e r idip gan tly
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SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: JIM HECK
Ba ttle
By JOHN GRAY
"We do not sympathize with
most of the "police brutality" Th
talk. Few policemen are semin- (istor
arians. In this instance, police
could choose between keeping the p
order as best they could and. let- to be
ting the mob run wild.
"They chose the former. Only
a Commy ora complete kook,
we believe, would say they chose ingly, eve
wrongly." thie chant
-rNew York Daily News smile to
August 30, 1968
TEE
ICTURE this. THERE
and repot
You are standing in a crowd of everywhe
some- ,000 on the corner of Mich- f fl themha
igan and Balbo in downtown Chi- to them
cago. People around you are mill- some of t
ing about aimlessly. Some are try- ing their
ing to get back and forth to the hther ame
Hilton Hotel. Most are participat-
ing in chants. Only a
"Peace now! Peace now!" seem to b
"Daley must go! Daley must thing. Ev
go!" kids have
youths will start in with-"F*** once in tb
you, LBJ, f*** you LBJ." Surpris- happy. TI
Muskie: Party pro
with proper credentials
n passerbys seem to join
t. Those who don't join
themselves and walk on.
are television cameras
rters and photographers
re. When the'huge NBC
s go on, everyone turns
and holds up their hands
es the "V" sign. Even
he reporters join in, hid-
press crendentials from
xas as best they can.
few of the demonstrators
e actually angry at any-
'en though most of the
been teargassed at least
he past few days they are
hey are having their time
e reports that the police were taunted into attacking were malicious
rtions. There were isolated incidents of heckling and taunting, but
olice who atacked had just arrived on the scene and hadn't had time
taunted.
................e:. : ,,".:'::..1. . .. .. .. .:. :.. .
at Michigan and Balbo
in the limelight and are feeling
the carnival atmosphere.
As you look around to get your
bearings and see how far the
crowd extends you spot two rows
of police marching up Balbo to-
wards you.
BUT THE police have been
marching around the area all day
and you can sort of understand
their concern and you don't really
have any objection to'their being
around. Above all you don't want
to antagonize them, because they
have weapons and you don't and
you have an idea that they're cap-
able of beating your head in.
So you move with the crowd to
open a path for them. You let
them into the intersection.
The crowd, like all crowds, is
incapable of moving very quickly,
especially when being herded
from the rear. The people a block
away don't know you're trying to
move and you can't really get
through them.
So you're standing on the edge
of a wide semicircle surrounding
the policemen, unable to m o v e
away from them.
YOU WATCH A man who ap-
pears to be in command raise his
nightstick and twirl it above his
head as the television lights go on.
The police charge. The crowd
EDMUND SIXTUS MUSKIE defeated
Julian Bond for the Democratic nom-
ination for vice president Thursday night.
Why?
Muskie has been twice elected governor
and twice elected Senator from his home
state of Maine. Bond was only elected to
the Georgia stateHouse of Representa-
tives and even then had trouble taking
his rightful seat in the legislature.
Since 1967 Muskie has voted most close-
ly with President Johnson's guidelines on
Dl ey's Pole
A SMALL NOTE for those whimsical few
who believe that Chicago Mayor
Richard Daley has lost his immense pow-
er in the national Democratic Party as a
result of this week's fiasco in Chicago.
It is generally agreed that one of the
main reasons for Hubert Humphrey's
choice of Edmund Muskie as his running
mate is the. Maine senator's Polish an-
cestory.
But did you know that there are more
Poles in Chicago than any other city in
the world except Warsaw?
-W.S.
legislation among all other senators. I
don't quite think that Bond has this same
allegiance to the party's commander-in-
chief.
MUSKIE is chairman of the Democratic
Senatorial Campaign Committee, the
clearing house of senatorial campaign
funds received by the Democratic Party.
I doubt if Bond has e v e r handled any
campaign fund-raising for the National
Democratic Party.
Muskie has transformed Maine, one of
the most secure Republican strongholds,
into a Democratic plus. A good indication
of the scope of this change is the fact
that Muskie was the first popularly elect-
ed Democratic senator in Maine's history.
Yet about all Bond has done for the reg-
ular Democratic Party in Georgia was to
send half of its convention delegates back
home following a credentials fight last
Monday.
IN VIEW of all. this it is surprising that
Muskie won the nomination by only
1600 votes. Certainly he has done a lot
more for the Democratic Party than has
Julian Bond.
But has he done more for the American
people?
-PHILIP BLOCK
"wJAMES WECHSLER
Gene: 'Rhetoric as an in dulgence'
NOW IN the approaching twilight in his quiet suite on the 23rd
floor of the madhouse Conrad Hilton Hotel it seemed very long
ago since that day in May, 1967, when I first heard Eugene McCarthy
talk privately of the chance of blocking the renomination of Lyndon
B. Johnson.
On that earlier occasion, he gave no intimation of readiness or
desire to lead the rebellion. He spoke rather of his willingness to sup-
port Robert F. Kennedy - despite his past differences with the Ken-
nedy bloc -if RFK undertook the challenge. When I told Kennedy
of our conversation, as McCarthy had suggested, his response was:
"Did Gene really say that?"
Of course events didn't follow that script; McCarthy entered first,
and Kennedy thereafter, and yesterday, when Jerry Talimer and I
visited McCarthy, it was hard to believe that so much - so many
high moments and implausible upsets, so much joy and conflict and
tragedy - had been compressed into so short a time, and that now
the last scenes were at hand.
YET PERHAPS the most startling thing was how little this man
had changed in appearance and style and tone during this interval
that has been at once so brief and intermninable. Surely there have
been interior ecstasies and agonies along the way, but in all the in-
formal retrospect during 50 minutes yesterday there was no sign of
significant alteration.
I suppose some of McCarthy's detractors, including a large army
of volunteer psychiatrists, will find some final, fatal defect in the out-
Let the students decide, SGC
IN DISAGREEING with University Presi-
dent Robben Fleming over the compo-
sition of the committee which will select
a new vice president for student services,
student leaders are making only meager
demands. -
Instead of concentrating on the basic
inequities in the structure and power of
the committee, students have chosen to
make only one demand-and it is a large-
ly irrelevant one at that.
In line with the current proposal, the
committee would* be composed of three
students, three faculty and a non-voting
administrator who would act as chair-.
man.
STUDENT GOVERNMENT C O U N C I L
leaders are demanding that adminis-
trators be barred from the committee and
that one of the student members act as
chairman.
Given their antipathy to administra-
tors, it is difficult to understand why SGC
is willing nonetheless to tolerate the par-
ticipation of faculty members in the cru-
cial selection of the vice president.
NEITHER the' Office of Student Affairs,
nor its proposed successor, the Office
of Student Services, have ever dealt with
Noconm-ent
MAYOR DALEY is listed in Who's Who
as director of the St. Joseph Home for
the Friendless.
-C.R.B.
faculty problems. Both OSA and OSS are
purely organizations designed to benefit
students alone.
What -rights, what responsibilities do
faculty have where this student organi-
zation is concerned? Clearly, they have
none, and should have no place on the
committee.
Unfortunately, the strict breakdown of
the committee is not its only inadequacy.
Both the student and faculty members
would be selected by President Fleming
from slates proposed by SGC* (in consul-
tation with Graduate Assembly) and
SACUA, respectively. The president's in-
tentions in this respect are unclear. At
best the procedure is merely a waste of
time. At worst it might be used to pur-
posefully exclude certain points of view.
FURTHERMORE, Fleming does not ex-
pect the committee to select a new
vice president. Instead, he suggests that
the committee narrow the choice down
to four or five candidates from which he
would make the final decision. This, too,
could tend to produce a vice president
who is only marginally acceptable to stu-'
dents.
In order to be effective in his new post
the vice president for student services
must have the resounding support of the
student body. The present proposals for
his selection minimize the chances that
such a person will be appointed. SGC
leaders should demand that the selection
committee be composed, of only students
appointed by SGC and 6A and that their
selection be final.
-MARTIN HIRSCHMAN
ward serenity he manifests as the long journey nears its end. He
realistically recognizes that any long-shot chance of ultimate victory
now hinges on some weird combination of events - or compound of
confusion -largely beyond his own control (except perhaps for one,
major address on the floor which he has not yet decided to make).
BUT HIS DEMEANOR is relaxed, almost remote, and there will
be those who say that is clinching proof that he lacks inner passion
and fire. He has grown accustomed to that derogation; ,he answers
it only obliquely by disparaging references to grown men who weep in
public - for the plight of themselves or of others.
The real clue to his calm, as the moment of decision nears, I sus-
pect, involves neither aloofness nor apathy but rather the conviction
that he has more reason than most men to possess a certain page of
conscience about what he managed to do in circumstances of con-
tinuing adversity.
His judgment that Mr. Johnson was vulnerable was vindicated
even more swiftly than he had anticipated. He sees thousands of
young - and older Americans -moved into political action largely by
his effort, and he believes the politics of the"nation may be drastically
transformed regardless of what happens here this week. He knows
that the smothered national dissent over the Vietnam war finally
found expression under his leadership, and that even the first small
step toward peace at Paris is largely attributable to his initiative.
IN THE BEGINNING, when he was talking not of himself but
of supporting Robert Kennedy, he had said that one of his daughters
had reproached him with the query: "Do you just want to be remem-
bered as a man who did nothing in 1968 except support Lyndon John-
son for reelection?" He already is assured of a more memorable place
in history._
He has no spirit of personal combat in discussing Hubert Hum-
phrey. He believes Humphrey's grievous entrapment began when he
accepted the Vice Presidency under the humiliating conditions im-
posed by Mr. Johnson in 1964; in effect he suggests that Humphrey.
consistently allowed himself to be bullied because he overestimated
LBJ's strength.
He speculates quietly about the "ifs" of his long year. In his view
Robert Kennedy might have become the "unifying" candidate if he
had supported McCarthy rather than moving on his own-and that
even Humphrey might now be joined with both of them on policy is-
sues in defiance of LBJ.
INEVITABLY he confronts the question: "What would you have
done differently if you did it over again?" He insists that there would
have been no large variations and that whatever his errors, the pres-
ent delegate-count would, be essentially the same. If he has any thinly
veiled rancor, it is toward the political men who shared his beliefs but
remained on the sidelines while he waged his lonely battle.
He had said when he began this pilgrimage: "We're going to
make a lot of people honest before it's over." He was not entirely suc-
cessful in that effort. But he obviously derives satisfaction from the
evidence that - often to the exasperation of some of his aides - he
refused to stoop to conquer. In these final critical days, when he was
being pressed to make desparate overtures to some Democratic emin-
ences, he would usually respond with some variation of the words:
"Whose ass do you want me to kiss?" His critics call his austereness
arrogance; others will describe it-as dignity.
CERTAINLY there were mistakes (perhaps the worst was his
initial insistence on describing the Czech crisis in cold pragmatic
termy because he regarded rhetoric as an indulgence). He avoided
gestures that could have helped campaign morale; he tolerated oper-
ational inaptitudes, partly because he was persuaded that conventional
exercises had little bearing on his success. At moments he seemed al-
most carelessly disposed to intensify the difficulties of his adherents.
He is not a simple man, and his complexities are sometimes baffling
and elusive. But in yesterday's twilight, the private warmth and wit
glistened anew against the backdrop of this troubled convention.
screams and tries to run but suc-
ceeds only in stumbling over it-
self.
The sickening crack of wood
against bone sounds again a n d
again.
You watch, in spurts, because
you're trying to find an escape
route at the same time, as the
cops hit girls and drag them as.
fast as they can over the concrete,
leaving shoes and purses behind.
You finally get on the sidewak
and all you can feel is relief from
your panic. The sidewalk is le-
gal. Anyone can walk on the side-
walk.
THE COPS regroup and charge
right at you. You backstep but
can't get v e r y far. You're up
against a wall.
People are packed in in front
of you so you can hardly breathe.
A woman a few feet from you is
being pressed against a plate glass
window. It breaks and she falls
through it and tries to run away
inside.
You hear the cracks again and
can't believe it. The pigs are
charging the crowd, beating them,
dragging them away.
One of the pigs walks up and
down in front ;of you with a can
of MACE. He has a little grin on
his face and every once in awhile
he just sprays it over the people,
aimlessly, for no reason.
No one has charged the police
lines.
THE REPORTS that the police
atta'cks were instigated w e r e
grotesque lies.
The reports that the police used
only enough force to "subdue" the
"mob" were grotesque lies.
The reports that the police were
taunted into attacking were ma-
licious distortions. There were iso-
lated incidents of heckling a n d
taunting, but the police who at-
tacked had just arrived on the
scenetand hadn't had time to be
taunted.
THE POPULAR idea that the
police just lost control of them-
selves in the excitement of the
confrontation is incredibly irrele-
vant. Let them tell that one to the
judge.
The word "arrested" was a eu-
phemism when used to report the
action of Wednesday night. No
one was arrested. But almost 300
people were beaten and dragged to
prison.
The idea that the press was to
blame for the incident is an bla-
tant an example of blame-shifting
as I have ever heard. The police
only stopped beating and MACE-
ing people when the crowd began
to chant "The whole w o r d is
watching." The press was the only
restraint there was on the police.
The reports that the demnstra-
tors w e r e throwing bottles and
rocks at the police are true. But
it is also true that they di4 not
start until the police began their f
unbelieveable brutal charge. It is
also true that residents of the Hil-
ton joined in the pelting of police
when they had a chance to see
what was really going on.
THE REPORTS that the police
took off their identification in di- '
rect violation of the law before
wading into the crowd are true.
Although most of the cops had
their name tags on on Wednesday
night, some did not. And others
wore their tags upside down so
they would be illegible.
There was no, could be no ex-
cuse for what the police did at the
corner of Balbo a n hd Michigan.
Their action was so inhuman asf
to be incomprehensible. Their
grinning excuses for their action
can only be called evil.
BUT WHAT might, if it is pos-
sible, be more disturbing than any
of the actions of the police was
the activity inside the Hilton Ho-
tel while this was going on. Less
than ten yards from the scene of
the bloody battle hundreds of peo-
ple were sitting in front of tele-
vision sets watching interminable '
-nominating speeches and cheering
in all the right places.
Campaigners walked happily
back and forth to the free Pepsi-
Cola dispensers and discussed
parliamentary procedure.
A dove plucked
ALASKA IS to Chicago what John
Lindsay is to Mayor Daley.
Nonetheless the 49th state was the
scene of a distressing 'footnote to an in-
credibly miserable week in American
politics.
Ernest Greuning, still remarkably ac-
tive at 81, was defeated in his bid for
renomination for a third Senate term by
an Anchorage real estate wheeler-dealer
less thah half his age. '
But Greuning is no Paul Douglas whose
defeat for re-election in '66 was mourned
merely because of the grandeur of the
distant past.
The beat society
CHICAGO ) - A spokesman for the
Chicago Police Department heatedly de-
nied Thursday charges of excessive po-
lice force in dispersing mass demonstra-
tions in the city the last five days.
Frank Sullivan, director of public in-
formation for the department, instead ac-
cused the news media and the major
Instead it is probable that Greuning's
outspoken opposition to the war caused
him to be defeated by a candidate who
continually boasted that his views on,
Vietnam were in the mainstream of
American politics.
Tpi POLITICAL demise of the architect
of Alaskan statehood is significant
because only he and Senator Wayne
Morse of Oregon had the courage and
foresight to buck the mainstream and
vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolu-
tion when it was presented to Congress
in 1964.
And these same two senators along
with less than a dozen members of the
lower house have been the only members
of Congress to consistently vote against
war appropriations. It is this Congres-
sional rubber stamp of funding the war
effort that has given the Administration
its almost unchecked control over our
Asian Crusade.
Greuning's defeat coupled with the
very narrow primary victory by Morse
1st .Tnne are merely further illustrations
McCarth y's Chicago 'audience
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