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.