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.Volume 72, Number 70 Sunday, December 15, 1963 Letters To The Editors More Letters A J A"! jl O From Stic- of (If Unwrsftv i ' -NW ih Carotin 70 Years of Editorial Freed oa Than! Offices on the second floor of Graham m mmt mm . . u memorial, leiepnone camber: Editorial, ft sports, news 933-1012. Business, cir- dilation, advertising 933-1163. Address: Box 1080, Chapel Hill, N. C. Entered as 2nd class matter at the Post Office in Chapel Hill, N. C, pnrsoant to Act of March 8, 1870. Subscription rates: $4.50 per semester; $8 per year. Published dally except Mondays, examination periods and vacations, throughout the aca demic year by the Publications Board of the University of North Carolina. Printed by the Chapel HU1 Publishing Company, Inc., 501 West Franklin Street. Chapel Hill. N. C. THE DAILY TAR HEEL Is a subscriber to United Press International and utilizes the services of the University News Bureau. Editors, The Tar Heel, On behalf of the more than two hundred foreign students and their families in our Uni versity this year, I should like to express at this Christmastide sincere thanks for the many gestures of hospitality and kind ness the families of Chapel Hill have extended to these visitors in our midst from all over the world. Especially they are grateful, they tell me, for the opportuni ties offered them, through the host family plan and your gen erous hospitality, to visit in our American homes, to get ac quainted with our children, see how we live, taste our foods, and share our festivals. From my experience abroad I can tell you that these opportunities are ap preciated. In the capitols of South America wherever we went we met people who had been students in Chapel Hill in former years; and their most vivid memories of this commun ity were of the friends who en tertained them, the yts and the festive occasions they shared with us in our homes here in Chapel Hill. No better way for fostering goodwill in this divided "Next Year You Might Be Ready To Pack EVERYTHING You IJavo,? The Most Unfunny Joke This Year In this rather confused and confusing period in our country's history, very few things are easily obvious, but lately it has become impossible to miss the fact that something must be done about Congress. This great body, designed as one of the cornerstones of our democra tic system, has .staged one of the most effective sit-in demonstrations in the nation's capital that has yet been held. It has now come to the point that our own elected representatives constitute a threat to the system they are supposed to uphold. By what justification do we make these charges? Let us examine the rec ord of the current session of Congress. It is one of the longest sessions, and cer . tainly the most dreary, in history. Of the 12 major appropriations bills, which are required by law to be passed by July 1, Congress has passed less than half. This leaves the Budget Bureau in the interesting predicament of having to design next year's budget without knowing how much money will be avail able. This has never happened before. Congress has not passed one of the four major domestic bills (civil rights, tax cut, medicare and aid to education) proposed by the Administration. Neither has it acted on the Wilder ness Bill, the Domestic Youth Corps, truth-in-packaging legislation nor urban transportation and housing measures. Much of this legislation is important to the national needs, and some of it is vital.. Yet Congress, through incompe tence, laziness, recalcitrance, pettiness and negativism, ignores, and even demonstrates contempt for the public needs and will. And is it in any way conceivable that a government can function at all in a system that allows a situation to arise where a tax proposal presented by the President in the summer of 1962 will not be ready for a vote by 1964? We would never charge that what is true of Congress as a whole is also true for all Congressmen. Many are hard working, conscientious men who deserve our thanks, but they are apparently help less against the old, established order. And it is distressing to admit that a majority of the members of this old order, which is responsible for the per version of the legislative process, are our own Southern representatives. ; But we must wonder if this old order's recalcitrance is the only thing wrong in our Congress. We had Bobby Baker to make us question the moral codes of some Con gressmen, but that is only the begin ning. The House votes to give itself postage-free junk mail, and when the Senate doesn't immediately go along with this, a House member threatens to expose a Senator who, he claims. nirea call girls. Bepresentative Byrnes, a member of the House Ways and Means Commit tee, is applauded by his fellow Repre sentatives as he weeps his way through a defense of his 1.000 profit from stocks he owns in a mortgage insurance company, in which he has taken a per sonal interest. After the 1962 election, 16 Congress men who had last the election, but not yet lost their seats, went to Europe on a government-paid junket, and two mem bers of the last Congress were simul taneously found guilty of conflict of in terest. The list doesn't end there. And now comes one of the most comic spectacles of the Congressional circus yet. After howling all year for frugality in government spending, Congressmen are now hurling charges of "Economy" at the Pentagon for deciding to close 33 military bases, 26 of which are in this country. Congressmen are threatening to turn the Pentagon upside-down to find out why it has decided to stop wasting money, and especially why it won't waste any more in each Congress man's home area. So as we see one session rurmina- into the next, legislation backed up and carried over, and almost nothing ac complished in the last year, we know that something must be done. First should be a rule passed in both J sideof the nouses requiring that all Presidential ly proposed legislation designated as im portant be acted on within a specified time. Then it is obvious that the sen iority system should be closely exam ined and changed. The system seems fine in theory, but it just doesnt work in practice, and must be severely amended if Congress is to become an effective body again. At the moment, it would be a na tional joke if it weren't so harmful. world has been found than the development of personal friend ships. These people will long re member the experiences they shared with you; and because of ypur efforts, they will always in their hearts carry a bright and warm image of Chapel Ilill. During Jhe coming Christmas holidays many of the foreign students will be making trips, but a few will remain here. They will be lonely, no doubt. Lenoir dining hall will be closed; and on Christmas Day, if the usual policies are followed, it may even be difficult for students in the dormitories to find places to eat. We are concerned about this problem; and therefore, if any family in the community would be interested in sharing some of the Christmas or New Year's festivities with our students from abroad, we would like to have you let us know. If you know a foreign student, you can make your own arrangements. If you do not, but are interested in helping entertain one or more, you need only call me either at the Office of Adviser to Foreign Students or at my home, and we will try to put you in touch with a student who would enjoy being in your home. A. C. Ilowell Adviser to Foreign Students true that where immature rr. are concerned, we ,..-; have to ration a smaller tion than we are a bio t-j people who.se minds, bo :r ready made up, we can tr Yes, our suggestions arC" treme and may not bo c -out soon. The goal of t.v" effective way by which to nel youns think-Prc ; u- direction is a long-term f must pledge ourselves to' tirelessly for it. Student Committee to Eliminate Insidious -sive Speakers. I),.. Useless? He Talked To The Lord -Newspapers Don't By PERRY YOUNG United Press International Editor's Note: Perry Young is now a student in the school of Journalism. He worked for Uni ted Press International in - Ral eigh last year. "Oh, it wasn't so sudden. I walked in the woods and prayed about it. I cried until the whole front of my shirt was wet." Harvey Rape, cafeteria owner and former staunch segregation ist, lives in Durham, N. C. When the problem hit him per sonally, there was trouble, "I'd never had any trouble with my wife," he said, intro ducing ner from the oooositp room. "But sh threatened to leave me. My whole family just disowned me I'll you one thing, it took a lot more guts than to stand in the door with a gun and tell somebody he's not coming in " ' Rape's troubles began when he decided to integrate Har vey's Cafeteria which he has owned and operated in down town Durham for 28 years Downstairs, it was a "fairly normal lunch hour for these days. There were not many va cant seats, but the long line of former days was gone. Harvey's had always fed the white working people the sales clerks, county officials and bank tellers who feel strong est about segregation. In the comfortable office up stairs, Mrs.. Rape was counting change from the lunch receipts. She looked up with a roll of coins in her left hand and said, "You oughta tell 'em what it's done to your business." Rape insisted that integration was not the reason he cut back his serving hours from two meals a day, six days a week with supper only on Mondays and Fridays. He blames shop ping centers. "You ought to . . ." Mrs. Rape interrupted. "No, now you just can't say that," he answered. And then Rape looked away from his wife. "Resides, it wouldn't help the cause." It was ironic that Harvey Rape should be talking of "the cause". Negro leaders once pro tested his appointment to the Durham Interim Committee, which drafted a sweeping anti segregation agreement. Harvey's Cafeteria has been a bastion of segregation. One of the managers had warned Ne gro demonstrators he would shoot the first one who stepped in the door. Mrs. Rape still keeps a loaded shotgun beside her desk. The leading Negroes felt that a new mayor, Wense Grabarek had reneged on campaign prom ises when he named Rape to the emergency committee last May. Rape met with the Interim Com mittee on Wednesday, Thurs day, Friday and Saturday. Saturday, he told a friend the issue was "like a millstone around my neck." He said he was going out alone and "talk it over with the Lord." Rape came in Monday as a new force for integration. The agreement was signed and on ly two small restaurants refused to desegregate. Rape still believes it was the only right thing to do. "The only way it has worked has been in the public accept ance . . . and that has been im proved. But there are still those I believe would eat out of stumpholes before coming down here." What has Rape gained by that decision which left his bus iness on a downhill grade? "Well, some of thse people that were for me when I resist ed integration have come to me and said, 'Harvey, I'm for you.' And I've got that." Editors, The Tar Heel, As was expected, we have been attacked for our extreme posi tion in regard to the careful selection of books to be read by young people. It is a shame that propagandists have attached such emotional content to words such as "censorship" or "book burning, guaranteed to produce immediate negative reactions just as certainly as "academic freedom '-that empty term-has been made to produce a positive one. But, as a noted philosopher of the last century said, "Nothing can have value without being an object of utility." We are be ginning to see that "academic freedom" is not an object of mtlity; that is, it is useless, it serves no practical purpose. Likewise, we must see that many books are useless: of what earthly good is some filthy novel or silly poem or drama loaded with dirty words? Of what good is a portion of another Book that has led people to more wrong- conclusions than right ones? And as to "academic free dom" or the alternate cry of "freedom of speech": we know that with freedom must go re sponsibility. Or to quote another profound thinker and political leader of the past "It is true that liberty is precious so pre cious that it must be rationed." We must always temper ideas of liberty with common sense, knowing where to set its bounds in any given situation. And it is Correction? Editors, The Tar Heel, The article "Y Win' r .Danville" in the Tuesdv' cernhAr in . paper had two error, th-f to be corrected. The Y.MCA :V i body is not giving anv 0f money toward the . cause as the article implied cause the Y is dependent " , contributions from st" ',.- ' faculty, parents, and "VC friends for its financial re-c on behalf of or for other grams. There is no obvc-.'-" however, to members of Human Relations Conur donating individually to v , Danville effort. The second error concerns the iiiduer ot the Student union "office ing. in the Y 13 Pear; There I i uP,V has teen allowed one bookshelf in the reading rem in order to display materia! and to maintain a "library " Un-V-no circumstances is the room intended to serve as head. pra ters for the SPU. and the SPi: leadership is fully aware of this fact. Thank you for your coverage of the Y and its activities. Joe Griffin, jr. Treasurer, Y.MCA Refreshing Editors, The Tar Heel, Perhaps the avowal of hn "Student Committee to Help Eli minate Insidious Subversive Speakers" would have more credence attached to it if il e Committee would change its name to something more in nocuous, and, parenthetically, Jess pompous. It is not nccesaatv tor t,t-? liberal to attack the tascist "Stu dent Committee to Help Elimi nate Insidious Subversive Speakers." The liberal position is of sufficient merit that it need riot resort to attacks, programs, or speaker censorship. I find the satire from the "Stu dent Committee to Help Elimi nate Insidious Subversive Speak ers" very refreshing and look forward to its continued com ments. Richard Parsons 503 Ehringhaus City Of The New South JLL Jl By SUSIE LEWIS (From the Chapel Hill Weekly) M irror World The American people do not learn the true image of the world from newspapers, Washington Post foreign news editor Philip Foisie told an audience of stu dents and professors here Mon day night. Mr. Foisie's speech, "Unex plored Frontiers of Journalism," was sponsored by the Internation al Affairs Committee of the YM-YWCA. "Something happens to the news from the time it leaves the foreign country untU it is printed here which gives a distorted view." Many areas of the world are made inaccessible to reporters by geography, politics and cul ture, he said. ' "Another gap in foreign news is the over-reliance on the Eng lish language. We are a mono lingual people. Many sources do not speak English, so the ro porter must find a translator to depend on, but this always in hibits conversation. "Our passion fori the immedi ate is another reason for the imbalance in the news. This is called 'crisis reporting.' Report ers do not get to the scene be fore the blood begins to flow. This is too late. "Using our conventional wis dom, we report things that we think people are interested in. Thus, we tend to overstress con troversy and personalities. "We have not examined our language. We use such phrases as 'left wing' and 'right wing' to try to be brief, concise and clear, but this really only dis torts. "Everyone wants to be first, so false datelines appear. Much of the material from overseas is rewritten in New York. In the process of rewriting, the writer often gets the facts wrong and paraphrases quotes inaccurate ly, thus completely losing the true meaning of the story. "As far as stringers are con cerned, some terrible situations have been discovered." Mr. Foisie cited three examples. One man worked under sev eral different names for leading newspapers and periodicals all causing over the world, thus unanimity of opinion. borne stringers have been found to be employees of a for eign government. . -r-Sometimes the person doesn't exist at all, but is simply a name which is passed from per son to person, regardless of whether these persons are ac tually competent reporters. "If I'm being harsh about these things happening on other papers, then I'm being harsh about my paper, too, because were all in this together. "There are many newspapers in this country which are very bad, but the best ones are the best in the world." Mr. Foisie listed some im provements which the Post hopes to make in the future. "We want to conserve space. We want to provide the reader with all the news we can if he wants to read it, but we must tell it more simply. I believe many stories, foreign and local, could be told in one sentence. "But when the times comes to tell a story in depth, we want to tell it even if it takes eight Image columns. "There is plenty of foreign news that's never touched that we want to get. There are al ways men in Washington who have been abroad, as well as experts on college campuses and certain members of the AFL CIO who are always willing to talk to reporters', and we want to tap all of these sources." In an attempt to improve their papers, serious journalists are asking themselves two ques tions: To what level of readership would coverage be directed? WThat is the true and proper iuic oi newspapers in the tional society? WTien I was younger, I thought mine would be a simple job. It seemed to be a matter of holding up the mirror of life and putting the reflections into print, delivering it to the door steps and not letting publishers and advertisers tamper with the truth thus educating the American people for their role in the democratic society. "But now I'm not sure we can afford to think of ourselves qs cir- na- educators. The Post has a culation of about 500,000, but the readership of foreign news is only three or four per cent of the circulation. It is frightful to think of this being true in Wash ington, where large numbers work with foreign affairs. "There are class distinctions in readership and all levels must be served at the appropriate time. I would like to get the foreign news readership to 10 or even 15 per cent. We could if we used more pictures, wrote more simply, or, like Time magazine, told the reader what to think. "We can generalize and popu larize the news without distort ing. Occasionally we try to pro vide something of an elemental nature, but generally we write for the upper level thinking of a mythical freshman senator who is young, serious and will soon be influential." Turning to the Post's role in the national society, Mr. Foisie questioned the ability of any the power of newspapers to gen erate widespread local discus sion for reform," Mr. Foisie said, referring to the reform that he believes is needed in the Congress. "The times have dramatically changed the relation of the exe cutive and legislative branches. The President now has a power far greater than the founding fathers envisioned, and Congress is envious of this power. It is my personal opinion that the legislative branch has not ma tured with the years as the executive and judicial branches have. "The Secretary of State and the President spend most of time working with foreign policy not with Cuba, or Laos, but dealing with Congress. "Congressmen realize that there is a need for reform, but they believe it will not come until the electorate decides the changes must be made." Mr. Foisie believes the Post or any other newspaper would By RALPH McGILL From Notes Made at Hunts ville, Ala.: Looking from a win dow as the aircraft approached for a landing, one could see the display of missiles at the ar senal grounds, white and slen der like the minarets of dis tant mosques. And then, as the plane descended toward the run way one saw a patch of cotton, the puffed balls plain against the dark of autumn-dried stalks and leaves. It was a good contrast and a symbolic one. This city is, in many ways, the most realistic symbol of that "New South" about which so many prophets have written and spoken. It is a space-age city. It is a place of missiles and research. On land that just three years ago showed the remains of old cotton ter races and was no longer for farming, rises the vast complex of Redstone Arsenal, the United States Army Missile Co., and NASA. has now become a symbol of the New South, its population includes scientists, engineers, technicians, research experts As a consequence, there is none, or at least little, of the hostility toward professors, intellectuals, and persons with Ph.D.'s "Ju-t a few years ago," said a resi dent, "the only Ph.D. in tow.i was the president of the Near ) college. Now we have maybe Too more.") As a result, IIuntsvi not only accepts, but nods ap proval to Dr. Wernher vo i director of the .cpau and the world's Les'. missile man, when he Braun, center, known says: "It's paper to stir up the great mass be ineffectual in persuading the of the raading public. electorate to vote for these "I do not believe it is within changes. The four-lane Parkway Drive, lined with new retail businesses and handsome motels, also runs through old cotton fields. In the 1930s the land, worn out with cotton-growing was sejling for about $4 an .acre. Today, the asking price is $3,000 per acre. "We've got men here," said a resident, "who have become so rich selling off land holdings that they go about complaining about taxes and the lack of op portunity in America." Huntsville, once a sleepy, dusty town of textile mills, state ly mansions of excellent archi tecture, and mill-town slum housing, now is an exciting, dy namic city of confidence in its future and poise in its present. It eschewed violence or incident in the segregation of its schools. It is, next to Mobile, the oldest municipality in the state, and yet no city in the South has so freed itself from the dead hand of the past. Because this "Old South" city not water, or real es tate, or labor, or power or cheap taxes which brings i r ; ! ; try, creates a good comnr.:n ity, or a good market it '. brain power." The truth of this ronclusH;:1 being all about them, the pef ; ' ' of Huntsville pay more ar. ' more attention to schools nr. i education in general. For the past seven years tr-' city has built the equivalent one new classroom each wet'; . . . and the school board sen sibly has made use of the : '.-- : of scientists and engineers who want to be useful. Huntsville itself has net 3a-;-ged. It merits applause. It i : done a really extraordinary j ,".: in building sevver, water and re mains, and streets and recrea tion centers, as well as schoo's. Agriculture remains diversi fied now. Despite the dominance and drama of space, Mad;.-cn County (Huntsville) is the large t agricultural county in the state and derives an income of $2 million annually from that source. Dr. von Braun s conclusicn about education and what makes a city is one that the cities cf the South might put above the doors of their Chambers of Om merce ... the New South is there ... for all tenants wi:h the wplto mqve into it. I Hi r.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Dec. 15, 1963, edition 1
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