The Charlotte News
Wednesday, April 29, 1959
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the President had said at his press conference this date that Clare Boothe Luce's usefulness as Ambassador to Brazil had not been damaged by her row with Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon. He said that he had a telephone survey made on Tuesday, after Mrs. Luce had struck out verbally at Senator Morse, and had concluded that she would be welcome in Brazil. The Senate had given Mrs. Luce a 79 to 11 vote of confirmation on Tuesday, despite bitter opposition from Senator Morse. Mrs. Luce had said that her troubles began when the Senator was "kicked in the head by a horse", referring to his self-admitted, self-effacing incident of which he had related years earlier when he switched from being a Republican to an independent, before eventually becoming a Democrat. The Senator replied that her remark was "consistent with an old, old pattern of emotion instability" on her part. Her husband, Henry R. Luce of the Time-Life-Fortune publishing empire, said in New York that he had asked his wife to resign the ambassadorship because of the criticism. It had been against that backdrop that the President was asked whether he thought that Mrs. Luce ought take her post in Rio de Janeiro or follow the advice of her husband. The President hesitated a moment and then joined in a round of laughter touched off by the way the question had been put, whether he thought Mrs. Luce ought obey her husband, then said that although her criticism of the Senator might have been ill-advised, it was human and that she had made the remark in the heat of anger, that as far as he was concerned, the criticism was not meant as disparagement of the Senate. He said that he felt that there had been no major impairment to Mrs. Luce's usefulness. He also said that she had not thus far offered to resign. Senator Morse meanwhile was telling the Senate that it was true that he had checked a report "as to the mental competency" of Mrs. Luce to serve as Ambassador to Brazil. He said that he understood that there had been charges "of improper conduct" on his part in his checking on the nominee. The Senator said that a reporter had come to his office with certain information and that on that basis he had made a telephone inquiry and then dropped the subject. There had been reports on Tuesday that the Senator had sought to learn whether Mrs. Luce had been under psychiatric care. The suggestion from Mr. Luce that his wife ought resign had been associated with what might be the attitude of the Brazilian people to the criticism of her in the Senate.
The President also said at the press conference that he had called on Congress to tighten the Senate's labor control bill at three points and that he was disappointed with the measure which had passed the Senate. He said he believed that the House ought pass amendments to curb secondary boycotts, outlaw blackmail picketing and clarify the no-man's land area where the authority of the NLRB and the states was cloudy. He was asked if he believed it necessary to have such amendments in light of the "bill of rights" for rank-and-file labor which was voted into the Senate measure, sponsored by Senator John McClellan of Arkansas. He said that as it had been first proposed, it was a fine thing, but that the compromise which finally was adopted was not a real substitute for the kind of thing which should have been done. The substitute had been sponsored by Senator Thomas Kuchel of California, the assistant Republican leader, and backed by a group of Republicans who had been regarded as friendly to organized labor. Other topics touched on by the President included his statement that from the beginning of the illness of Secretary of State Dulles the prior February, both he and Mr. Dulles had been in agreement that Undersecretary of State Christian Herter ought be named Secretary if it became necessary for Mr. Dulles to resign, as he had recently done. Regarding Iraq, he said that the U.S. was very concerned about that situation and the possibility of complete Communist domination of the country. He said that he did not know whether he agreed with CIA director Allen Dulles that the situation in Iraq was the most dangerous in the world, but added that it was certainly not an easy situation. He said that he and Vice-President Nixon never would attend any summit conference with the Russians simultaneously, indicating that it would not be feasible because of the nature of the Government and the necessity for the President to avoid being out of the country for any length of time. Regarding Germany, he said again that the U.S. never would desert the 2 million free people of West Berlin and leave them to Communist domination. He said that there were a great many approaches to the problem which could ease the situation, which might be explored at the upcoming foreign ministers meeting in Geneva, but did not go into detail.
In Paris, the Western foreign ministers were understood to have agreed this date that they would take up the questions of Berlin and a German peace treaty as a package in the Geneva talks with the Soviet Union. That indication had come after the first session of the foreign ministers of the U.S., Britain, France and West Germany, met to harmonize their positions before the East-West meeting would open in Geneva on May 11. Each delegation consisted of seven members. No delegation member would talk for the record. The ministers said in a communiqué that no information would be given to the press, at least for the time being. The reported Western determination to discuss the whole range of Berlin, Germany and European security questions was in opposition to the Communist position which had been reiterated this date as the Warsaw Pact foreign ministers, ending their meeting in Warsaw, opposed any attempt to link up the discussions, saying that the "two most urgent and important questions" for Geneva were conclusion of a German peace treaty and liquidation of the military occupation of Berlin. Britain was waging a lone fight against a package deal. Secretary of State Herter and British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd had met for lunch and then headed back to further consultations with French Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville and West German Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano. Mr. Herter had met privately during the morning with the French and West German foreign ministers.
In Poplarville, Miss., it was reported that Governor J. P. Coleman had stated, regarding the search for the black prisoner and his eight to ten masked and hooded abductors who had kidnaped him the prior Saturday morning from the jail, where he awaited trial for allegedly raping a pregnant white woman, that there was some reason for thinking the case would be broken, but said he could not discuss the particulars because that would tip their hand. None of the Federal or state officials working on the case, however, related anything to back up that statement. None of the abductors had as yet been identified. The men had disappeared with their victim into the night and apparently had slipped back into the daily routine of their lives without being noticed. The President assured the Governor by telegram from Washington that the FBI would continue to help in the case. The Governor earlier had praised the FBI and said that he had asked director J. Edgar Hoover to keep them on the case as long as possible. He said that as soon as he learned of the abduction he had made sure that the FBI was asked to help. The President's telegram said that it was his "earnest hope that there will be swift apprehension of the guilty persons." In Washington, Attorney General William Rogers commented on the case in a speech to a meeting honoring National Law Week, saying that the nation's conscience was revolted and stunned by the kidnaping and that it was ironic that the crime had coincided with that week.
In Whitesburg, Ky., mine guards had exchanged about 200 rifle shots with hidden gunmen firing into a non-union coal operation near the town before dawn this date, with no injuries reported. A mine operator said that he was closing down the operation and leaving the country because he could not stand it anymore. The outburst was the heaviest exchange of gunfire in the area where shots had been fired sporadically almost every day during the 52-day old United Mine Workers strike for a new contract. The mine operator said that closing down his operation meant closing down the loading ramp at nearby Mayking, as he was the only operator trucking coal to that ramp, the central focus of much of the violence.
In Charlotte, two petty violators from Clover, S.C., were in the York County jail this date following a fling at bank robbery, having been arrested by the FBI at a restaurant in Charlotte the previous night. The pair had been frustrated by one obstacle after another in their attempted bank robbery. Bank employees had not cooperated with the robbers and neighboring businessmen had opened fire at them. The FBI traced the pair to the Charlotte restaurant, surrounded it and closed in. The two had been accused of taking $6,376 from the bank's cash drawer, none of which had been recovered this date. The gunmen had ordered the bank president to open the vault, but the the latter had instead locked it. The robbers, who had entered the bank at around noon with stockings over their faces, met gunfire from other businessmen in the area when they left the bank. A running gun battle ensued as they sped from the village of about 400. A hardware store proprietor chased the 1958 Ford getaway car, exchanging shots with the robbers. A County policeman fired five rounds at the fleeing car and a grocer blasted away with a shotgun. The merchants were alerted to the robbery by a bank employee who returned from lunch in the middle of it. She had called police and other merchants while the robbers were getting the money and binding the bank president and another bank employee with tape. The robbers had nevertheless been able to make their getaway unharmed. The FBI had not related how they linked the two with the robbery, but agents had been waiting at the restaurant when the pair arrived.
John Kilgo of The News reports that a 34-year old man had burned to death early this date in his home and that only some fast work by two County police officers had saved the life of his wife. Police had been called in the wee hours of the morning after a neighbor heard a woman's scream in the house, and two officers had arrived and found the wife partially out of a front window, nearly overcome by smoke. She told them that her husband was in the house, but the police, because of the smoke, were not able to enter. A volunteer fire department had arrived moments later and found the husband lying face down in a closet in the den. He was dead when the firemen had taken him from the house. The cause of the fire had not yet been determined. Ironically, five weeks earlier, a woman had burned to death in her home on the same street, just three houses down from the residence which had caught fire this date.
In Lourdes, France, it was reported that American TV equipment had been hauled into the Grotto of Lourdes the previous day for the first scenes ever filmed inside the famed Catholic shrine.
In Alderney, in the Channel Islands, it was reported that drink flowed freely late the previous night at Bligh's Bounty Bar, celebrating the 170th year to the day since the crew of the H.M.S. Bounty had put their harsh master, Capt. William Bligh, adrift. The celebration took place notwithstanding the fact that the mutiny had taken place thousands of miles away in the Pacific, with the bar's proprietor stating: "Miles don't matter. The anniversary does. This is the best excuse for a celebration in years." On the British possession situated in the champagne-like atmosphere only 8 miles off the coast of France, any excuse was good for a celebration. When a visitor asked how long the bar was open, mindful of the fact that in England, the public could usually not drink after 10:30 p.m., the answer from the proprietor was: "As long as you want to drink. We'll stay open until 9 o'clock tomorrow morning if you want it and if that isn't long enough, we'll stay open until 9 o'clock the next day." When asked whether they had any drinking laws, the proprietor said that they did but had only one police officer in town to enforce them. He then pointed to a corner of the bar where that person was seated, playing the piano. The officer said that there was one thing they were not having on this night, and that was a mutiny, and invited people to join in a sea chantey. The proprietor of the bar, Jack Bligh, was one of Capt. Bligh's descendants.
In Owasso, Okla., human contact had been made for the first time in six days early this date with Little Richard, a coon-chasing blue tick hound wedged in a stone crevice 6 miles from the town. A tiny high school senior, standing 4'7" tall, hand-fed the nearly starved dog hamburger meat, canned dog food and a tranquilizer provided by a veterinarian, saying that the dog "seemed real happy that somebody finally got to him." He said he could pet him and the dog just gulped at the food. Volunteers prepared plans for what they hoped would be the last step in freeing the 2 1/2-year old hound. A Tulsa veterinarian said that he believed the dog could be kept alive indefinitely. The dog had become trapped when it chased a coon into the sandstone bluff and had remained six days in an upright position at the base of the narrow crevice, some 6 feet above which was a wider opening through which the rescuers hoped to lift the dog, which had been sprayed with olive oil to make the removal easier. If it dies, you can always throw down a little spaghetti, light up a barbecue and chow down. A-wop bop belew bop, a wop bam boom.
On the editorial page, "Sports Supremacy of the Carolinas?" indicates that Charlotte's dream of sports supremacy of the Carolinas had lost some of its luster this date with the cancellation of the 1959 Carrousel Basketball Tournament, the city's greatest homegrown athletic extravaganza. Even if the tournament was revived in 1960, its future was in doubt.
Charlotte residents were fickle, having demonstrated an enormous appetite for major college basketball at two NCAA regional tournaments, albeit only temporary attractions. They would pay handsomely to see high-ranking ACC teams battle each other or major intersectional foes at the Coliseum, but had stayed away in droves when great teams from afar played in the Carrousel Tournament.
Professional baseball and ice hockey had their ups and downs and there had been several unpleasant experiences with major college football.
Yet there was no reason why Charlotte could not become, in time, one of the sports centers of the South. It is convinced that there was a market for major athletic attractions in Charlotte and that the market was steadily growing, but could not be developed in a haphazard manner. It finds that an organized civic effort was needed to develop a balanced sports program for the city and should be broadly representative of the city's most energetic civic builders and concern itself with adequate facilities as well as adequate programming.
Build a big racetrack around the city, you know, like one of those Monte Carlo affairs, and close off the entire place one Sunday for one giant rally. And if a few racers and spectators die in the process along the way, all the better to promote it all for the next year.
"Back to the Shop for Adjustment" indicates that there was need to amend the school consolidation legislation for Mecklenburg County which had passed the General Assembly the previous week. Technically, there was nothing wrong with it, though the public's enthusiasm for the law had emerged somewhat battered and bruised because of a clause which required a vote on a maximum supplemental tax rate of 60 cents per $100 valuation rather than on the precise amount which would actually be levied immediately. While the day might come when a 60-cent supplemental tax rate would be needed, it was more likely that the consolidated system would want to begin operating with a tax rate of only around 53 cents and no more than 55 cents, as it would be easier to sell consolidation if one of the more modest figures appeared on the ballot. It thus made better sense for the citizenry to approve a firm figure for which there was an immediate need rather than a ceiling which might never be utilized. An amendment to the law was therefore necessary.
State Representative John Kennedy had undertaken the task of straightening out the problem and it wishes him success.
"Mental Health: An Ancient Approach" indicates that during Mental Health Week, authorities reminded of maxims which would have sounded like platitudes to distant ancestors, amounting to the ancient maxim: Know thyself. Yet it was a conventional wisdom which had ceased to be conventional, and failing to apply it, millions of Americans were becoming unstrung every decade.
It finds the work commendable of the Mental Health Clinic and Mental Health Society of Mecklenburg, but generally there was a policy of containment of mental illness with no thought of counter-attack, despite the fact that society had no reason for that stance as it did not lack the resources for it. There were hundreds of resources against emotional and mental poverty which were the real scourges of mental health.
People had to guard their sense of humor and custom was more necessary than fashion. "We do not need to scale after pinnacles of perception through mescaline with Aldous Huxley, nor do we need Prof. [Arthur M.] Schlesinger to tell us that reading is vital. To yield to the need for humor and custom, or to the creative promise for the mind which lies in merriment and myth is to yield only to what seems fitting. These needs should be as obvious as our need to know ourselves, the ancient maxim which is still the first prescription of the most up-to-date psychiatric clinics."
An estimated 17 million Americans had needed mental hospitalization at the present time, but the mind could also be enchanting and discovering the counter-attack against mental illness could thus be begun.
We recommend that prescription to the mentally ill and mentally deficient in Magaville, USA. You really need to read more often, and something more challenging than comic books and supermarket checkout fare and tabloids. You also need to watch things more challenging than Fox Propaganda and News Maximus-Minimus, which will not inform you of anything, only corroborating the lies floating around in your head from your various misinformed biases, obviously much more palatable than being challenged to think beyond those lies which your fearless leader imparts to you daily in steady brainwashing fashion.
A good current example arising in the last day or so is His Majesty's scurrilous attack on the California voting process, which should not be in the least within his realm of concern or that of the Federal Government, but nevertheless being called by Herr Hitler corrupt because all of the votes are being counted, much to the consternation of Der Fuehrer and his little minions and echoing sycophants at Fox Prop and News Maximus-Minimus, and other such propaganda arms, who want voting cut off arbitraily "on election day", regardless of slower mail from overseas absentee ballots from members of the military and others, all ballots having to be postmarked no later than election day. If a state takes its time to count votes carefully, checking all signatures on mail-in and drop-off ballots to assure that they match with the official signature on file for a particular voter, to avoid any possibility of fraud, these Magawumps insist that somehow that is evidence of corruption, giving Democrats the opportunity to "manufacture ballots".
In the instant case of the California gubernatorial primary, it is hard to understand how that would be necessary or desirable, even if it were taking place, since it is clear that Xavier Becerra is definitely going to be one of the two candidates to qualify for the general election in the fall, with the only question being whether he will face Democrat Tom Steyer or Republican Steve Hilton, the British Fox contributor and podcaster, who has no experience whatsoever in governing anything. Mr. Becerra will face a far tougher challenge from the current third-place candidate, Mr. Steyer, in heavily Democratic California than he would from Mr. Hilton, and so just how there would be any advantage in making up ballots is beyond our comprehension. The same dynamic is at work in the Los Angeles mayoral race. But leave it to the Magawumps and their fearless leader to make up nonsensical lies to promote and rationalize their need for "extra security" in November at the polls, which translates into trying to rig the election in the best way they can to keep voters from the polls, made the more complicated, however, in states where mail-in and drop-off ballots are submitted and thus no intimidation can be effected at the polling places themselves on election day, and no measures can be passed which would inhibit voters from voting, such as in Deep South states where it is a crime even to give water to an elderly or infirm person standing in line for hours trying to vote in these medieval states tending toward the Nineteeth Century, fully well knowing that they are targeting demographic groups, minorities and older people, who tend to vote for Democrats rather than the typical Trump-backed fascists and neo-Nazis.
It takes time to count votes carefully when they are submitted by mail. States which do so quickly are the ones who are suspect. States which restrict or prohibit mail-in and drop-off ballots are deliberately trying to restrict the vote to those favorable to Magawumps. It is really that simple. The Trumpsters are the people invariably trying to rig elections while trying to keep the focus on the other side to hide their prestidigitation. The so-called "Save America Act", which is more accurately titled "Steal America Act", besides being unconstitutional, only seeks to make it as difficult as possible for people to exercise their franchise, favoring the Trumpitards. If you believe the trash being purveyed by Fox Prop and the other propaganda networks and podcasters, you are among the insane. You need mental help. Again, try reading something serious for a change.
"Spring Is a Woman of Many Moods" points out the mercurial nature of the season.
A piece from the St. Louis University Magazine, titled "'Stories of the Bone Age'", indicates that if it were not for the dignity of his new position as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Father Martin Hasting, S.J., might be well advised to publish an unusual manuscript which he had, which might outsell "Please Don't Eat the Daisies". The manuscript was a large notebook which Father Hasting had been filling with boners taken from history test papers during his 17 years of high school and college teaching. He had a number of possible titles for the book, which he was illustrating with cartoons, but probably the one which fit best was "Stories of the Bone Age".
It includes some of the boners contained therein, such as: "Spain's government in America was a strict monotony"; "Texas was wildly settled in the early 1800's"; "The Athenians obtained their revenues by collecting taxis from conquered cities"; "A polyglot is a many-sided glot"; "Three early tribes in Italy were the Latins, Sardines, and Romans"; "The English colonists wanted to collect rum and brimstone from the coughers of the kings"; "Voltaire: inventor of the dry cell battery"; "Liberalism: lazy fare"; "American character might be described as a composite of heterogeneity"; and "Through the years, civilization became longer".
Messrs. Harding, Coolidge and Hoover would, we trow, be surprised to find themselves classed as "liberals" by that student, though they were certainly among the modern exponents of "lazy fare".
Drew Pearson indicates that Admiral Lewis Strauss, chafing restlessly before the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee considering his nomination as Secretary of Commerce, had received two interesting dinner invitations during the week aimed at building up sentiment for his confirmation, with reaction to the invitations being mixed. The first invitation had been tendered on April 20 by the American Good Government Society to present a medal to him and to Senator John McClellan of Arkansas. The second invitation was from the American Physical Society for May 1, at which the Admiral was to be the honored guest. In the case of the latter invitation, hundreds of letters had been written by scientists protesting it and blaming it on Robert Huntoon, who worked for Admiral Strauss as deputy director of the Bureau of Standards and was in charge of the local dinner arrangements. Behind the first invitation was the American Telephone and Telegraph Co., plus leaders of the National Association of Manufacturers and other business groups.
Significantly, former Congressman Ed Gossett of Texas, presently working for the telephone company, had been offering blocks of tickets to friends to attend the dinner. Grover Sellers, former Attorney General of Texas, had also been working with the telephone company, helping to promote the dinner. The telephone company, through its subsidiary, Western Electric, operated the Sandia Corporation in Albuquerque for the Atomic Energy Commission, and was also the recipient of some of the biggest Government contracts, including the Sage early warning system in the Arctic. The American Good Government Society was an organization which had a propensity for bolstering conservative public officials, sometimes when they seemed to be in the most trouble. That organization had provided a gold medal to Governor Allan Shivers of Texas just as he was running in a hot race against Ralph Yarborough and right after his land commissioner and two insurance commissioners had been prosecuted. The organization had also awarded medals to Congressman Howard Smith of Virginia, who repeatedly had bottled up bills opposed by the National Association of Manufacturers. It also had given a medal to Congressman Bill Colmer of Mississippi, who invariably joined Mr. Smith in bottling up such measures. It also awarded one to Senator Karl Mundt of South Dakota, the champion of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy.
The second dinner invitation to Admiral Strauss, given by the American Physical Society, had caused one group of scientists to organize the "Last Straws Committee", a play on the manner in which the Admiral pronounced his name. That committee had sent 12,000 postcards to every member of the society asking what they thought of Admiral Strauss as a spokesman of the physical world. The committee included such scientists as Jay Orear of Cornell, John De Wire of Cornell, William Higanbotham of Brookhaven Laboratories, Edwin Salpeter of Cornell, Hartland Snyder of Brookhaven, George Vineyard of Brookhaven, and Robert R. Wilson of Cornell. One of the most vigorous protests against the invitation had come from a former president of the American Physical Society.
Doris Fleeson indicates that the turning point in the confused and angry debate regarding the Kennedy labor bill had been the discovery of Southern Senators that in improving the McClellan "bill of rights" amendment, they had apparently desegregated the labor unions, though Senator McClellan had no such intention. Even those Senators who had not entirely been convinced that such would be the effect, had decided that they would rather be safe than sorry. The impassioned charge of Senator Olin Johnston of South Carolina that the amendment was a "sneak civil rights bill" showed them what could be done with it in a campaign in the South.
It would take time and study before an objective assessment of the bill's merits was possible. The McClellan Committee hearings had been attracting less attention of late, but that did not prove that the public had lost interest, rather showing that the public had bought the story which the Committee had told and was ready for the next step, remedial legislation. Such legislation was the purpose of such Congressional hearings and it had been shown repeatedly that no matter how sensational they were, they became repetitious with time. The public then began to ask what the Congress intended to do about the situation and showed its anger when the answer was not satisfactory.
Some curious aspects of the Senate struggle which had just concluded were the extraordinary complacency of the Democratic leadership regarding the labor bill, the willingness of the Republicans to take an extreme right-wing position on the matter, the ambiguous role played by the Vice-President and the failure of labor spokesmen to realize that they were so vulnerable to the shafts of their enemies.
Both Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson and Senator John F. Kennedy assured Senator Hubert Humphrey that it was entirely safe for him to leave a paired vote with Republican Senator Homer Capehart of Indiana and depart for a long-planned political trip west. Senator Humphrey was a very active debater in the area of labor issues and one who was not easily misled. He had misgivings, but had concluded that it would be Senator Kennedy's show all the way, with the Humphrey ballot really unnecessary.
But the prior Wednesday, he had appeared quite wrong when Vice-President Nixon had cast a tie-breaking vote to put the original strong McClellan amendment into the bill. If Senator Kennedy had been at all disingenuous in keeping Senator Humphrey from the debate limelight, he had paid for it in the tense hours he had spent repairing the damage done, as described in headlines which read, "Kennedy Suffers Setback".
The Senator had recovered much ground and won the admiration for the fight he continued to make, learning a lot in the process both about legislating and how tempting a target a presidential candidate was.
Senator Johnson also seemed to realize that he was laying himself open to one of two indictments, that he was either not a virtuoso conversant with what his big majority would do or was allowing Senator Kennedy and the Democrats to sink or swim on an issue important to a large segment of the party's strength.
The Vice-President had sought to have it both ways, pleasing the right-wing of the Republican Party by breaking the tie in favor of the McClellan amendment and then seeking to appease the liberals by backing Oklahoma Senator Mike Monroney's ruling that the McClellan amendment was open to revision. The absence of well-known labor lobbyists during the clutch period was a final surprise. She indicates that it would seem incredible that they did not even yet understand how much on the defensive they had placed their best friends.
Robert C. Ruark, in Palamos, Spain, indicates that he had felt kind of sad recently when Oklahoma had gone wet and his friend had written about a bootlegger feeling betrayed. The bootlegger had been in the business for 40 years and all of a sudden "spurious morality yanked the rug out from under him." He says that he had always cottoned to bootleggers, possibly because for a short time he had hustled a little bathtub gin himself when at UNC. He also liked the idea of the drunken state he knew, Oklahoma, having been legally sober for the previous 52 years, now "going straight". He had always liked Mississippi also because when its Gold Coast was legally dry, one could buy mixed drinks in any saloon during the war, "and the booze was always good." He knew because he was in training as a Naval officer just outside Gulfport and lived in what amounted to a house of ill fame which was just in front of the main storehouse for the Gulf's supply of bonded whiskey and just behind the gambling joints.
He goes on in his typical meandering fashion, indicating that once he had been in Africa to make a movie and took a photographer with him, mentioned that he had done some bootlegging in Chapel Hill and that some of his supply had come from a person who was attending Duke in Durham. "It turned out that my photog of 20 years later was supplying the lad in Durham who was supplying me, which seemed to shrink the world considerably, as I learned this fact in between Mao Mao massacres and dead elephants in northern Kenya."
A letter writer from Gaffney, S.C., comments on a letter of April 18 which had caused him a chuckle, especially her remark: "The reason for unwed mothers is simple—some man is back of it." He says that no one could argue such cold logic. But it also did not solve the problem or offer any reason as to why the problem existed. When the woman placed the blame for illegitimacy entirely on the male, he finds her to have been grasping at straws. "There is a moral issue involved here, and moral responsibility is—or should be—a 50-50 proposition." He finds that the fact that only the mother and child were directly impacted by the illegitimate birth meant that the female should be even more conscious of her moral obligations than the man. He agrees with the previous writer that the comments of religious leaders on the subject were asinine. He suggests that as to juvenile offenders, the only thing which might help was to clean up the filth which was rapidly becoming an integral part of the country's cultural and social patterns. "Sex, its more sordid aspects, is blared constantly from television and movie screens, and for a few cents any child can purchase magazines and books whose sole purpose is to excite the sexually ignorant or immature mind. Moral degenerates, loosely labeled 'actors' and 'entertainers,' are elevated to the status of demigods through the dubious miracle of American advertising. Even the field of music has been invaded by sex consciousness, while advocates of 'total freedom' continue to damn any form of censorship. Obviously ignored is the fact that freedom, when carried to extremes, becomes a form of anarchy—moral anarchy." He favors some form of limited censorship regarding youth, controlled by Federal and state regulatory agencies.
A letter writer from Clinton, S.C., questions how anyone could expect law and order in the South or anywhere else as long as politicians of the region openly advocated violation of the laws. "It's not the ignorant mobs but the politicians who are to blame."
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