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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (July 19, 1963)
PAGE -A HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Falls, Oregon Friday, July 19, 196 EPSON IN WASHINGTON . . . South Africa, Portugal Questions Bother UN New Door Mat? .; The Middle Ground America needs its middle ground. This l where its conflicts are resolved, its debates turned into action. This is where factions meld together to become consensus, and the country moves on. Where such ground does not exist, an ef fective free society cannot function. For there is then no meeting place for negotiators, for those who would make a consensus by rea sonable accommodation of differing views. : When that is impossible, decision can only ie had by the process of conquest and surren der, that is, by a dominant (not necessarily majority) group imposing its will on all who jlisagree with it. This can, of course, be accomplished by ihe actual use of force, or the threat of it. It can also be achieved simply by holding within the dominant group all the elements of power a modern society can muster. A society that is governed thus is, for all practical purposes, totalitarian. It listens to no dissent, entertains no debate. All matters are considered settled when the dominant group speaks. The extremists are at the helm. Fortunately for us all, the United States is not in this condition. It still has an immense 'middle ground. Debate flourishes richly in linost areas. The rivalry of ideas is encouraged i; Yet from time to time our middle ground glands in somewhat more than ordinary peril jfrom our ever-present extremists at right and left. This could be one of those times. : Weeks ago in Washington, Michigan's Gov. George Romney properly observed that we always had our extremist factions, and that at other periods in our history they bulked relatively larger than they do now. They then had fairly sizable political parties of their own, and won major offices. We dare not, however, find base for com placency in this. For we live in an age when extremists on many sides shout stridently from well-fortified positions. They have not only vocal power but the hard financial sub stance needed to advance their causes. Extremists always are bent on destroying not only their opposite numbers at the other pole, but on capturing, intimidating or other wise neutralizing all who stand between on the expansive middle ground. Probably they always succeed in affecting some this way. But sometimes their encroach ments are quite broad, until men scanning the field will report "there is no middle ground." Generally it is in fact still there. It has the look, though, of occupied territory. That is a dangerous look in any free so ciety. It can lead to weapons being taken up in civil war. Short of that, it can produce a national condition which some call "mental civil war." The smell of such uncompromising con flict hangs over some of our hard political struggles today. It is not a good omen. This is a moment in our history when we ought to be continuously on guard against destruction of that "truce ground" where we must forge a workable free society. . Voices That Must Be Heard The governors who shortly convene in Miami Beach will face something of a dilem ma. They will have to decide whether or not they want their .conference to exert any in fluence on the course of national public policy. S; The principal work of this conference is, if course, a mutual study of state problems. ;The idea is that most state leaders can learn jnuch by trading information with their coun terparts in other areas. Beyond this, they also discuss applica tion of uniform codes in fields where these seem desirable, as in highway safety laws. And they look for ways of interstate co-operation, to the end that they may thereby solve problems without drawing the federal government into the picture. Yet one cannot gather 40 to 50 gover nors under one roof without reasonably ex- -pecting that they bring interesting views on major national issues and wish to express them. Thus, inevitably, the governors' confer ence has taken to voicing itself annually in resolutions on important topics. ; In 1962 at Hcrshey, Pa., however, this practice suddenly came into challenge. The jcause was a resolution bearing on civil rights. jSince this is an issue which divides northern -and southern governors very sharply, the fur flew. It now takes a two-thirds majority of gov ernors to approve a resolution. This year the conference will be asked to modify this rule to make unanimous approval mandatory. The effect of this, obviously, would be to bar any resolutions which could not com mand the support of governors from every region. Many matters beyond the critical one of civil rights thereby might be placed beyond the governors' consideration. Practically speaking, such a new rule would really silence the conference as an organ of opinion on important national and perhaps world policy. The work the governors do on their own problems is solid and good. But they are now looked to for more than that. P'rom among their numbers may come the national lead ers of tomorrow. They are expected to speak out on the big issues. So what they have to decide is whether to silence themselves at the time when the nation needs every responsible organ of opin ion it can get or whether to plunge into the hard questions regardless of the divisive ef fects. After all, the divisions within the ranks of governors simply reflect the divisions within the country itself. If the nation can live with this, perhaps the governors ought also to be able to endure it. We need their voice. nstant Affluence Admittedly there is a wide difference be tween being trained for specific jobs in par ticular new factories and being given skills in a broad field that may or may not offer quick job opportunities. Nevertheless, it was something of a jolt .to read that a $3 million federal-local program f job training for 20,000 jobless New York youths is looked on skeptically by many of the Effected youngsters themselves. Their chief complaint, disclosed in ran dom interviews: They don't care to study or train. They want jobs today. Not just any jobs, but work like operating a crane or bull dozer, which draws high pay. These lads talk, in other words, as if somehow they could miraculously acquire in stant skills. They want none of the drudgery of learning, of battling up the ladder. Open .the golden door now! They should talk to some of the men who jonce had good jobs in West Virginia but lost :thcm. They now drive hours to and from train ing classes, getting a paltry subsistence wage ;as they prepare for "new jobs" that may or Tmay not materialize in auto repair, woodwork ling, machine shops and the like. Lots of those who are upgrading their 'skills in the South are in fact marked for definite jobs in industries moving in. But the nearly universal testimony of in dustrialists and economic experts who have observed the South's economic growth is that these workers generally put out effort as if their lives depended on it. They spend no time grousing about not being crane operators. What has fed the delusions of these New York youngsters, many of them presently un employable school dropouts, that they can, in effect, join the union and see the world? In the old days we could blame it all on Hollywood movies which catapulted their he roes from bottom to top in half a reel., But you don't see these any more even on the late, late show? The explanation today may be deeper and wider. Our society in many ways encourages people not to wait for anything. There are shortcuts to everything to maturity, to col lege diplomas, to homeowning, to success. Many kids at the young end of the teen age scale have material goods that would have . thrilled their grandparents at 50. Some who don't have these things "take" them. One must keep up. Others sit around waiting for their magic chance at youthful affluence. Some less well off sectors, like parts of West Virginia and the South, have not yet been caught up in the vortex of this "here today and have it all tomorrow" mood that afflicts so many places. That may explain why they still believe in laying hard labor on the line. But even the worst pockets of poverty and joblessness in New York are hard by the great displays of modern-day economic rich es. And the poor can very quickly pick up from the more fortunate the happy notion spurred by many parents that what one sees and likes one should have. In this at;e of fingertip control, why wait? Just touch a button and the world is yours! WASHINGTON NOTEBOOK Jll Boy Scouts And Girl Scouts By WASHINGTON STAFF WASHINGTON (NEAi A pan el of economists reviewing busi ness prospects for the second half of 1963 at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce board of directors meeting came up with some cute observations on their trade. "A New York banker told mn he was hiring only one-armed economists," said the chamber's research director Emerson P. Schmidt. "His explanation was that he got tired of hearing his advisors say, 'But on the other hand. . . .' " William F. Butler, vice presi dent and research director for Chase Manhattan Bank, didn't put himself in that class. " am frequently wrong," he con ceded, "but never in doubt." Calling atlention to the fact that there will be one million more war babies reaching age Hi this year than there were in 19(12, Robert J. Eggert, Ford Mo tor Company marketing research manager, observed, "Sixteen is tile magic age when Boy Scouts become girl scouts." "And at 18," added Chase Man hattan Bank's research director William F. Butler, "as economic statistics, they become subject to the hazards of matrimony." Using "himself" as a nickname to designate President Kennedy or almost any high official you can think of is a current way of conferring status in this status conscious age. The other day ,a reporter stepped into the Justice Depart ment's information otfice, seek ing Edwin Gutham, Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy's press chief. "Where's himself?" the news man asked. A secretary replied: "Himself is in with the Higher Himself." (She was referring to the attorney general). The fact that U.S. lots lost the chance women pi to he first STRICTLY PERSONAL By SYDNEY .1. HARRIS One of the ironies of the film as an art medium is that it seems to do much better with the second-rate than with the first rate. Greatness in a novel or in a play does not transcribe it self well (into the screen. Two recent movies. "No Exit," adapted from Sartre's play, and "The Trial'' adapted from Kaf ka's novel, arc depressing exam ples of this truth. Each was ex cellent in its own medium; both lail dismally as films. The best movies I have seen from a cinematographic point of view have been second-rate works, like "Rebecca" or "Gone With the Wind." And "David Cop perfield." which is not one of Pickens' superior novels, made an absolutely stunning movie. Yet the great Shakespearean plays, such as "Hamlet" or "Macbeth" have never been done well on the screen. Laurence Oliv ier's film version of "llamlet" was a disaster; and Orson Welles' "Macbeth" was even worse. The more profound a novel or play, the less successfully it seems to lend itself to film treatment. Perhaps t Itis is because the greatness of a play or a novel consists, to a large degree, in disclosing the inner lile of its characters, in placing a micro scope close to the secret springs of their motivations. The lilm, on the other hand, is an enormous magnifying glass, fit for showing us the craters on the moon. Its very scope may deleat the purpose of art: it calls for so many people, so many scenes, so much activity on the surface that the symbolic mean ing becomes obscured and lost. When a movie decs not try to do ve much, it succeeds ad mirably, for it can depict (lie ap pearances of things in huge, broad, commanding strokes. When, however, it tries to cap ture the inner feeling of the pro tagonist in "The Trial," or the three people tiapivd without exit in Sartre's personal hell then it falters and falls, tripped by its own cumbersome size. Each art form has its own pe culiar limitations, which may be organic; nor are they easily in terchangeable. The novels of Hen ry James simply do not make good plays or movies; what is lost is tile "interior movement" within the author's mind and no external action can substitute for this. It is significant that when James himself wrote for the stage, his productions were hooted down after a few per formances. I think that a survey of great film adaptations of the last 30 years would show that they have invariably been taken from minor works, and have been im proved in the screen version. Per haps one of the measures of the greatness of a novel or a play is its refractory resistance to being changed into another medium. in space to Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova has evoked some bitter comments from the fairer sex. Jerrie Cobb, consultant for the National Aeronautic' and Space Administration since 1961 and one of 13 American women pi lots who have passed tests for space flight, says she warned both Congress and NASA more than a year ago that Russia was preparing to put a woman in orbit. Miss Cobb added acidly: "I'm the most unconsulted con sultant in any government agen cy." From another woman pilot who also has passed her astronaut tests, Jane Hart, wife of Michi gan's Sen. Philip A. Ifort, came this remark: "I'm, tempted to go out to the barn and tell the whole story to my horse and listen to him laugh." At the recent Denver meeting of the Republican National Com mittee, , Kentucky's Sen. Thrus tort Morton took note of a phe nomenon. The preacher who delivered the invocation one day seemed some how to infuse his message with strong political overtones. When introduced later, he drew heavy applause from assembled Repub lican leaders. When Morton rose to speak, lie commented: "This is the first political gath ering I've ever attended where the preacher got' more applause than the speakers." Sen. Kenneth Keating, R-N.Y., is reminded of a little incident on a hot July day last summer when a group was waiting in line to enter the Senate gallery.. One old gentleman in line whis-' pered to the person behind him: "Take a look at the character in front of me with the poodle cut and the blue jeans. Is it a boy or a girl?" "It's a girl," came the sharp answer. "I know. She happens to be my daughter." . "Oh, forgive me. sir!" apolo gized the old fellow. "I never dreamed you were her father." "I'm not!" snapped the parent. "I'm her mother!" BERRY'S WORLD l . i.H. ( ' ! By PETER EDSON Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NEAi Just as if civil rights problems at home weren't bothering the American government enough, African af fairs are coming into the Wash ington spotlight to complicate the international situation. They will give the United Na tions the gravest test it has had since Soviet Russia proposed its "troika" plan for administer ing all U.N. activities. A four-member Africa delega tion headed by Mongi Slim of Tu nisia is due in New York soon and probably will come to Washington to discuss the South African racial policy of apartheid and Portuguese colonial policies in Angola and Mozambique. Both of these issues will be before the U.N. Security Council in the last 10 days of July and early August. They will also be important items on the agenda for the Gen eral Assembly session opening in mid-September. The question of financing continued support for the Congo will also be a related and most important assembly issue. The Mongi Slim mission was set up by the new Organization of Af rican Unity, founded at Addis Ababa in May. , The sentiment expressed at his Pan-African conference of 31 in dependent countries was that South Africa which did not at tend the meeting and is not an OAU member should be expelled from the United Nations or that sanctions be applied against her. Similar views were expressed on Portugal. If the Slim mission expects to have South Africa and Portugal excluded from U.N. affairs, it is probably in for a disappointment. The Security Council can vote only to recommend exclusion of a U.N. member by the General Assembly. The question is subject ' to veto in the Security Council. How the Soviet Union would vote on this is unknown. A likely procedure is that enough members of the Security Council would abstain from voting to make a majority decision im possible. Securing a two-thirds majority vote for exclusion in the General Assembly would be just as difficult. The only time a country was ever kicked out of an international organization was when Italy was expelled from the old League of Nations for its invasion of Ethio pia. The alternative to expulsion would be the application of eco nomic or political sanctions to force South Africa and Portugal to change their policies. This will also be a difficult move to put over, for there is another issue at stake. The question of whether Soviet Russia can be deprived of its vote in the United Nations for failure to pay assessments in support of the U.N. Emergency Force peace keeping operations in the Con go comes to a head in 1964. The U.S.S.R. will then be two years in arrears. France will also be two years in arrears in 1963 if it con tinues present policies. Neither country would want to vote for sanctions against South Africa or Portugal if that would set a precedent for action to de prive Russia and France of their U.N. votes later on. Assistant Secretary of State Harlan Cleveland, in charge of United Nations affairs, has just returned from Europe where he discussed strategy for the com ing Security Council and General Assembly sessions with British, French and Organization for Eco nomic Cooperation and Develop ment country officials, which in clude Canadians and Japanese. Together,, these OECD coun tries give the U.N. 80 per cent of its funds and 83 per cent of the people doing its work. The desire is to secure as united a front as possible in handling these import ant issues in the coming months. WASHINGTON REPORT . U.S. Communists In Inter-Party Struggle " know Ite parly uat bomb . . . tbty all juit lat ground trying to think of Tom Suiftiri!" By FULTON LEWIS JR. The Sino-Soviet split is by no means the only chasm within Communist ranks. Youthful members of the Com munist Party, U.S.A., are fight ing like cats and dogs. Several top-ranking young comrades have been expelled for supporting the ' militant Chinese Reds. And Mortimer Daniel Rubin, National Youth Director of the party, faces growing internal op position, particularly in New York. Primary reason for the anti Rubin sentiment is personal, not ideological. He was installed as youth czar in I960 by party boss bus Hall. Brought from Philadelphia to national headquarters in N e w York. Rubin from the start an tagonized local young Commu nists. He altered party structure, then assigned all young comrades in New York to one of four branches under his control. Despite the fact that he had been out of school for many years. Rubin appointed himself head of the student branch. His wife Dor othy, identified as a Communist before a Subversive Activities Control Board ihearing in New York on June 6, 1963 , was put in charge of a second section. A Philadelphia Negro was named to head up a third. Only one New Yorker was permitted to head a branch. The New York kids hope to de pose Rubin and replace him with Fred Gilman. managing editor of Communist Viewpoint, the party organ of which Rubin is editor in chief. Gilman. using the name "Joseph Bauer," was managing editor of New Horizons for Youth, another party sheet and now con tributes articles to tlie Worker. Chances arc. though, that Ru bin will stay in the driver's seat. He has a total backing of Hall and other party ciders. And Gilman several years ago was considered a close ideological ally of Jacob Rosen, a young Communist leader since expelled for "Chincsc-Albani.m" sympa thies. Gilman has made peace with leaders of the Party. His best chance (or advancement probably lies in legal action that has been instituted against Rubin. The Subversive Activities Con trol Board, having taken sworn testimony that Rubin is a party power, is expected to soon de mand that he register as a Com munist with the Attorney Gener al. If lie refuses, again as expect ed. Ruhin faces a possible jail term. And the job of National Youth Director may be vacant. Sen Strom Thurmond. South Carolina Democrat, continues to insist for the record that he has not yet committed himself to any one for the Presidency in 1964. Those directing the campaign to elect Barry Goldwater, however, are confident that Thurmond will, when the opportune moment comes, announce his support for the GOP conservative. With backing of Thurmond, and other Dixie conservatives, Gold water would be well on his way toward a Southern sweep. Re fusal of Virginia's Harry Byrd to support Adlai Stevenson or John Kennedy is considered the major reason that Republicans were able to carry the Old Dominion in the past three Presidential elections. The GOP was unable to pick up South Carolina in any of those ycars. Party strategists are con vinced that Thurmond's support of Goldwater could well make the difference! Thurmond has publicly said that only Goldwater's conservatism is in line with Southern thinking. This is acknowledged by virtually all Dixie Democrats. One thing is certain: Goldwa ter needs a massive electoral vote south of the Mason-Dixon line if he hopes to win the Presi dency. And to get that vote he needs all the help he can get from Democrats of the Thurmond. Byrd camp. Al manac By United Press International Today is Friday, July 19 the 2K)th day of 1963 with 163 to follow. The moon is approaching its new phase. The morning stars are Jupiter and Saturn. The evening star is Mars. On this day in history: 1848. at the first woman's rights convention, bloomers were introduced, a radical departure in women's dress. In 1870, the Franco-Prussian war began. In 1914, German armies began '" rclrcil' across Uie Marne Riv er in France, after their last great world war olfensive In r ranee. In 1941, the World War II "V" or Victory campaign was launched in Europe with a broad east by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. A thought for the day-Author William Somerset Maugham said: "People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise."
