched. The platform called for: Stronger Negro voting rights, includ ing elimination of literacy tests and poll taxes as voting requirements, j Speed-up of school desegregation, with 4very affected school district submitting at lpast first-step compliance plans by 1963. Aid to those districts facing special transition problems. ! Power to the United States attorney general to begin federal court suits to bar denial of any civil rights. A new fair employment practices coin mission to secure equal opportunity in em ployment. A permanent civil rights commission with broader authority than the existing one created in 1957 on a temporary basis. Improved employment opportunities for Negroes throughout the federal service and on all government contracts. An end to discrimination in federal or federally assisted housing. Before the President's big, new program went up to Congress, he already had acted through executive order on housing and equal employment in the federal establishment. Earlier this year he had proposed a re Bleak Truth From Cambodia (Detroit Fro Pr) News, as bad as It is logical, has come from Prince Norodom Sihamouk, ruler of Cambodia. lie flatly predicts the fall of two neighboring countries to the Communists. The outspoken prince, who makes no secret of his sympathy for the West, is concerned because of his borders with Laos and South Viet Nam. Few could quarrel with his observations about the fact that only the pro-Communist Pathet Lao is Laos' only united group. And his assessment of the South Vict Nam situation can hardly be Improved on: "I have always said it was necessary to do two things in South Viet Nam. First, replace MN WASHINGTON By RALPH de TOI.EDANO Mindful that Senator Barry Goldwater would sweep the South if he nina for President in 19M. file Democrat are attempting to make Uie GOP pay as heavily as possible for this electoral gain. (Even President Kennedy pri vately concedes that Mr. Cioldna ter would be the toughest man to be.it.) The Democratic strategy, there fore, is to associate by continuous propaganda the Republican drive in the South and a racist posi tion. If they succeed in doing Uiis, It will keep Hie Negro vote In line for them. That this runs di rectly counter to the facts Is hardly the question. What people believe is more important In poli tics than what really is. I know of no responsible politi cal reporter who doesn't agree that Republican strength in the South is built on economic (ac tors and on the states rights is sue. Not just a Republican, but only a Constitutional Conserva tive Republican can carry the South. The race issue inflame (lie low-income groups that are in job competition with the Negroes. Rut Republican strength is among Uie great middle class which has long ceased to argue the segre gationist position. Any analysis of Republican gains in the ma election ohows Unit the party's candidates ran far below their statewide averages in the most heavily segregationist areas, that they ran above these averages in areas which have taken an tindogmalic view of the race issue. But there ia even bettor proof of this in Ilic strength shown by Senator Goldwater. For as he re marked in a recent interview. "I campaigned all over the South for Nixon in 1960 and everywhere 1 went I told them that I was op posed to segregation and discrim ination." But he also stood up for conservative economic policies and slates rights. newed, stronger, though not permanent civil rights commission, and an easing (but not elimination) of literacy tests for voting, not to mention aid to school districts in process of desegregating. FEPC "equal opportunity" legislation has been in the congressional works for some time, and has in fact just cleared its first House committee hurdle. The current message gets into new ground, however, in urging authority to the attorney general to start suits in school seg regation and public accommodation (lunch counters, etc.) cases. Right now, such suits are begun only by the complaining individuals. The platform is more sweeping, suggest ing the attorney general have power to start suits in any kind of civil rights action. For that matter, so was the quite similar proposal of former President Eisenhower which was stricken from the 1957 civil rights bill. Nor has Kennedy here urged the kind of first-step compliance timetable for schodl de segregation which the platform demanded. But in two respects, at least, his message goes beyond the platform. There was no call, as there is now, for a federal law specifically barring discrimination in restaurants, stores, hotels, theaters. This idea is not only new, but untested in the courts. Most of the things that are new in the President's message would give -the attorney general added specific and broadly discre tionary power. They may or may not be enacted. If they should be, they would make the Justice De partment perhaps the busiest, and certainly one of the costliest agencies in the federal establishment. President Diem, who Is not supported by the people. Second, establish a neutral govern ment representing all political tendencies. But now I think it is too late for that. "The Americans can keep things going as they are now in Vict Nam for many years." But in the end, America will get tired of the endless war and withdraw, leaving the field open for the Vict Cong. Americans have put themselves in the same position as the French during the Indochina war, and they cannot win." His gloomy prediction was unsullied with any demand for a policy change or increased handouts. Its pessimism was pure. Tax Discrimination Senator Goldwater continues to speak in the South. He continues to repeat that he opposes discrim ination. But he is more popular today south of the Mason-Dixon line than ever helore. His words, when he appears there, are wide ly reported, so It is not ignorance that protects him. If the Democrats can paint him. and all conservatives, as racists and Utey have a great propa ganda machine working at it day , and night then it will certainly do some harm in the North. At present, many Negroes be lieve that the Kennedy Adminis tration Is shadow-boxing. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy's genius for rubbing people tlie wrong way lost him the support of such peo ple as James Baldwin, a popular Negro writer who has emerged as a spokesman for the extrem ists. It well may be that a virulent campaign against Ihe GOP is tin? only way of prevent ing a general Negro sit-doun on election day. But it may also boomerang if Negro aggressive ness gives rise to counter-aggressiveness among whites. In the past, we were told lh.it Uie Democrats won because ol an inflammation of tlie pocket book nerve among tlie voters If this is true, then tlie race issue will be far less important in I9M tlian tlie lax issue Tlie House Ways and Means Committee or tlie Democratic majority there inhas begun to give its iyrov al to "reforms" which leave the low-bracket and Uie high-bracket taxpayer relatively alone But Uiey strike directly at tlie middle income group. If Chairman Wilbur 1). Mills iD.Ark.) continues to go along with tlie Administration on Uiese measures, he will be sowing dragon's teeth tor himself and the President in 14. Just this week, the Mills com mittee tentatively aproved a change in the tax laws which, if enacted, will prevent those who itemize their deductions to sub tract taxes on gasoline, auto tags, cigarettes, liquors, and a long list ol other items. It will increase Federal revenues by $500 million dollars' and most of that money will come from the pockets of the abused middle class which has no lobby lo protect it on Capitol Hill. This kind of legislation will do much more for Uie Republican Party. The high-income taxpayer has ways to lower his taxes. The low-income taxpayer hat it all taken out in withholding and does not itemize his deductions. The middle-income groups, both north and south, must rely on such clauses to save Uiem from pro hibitively high taxes. Next April, when they make out Uieir returns. Ihcy will not bless Mr. Kennedy for singling them out as Uw tar gets for discriminatory taxation. Al manac Ry I nlted Press International Toddy is Tuesday, June 23. the lTtilh day of IWvi with 1B9 to follow. Tlie moon is approaching its first quarter. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. Tlie evening star is Mars. On this day in history: In lass, the former Confederate states of North and South Carolina. Georgia, Florida. Alabama and lioiu.siana were readmitted to the t'nion. In IHTfi, Sitting Bull led the S oux Indians in the battle of the Little Big Horn that wiped out Gen. Geoi gc Custer and his men in an action that later became known as "Custer's Last Stand " A thought for tlie day Europe an philosopher, Fiiedrich Nicti sche wrote; "Distrust all In whom Ihe impulse to punish is powerful." Reverence And Self-Control By JAMES RESTON (In The New York Times) WASHINGTON. June 16-Every lime the Supreme Court restricts religious ceremony in the public schools, this country suffers a twinge of conflict between i t s heart and mind. Intellectually, it seems lo un derstand the force of the court's decision that government must be neutral in religious matters. But intuitively many people, unbeliev ers as well as believers, feel a sense of regret, as if aomething noble were passing out of our na tional life. Fortunately, the court, in rul ing out prayers and Bible read ing in tlie public school this week, paid attention to both points. It explained, not only what it was doing, but unlike the New York Regents case 'Eagle vs. Vitale'. it took pains to explain that it was not attacking the religious basis of our national life. "The place of religion in our so ciety," said Associate Justice Clark for Ihe majority, "is an exalted one, achieved through a long tradition of reliance on the home, (he church, and the invio lable citadel of the individual heart and mind. "We have come to recognize through bitter experience that it is not within the power of govern By SYDNEY J. HARRIS Tlie teen-age boy was asked what his ambition was, and he replied, only half facetiously, "I want lo live forever." One of the first things we can note in a child is his inability to comprehend death, except on a purely verbal level. The child may accept the fact Uiat otlier people die. but he cannot believe Uiat he will ever die. This "sense of immortality" often persists into and beyond adolescence; some, indeed, never lose it. It may be said to be Ihe emo tional acceptance of one's cer tain mortality that marks off Ihe adult from the child. It also hap pens to be the principal psycho logical feature of human beings, as distinct from all other animals. Only man knows he will die. anil this fact shapes much of his life, or mis-shapes it. Immortality, on this plane of existence, would really be a hor rible late for any individual, no matter how appealing the idea seems to the young, who have not lived long enough to appre ciate the necessary cycle of birth, growth: decay, and death To think about living here forever, to think about it seriously, reveals how appcalhng it would be: its attrac tion is wholly superficial, a ves tige of infantile desires. Tlie finite human mind cannot grasp what "forever" is. so let us imagine living even only 2tx or 3U) years, as the only auelcss person on earth. No one we knew would be alive: we would be a person out of time, and out of community, a true stranger on the earth. Our predominant feel ing: would be one of exhaustion, spiritually and emotionally. We would cry for death as a most welcome relief from this intoler able burden. Or. to carry tin- philosophic Ian tasy in another direction: suppose that everyone alive were con ferred immortality. Could any thing more ghastly be imagined' With no deaths, there could be n births, for there would be no room. We would drive one anoth er crazy by the second century m ' ment to invade that citadel, whether its purpose or effect be to aid or oppose, to advance or retard." There was some concern In the country before the court empha sized . the limitations on its ac tion. If it could make public school prayers unconstitutional, why couldn't it strip all religion from our public procedures, end t h e prayers in the Congress, eliminate the chapels and military chaplains in tlie armed services, and even . rule out public observances of Christmas? Erwin N. Griswold, dean of the Harvard Law School, charged the court with an "absolutist" ap proach and expressed his doubts as follows: "In a country which has a great tradition of tolerance, is it not important that minorities, who have benefited so greatly from that tolerance, should be tolerant too. as long as they are not com pelled to take affirmative action themselves . . . ? "Is it not a travesty," he asked, "that we have brought ourselves, through an essentially thought-, denying absolutist approach, to Uie point where such things as chaplains in our prisons, or chap els in our military academies can be seriously and solemnly raised as threats to the religious free- STRICTLY PERSONAL of lile tlie search (or change, for novelty, would become maniacal; and a profound depression and in ertia; akin to suicide, would settle on us. Adam and Eve were presum ably created for Immortality, but this was before they had any knowledge of good or evil. Their just punishment was exile from Eden, not death death was a gracious gift to prevent them from going mad; or to live for ever with the knowledge of our infirmities and mistakes would be a worse hell than Dante con- . jured up. Young people want to live lor ever because "lime" as a con cept has no meaning when we arc young lo them, people of 40 are just as old. as "half-dead." as people of so. It is only as we rqien into adulthood 'if we do that time becomes a friend, and not an enemv. BERRY'S WORLD "C.hrhline Kttltr Ll,f.. . X'rV. ' dom. which is guaranteed by tlie First Amendment ... 7" This week, the court clearly sought to answer these (ears. It pointed to Uie (act that the Su preme Court itseK opened each session by invoking the grace o( God, and seemed to approve the religious ceremonies that attend other government (unctions. This does not w holly meet Dean Griswold's objection, but it helps remove the feeling of many citi zens that the country was not only turning its back on its religious past but was going lo hell with the blessing o( the Supreme Court ol the United States. 11 was probably a good thing, Uien, (or the court to emphasize the religious background ol the nation, while limiting religious practices in the schools. For de spite all the aggressive skeptics in this country today, Uie ideals of personal duty and conduct still reach back to religious begin nings. And Ihe mora the head fines deal with the turmoil be tween the races, the nations, tlie sexes and the generations, the more people w under about rul ing out religious practices on the order of the highest court in the land. History still suggests that free government has prospered best among religious peoples, and men have often speculated about what would happen to America If she, ever lost her ancient faiths. "One is startled by the thought," Lord Bryce wrote in The American Commonwealth 80 years ago, "of what might befall this huge yet delicate fabric of laws and commerce, and social institutions were Uie foundations it has rested on to crumble away. "It is an old saying Uiat mon archies live by honor and repub lics by virtue. The more demo cratic republics become, the more the masses grow conscious of their own power, the more do they need to live, not only by pa triotism, but by reverence and self-control, and the more essen tial to their well-being are those sources whence reverence and self-control flow." The Supreme Court is not at tacking this principle. It is not trying to weaken religious prac tice but arguing that taking com pulsory religion out of the public schools w ill strengUien it. For the moment this increases controversy, but once it is clear that the court is strictly limiting its restrictions on compulsory re ligious ceremony, a more thought ful evaluation of the issue is like ly to begin. nv f ruin ton By PETER EDSON Washington Correspondent Newspaper Enterprise Assn. W ASHINGTON NEAi - Presi dent Kennedy's civil rights mes sage is in effect a second Stale of the Union message sent to Capitol Hill in June instead of January. Using tlie current race relations disturbances as a peg. thc Presi' dent has hung onto it all the major domestic reforms he has recommended before. He includes tax reduction, the need to promote greater and more rapid economic growth, aid to education, his youth programs, more vocational train ing and even the Area Redevelop ment Act. which the House re cently killed, but which the Sen ate is trying valiantly to bring back to life. The President now wraps all these old requests in a message of more than 20 major legislative recommendations, with some new demands for sweeping new execu tive powers. He tells Congress to stuy in session til! it gets all Uie parts put together in a single omnibus bill, this year. Tlie rationalization for this ap proach is fairly obvious. Most of the 20 million Negroes in the United States are at the bottom of the economic heap. They have the lowest paid jobs, the lowest average income, the worst housing, the lowest educational level, the highest unemployment, the highest percentage on relief. Until this one-ninth of the pop ulation is better educated and put to work at higher skills there can be no full employment, no gen eral prosperity, no economic growth sufficient to absorb all the new workers entering the la bor force every year. "Delinquency, vandalism, gang warfare, disease, slums and Ihe high cost of public welfare and crime are all directly related to whiles and Negroes alike," says the President. He adds that, "Re cent labor difficulties in Phila delphia may well be only the be ginning if more jobs are not found in northern cities." Here, the President indirectly brings into the civil rights mes sage his juvenile delinquency program, medical care under So cial Security, urban renewal, pub lic housing, tlie anli-crime drive and improvement of labor-management relations. The President WASHINGTON Stolen Votes Factors In General Elections By FULTON LEWIS JR. In Chester, Pa., one man votes 41 times in two elections. In Phila delphia another enters the voting booth to cast his ballot 327 times in a single day. In Colorado County. Tex., thou sands of ballots marked for a Re publican candidate arc tlirown out. In Cook County, III., a Spe cial State's Attorney discovers that his own Democratic Party is guilty of election fraud. Angered by the disfranchise ment of voters across the coun try. Congressman Rill Cramer. Florida Republican, has proposed remedial legislation. He has thrown into the hopper a bill illlt 71151 that would extend the juris diction of the Civil Rights Com mission to include all vote fraud cases. Presently the Commission can investigate only minority group complaints. Cramer introduced similar leg islation in 19SI. To the consterna tion of Rep. Emanuel (Viler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Cramer's Amend ment was approved hy members of his committee and attached lo a bill extending the commission's life another two years. Ironical was tlie fact that many of the Democrats voting in Exec utive Session against the Cramer Amendment were loud public ad vocates of civil rights: Chanman feller. HolUman ol New York. Rodino of New Jersey. Toll of Pennsylvania. teller had the situation well in hand, however. The hill, complete with Cramer's amendment, died a quiet death in the Administration controlled House Rules Commit tee. Tlie wily Brooklyn Democrat then attached to an appropriations hill another amendment extend mz tlie commission's life Cramer arcued that tl. amend ment was not germane The vrn erablc "Judge" Smith, rhaiiman of tlie Rules Committee, (.ir, t eller's scheme an "miliagrnii!, abuse of the pathamcnlary pro cess." Snooker Rayhnrn upheld teller and the Civil lli-ht, cm. mission was extomffH wiiiwtt lie power to linrslu.ilf voir tr.iml. Vow on the sput , Aiinrncy Genera! Robert Kennedy Cramer plans to a-k him to support hu lull even requests a company-by-com-pany, planl-by-plant and union-by-union report on equal employ, ment opportunity agreements cov ering 20 million workers. The President is marshaling all the executive powers of his office to further his objectives. He has told his secretaries of labor and health, education and welfare to deal directly with local com munities on work relief for un employed fathers and aid to de pendent children, wherever state co-operation lags. He has earmarked $400 million s. which he had previously cut from his January budget requests (or new aids to education. He has instructed the Departments ol Commerce, Labor and Health to see if Uiey cannot give more aid to depressed areas and the long term unemployed. In short, he makes civil rights an economic problem, not a social problem to handle on an emotional or a moral basis. "Our concern with civil rights must not cause any diversion or dilution of our efforts for econom ic progress," tlie President de clares. "For without such prog ress tlie Negro's hopes will re main unfulfilled." Finally, the President is setting up by executive order until Congress gets around to estab lishing it by law a new Fed eral Community Relations Serv ice. Its function will be to try lo restore peace to communities threatened or torn by racial ten sions. This race relations conciliation service will be empowered to act on invitation of local communi ties or on its own motion. The latter option is an experiment in tended to minimize violence, and it may work that way. But inter ference by the federal govern ment in what has always been considered the domain of local authority may also mean Uie be ginning of the end of states' rights forever. The powers which the Presi dent's civil rights message asks Congress to bestow on the United States attorney general is another long step in that direction. Congress will be taking a long, hard look at this whole bill of particulars. It's going to be a long, hot summer in Washing ton, lasting till Thanksgiving be fore it's all over - if not Christmas. REPORT . The Florida Congressman wrote Kennedy two years ago but did not receive an answer. He re ceived instead a letter from tlie then Deputy Attorney General, Byron White, stating the Justice Department's position: The Cra mer amendment was "unwar ranted." White now sits on Uie Supreme Court. Cramer hopes this time to get a personal reply Irom the Attorney General. Note: Tile techniques of vote fraud have become more sophis ticated since 1U26 when Don Mel lelt. editor and publisher of the Canton lOhioi Daily News, was shot to death after his expose of ballot box stuffing. Nevertheless, one recent esti mate put at one million the num ber of votes stolen in any Presi dential election. Time-tested meth ods i chain balloting, graveyard voting, false canvasses i are still used. A Democratic precinct captain and two henchmen were recently sent to jail in Chicago for method ically altering paper ballots after tlie polls cleared. In full view of lulling officials and a uniformed policeman they had erased X's from tlie Republican column and placed them in the Democratic column. There are otlier. more subtle techniques. Voters in at least one third of the nation still use paper ballots. The law is usually pre cise as to how (lie ballot must lie marked. A candidate s or par ty's name must be clearly X'd in tlie appropriate square; any era sure, icar or additional marking 'll disqualify the ballot. Often a iecial pencil must be used. All ol which makes it possible lor a quic k fingered vote thief to Invalidate opposition ballots. While unfolding the ballots, he mav tear some ol them with a sharpidged ring; or may conceal a piece of had In a bandaged finger and mark up tlie ballot as he smooths it out. in a twinkling, lie has disfranchised a voter. ' Voting machines arc safer but not lonlproof. While voting-ma-i h,ne companies deny the charge, at least one citizens' group claims that a nail or small piece of wood can be wedged under a votin? lever to keep it from registering.
