Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Feb. 25, 1962, edition 1 / Page 2
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I In its sixty-ninth year of editorial freedom , unhampered by I restrictions from either the administration or the student body, "i I The Daily Tar Heel w the official student publication of 1 the Publications Board of the University of North Carolina. p 1 I A editorials appearing in The Daily Tar Heel are the j personal expressions of the editor, unless otherwise credited; they II are not necessarily representative of feeling on the staff. 8 p February 25, 962 Tel. 042-2356 Vol. LXIX, No. 101 A B ig Step Week before last on Abraham Lincoln's birthday a group of Greensboro Negroes filed suit again st two hospitals, seeking an injunc tion to bring an end to a "separate but equal" provision in the Hill Burton Act. The group six doctors, three dentists, and two patients accus ed the Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital of carrying on segrega tionist policies. The 11 Negroes al so charged that the Wesley Long Community Hospital did not admit Negroes at all. . The case is similar to the 1954 U. S. Supreme Court case which decided that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," and declared the separate-but-equal principle unconstitutional. Whether the Federal court or ultimately, the U. S. Supreme Court will de cide that the same is true of medi cal facilities remains to be seen. But the complainants have a one of the patients was denied ad valid point. The suit charges that mittance to Long Hospital and was similarly denied care at Cone. Al though there is a Negro hospital in Greensboro, the suit claims that the "best facilities for treatment" are denied to Negroes. The suit al so contends that use of facilities is denied Negro doctors and dentists. The provision under question in the Hill-Burton Act allows for sep arate facilities for "separate popu lation groups," but does not specifi cally mention Negroes. As a test case, the suit has strong implications. If the provision for separate-but-equal facilities is declared unconstitutional and a rul ing handed down barring such fa cilities, it will mean that no hospi tal which carries on such a policy will be eligible for funds. In the last 15 years, according to a report, the Federal Government has assisted about 2,000 projects in 11 Southern states under the Hill Burton Act. If the regulations for the act are changed, then it will be a big step toward integrating medi cal facilities in the South. Cities Told To Wait Congress has killed for this year President Kennedy's proposal for a Cabinet-level Department of Urban Affairs. Two types of narrow-mindedness were reflected in the House vote to deprive the 70 per cent of the population now living in cities of the kind of specialized considera tion farmers have long had through the Department of Agriculture. One was the parochialism of legislators from rural districts; the other was the racism of those who did not want to see a Negro in the Cabinet. The White House believes that it can turn this defeat into votes for Administration supporters in the elections this fall in the urban areas, and especially in the districts where Negroes predominate. The Aliance for Reaction formed by Southern Democrats and Northern Republi cans has given a damaging demon station of its ability to stop New EPITQBJAL STAFF Wayne King. Editor 1 1 i i .HARRY J-,LOYD, 11ARVE HARRIS W Managing Editors Lloyd Little l Executive News Editor M Jim Clotfelter, Bill Wuameit 1 ' News Editors 0 Jim Wallace - Photography Editor Chuck Mooney Feature Editor JEd DuPREiLI,.JSports Editor If Curry Kirkpatrick Asst. Sports Edtor Garry Blanchard Contributing Editor 1 m BUSINESS J5TAFF Tim BuRNETT.Busiiiess Manager f Mike Mathers " Advertising Manager Jim EvANS-JSubscription Manager Jim Eskmdge Circulation Manager Tsm Daily Tab Heel Is published (Jail axeept Monday, examination periods and vacations. It is entered as second class matter in the post office in Chapel Bill, N. C, pursuant with the set of March 0. 1370. Subscription rates: tl0 per semester, $8 per year. Tbs Daily Tab Hrat Is a subscriber to the United Press International - end utilizes the services of the News Bu reau ot the University of North Caro lina. - Published by the Publications Board Si t1 University o JNSrth garona. I n Hmpli Tfcere' Nothing In Those Silos But People" Frontier measures. The coalition will approach future tests on school aid and on medical care for the aged with increased confidence in its. capacity for obstruction. A real setback has been suffered by the cities and the nation as a whole, for a Department of Urban Affairs is both necessary and de sirable. We hope that necessity will be acknowledged and met by Con gress next year. New York Times Enter My Parlor Some time ago we wrote a column asking where the campus Conserva tives were hiding. The response was anything but sparse. The post-office box has daily held one or more letter, from the Con servative camp. We've picked up several .Conservative columnists since that writing, and about the last thing you could expect to read in this column at this point would be the slightest hint that there is a dearth of Kightest feeling at Caro lina. We were a little surprised, how ever, to receive a letter yesterday from the John Birch Society co ordinator in 'High Point, inviting interested persons to organize a "dis cussion" group here. We are not sure the Conservatives on campus will welcome the invitation with open arms. We would even go so far as to say that the overwhelming majority of them will be a little insulted. The Liberals, on the other hand, will no doubt welcome any Bircher cordially. Warmly, in fact. C&ZSL Ik'S,.- 1 : ; . ,t -1 j J J L-"V-. '''.JSP '-5. ?f, " ' I - , ' Kf. - : , " Reader Challenges Bookseller Smith Mr. King, I believe the consensus here at Carolina is that the Book Ex. and the Intimate Book Shop are concern ed with making a high profit in the sale of textbooks. However, this is not the reason for my writing. Rather, I was interested in read ing the letter written by the pro prietor of the Intimate, Mr. Paul Smith. It seemed to be a brief explanation of the profit margin in the retail book business. Now, Mr. Smith has made an interesting point in explaining the costs and profits of retailing ten dol lar texts in his "Shop." And it is ironical to me that I have recently priced a text, which he sells, for ten dollars. I priced the same book at the Book Exchange for seven dol lars and seventy-three cents. Therefore, will Mr. Smith now write another letter, in answer to this one of mine, to explain why this is the case why he is charging ten dollars for A History of Kussia by J. D. Clarkson when the same book textbook is two dollars and twenty-seven cents less at the Book Ex.? Thank you. Clinton Coulter rcher Invites Isciission Here To The Editor: In your issue of February 13, I read your editorial and the announce ment of the "new left." It's about time they received some mention, they have been around from the days of Socrates. Left of Kennedy? I doubt it. If he had his way, I doubt that there would be anything LEFT to give away which is the pastime of the Left. If Jim Clotfelter had six feet he'd manage to get them all in his mouth at one time. He continually es pouses more and more Government giveaways, which require taxes, and then advocates tax-dodging coopera tives for book sales. Perhaps some students who be lieve in sanctity of the individual would like to form a discussion group. I would be glad to organize such a group. Interested parties may write to me at: 2503 Darden St., High Point, N. C. Sincerely, Arthur S. Lyon, Coordinator John Birch Society. THE RESPONSIBLE CITIZEN ow Do Yom One view of the educational impli cations of Francis Gary Powers' Moscow trial is offered here by Raymond English, professor of poli tical science at Kenyan College in Gambier, Ohio. '"Q. Defendant, did you realize whether by intruding into the air space of the Soviet Union you were violating the sovereignty of the USSR? A. Yes, J did. Q. Do you think now you did your country a good or bad service? A. I would say a very bad serv ice .... Q. Did it occur to you that a flight might provoke military conflict? A. The people who sent me should have thought of these things. My job was to carry out orders. I do not think it was my responsibility to make such decisions. Q. Do you regret making this flight? A. Yes, very much." This exchange, in which U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers exposed his lack of political sophistication be fore a 1960 Russian tribunal which sentenced him to 10 years in prison for spying, was abruptly recalled last week when the 32-year-old air man was dramatically released in exchange of. convicted Soviet spy Rudolph Abel. Among other things, Americans who remembered the trial recalled that Mr. Powers (a) exposed his unawareness of any reasons which his government might have to sus pect the aggressive preparations of a totalitarian dictatorship confessed ly dedicated to burying his own country; (b) admitted that he knew nothing about politics, and (c) con fessed that he was principally moti vated by the desire to earn money on a fairly lavish scale. Pews Is Not an Exception Most of us, in similar circum stances would probably have be haved as unheroically as the pilot of the U-2. We are an unheroic About Letters The Daily Tar Heel invites readers to use it lor expres sions of opinion on current topics regardless of viewpoint. I Letters must be signed; con- I tain a verifiable address, and be free of libelous material, j Brevity and legibility M- crease the chance of pnbUca- Uon. Lengthy JeUers may be edited or omitted. Absolutely I J9e. j?H?Jte returned! if.::...:..,-, ..... lot, the spineless, latter-day genera tions of a civilization upon which the barbarians appear to be clos ing in. And, no doubt .even if the pilot had possessed vigorous moral and political loyalties based on real intellectual conviction, the Rus sians would not have brought him to trial until they had thoroughly broken his spirit. But the disquieting evidence, fov Americans and for the whole world was that little pressure was needed to make this man appear as he did as a mercenary, rather than a free citizen serving with affection and honor. The episode was crimsonly embarrassing. Unfortunately, the incident must be brought back to mind. We must keep bringing it back, just as we must keep remembering the revela tions of self-like political indifferen ce in many prisoners-of-war of the Korean conflict. We must remember these things, and ask: Why does the country which, is the leader of the "Free World" produce citi zens who appear to know neither the meaning of freedom nor the im perative loyalty which freedom de mands? The captured intelligence report from a Chinese interrogator in Korea can hardly be repeated too often: "The American soldier has weak loyalties: to his family, his com munity, his country, his religion, and to his fellow soldier. He is ig norant of social values social con flicts, and tensions. There is little or no knowledge or understanding, even among American university graduates, of U. S. political histor and philosophy; the Federal, state, and community organizations ; states' and civil rights, freedoms, safeguards, and how these allegedly operate within his own decadent system." The Problem of Cynicism The indictment is painfully near the truth. Conceivably, the young men and women of 1960 are less cynical and ignorant than those of 1950. Yet a short while ago a stu denta frank, manly, likeable 20-year-old chose in an examination to write an essay in answer to the question: "What would you do, if you were a prisoner-of-war in Cotft--munist hands, and saw that your fellow prisoners were being affect by Corqmunist propaganda?" His answer, excruciating as it is, de serves to be quoted: "Now what could I do? I can just imagine the situation, stuck in some hole for two years, .eating a half cup of rice, hardly any clothing, and my fellow prisoners treating each other worse than the Com munists do. (My widowed mother .back' home ,not collecting Jier pen sion becE&se some politician, who e, Teach is a cheat or a crook, thinks that if you hold any job after 65 you don't get pensions . . . The officers in the ' army getting the warm clothing 10 miles from the front while we freeze doing the dirty work. "And after taking American his tory and political science courses I know that our whole constitution is a farce . . . And the minority groups, Negro, Catholic, Jew, are being held back. Most Americans are greedy and money hungry and don't give a damn about the guys in the prison camp. "What would I do? I'd keep my mouth shut." This is an unusually honest if ra ther bad-tempered, statement of a legitimate and perhaps fairly wide spread point of view. Granted the right of the young man to have strong opioions of his own, we can not repress a certain revulsion not only at his failure to grasp the real and profound contrasts between a relatively free social and political system (with all its imperfections) and a totalitarian system, but at his conscious rejection of any per sonal responsibility in the predica ment. If he can feel so totally irrespon sible in an imaginary situation, one wonders how he will react in a real one. Above all, one searches for indications of the idealism of youth for a trace of love, faith, chivalry, and self-sacrifice. These are extreme illustrations of a social malaise which troubles the free societies in varying de grees. Comparable cynicism and worse ignorance doubtles gnaw secretly at the totalitarian societies, but the diseases of slave-states can hardly comfort the free. Nor can the remedies used by such states censorship, narrow indoctrination, heresy-hunting, brain-washing, and terroristic inquisitions be usefully imitated. This point must be underlined since many of us are periodically tempt ed to take the short-cut of indoc trination instead of the long rough road of education. We fail to notice that the short-cut does not lead to the same destination as the long road. If political education is indeed one major remedy to the problem, we find three questions before us. First, are we not already doing a good job of political education in America? The answer seems to be: ,NO! All along the line, the insti tutions of education family, church, schools, colleges, service clubs, labor nions, political parties, the media of mass-communication are gener ally .doing a fumbling job in the. field of preparing and maintaining 6l emocrac v t c the knowledge of the values the facts, and the personal qualities needed by free men. Vigilance Is the Price The second question is more tric ky: Can you have political education without turning it willy-nilly, into political indoctrination? The answer here must be that the price of politi cal education for liberty is eternal vigilance, and that if we cannot maintain the distinction we deserve to lose our fredom. The working hypothesis of a free society must be on the following lines: It is probably true that the price of liberty is a great deal of intellec tual confusion and much emotional suffering and rebellion. In Russia or Communist China, as in Nazi Germany, the Party creates its prearranged contradictions and im poses hate, love, and suffering up on the subject people according to the calculated requirements of the regime. But in Western European democracies and the United States, the individual citizen must find his own way through conflicting values and interests, deciding what to love, what (not whom) to hate, and what to suffer and sacrifice for. This does not necessarily mean that there are no social norms or no absolute ethical values in free, con stitutional states, but it does mean that in such states no government or monopolistic party will or may dictate and indoctrinate such norms or values. If the norms and values are correct, they must we assume be fairly self-evident, so that the free man or woman will come to accept them thoughtfully, securely, and voluntarily. What Kind of Education? So we come to question number three: What sort of education will help men and women to choose freely and rightly? Notice, as a fundamental necessary assumption, that, although our working hypothe sis is that correct norms and values are voluntarily discoverable, we must also recognize that they are not easy to discover. On the contrary, they are at least as difficult as mathematics or physics or the mastering of a foreign language. They call not only for hard work and hard learning of facts and ideas, but for training in men tal and emotional self-discipline; for the clutivation of the imagina tion; and for the steady and critical acquisition of sophisticated personal and vicarious experience of one's self, one's social environment, and one's relation to the world, man kind, and to God. Courage (moral and physical), self-control, self-sacrifice, loyalty, kindness, honesty (intellectual and , economic), and similar basic quali ties of the free life do not "come naturally," although they are cor rect and admirable. What come natu rally are selfishness, laziness, cowardice, greed, dishonesty, cruel ty. Thus one tremendous task of education in home and in school is to expose the individual to the full implications and responsibilities of the fsee life. The process of exposure involves great efforts for teacher and stu dent. Those efforts are not being made. During the past four years, vast heavings on the bootstraps of scientfic and linguistic cuedation have been seen. But in literature and in history the two areas where young people learn most about the great human problems and the ideas, values and errors of free men and free societies little tough ening of curricular or instruction has been attempted. Are we equipped even to know how little we know? How much so called education in politics at school consists of visits to the waterworks or the post office, or preaching about the duty of voting? How little effort goes into revealing the staggering problems of power-politics, moral decisions, strategic calculations, geo graphic relationship, economic and ideological factors, mass-hysteria, racial tensions, emotional catch words, the nature of propaganda, patterns of recent history, and so on? The liberal education ought to be part of the business of the schools, and the liberal education is a grim and exacting business. There is little enough of it left in the universities and colleges. We ought to try it again sometime. National Observer Reflections 1 Handout from the State Highway Commission: "State Highway Commission Public Relations Officer Roger R. Jack son today advised newsmen of the enormity of the Commission's parti cipation in cleaning up debris scat tered along highways . . ." Something like the enormity of the highway sign purchasing pro gram, maybe? k
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Feb. 25, 1962, edition 1
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