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.