NOTES IN THE NEWS
Notes in the News Uncivil Defense Things are booming big over at the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization in Washington and its outlets around the country. As a result of the Berlin crisis...
...The New Democratic Party proposes a vigorous area redevelopment program designed to renew economic strength in depressed or lagging sections of the country, and several proposals to achieve full employment...
...The Democrats went further...
...But the new Party pragmatically recognized the controversial Canadian doctrine of "two nations"—one French, one E n g l i s h - within the Canadian federal state, and thus overcame French Canadian fears of an English-dominated party...
...Senators on the far Right dominate such discussion as there is, and theirs is usually a trigger-like response to world crises and conflicts...
...He (pointed out that "if the principle of self-determination is right for Germany, it is also right for Tunisia...
...it is now interstate in scope...
...It took place in late summer after the people of British Guiana voted in a free election by an impressive majority for Dr...
...Too often in the past this kind of shooting from the hip has gone unchallenged in the Senate...
...I n making such an evaluation one should add that there are signs that the battle between the Right and Left in NSA may have only just begun...
...Another chasm the new Party has bridged, however precariously, is the traditional gulf between Englishspeaking Canada and French Quebec...
...It was against this background of French arrogance and defiance of the Security Council that the special session of the General Assembly was summoned...
...We cannot have it one way in Europe, and another way in Africa, without being guilty of hypocrisy...
...standards, even the Canadian Conservatives are "leftish," and the new party would be branded as dangerously radical in this country...
...Looking back over the session-long struggle for affirmative action on what President Kennedy called "probably the most important piece of domestic legislation" before Congress, one must conclude that the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church played a dominant role in the defeat of a comprehensive program of aid-to-education legislation...
...It is another thing to denounce it and assert the United States should have prevented the result...
...It is noteworthy that some responsible Americans who have been saying right along what a splendid ally we have in Franco Spain, and those who have been paying deference and devotion to the dictator Franco and his dictatorship in Spain, where no free elections have been permitted and where hundreds of people who were on the losing side in the 1937 civil war still languish in Spanish dungeons, are the very people who speak about this allegedly Communist beachhead in British Guiana and criticize the free and democratic election recently conducted there...
...Few who followed the French-Tunisian conflict could doubt that the position Stevenson was obliged to take on orders from above represented a complete reversal of the purpose he had proclaimed for the United Nations...
...I find this hard to believe, although conservative youth today may be beter organized and financed by their elders...
...Our thanks go out to Senators Young, McGee, and Church for speaking up so clearly and courageously on a vital problem of foreign policy...
...As the Los Angeles Times reported: "Adair said that if Nevada is not hit by heavy radiation or a thermonuclear bomb at the same time as California, a million or more persons might stream into this area from Southern California...
...We should extend the hand of friendship to the new government and encourage its efforts to improve conditions for the people of British Guiana...
...By this type of reasoning we are giving Mr...
...After condemning eight years of "official neglect" under the Eisenhower Administration, their platform plank assured the country they would "act at once" to vote "Federal grants to states for educational purposes they deem most pressing, including classroom construction and teachers' salaries...
...Because nobody else paid any attention to them, we want to quote briefly from what they said...
...This year NSA delegates denounced Castro's suppression of academic freedom and democratic student unions...
...The resolution before it called for the re-establishment of the original positions of French and Tunisian forces before fighting broke out and called on both sides to negotiate French evacuation of its base at Bizerte...
...Bowles' comment was not in any way pointed at the shabby role we played in the French-Tunisian issue before the United Nations, but it seems clear that a few more episodes of that kind could magnify to the breaking point the profound skepticism that Bowles found...
...It was U Thant, Burma's ambassador to the United Nations, who called the Assembly's attention to the fact that only the week before, in a speech before a meeting of astronomers in Berkeley, California, Stevenson had asserted the United Nations to be "the greatest defense of the weak against the bullying of the strong...
...voting for consideration were only six Republicans and 164 Democrats...
...Khrushchev and his associates credit for events over which they have no control...
...In a subsequent report, the Los Angeles Times disclosed that the citizens of Beaumont, California, fearful that the citizens of Los Angeles, California, will stream their way in case of nuclear attack, are planning a program of resistance similar to the anti-invasion strategy of Las Vegas...
...Jagan establishes a Communist beachhead on the South American continent and that Dr...
...People don't want their shelters jammed with neighbors in a real alert,' he explains...
...Cheddi Jagan and his leftist People's Progressive Party to lead them...
...Canada, like the United States, is rapidly becoming a more urban nation with a strong industrial working class...
...In 1959, NSA denounced the Batista regime and supported the revolt that was centered in the Sierra Maestra...
...Canada's New Democratic Party New and dissident political parties have appeared occasionally on the lively Canadian political scene, but only rarely have they made an appreciable impact on the course of national politics...
...Jagan has a Marxist background, there was an immediate outcry that the United States not only refuse to grant economic assistance, but that we should "do something to prevent the Kremlin from gaining its first beachhead in the South American continent...
...Wayne Morse, Oregon Democrat...
...The new Party got off to a flying start in a recent by-election, capturing a seat in Parliament which the Conservatives had held safely for two decades, even before the convention launching the New Democratic Party was held...
...More recently, however, there has been a hopeful resurgence of creative comment by liberal Senators, some of whom have dared challenge the conventional wisdom on some issues of foreign policy...
...Surely this is not conservative...
...A survey by The Wall Street Journal summed it up this way: "Fallout shelter builders strive hard to guarantee buyer's secrecy...
...Jagan will go the way of Castro...
...The Administration in Washington felt it could not afford to antagonize de Gaulle even though United States failure to support the resolution meant that we were protecting France in her defiance of the United Nations...
...It is your generation that has participated so much in the Feedom Rides dedicated to smashing interstate segregation...
...I n a desperate effort to salvage something, however skimpy, for the nation's neediest school districts, the Kennedy Administration put together a skeleton measure which proposed to make $325,000,000 available to pay up to forty per cent of classroom construction where schools are dangerously overcrowded...
...I assert this is jumping the gun...
...But the Party's greatest hope for capturing Canadian votes lies in its progressive program, presented at a time of deepening crisis in Canadian economic affairs and foreign policy...
...He refused to accept when the United States offered its "good offices" to negotiate the conflict...
...ownership and management of Canadian business and industry, and the resultant American meddling in Canadian economic and foreign affairs, the new Party offers a legislative program aimed at making all companies operating in Canada "more effectively Canadian by insistence on a minimum percentage of their capital and membership of their boards of directors being held by Canadians resident in Canada...
...Months ago, the Senate had approved a $2,500,000,000, three-year program for school construction and higher teachers' salaries...
...But aside from its equivocal foreign policy position, the New Democratic Party has presented to the Canadian electorate a fresh, contrasting alternative to the faltering policies of the ruling Conservative Party and a weak Liberal opposition...
...It looks now as if the next war, in addition to incinerating a considerable proportion of the population, might produce a rash of civil wars at home even as we ar,e frying the enemy abroad...
...Under Secretary of State Chester Bowles, recently back from a swing through those continents, reported that he found underdeveloped nations "profoundly skeptical" of the capacity of the United States to live up to its own revolutionary traditions...
...The liberal-oriented leadership of NSA faces a threat from both the College Young Republicans and the right-wing Young Americans for Freedom, the former controlled lock, stock and barrel by supporters of Senator Goldwater, Arizona Republican, and the latter heavily oriented toward the lunatic fringe that finds its home in the John Birch Society...
...Senator Gale McGee, Wyoming, was quick to support his colleague's position...
...Senator Frank Church, Idaho Democrat, usually a staunch supporter of the Kennedy Administration, denounced our role at the General Assembly as "indefensible...
...By U.S...
...The New York Times reported that the opposition from this quarter was "possibly the most potent factor of all" in defeating the legislation...
...T h e Association's attitude on Cuba in recent years has mirrored, but to a lesser degree, the position of the adult community as Fidel Castro moved steadily leftward and adopted an increasingly belligerent anti-United States posture...
...Can it be possible that responsible Americans take the view that the United States has a mandate from Almighty God to interfere with the elections in a country emerging into freedom...
...Surely this is not conservative...
...This time, however, three liberal Democrats cracked back with courageous comments on the Senate floor...
...They could come in like a swarm of locusts,' Adair said, 'and pick the valley clean of food, medical supplies, and other goods...
...None voted against it...
...One works at night if asked...
...This was the wave of fear that swept over those who have built, or are building, or are about to build an underground haven—the fear that they would be invaded, not by the Russians in this instance, but by neighbors seeking to share their shelters if and when the nuclear burning begins...
...Debate on the great issues has all but vanished...
...Church spokesmen remained adamant throughout the session in their opposition to any legislation that did not help meet the financial needs of parochial schools...
...The Party concedes that nationalization may sometimes be the most effective instrument of planning, but it does not assert, as have some of its socialist backers, that public ownership is a panacea for every economic difficulty...
...The recently created liberal majority in that ancient slaughterhouse of liberal legislation was destroyed when Representative James J. Delaney, New York Democrat, cast the deciding vote against the bill because it did not provide aid for parochial schools...
...Mike Mansfield, Montana Democrat...
...But there were other powerful forces at work, chiefly the conservative lobby dominated by the National Association of Manufacturers and the United States Chamber of Commerce, which fought relentlessly behind the scenes against any form of general Federal aid to education...
...But another wave, perhaps not yet tidal in magnitude, was pounding hard at the program at the same time...
...All in all, the experience demonstrates again how readily many of our lawmakers will betray their party's promises to the people when confronted with the opposition of powerful pressure groups...
...Sense in the Senate The United States Senate has not been especially distinguished for statesmanship in the field of foreign policy for some time...
...The students also petitioned the House of Representatives to "disclaim the film Operation Abolition as an official and accurate documentation of the San Francisco demonstrations against HUAC...
...After a heated debate which centered on Canada's membership in NATO, the party finally decided to "go along," but with an undefined "reformed" NATO...
...Senator Stephen Young, Ohio, launched the discussion by asserting that "It is one thing to regret the result of a freely held election...
...Sixty-six nations voted for the resolution...
...Men like Senators J. W. Fulbright, Arkansas Democrat...
...Adlai Stevenson must have felt much the same way, but he couldn't say so...
...Somehow the United States must break out of this vice and undertake to ally itself with these forces of change, whenever we can, and thus to make clearer that the United States does, in fact, stand for progress, for people, and for reform in many parts of the world which are desperately in need of it...
...We sometimes find ourselves' wondering what runs through that fine mind of Adlai Stevenson's when he is obliged by Administration policy in Washington to take positions before the United Nations which conflict with his own views...
...To flourish nationally, any new political party needs support from both labor and agriculture, and the New Democratic Party appears to have resolved that problem...
...In 1960, NSA adopted a resolution which said, in part, "NSA views the implementation of the concept of university reform in Cuba with interest and, in some respects, concern...
...Instead, this year's delegates urged abolition straight out, apparently convinced reform of HUAC is no longer possible...
...Certainly, we should not turn our backs on this emerging nation and thus force it into dependence on Moscow...
...I have heard it said on occasion," said Governor Nelson, "that your generation is turning conservative...
...One official after another reported that persons planning to build or buy shelters were remarkably furtive...
...The recently formed New Democratic Party, however, shows unusual promise of becoming one of Canada's major political forces...
...John Sherman Cooper, Kentucky Republican...
...The great pity, of course, is that their contribution to serious thinking on foreign affairs went unmentioned in the press while the rocket-rattling speeches of the far Right continued to command the headlines...
...The farm population is steadily declining numerically, but—again like the United States— the rural areas maintain a stranglehold on political power through lopsided legislative representation...
...It is not only Nevada against the California locusts, but Californian against Californian as well...
...The gloomy prediction has been made that the election of Dr...
...Backed by the radical agrarian Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Congress of Labor, the New Democratic Party is the first to achieve what seems like a successful wedding of the worker and the farmer...
...Time was when a government could count on war to unite a nation...
...Our law enforcement agencies are not numerically equipped to handle such an influx of humanity so we have drawn up plans for a militia...
...There was no criticism of Castro for his anti-United States campaign, which must be attributed to a desire on the part of NSA's leadership to maintain strong ties with Latin American student unions...
...It is your generation that has given us the stirring sit-ins in the South and militant support for them in the North...
...In the House, howeyer, the Rules Committee refused to clear it for consideration...
...To emphasize his scorn for the United Nations, de Gaulle forbade the French delegation to enter United Nations buildings while the special session was in progress...
...The arguments for continuing an alliance in which few Canadians have deep faith were mainly of the "don't rock the boat" variety...
...The Republicans forthrightly pledged in their platform to provide "Federal support to the primary and secondary schools by a program of Federal aid for school construction...
...J. Carlton Adair, plans and programs officer for Las Vegas civil defense, explained to an audience of 400 business and industrial leaders that Nevada's defense program against California would require a 5,000-man militia, which would be under the command of the sheriff's department...
...It is self-defeating...
...He defied the Security Council when it summoned France to withdraw its forces from outside the naval base to positions held before hostilities broke out...
...foreign policy, yet leaders of all political persuasions feel forced to "go along" with their giant neighbor and ally because of the enormous social, economic, and political pressures...
...Stevenson at the U.N...
...We Can Coast No More Our position on the Bizerte crisis hurt us with the nations of Asia and Africa where our stock has been skidding for some time...
...By a thumping vote of 242 to 170, the House refused even to consider or debate a greatly emaciated version of President Kennedy's original measure, thus killing all hope for any Federal aid to public schools this session of Congress...
...When Secretary of State Dean Rusk attempted to bring up the Bizerte quarrel, de Gaulle ignored him by indicating that it was none of his business...
...Conservative forces, aided by Fulton Lewis III, a former HUAC aide and technical director of the controversial film, Operation Abolition, sought to reverse a 1960 NSA stand calling for "reform or abolition" of the House Committee on Un-American Activities...
...It was this group that came close to issuing its own declaration of war against Cuba for hijacking a plane, only to learn that Cuba was not in any way involved...
...There is no surer way of pushing British Guiana into the Communist orbit than to declare it the enemy, and treat it as such, at this early date and without any proof...
...The sooner we in this country come to realize that there are great movements and great changes which would take place even if there were not a Communist nor a Russian on earth, the sooner we will be able to acquire a posture in which people will be able to understand the kind of movements that are taking place...
...We may still sell an antique chair by boasting that Tom Paine once sat in it, but we cannot persuade skeptical Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans that we believe in the rights for which Paine spoke so fervently unless our actions fit our words...
...At one point in their deliberations the delegates wired the heads of South and Central American governments to appeal to Castro to urge clemency for a group of Cuban student leaders who faced death as a result of anti-Castro activities...
...Because Dr...
...The New York Times came up with much the same conclusion after conducting its own study, which found that "the sudden demand for shelter and survival does not invariably bring out the best in man's nature...
...Such a policy is foredoomed to fail...
...Throughout the non-Communist world the tide of history is now running with flood force: for self-government, for economic justice, for racial equality...
...A Swarm of Locusts' The fear of invasion extends beyond neighborhoods...
...It was this modest emergency compromise which a bi-partisan coalition in the House refused to consider...
...I think," said Senator Wayne Morse, Oregon Democrat, "that Cardinal Spellman has to take his share of responsibility...
...To a nation increasingly resentful of U.S...
...This leads us into strange alliances with countries having nothing in common with the principles of the United States...
...A Milwaukee builder advertises 'unmarked trucks for secrecy,' tells workers to pass themselves off as TV repairmen to nosey neighbors...
...What was perhaps the most heartening episode received no attention at all in the nation's newspapers...
...Our role," said Stevenson afterward in a sentence that underscored his discomfort, "has not been an easy one, but I would remind members that discretion is sometimes the better part of valor...
...Bi-Partisan Betrayal When they campaigned the country last fall, both political parties were clear-cut and emphatic in their respective promises to provide Federal aid for education...
...Conservative Youth Defeated Despite a well-financed assault from a highly vocal but surprisingly small group on the far Right, the United States National Student Association's Fourteenth Annual Congress, which recently ended ten days of deliberations at the University of Wisconsin, was clearly a victory for student liberalism...
...The United States was one of the thirty...
...Its program places major emphasis on increased government planning, stepped-up investment in the public sector of the economy, and bold solutions to the serious unemployment problem...
...It has been easier to sit silent and not run the risk of being misunderstood...
...Voting against consideration were eightytwo Democrats, mostly Southerners, and 160 Republicans...
...Both groups, with interlocking leadership, have threatened to conduct a nationwide campaign, beginning this fall, against NSA...
...He insulted and ignored United Nations SecretaryGeneral Dag Hammarskjold when the latter sought to confer with him on settlement of the strife in Tunisia...
...As a result of the Berlin crisis and the recent resumption of nuclear testing, the flow of inquiries on how to build a fallout shelter has reached "tidal wave proportions," according to a buoyant announcement of the OCDM...
...But to Canadians, including the conservative business press, the New Democratic Party is one of "moderation...
...The New Democratic Party leaders are no exception...
...The results of the ten-day gathering seemed to confirm the judgment on the political coloration of present day youth expressed by Governor Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin in his speech welcoming the NSA...
...And it is your generation that has answered the call to the Peace Corps with such enthusiasm...
...Significantly, the delegates denounced both Soviet shipment of arms to Havana and this country's role in the ill-fated April invasion...
...Pretty lame stuff for Adlai Stevenson, we think...
...Both the Conservative and the Liberal Parties have moved far enough to the Right to leave a great political void on the moderate Left into which the New Democratic Party is moving...
...Recently, at a civil defense meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, the local patriots developed plans for throwing back an invasion of their state by Californians seeking safety from the fall of thermonuclear bombs...
...The enormous truth that comes from my trip," he said, "is that we can no longer coast on our revolutionary past...
...Lacking the strength to launch a frontal attack on NSA, the conservatives struck at the flank of liberal positions and, in some instances, managed minor victories in weakening position statements...
...Canadian progressives regard this as a clear sign that a major political realignment may be in the making...
...It is on foreign policy that the Party has taken its most ambiguous stand...
...They feared, apparently, both ridicule at the hands of their neighbors and panicky crowds of neighbors at the shelter doors if an attack came...
...and Joseph S. Clark, Pennsylvania Democrat, have spoken up, often with little mention in the press, for affirmative alternatives to present policies...
...There is little sympathy among Canadians generally for U.S...
...The third Senator to speak up was Frank Church of Idaho, who struck out at a foreign policy "based upon the preservation of the status quo...
...It also results in allowing the Communists to appear to be the champions of change, even while we appear to be defenders of a status quo which cannot last, for history will wash over it...
...These are the principles which we must support, morally, because they rest at the foundation of our own society, and, realistically, because they represent the crucial force which is now shaping the institutions of our time...
...The Conservatives, who had hoped to prove that a conservative tide is running on the campuses of American colleges and universities, were outmaneuvered and outvoted most of the way...
...Now, one year afterwards, Republicans and Democrats have joined forces in the House of Representatives to betray their solemn commitments...
...No third party of English-Canadian vintage has ever made a perceptible impact on Quebec...
...Its economic planning would encompass increased social welfare, price supports for farmers, price controls for consumers, and a program of full employment for workers...
...Each time we permit expediency to override the fundamental principles we proclaim to the world, our cause is weakened everywhere...
...Thirty members abstained...
...French President Charles de Gaulle had behaved abominably...
...We thought, for example, he seemed quite uncomfortable during the special session of the General Assembly called to act on the French-Tunisian conflict at Bizerte...
...It seems to me," he said, "we have acquired a severe tendency in this country to assume that whenever there is an election in which a person we do not favor has been elected, the Communists must have engineered it...
Vol. 25 • October 1961 • No. 10
