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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (June 25, 1963)
PAGE I HERALD AND NEWS, Klamalh Falls, Oregon Tuesday, June 25, 13 a diljpriaL (paqsL Civil Rights Effort Stepped Up EPSON IN WASHINGTON . . ' Civil Rights Message Tremendous Job CALL TO ARMS President Kennedy's broad civil rights proposals represent just about the heaviest down payment any modern-day president has vcr made on his party's civil rights plat torm planks. t 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 Ipast first-step compliance plans by 1963. Aid (o those districts facing special transition problems. 1 Power to the United States attorney general to begin federal court suits to bar denial of any civil rights. A new fair employment practices com 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. t: 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 exequtive order on housing and equal employment in the federal establishment. Earlier this year he had proposed a re Bleak Truth From Cambodia (Detroit Free Prats) News, as bad as it is logical, lias come from Prince Norodom Sihamouk, ruler of Cambodia. He 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 Viet Nam situation can hardly be improved on: "I have always said it was necessary to do two things in South Viet Nam. First, replace 'IN WASHINGTON By KALril de TOl.EIMNO Mindful that Senator Barry Goldwater would sweep the South if It runs for President in ISM, the Democrats are attempting to make Uic GOP pay as heavily as possible for this electoral gain. (Even President Kennedy pri vately concede Utat Mr. Goldwa ter would be the toughest man to beat.) The Democratic stralegy, there fore. Is to associate by continuous propaganda the Republican drive in the South and a racist posi tion. It they succeed in doing Uiis, It will keep tlte Negro vote in line for them. That this runs di rectly counter to (lie facts Is hardly the question. What people believe is more important In poli tics Hum what really is. 1 know of no responsible politi cal reporter who doesn't agree tiiat Republican strength in the South is built on economic fac 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 inflames the low-income groups that are In job competition with the Negroes. Rut Republican strength Is among Hie great middle class which has long ceased to argue the segre gationist position. Any analysis of Republican gains In the I!t3 election i-hows that the party's candidates ran far below their statewide averages in the most heavily segregationist areas, that tliey ran above these averages in areas which have taken an undogmatic view of the race Issue. But there is even better proof of this in the strength shown hy Senator Goldwater. For as he re marked In a recent interview, "1 campaigned all over die South (or Nixon In 1SK10 and everywhere I went I told them Uiat I was op posed to segregation and discrim ination." But he also stood up for conservative economic policies and states 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 schorJl 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 Viet Nam for many years. But in the end, America will get tired of the endless war and withdraw, leaving the field open for the Viet 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 tlte South. He continues to repeal that he opposes discrim ination. But he Is more popular today south of tlie Mason-Dixon line than ever before. Mis 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 tliey 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 thai 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 tlie extrem ists. It well may lie that a virulent campaign against the GOP is the only way of prevent ing a general Negro sit-down on election day. But H may also boomerang if Negro aggressive ness gives ri.se to counter-aggressiveness among whites. In tlte past, we were told thai tlte Democrats won because of an Inflammation of the pocket book nerve among the voters. If (his is true, then tlte race issue will lie far less important in IWt titan tlie lax issue. Tlte House Ways and Means Committee or tlte Democratic majority there inhas begun to givo its approv al to "reforms" which leave the low-bracket and the high-bracket taxpayer relatively alone. Rut they strike directly at lite middle income group. If Chairman W ilbur 1). Mills iD.-Ark.l continues to go along with tlte Administration on tltese measures, he will be sowing dragon's teeth for himself and the President in VM. Just this week, tlte Mills com mittee tentatively approved 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 of oilier items. It will increase Federal revenues by $500 million dollars' and most of that money will come from the pockets of the ahused middle class which has no lobby to protect It on Capitol Hill. This kind of legislation will do much more for tlte Republican Party. The high-income taxpayer has ways to lower his taxes. The low-income taxiayer has it all taken out in withholding and does not itemize his deductions. Tlie middle-Income groups, both north and south, must rely on such clauses to save Utem (rom pro hibitively high taxes. Next April, w hen they make out Uteir returns, they will not bless Mr. Kennedy for singling them out as the tar gets lor discriminatory taxation. Al manac By I nttrd Press International Today is Tuesday, June M, the ITiith day of l3 with ISO to follow. Tlte moon is approaching its first quarter. The morning stars arc Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. Tlie evening star is Mars. On this day In history: In 11W8, the former Confederate states of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Louisiana were readmitted to the I'nion. In 18711. Sitting Hull led tlie S oux Indians in tlte battle of the Little Big Horn that wiped out Gen. George Custer and ins men in an action that later became known as "Custer's Last Stand." A tltought for lite day Europe an philosopher, Friednch Nicti sebe wrote: "Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful." 3'"r "' c r- ,t . 5a0tU&Sjrr Reverence And Self-Control By JAMES RESTON (In The New York Times) WASHINGTON, June 16-Every time Uie Supreme Court restricts religious ceremony in the public schools, this country sulfers a twinge of conflict between i t s heart and mind. Intellectually, it seems to un derstand the force of the court's decision Uiat government must be neutral in religious matters. But intuitively many people, unbeliev ers as well as believers, feel a sense of regret, as if something noble were passing out of our na tional life. Fortunately, the court, in rul ing out prayers and Bible read ing in the public school this week, paid attention to both points. It explained, not only what it was doing, but unlike the New York Regents case (Engle vs. Vitalci, it took pains to explain that it was not attacking the religious basis of our national life. "The place of religion in pur so ciety," said Associate Justice Clark for the majority. "Is an exalted one, achieved through a long tradition of reliance on the home, the church, and the invio lable citadel of the individual heart and mind. "We have come to recognize through bitter experience lhat it is not within tlie power of govern By SYDNEY J. HARRIS Tlte teen-age boy was asked what his ambition was, and he replied, only halt facetiously, "I want to live forever." One of the first tilings 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 oilier people die. but he cannot believe that 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 the emo tional acceptance of one's cer tain mortality that marks off the adult from the child. It also hap pens to be the principal psycho logical feature of human beings, as distinct (rom all other animals. Only man knows he will die. and this fact shaies much of his life, or mis-shapes it. Immortality, on this plane of existence, would really be a hor rible fate for any individual, no matter how appealing the idea seems to tlte young, who have not lived long enough to appre ciate the necessary cycle ol birth, growth: decay, and death To think about living Itere forever, to think about it seriously, reveals how appcalling it would be: its attrac tion is wholly superficial, a ves tige of Infantile desires. lite finite human mind cannot grasp what "forever" is, so let us imagine living even only 2IM or 3110 years, as tlie only ageless person on earth. No one wp knew would be alive: we would be a person out of time, and out of community, a true stranger on tlie earth. Our predominant leel ing would tie one of exhaustion, spiritually and emotionally. We would cry (or death as a most welcome relief from this intoler able burden. Or. to carry the philosophic tan tasy in another direction: suppose that everyone alive were con ferred immortality, Could any tiling more ghastly be imagined? W nh no deaths, there could lie no births, (or there would lie no room. We would drive one anoth er crazv bv tlte second centmv 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 the prayers in the Congress, eliminate the chapels and military chaplains in the 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 tradiUon 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 the 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 life tlte search for 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 belore 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 for ever because "time" as a con cept has no meaning when we arc young to Ihcm, people of to are just as old, as "half-dead." as people of 80. It is only as we ripen into adulthood iif we do that time becomes a friend, and not an enemv. BERRY'S WORLD "ChrMine Ketltr ltd., may r ruin vou?' dom, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment . . . ?" This week, the court clearly sought to answer these fears, ft pointed to tlie fact that the Su preme Court itself opened each session by invoking the grace of God, and seemed to approve the religious ceremonies Uiat attend other government functions. This docs not wholly 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 to hell with the blessing of the Supreme Court ol the United Slates. It was probably a good thing, then, (or Uie court to emphasize the religious background ot 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 the more the head lines deal with tlie turmoil be tween the races, the nations, tlie sexes and the generations, the more people wonder 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 Brycc 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 that 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, Uie 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 Uiat taking com pulsory religion out of the public schools will strengUien it. For Uie 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. 3HE By PETER EDSON Washington Correspondent Newspaper Enterprise Assn. WASHINGTON NEA - Presi dent Kennedy's civil rights mes sage is in effect a second State of the Union message sent to Capitol Hill in June instead of January. Using the current race relations disturbances as a peg, the 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 tlie Sen ate is trying valiantly to bring back to life. Tlie President now wraps all these old requests in a message of more than 20 major legislative recommendations, with some new demands (or sweeping new execu tive powers. He tells Congress to stay in session till it gets all the 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 the high cost of public welfare and crime are all directly related to whites 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, the anti-crime drive and improvement ot labor-management relations. The President WASHINGTON Stolen Votes Factors In General Elections By FULTON LEWIS JR. In Chester, Pa., one man votes 43 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., Uiou sands o( ballots marked for a Re publican candidate are thrown 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 Bill Cramer. Florida Republican, has proposed remedial legislation. He has thrown into the hopper a bill 'III! 7115' that would extend tlte 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 1961. To the consterna tion of Rep. Emanuel Cellcr. chairman of tlie House Judiciary Committee. Cramer's Amend ment was approved by members of his committee and attached to a bill extending the commission's life another two years. Ironical was the fact that many of the Democrats voting in Exec utive Session against the Cramer Amendment were loud public ad vocates of civil rights: Chairman Celler, HnlUman of New York. Rodino of New Jersey. Toll of Pennsylvania. Celler had tlte situation well in hand, however. The bill, complete with Cramer's amendment, died a quiet death in the Administration controlled House Rules Commit tee. Tlte wily Brooklyn Democrat then attached to an appropriations hill another amendment extend ing tlte commission's lite. Cramer arjued that the amend ment was not germane. The ven erable "Judge" Smith, chairman of tlie Rules Committee, called teller's scheme an "outrageous abuse of the parliamentary pro cess." Speaker Rayhurn "upheld teller and the Civil Rights Com mission was extended without tlte power to investigate vote tr.iud. Vow on the spot is Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Cramer plans to ask him to support his hill. even requests a company-by-company, plant-by-plant and union-by-union report on equal employ ment opportunity agreements cov cring 20 million workers. Tlie 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 which he had previously cut from his January budget requests for new aids to education. He has instructed the Departments of Commerce, Labor and Health to see if Utey cannot give more aid to depressed areas and the long term unemployed. v 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," the President de clares. "For without such prog ress the 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. Us function will be to try to 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 tlie federal govern ment in what has always been considered the domain of local authority may also mean the be ginning of the end of states' rights forever. Tlie 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 iong, 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 (rom the then Deputy Attorney General, Byron White, stating the Justice Department's position: The Cra mer amendment was "unwar ranted." White now sits on tlie Supreme Court. Cramer hopes this time to get a personal reply (rom the Attorney General. Note: Tlie techniques o( vote fraud have become more sophis ticated since 1026 when Don Mel lelt. editor and publisher of the Canton lOhioi Daily News, was shot to death alter 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 ichain balloting, graveyard voting, false canvassesi are still used. A Democratic precinct captain and two henchmen were recently sent to jail in Chicago for method ically altering paper ballots after tlte polls cleared. In full view of polling officials and a uniformed policeman they had erased X's from the Republican column and placed them in the Democratic column. There are other, 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 the ballot must be marked. A candidate's or par ty's name must be clearly X'd in the appropriate square: any era sure, tear or additional marking will disqualify the ballot. Often a special pencil must be used. All of which makes it possible for a quick-fingered vote thief to invalidate opposition ballots. While unfolding Uie ballots, he may tear some of them with a sharp-edged ring; or may conceal a piece of lead in a bandaged finger and mark up the ballot as he smooths it out. In a twinkling, he has disfranchised a voter. Voting machines arc safer but not foolproof. While voting-machine companies deny the charge, at least one citizens' group claims that a nail or small piece of wood can be wedged under a voting lever to keep it from registering.
