PAGE-4
HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Falls, Oregon
Tuesday, October 22, 1961
BERRY'S WORLD
IN WASHINGTON
Politics And Corruption
Election Time At Sulphur Rock
; Things must be pretty interesting these
days in Sulphur Rock, Ark., to state it mild
ly. And they will continue that way, no
doubt about it, until after the Nov. 5 city
election in the hamlet of 225 citizens.
It's going to be that way because an
unusual campaign is going on there for
election of city officials. When no man had
filed for any of the offices, up to 24 hours
before the deadline, the women got togeth
er and had a pow-wow, a secret one it is
said. They set up an all-female ticket.
The men said that would never do,
letting the women run a town. So t h e y
organized, hastily, a "man's party" to cam
paign against the "women's party."
The report is that neither party has
a platform. That means it's women against
rnen; no holds barred perhaps. The only
promise that's been made was by the wom
en who say they'll pave the streets if elect
ed. And the women, bless 'em, say they
know more about what's going on in the
town than the men. The men probably say
that is probably the most truthful thing
they've got In their platform, if it is there.
To make it an even more interesting
U.S. And
(Lot Angela Times)
While strains deepen within the At
lantic Alliance, due largely to President
Charles de Gaulle's unwillingness to accept
U.S. leadership of it, the ties between the
United States and Britain remain strong,
,and may be growing even stronger.
Discernible for some time, these trends
vere pointed up in two separate develop-
Stolen ts:
In Brussels, the Common Market's
'; council of ministers almost contemptuously
: brushed off the U.S. appeal for a tariff re-
duction on imported American poultry.
: In London, on the other hand, British
'Officials let it be known that they want no
; jpart of de Gaulle's proposal for a West Euro-
pean nuclear force that would Include Brit
: aln, but exclude the United States.
! : To a large extent it is De Gaulle himself
; who is reenforcing the traditional ties be
' fween the United States and Britain. In
; his view, brimming over with suspicion, our
I two nations are lumped together as the
"Anglo-Americans." And separately and to
By SYDNEY J. HARRIS "
Owing to a scarcity of good
new mystery novels the civil
ized British kind I like, not the
American kind, full ot booze,
blood, and naked blondes found
dead in tlie bathtub - t dipped
Into a number of spy thrillers
this summer while Hiving my
tiny overworked brain a vaca
tion. What st nick mc about most ot
these cloak-and-dagger alfalrs
was that, in nearly all ot them,
the cloak and the dagger were
singularly absent. Influenced no
doubt by such modern masters
as Graham Grocno and Eric
Ambler, the later-day spy novel
Is a grim and seedy Uung.
Fashions in (iction swing al
most to the extremes of fashions
In women's clothes from decade
to decade. When I first began
reading spy novels as a young
ster, it was tlte lieyday of tltc
E. Phillips Oppcnlieim school
the characters wero highly dra-
I malic, with flamboyant heroes
f and slinky seductresses quaffing
champagne on tlte Orient Ex
s press.
Then, as if In revulsion from
this lurid picture ot high life
among the International spies,
l the genre suddenly changed
and wo are now confronted with
I; drab, grey litllo men darting
; furtively out of their furnished
; rooms and rubbing threadbare
shoulders with tlie scum of four
continents.
: In point of fact, from what we
I know about those spies who
I have defected or been caught,
; .neither extreme bears the remo
; test resemblance to reality. The
; 'effective and reliable spy is not
' a glamorous and colorful charac
' ter, nor Is he that depressed
member of the halt-world so
dear to the hearts of Mr. Greene
and his many imitators.
t 5
race, both parties have agreed to provide
a steak dinner to the winner, whether
female or male.
The women say they are confident of
carrying the election. "We know we can
get the women's votes, and we'll get some
of the men's, too," said Mrs. Varnia Travis,
incumbent treasurer-recorder and the first
woman to hold office there.
No doubt they will get some of the
male votes because there is nothing like
an inspired woman. If a husband dares to
vote against his wife's orders, he may find
the front door to the house locked and the
door to the dog house unlocked.
But what worries us, and isn't ex
plained, is the person on the population
rolls who has the distinction of being the
odd number. There are 225 people in town.
That fellow or woman must undoubtedly
bo single. The pressure on him, or her,
must be pretty tough.
We'd better watch this election. There
may be some voting rights violated. When
a fellow is threatened with sleeping out
in the barn, who cares about a vote?
Britain Vs. France
gether, we have felt the Gaullist sting just
as De Gaulle has felt stung, especially dur
ing World War II, by American and British
leadership.
But underlying this affinity between
London and Washington are more positive
reasons than common trouble with France
or sentiment and tradition. We have very
close economic tics and similar, though by
no means identical, views of the world pow
er conflict.
Nobody would say U.S.-British relations
are perfect. But from Suez to Skybolt, we
have managed to get back together after
our disputes. For this, the British get much
of the credit. Unlike the French, they have
made a realistic assessment of their own po
tential in the power struggle. And unlike the
French, they have scaled their national am
bitions down to what they feel they reason
ably can attain. The British have little use
for Third Force concepts. And they appear
to find more comfort, if a choice must be
made, in the prospect of an alliance with the
United States than with the French.
STRICTLY PERSONAL
It Is "cover" that makes a
spy valuable; and the best cov
er in modern society is ordinary
I escctiilxlity. Some spies have
been foreign service officials,
some have been physicists, sonic
doctors, some exporters and im
porters hut all have moved in
commonplace circles, w ith w ives
and children, attending conven
tions, going on picnics, and
maintaining a consistent profes
sional status.
As in Chcstorson's slory. "Hie
Invisible Man" (in which a post
man commits a murder with
impunity, because nobody
"sens" a postman as a man, but
only as a function), (lie spy
' . . . Retire? . . .
Never Felt Better In My Life!!'
alwvo all wants no attention
called to himself; he submerges
himself in his environment and
takes on the color of his occupa
tion and status, as the postman
puts on his uniform, which is
distinctive, brightly colored,
and yet "invisible."
But of such ordinary stuff, ad
venture novels cannot be made;
just as detective stories cannot
lie written about the dull, plod
ding, patient routine that culmi
nates in the arrest. Kor spies,
when we apprehend them, turn
out to be superficially, at least
like the man on the porch
next door.
"Sort of tit
'Hey, Joe! It Says
By PETER EDSON
Washington Correspondent
Newspaper Enterprise Assn.
WASHINGTON (NEAI Gim
micks are already being discov
ered in the plans for a meeting
between President Kennedy and
French President Charles de
Gaulle some time next year.
This meeting was agreed upon
in principle during the recent
Washington talks with French
Foreign Minister Maurice Couve
de Murvillc. But no definite date
was set. And the meeting place .
was not designated.
It is De Gaulle's turn to come
to Washington. This would make
it a return of Kennedy's visit to
Paris in June, 1961. But the pos
sibility of their meeting next on
French Guadalupe or Martinique
in the West Indies leaked out of
the Couve de Murville talks.
This is regarded as a move on
De Gaulle's part to assume the
same status as British Prime
Minister Harold Macmillan. who
met with Kennedy at both Ber
muda and Nassau.
It is Uiis kind of quibbling
over protocol that makes nego
tiating with De Gaulle so frus
trating. ,
In the past year he has re
jected all American proposals
for strengthening North Atlantic
Alliance defenses. He has reject
ed U.S. Polaris missiles for
French defense. He has rejected
British membership in the Com
' mon Market. He has refused to
ratify the nuclear test ban
treaty.
While De Gaulle himself once
proposed to sign a non-aggression
pact with Russia, he now
opposes current U.S. - Russian
talks on further East-West limit
cd agrocmcnU
In fact, since De Gaulle's re
jection of NATO nuclear de
fense plans and his signing of
an alliance with Germany last
January, it has not been pos
sible to get agreement with
France on one single point in
political, economic or military
fields.
At the conclusion of the Couve
de Murvillc talks with Kennedy
and Secretary of State Dean
Itusk, tlie consensus was that
France does not want agreement
with tlie U.S
De Gaulle's recent interven
tion in Southeast Asian affairs
was especially resented by Am
erican pfficials. Here lie gratui
tously offered his services as in
termediary in any dispute be
tween North and South Vict
Nam and to do whatever he
could to reunify the Communist
and free areas.
French business and banking
i n t e r e s t s are still dominant
throughout what was formerly
French Indo . China, and I)
Gaulle has been credited with
thinking that perhaps his influ
ence might bring peace to tlie
troubled area.
It Is noteworthy, however,
that President De Gaulle offered
only his advice on this problem.
He offered neither French eco
nomic nor military aid to help
re-establish stability.
AnoUier sore point with Amer- '
for tat, eb
Our Jobs Are Next!'
EDMUND VALTMAN, HARTFORD TIMES
EPSON IN WASHINGTON .
Grandeur's All Right,
But Hard On Friends
ican negotiators is that De
Gaulle has been of no help in
liberalizing trade restrictions in
Europe as a whole or between
Europe and the rest of the free
world.
He has opposed the lowering
of tariffs between the Common
Market "inner six" countries
and the "outer seven" counU'ics
in tlie European Free Trade
Assn.
On the positive side, it is con
ceded by American diplomats
that President De Gaulle has
given the French government a
political stability that it sadly
lacked. In the years before he
became premier in 1958, France
had one weak government after
another, and it was difficult to
get any cooperation o u t of
France then, too.
De Gaulle has given France a
new constitution. He has check
cd inflation and stabilized tlie
franc. He ended the war in Al
geria and gave it independence.
But as one European states
man sums up De Gaulle's case,
"He is not living in the present.
He is living in the history of
France as it was 50 years ago.
before World War I. and of
France as he would like to see
it 50 years hence."
WASHINGTON REPORTS
Rusk
By Kl I.TON LEWIS JR.
WASHINGTON Secretary of
State Dean Itusk has posted the
No Trespassing sign and warned
Senate investigators to stay out
of Foggy Bottom.
Security practices in his dc-
partment have been tlie subject
of an investigation by the Sen
ate Internal Security Subcom
mittee for more than a year.
On Aug. J5. State Department
security officers received a di
rective signed by Abba
Schwartz, director of the Bu
reau of Security and Consular
Affairs. It read:
"Subject: Appearance before
tlie Senate Internal Security
Subcommittee. You are hereby
instructed that henceforth a 1 1
i underlined i personnel of the
Bureau of Security and Consular
Affairs are not to appear be
fore the Senate Internal Securi
ty Subcommittee unless the re
quested appearance has been
cleared in advance with me per
sonally or Mr. Mace (deputy ad
ministrator for security.
"This includes contact or in
terviews with any members of
tlie staff of the subcommittee.
Mr. Mace or 1 should be noti
fied of any requested inverview
by the subcommittee or mem
bers of the slatf."
Members of the subcommit
tee insist the Schwartz directive
Is a violation of the law, speci
fically Title S. Section 51 of the
By RALPH de TOLEDANO
PHILADELPHIA. Pa.-Small
things can win elections the
smile of a candidate or the drip
of corruption behind his oppo
nent. These factors, so unim
portant when compared to the
sweep of empire and the fall
of kings, often weigh heavy in
the balance of history. And so
tlie contending political group
ings have begun to examine tlie
lower echelons of the people's
government to find flaws and
weaknesses.
"Big city" government, there
fore, has begun to occupy the
attention of the Democratic and
the Republican National Com
mittees. And ' to the glee of
the GOP, tlie blots on the mu
nicipal escutcheons of the na
tion tend to sully the Demo
crats. Part of this is accident.
After the Roosevelt victories
and the Roosevelt strategems
which brought the minorities to
power in the nation, "big city"
government became largely a
Democratic monopoly. And
since corruption is inherent in
the metropolitan machines, the
Democrats are the most vulner
able. That this is happenstance,
however, makes little differ
ence. If one party can point to
tlie mud on the other, excuses
count little, no matter how val
id. The irony of this situation
can be seen most abundantly in
this City of Brotherly Love.
Once upon a time, the GOP held
sway here. But now Bill Green's
boys run the show and they
have been a Democratic main
stay in Pennsylvania. Therefore,
tlie Republican chortles.
For scandals are busting out
in Philadelphia and where they
hurt the most. Tile average citi
zen has been numbed by the
variety of rackets and con
WILLIAM
By WILLIAM S. WHITE
WASHINGTON The Kenne
dy Administration is struggling
to extricate itself from a pain
ful hook on civil rights upon
which it has been stuck not
by its conservative critics but
by its professional civil rightist
Democratic backers.
Never before has the Presi
dent's built-in and perpetual di
lemma been more sharply il
lustrated. In order to hold the
urban North, upon which h i s
election turned and upon which
his re-election will surely de
pend, he felt compelled some
months ago to abandon his old
course of moderation on this
tragically difficult issue.
But tlie more he has rejected
moderation the more insistently
tlie professional civil rightists
have demanded lie go on and on
into courses so absurdly ex
treme as to make certain that
to follow them would bring twin
results: first, no civil rights leg
islation at all from a Congress
simply unwilling to accept sheer
hysteria and demagogucry as
the basis for legislative action;
SjCivil
Imposes 'Security'
U.S. Code which guarantees
congressional access to execu
tive information. They point fur
ther to concurrent resolutions
passed by the House and Senate
in 1958:
"Any person in government
service should put loyalty to
highest moral principles and to
country above loyalty to per
sons, party or government de
partment." One top-ranking Stale Depart
ment official is now in danger of
losing his job for cooperating
witli the subcommittee. He is
Otto Otepka. chief of the Divi
sion of Evaluations of Security
information since 1954.
Rusk and Schwartz have
moved to discharge Otepka for
turning over to J. G. Sourwinc,
subcommittee chief counsel, in
formation that reflected badly
on department practices. So in
censed were members of t h e
subcommittee w hen they learned
of this that they dispatched Sen.
Thomas Dodd to New York with
an angry letter for Secretary
Rusk.
Rusk has been summoned for
testimony early next month. He
w ill be questioned about t h e
Otepka case and the controver
sy surrounding Frances Knight,
rock-hard anti-Communist who
series as director of the Pass
port Office. Mrs. Knight has
charged Schwartz with a per
sonal vendetta aimed at getting
games which mark his every
day life. But he likes to feel
that the police force is reason
ably honest and can be counted
on to pull gun from holster
when crime rears its now.you-see-it-now-you-don't
head. But it
Is the police force of Democrat
ic Boss Green's particular bail
iwick which today is giving off
an ancient and putrescent odor.
Nine policemen have been sus
pended, accused of being on tlie
take and another ten are set
for the heave-ho. Of course, 19
policemen aren't really enough
to cause panic. But the City Fa
thers have quietly let it be
known that this is but a small
beginning. Virtually every cap
tain and inspector is slated for
some kind of disciplinary action
either a transfer to a district
where the vice and gambling
boys do not know his face, or
more drastic punishment. More
than 100 uniformed and plain
clothes officers have been
marked for a move out of two
vice-drenched precincts.
None of this is likely to bring
solace to the gentle people of
Philadelphia. They have voted
Democratic over the years be
cause they felt that vice unlike
joy would be confined. A few
greedy cops, of whatever rank,
could be tolerated. But this
wholesale infection can hardly
sit well with those who get itchy
at the proximity of disease.
What makes the Philadelphia
situation most upsetting is that
no one can claim its uniqueness.
Boston, the home of the bean,
the cod, and the numbers rack
eteers, has been rocked by the
enterprising photos of one TV
network which showed the Men
in Blue entering and leaving a
notorious bookie joint. In other
cities, the protectors of law and
order have been found to be
S. WHITE
Rights Demagogues
second, possibly catastrophic
fall in his strength among the
reasonable people of this coun
try, Northern as well as South
ern. ,
Thus, Attorney General Rob
ert Kennedy's main problem no
longer is to fight off Southern
and other conservative oppo
sition simply to any kind of sub
stantive civil rights measure. It
is now to fight off Northern
Democratic ultra-liberals push
i n g a violently punitive bill
which the Attorney General
himself has had to acknowledge
could lead to the establishment
of a Federal police system.
Such a system is the hallmark
though this latter the Attor
ney General himself has not
said of a police state.
When President Kennedy of
fered his civil rights program
it was regarded by most mem
bers of Congress, even outside
the South, as strong stuff, in
deed. But a House Judiciary
subcommittee dominated by
Northern extremists has now so
fundamentally rewritten this
bill as deeply to trouble the most
her out of office. Schwartz, too,
will be asked to testify.
Hours after the latest L'.S.
Soviet spy swap last week, Ad
ministration officials leaked the
news of similar deals in the
past. In 1961, according to these
officials, American RB-t7 pilots
shot down in the USSR were
freed as part of a deal for the
release of Igor Mclckh, a Soviet
L'N official caught spying in this
country.
All very interesting, particu
larly since President Kennedy
has previously denied any swap
had been made. At his press
conference, April 21, 1961, t h e
President sad:
"There was no connection i be
tween tlie release of the pilots
and Melekhi. The dropping of
the charges was made after an
examination of the case of the
national interest. ... I am sor
ry 1 can't be more responsive."
Biggest mystery in the p u b
lishing business: How Athene
urn Publications can spend MO.
000 in promotion for Nelson
Rockefeller's new book. "The
Future of Federalism."
Never before has so much
money been earmarked for
promotion of such a paper-back
book. A spokesman for Gover
nor Rockefeller denies the book
will be used as a campaign
tract.
part of the mob. This made it
cozy for all concerned; if the
cop on the corner is with you,
bank stick-ups become an easy
vocation.
All of this is far more mean
ingful to the people of Philadel
phia than the logorrheic utter
ances of a Valachi. The Cosa
Nostra deprivations tend to
seem remote, and if one
hoodlum knocks off some of
his comrades in crime no one
really mourns. But tlie police
force is an arm of civic govern
ment. The police commissioner
is appointed, usually, by t h e
- mayor or the city manager. The
cop on the beat is the man who
watches junior crossing the
street on the way to school.
This is close to home.
And so the Republicans, who
lag in city voting, have begun
to collect the stories and the
statistics. If they can break the
hold of the Democrats on this
Brotherly City, the state and na
tional picture will change. The
Democratic bonus in the city
will not have to be covercome
in the suburbs or the rural
areas. Philadelphia's police trou
bles, therefore, will figure in
the 1964 elections. So too will
those of Boston and points west.
It will be wryly funny if the
Democrats are defeated in pre
cisely the areas where they
now consider themselves most
strong.
Of course, newspapermen
here say that this kind of scan
dal blows over, that the urban
taxpayer votes his pocketbook,
not his sense of moral outrage.
This has been true in New York
City where, in past years, a pro
liferation of scandal has had no
effect on the grip of the Demo
cratic machine. But times are
changing and the taxpaying
man-in-the-barrel may change
his ways.
authentic civil rights backers
in this nation including the
Attorney General, who has up
to now been widely regarded in
the South as the unsurpassed
villain of the piece.
It required 26 pages for At
torney General Kennedy to ana
lyze this extraordinary bill by
way of appealing to the full Ju
diciary Committee to soften it
down to something approaching
a fair and rational document.
There is not space here for any
full report. The bill, however,
would do the following things,
among others:
It would not only require pri
vately owned restaurants, mo
tels, stores, movies and t h e
like to open their doors to all
comers on pain of Federal pun
ishmentas would the Adminis
tration's own bill. It could also
force racial integration upon
law firms, private medical part
nerships and clinics, private
schools, apartment house, insur
ance companies, banks and, po
tentially, every kind of business
everywhere.
It would not only allow the
Federal Government to decide
voting qualifications in Federal
elections as would the Admin
istralion bill. It also would give
the Federal government this
power of decision in purely
state elections.
It would not only give the
Federal government power to
force school integration as
would the Administration bill. It
also would authorize the Feder
al government to direct the lo-,
cal police, anywhere, as to how
they should handle street dem
onstrationsor. as the Attorney
General himself put it. "to con
trol in advance Uie actions of lo
cal police."
"This." he added in total can
dor, "if it is to be faced square
ly would require creation of a
national police force."
And a bill so appalling as this
passed through a responsible
subcommittee of Congress, forc
ing the nation's chief responsi
ble advocate of civil rights. At
torney General Kennedy him
self, to protest its extremism.
This is the pilch of hysteria
now reached when so compli
cated an Issue becomes in
volved in hard-handed block
voting politics.
So. the Attorney General has
spoken out against it, taking
the rjp for members of Con
gress who know better than
what they have done but are
afraid to draw back on I h e i r
own responsibility.
And. predictably, he is n o w
under venomous attack from
the very civil rights extremists
for w hom he has done so much.
For this, fair men must give
him credit but a credit not un
mixed with the reminder that
his own original, and itself ex
treme, bill opened the fates to
the demagogues and to the con
fused men of good intentions
who now run so wildly through
those gates.