Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Jan. 8, 1963, edition 1 / Page 2
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attp Car l&ztl In its seventieth year of editorial freedom, unhampered by restrictions from either the University administration or the afu dent body. All editorials appearing in the DAILY TAR HEEL are the indivdual opinions of the Editors, unless otherwise credited; they do not necessarily represent the opinion of the staff. The edi tors are responsible for all material printed in the DAILY TAR HEEL. January 8, 1963 Tel. 942-235G Vol. LXX, No. 74 Junius Scales Freed: An Encouraging Sign The President's Christmas Eve freeing of Junius Scales was a wel come and surprising action. For the first time since President Tru man's veto of the Internal Security Act in 1930, the federal executive has refused to cowtow to Con gressional investigating commit tees and their comrades-in-arms-and-money across the country, and has, instead, acted to preserve full civil liberties. Over the opposition of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Senate Internal Security subcommittee Scales was released. His sentence was commuted despite his refusal to "name names" for the FBI, to point the finger at former friends and associates whose only crime may have been a questionable "membership" or a controversial sympathy. What then led the President to free the former chief of the Com munist Party in the Carolinas? The President must have .shar ed the doubts of many distinguish ed Americans as to the constitu tionality of a conviction for "mem bership" in any group, even the (Communist Party This conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court by a narrow 5-4 vote and the chances are good that the new court will decide differently. Scales is the only person to have served a jail term under the "membership clause" of the Smith Act, other Communists having been acquitted on legal grounds. This point becomes more important since Scales quit the Party and repudi ated Communism in 1957, four years before he finally was sent to jail. For Scales, more than for any other "civil liberties" case in re cent years, there has been a strong, energetic campaign by many lead ing Americans to obtain a pardon or commutation. On the national scene such men as theologian Rein hold Neibuhr, historian Henry Steele Commager, Martin Luther King Jr., cartoonist Jules Feiffer, philosopher Sidney Hook, and Nor man Thomas have requested that Kennedy release Scales. In North Carolina "Free Scales" activity was particularly widespread, with editor-author Harry Golden, play wright Paul Green and lawyer Mc Neill Smith being very active. The Scales case was unusual and thus might prove a poor precedent for future civil freedom cases. In the future it will be more difficult for the federal executive to stand on the side of constitutional guar antees against the pressure of much of the Congress and the FBI. But that stand should be taken even if it has to be initiated by a new Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the Smith and McCarran acts. The executive and its FBI should not require the "naming of names", should not expect these men to protect themselves at the expense of others, should not consider the taking of the Fifth Amendment as a suspect action. The President's Christmas Eve action should be come the standard for future exec utive and congressional behavior in the field of civil liberties. (JC) A Good Thing We would like to take this op portunity to put in a plug for the North Carolina State Government 'Summer Internship Program- Why? Well, primarily because of some things we've just heard. What have we heard? Well, a past president of the UNC student body who participated in the pro gram last summer called it, "The best summer job I've ever had." And he went on to state that, '. . . contrary to what might be JIM CLOTFELTER CHUCK WRYE Editors Art Pearce News Editor Wayne King Harry Lloyd Managing Editors Harry DeLnng Night Editor Ed Depres Sports Editor Carry Kirkpatrlck . Asst. Spts. Ed. Jim Wallace Photography Editor Mike Robinson Gary Biaockard Contributing Editors DAVE MORGAN Easiness Manager Gary Dal ton Advertising Mgr. John Erans Circulation Mgr. Dare Wysoog Subscription Mgr. Tax Daily Tas pas. Is pablis&otf 4aty wrcop Monday, xamlmtkaa periods sad vacations. It is ntsred as second elaas matter in the post office la Chapel fliil. H. C, pursuant vltb. ih mc oi. March S. 1870. Subscription, jaMwi $M per eemeetcr. 3 per year. TSa Cist Tab Ham. la a subscriber to Ike United Press XnteroatiQnal n e&lfzes tbe services oi the News Bu reau of the University of North Caro- iublljihed by the Publications Boar C the Unlvrsity of Nosrtfe Garoftaa. ChAfSl H1XU C. the general opinion, the interns do not work on the bottom of the heap. Rather, each student intern has the opportunity to work with a branch of the State Government in which he is most interested, and he works as a 'student consultant,' not as an errand boy." We would infer, from talking to past participants and scanning the brief announcements, that this po litical internship is a rare oppor tunity to get "in" on the day-to-day f unctionings of a state government. A selected participant will have the chance to work integrally in some programs of any one of fifteen va rious agencies of the North Caro lina State Government. The regular work will be supple mented by evening seminars and weekly luncheons. To say nothing of those proverbial "bull -sessions." It would seem that whether you are an aspiring young politician or just an interested citizen, this pro gram has something to offer you. If you intend to vote intelligently or campaign successfully, you might do well to spend six weeks in Raleigh. Information and applications are available at the student govern ment offices and from chairmen of the History, Political Science, Economics, Education, and Busi ness Administration Departments. Oh yes,ne other bit of informa tion . . . interns will be paid $75.00 per week. That alone seems a pret ty good thing. (CW) "I Was Afraid This Would Happen Some Day' Letters To The Editors Buckley Backed; Otelia Hit Academic Freedom: A Hollow Ring? To the Editors, I have viewed with much con cern the series of events that have followed the appearance of Mr. Wil liam Buckley at (Memorial Hall on iMonday night, December 10. The reaction of the "liberals" was, of course, expected. It is quite natural that they would find his address most disturbing. The reaction of The Daily Tar Heel also is under standable, since the Editors reflect the "liberal" line of thought on this campus. What was not expect ed, however, was Mr. Henry May er's refusal to honor the Carolina Forum's contract with Mr. Buck ley. And it also strikes me as strange that it took almost a full week for the Forum to take this stand. The Forum takes the posi tion that it didn't get its money's worth because Mr. :Buckley chose to give an address that appears in the current issue of "Playboy." The Forum contends that since his address was "not an original lec ture" the Forum is justified in its demand for a "readjustment of the fee." The case against Mr. Buckley is not that simple, however. For the students of this campus have been subjected to a tremendous propa ganda campaign directed by the Editors of the DTH and the "lib eral" element here at Carolina. (Each day after Mr. Buckley's ap pearance, the DTH was filled with editorials, letters to the editor, and "news items" that attacked Mr. iBuckley and the whole conservative position. The editorials were not only poorly written, irrational, and juvenile, but were an example of extreme poor taste. There is no excuse for the utter filth which ap peared under the title "Conserva tism and Compost, A View from a Distance", on the editorial page of the December 13 issue. Among the ramblings of the other editorials were vague comments about poor taste and bad manners. Tuesday the Di-Phi, in an frenzied attempt to prove its existence, issued a pom pus statement of "censure" for Mr. Buckley's "vulgarity." The DTH withheld this news until Friday in order to set the stage for the For um's statement via .Mr. Mayer. It is now becoming clear that the reason for all of this activity is not what the DTH and all the campus "leaders" would have us believe. The only crime that Mr. Buckley is guilty of that he is not a "liberal." The "liberals" have created this whole hysterical issue in an attempt to discredit Mr. Buckley and the conservative position. 'Mr. Buckley's address was worth far more than $450 because he has exposed the true nature of "liberalism" for the entire campus to see. Mr. Buckley fulfilled all the re quirements of a visiting speaker. He challenged the students of this campus to think. He stimulated dis cussion. And he gave us even more. IBy presenting an address that was published in the current issue of "Playboy," Mr. iBuckley gave eve ryone on this campus an opportun ity to compare his views with the views of his antipode, Norman Mail er. Judging from the response that Mr. Buckley received from his audi ence, few present had read the "Playboy" article. Those present got an excellent lecture, and the unique opportunity to reread what they had heard at a latter date. As far as those present were concern ed, they were hearing an original lecture. iMr. Buckley's lucid obser vations on the failure of "liberal ism" at the Berlin Wall and in Cuba are important and deserve serious thought. Anyone who wishes to know what iMr. Buckley said can simply open a copy of "Playboy" to page 110. One issue remains, however. Mr. Buckley was given permission by IMr. iMayer to change his topic to "'The Nature of the Right Wing" upon his arrival at Chapel Hill. Now that Mr. Buckley is gone, are we going to injure the reputation of this University by refusing to honor our obligation to Mr. Buckley? I hope not. And I hope that those who dislike Mr. Buckley will not use their difference of opinion as justi fication to default on a contract. If they do, will we ever be able to claim that the University of North Carolina really stands for "academ ic freedom?" Indeed, the words will forever have a hollow ring. Charles C. Hooks, Jr. Student Hits NAACP 'Cell' To the Editors: The constant agitations of the local NAACP cell are changing me from a liberal-minded Northerner in to a bigoted Southerner. I am in favor of granting the Negroes of our country their civil rights but along with these civil rights come the responsibilities of good citizens. So far the Negroes have shown themselves unwilling or unable to assume these responsibili ties. A prime example of this irrespon sible attitude is Washington, D. C. Along with an increase in the colored population has come a very high crime and vice rate, which is still climbing. Simeon Booker, Washing ton bureau chief of Ebony, Tan and Jet magazines said, "Negro leader ship in Washington has a respon sibility to tackle the problem of rowdyism and juvenile delinquency, not by excuses or statements, but by planned community-wide pro grams. Integration demands respon sible citizens, and we must take the first step." When Negroes prove themselves morally capable to assume the re sponsibilities of good citizens their full civil rights will follow naturally. Ken Robinson 0 Great Otelia, You Know All-? To the Editors: 1 was so happy to read the letter by Mrs. Otelia Connor which ap peared in the DTH on December 11. This showed me that people in this country know exactly what the communists are going to do. For many years I had felt that part of this was a closely guarded secret, but now I can see that we have no thing about which we need to worry. Otelia stated that what she knew about Communists on campus she read in the papers. Tell me, does this hold true for all Communists? If so, then I have either been read ing, the wrong newspapers or have neglected to read thoroughly those which are available to me. I am afraid that I missed those stories telling our nation about Communist On Meeting Books You Cannot Read; . . . More On UNC By RICHARD MCKEXXA Second In A Series Americans of Japanese ancestry were being dispossessed and im prisoned. The mood of the people, as I sampled it in the places where I went ashore, seemed to me almost that of a lynch mob. A few unpleasant experiences quickly taught me that it was dangerous to speak my thoughts and possibly a sin even to think them. I had to relieve my feelings with drunken mutterings to which no one lis tened. I ached with self - con tempt and a shattering sense of opposed loyalties which I could not reconcile. I was undergoing a genuine crisis of faith and I began dimly to understand at last what Nietzsche was talking about. I went all through the war in that state. Thinking back to it now, I am reminded of a verse from Kipling: It is not learning, grace nor gear, Nor easy meat and drink, But bitter pinch of pain and fear Which makes creation think. For it was then for the first time in my life that I began to think, deliberately to think, as clearly and as coldly as I could. For the first time I began to read books in clear, conscious pursuit of the thought in them. I was no longer seeking entertainment only, but information and the hope of a way out of pain. I would no longer skip over a dif ficult passage after a brief puzzlement. I would worry at it for an hour and only leave it undigested, if I had to, with a sense of baffled defeat. I was gaining an entirely new concep tion of the nature of books and the way a man must read them. The time was propitious for that change in my bent. The men around me were a cross-section of civilian America temporarily in uniform and there was always someone with whom I could dis cuss ideas. With my modest share of wartime prosperity I could buy any book that I want ed. The paper - bound armed forces editions began coming aboard ship. Few of them were froth and many were very solid books indeed. I had never before read so many books of worth and substance, one after another. And one of those armed forces pap erbacks, I thought privately at the time, almost literally saved my life. Now I think a more accurate word would be salvaged. That book was Thoreau's "Wal den." I know it has long meant much to many people. But I doubt whether it has often hap pened that "Walden," or any other book, has come so provi dentially into the hands of a man so desperately in need of it. It showed me a middle way be tween trying to be a Nietzschean herd-man and trying to be a Nie tzschean superman and failing at both. It not only gave me back my sense of personal worth and significance, it established that plans to blockade Berlin in 1948, then to build the Berlin Wall a few years later. I also missed the article by Tass reporter Khrushchev ex plaining how the U.S.S.R. planned to put offensive bases in Cuba. Evi dently, I have missed the most im portant news stories of our time. What the Communists have done in the past, without our know ing it, leads me to fear what they might have up their sleeve for the future. However, going by past re cords of the John Birchers, I can not say that I fear what they are planning to do. Maybe a little con servatism would be good for the liberal persons who do not mind what the Communists are doing. May I say that since Otelia Con nor knows all of the Communists' plans for the future, why not let President Kennedy, Congress, and all of the free world in on the secret, so that we will have nothing to fear, or at least know what to fear. Charles R. Adams sense more firmly in me than I had ever had it since I had be come a man. For the first time since childhood I knew again certainly that I had a right to exist, that I really did exist. I could read "Walden" with the emotional response proper to poetry and at the same time un derstand it rationally. The book seemed to me so radically sub versive that I wondered how it could be permitted aboard any ship in wartime. Well, I will not go on about "Walden." No doubt I have read many a better book when I was not so peculiarly ready to make a total response to it. Perhaps it is only possible to have a book-experience such as mine with "W'alden" once in a life time and a great many other books can trigger and serve it. But for me it was "Walden," and from it I shaped a new fu ture for myself. I planned to retire from the navy to a cabin in the Nevada desert, stock it with books, and live there as simply and richly as Thoreau had lived by Walden Pond. I began accomulating books for that purpose. I went on reading books with an even stronger will to know and to understand. And now at last I come to something I hope may be of genu ine professional interest. My de sign was to gain a formal educa tion, to acquaint myself with all areas of thought, simply by read ing books. I kept at it year after year, I was very resolute about it, and in the end I had to ack nowledge failure. I was forced to conclude that, for me at least there was no substitute for a college education. I met books that I could not read. I spent months on some of them. I suspected that the treasure they withheld from me was proportional in richness to the difficulty of getting at it. I would start over again and again, trying to pinpoint the precise page and then paragraph and finally the single word at which my comprehension began to fail. I would squint and scratch my head and chew my pencil. I would writhe my feet and ankles in among the rungs of my chair and sometimes I would grip a book hard enough to tear it. When the unconscious physical expres sion of my frustration reached that pitch I would become con scious of it and relax and laugh. At those times I would be ir resistibly reminded of the Hong Kong rats so frantic to break their egg. Once I had laughed at them and now by some trans human justice I was in their pre dicament. No rats were present to laugh at me, so I laughed for them. To begin with, I had thought a dictionary would be all the help I would need. I did not give up that notion easily. I don't know how many times I looked up the word ontology and grasped at it as futilely as the Hong Kong rats would bite at their egg. I used to go into bookstores and look up that word in every dictionary they had, vowing to buy the first one in which I could understand the definition. I never found such a dictionary. WTiat I did discover was the existence of a kind of vocabulary of higher order, a fundamental outfit of ideas which the writers of the books I could not read as sumed their readers to possess. The ideas would appear on the printed page only as a casual reference or a literary allusion, yet a full knowledge of them was necessary in order to follow the author's argument. I began to understand it as a kind of shorthand of thought which per mitted the author to convey to the initiated clearly on one page what might require fifty pages to be made clear to my more limited comprehension. It was not enough to be literate in let ters; one had also to be literate in ideas. When I had learned the hard way, I decided that I must attend a university before retiring to my desert Walden. (To Be Continued) . . . A Funny Letter Happened To Us . . . (Eds. Note: The Tar Heel always is interested in writings full of hum or and amusement. For this reason the following letter from the Raleigh News and Observer is reprinted.) To the Editor: Will Rogers said all he knew was what he read in the papers. All I wish I didn't know is just what I read in these now de segregated newspapers. Not since Moses married the Ethiopian woman has there been so much uproar and wrath in the camp. If our ancestors could come back here and see how we are running the country and car ryin' on they would be greatly grieved that they ever fired the shot heard 'round the world, and if Hon est Abe, the original freedom rider, could get back to the White House, I believe that he would strike out the Emancipation Proclamation on the grounds that the cure is worse than the disease. A man who has property and de cides that he wants to use it in a public way to make money, soon finds out he doesn't own it. While the people were licking the lollypops of socialism, Cousin Ike, the great crusader and his head reformer Jus tinian Warren, confiscated all prop erty under the liberal construction of the general welfare clause of the Constitution. This great liberal con struction of the general welfare clause nullified the rest of 'the Con stitution, except habeas corpus and it left it pretty shaky. Judges can nullify the habeas corpus by making bonds so high that nobody can sign one except Nelson A. Goldwater or John F. Rockefeller. Socialism is infiltrating so fast that The Saturday Evening Post comes out on Tuesday. The public debt has gotten so high that we don't count up any more, we use the count down. Congress has thrown such big Vfcunks of our money all over the tvorld that tax collectors are trying to collect taxes before we know what the amount is going to be. If Patrick Henry was living today he would say, give me death, this kind of liberty is too much for me. But in spite of all our self made tyranny and in the midst of our con fusion, the true Christian can be happy and full of great joy. He knows that the world is sick with the kind of disease that the weak disciples can't heal. It will take the personal return of the Lord. Keep looking up. Chub S? aw ell (Carthage) i
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Jan. 8, 1963, edition 1
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