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BAY CITY
TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: PHILIP BLOCK
Calif ornia dreamingy
n sucha winner's dais-
TODAY being yet another primary elec-
tion day, the nation's trend-watchers
will be found glued to their TV sets for
the 11 o'clock news, hearing the boys
with the computers telling them what
Senator X's overwhelming victory (or
the inconclusive tie vote) will mean in
terms of national politics and the Demo-
cratic convention. They shouldn't, be too
surprised if it doesn't mean a thing;
this is, after all, only Nebraska.
It's been such a dull campaign that
hardly anyone has been aware it was
taking place. No busloads of college stu-
dents have poured into Omaha to can-
vass voters. Senator McCarthy aban-
doned the state two days before the
election and flew to California, where.
the sun was brighter and the crowds
more enthusiastic. Even the indefatig-
able Senator Kennedy was reduced to
appealing to voters on the basis of East
European nationalism.
Nebraska is neither heavily populated
nor cross-sectional with regard to Amer-
ican politics, but California is both. If
either of the two "peace" candidates are
to convince the party hacks at the Dem-
ocratic convention that they deserve the
nomination more than Vice-President
Humphrey, it will have to be by proving
themselves as vote-getters.
WITH THE polls showing Nixon and
Rockefeller leading any of the three
major Democratic contenders, a strong
showing by either Kennedy or McCarthy,
in California would be bound to have
some effect on the convention, if only
to slow down the Humphrey nomination
from the first ballot to the second.
For McCarthy, anything less than vic-
tory in the California primary will effec-
tively eliminate him from the race. But
even Kennedy, with his name and his
image, his money and his super-efficient'
campaign machine, will have to come up
with more than his yusual 50 per cent
showings to convince the politicos that
he is a winner..
California is the big time this year,
and no. one really cares about poor Ne-
braska - not the candidates, nor their
supporters; nor their journalistic camp
followers. You can't really blame them'.
-JENNY STILLER-
T WgtLost March?
Today and Tomorrow.. By Walter Lippmann-
DEAR MRS. KING,
You have made a noble plea in ask-
ing "black women, white women, brown'
women and red women to unite in a cam-
paign of conscience" to uplift the lives.
and opportunities of the poor. But as
much, as I would like to see poverty
eradicated and as willing as I would be
to do anything in my power to eradicate'
it, I fear for any improvement in the
position, of poor people unless you and
your fellow campaigners can give me
more explicit advice.
I can't help but be sympathetic with
a campaign based on such slogans as
"freedom of assembly," "poverty,"
"democratic means wherever possible,"
but I have a terrible fear that you
aren't going to stop the domestic spend-
ing cuts on capitol hill.
If you're going to encourage a Poor
People's March whose means of lobbying
is to mill around until police show of
force 'is inspired you're making -it very
difficult for me as another female of
America, to give you any help.
You have not lacked publicity so far
considering the march so far has been
little but bus travel and some weird side
effects like last week's strange Boston
knifing of an anti-poor people's marcher.
Are there specific programs you want
me to support? Do you want me to vote'
for someone? Or write to someone? You
must tell me if I am 'to help.
SOUND and fury can only help your
cause if you can claim the police or
the legislators or the voters have kept.
you from getting the urban studies com-
mission creation of new jobs or better
jobs or better housing legislation that
you want. You must tell us these things
now or you will have no post-march ar-
guments.
Mrs. King, unless you can tell me this
I am going to be able to do little to help
you and am going to suspect that the
people of 'the Poor People's march are
only a front with the real action going
on behind the doors of Congressional
hearings.
-LUCY KENNEDY
An unrnovable
feast
NO ONE IS AFRAID to walk
through the city parks after
dark here.
Bay City is proud of its low
crime rate, especially its low juve-
nile crime rate. "We don't have
the crime or race problems that
other cities have," says Bay City
millionaire Louis M. Meisel,
"mainly because we don't have the
colored population."
Meisel echoes a common as-
sumption. And The Bay City
Times attests to the relationship
between crime and race. Almost all
news about local Negroes is crime
news.
BAY CITY'S Negroes, only 750
strong in a city of 55,000, huddle
in the First Ward. Over 40 per cent.
of them live in poverty. There are
no city parks in the First Ward.
Like all ghettoes, the First Ward
is a festering scab on the good
name of Bay City. It is the root
of most evil.
But last week Bay Cityans were
shocked when Curt Reiss allegedly
shot and killed 16-year-old Clar-
ence Elder in the all-white Eighth
Ward.-
The Elders and Reisses had a
record of 'feuding. When Mrs.
Patrick Thompson, grandmother
of the accused murderer, asked
Bay County Prosecuting Attorney
Martin Legatz for police protec-
tion in case of repercussions, Le-
gatz replied:
"IF YOU PEOPLE are going to
live like animals, you'll just have
to die like animals."
What he meant, of course, is if
they act like niggers, they're gonna
get treated like niggers.
It doesn't take a very bright cop
to play the percentages when
trouble starts. He goes right to the
root of the trouble. Arrests of Ne-
groes in Los Angeles have been
proportionately 50 per cnt higher
than arrests of white people .
before and after the 1966 Watts
riot.
Arrests. Not convictions.
"It isn't just that these people
don't respect police officers," said
Watts policemen Louis Harvey.
"They don't respect any vestige of
law and order."
Maybe it's true.
CLAUDE BROWN, author of
"Manchild in the Promised Land,"
remembers his first tiein court.
Brown who lived in Harlem, had
been hit by a bus which jumped
a curb. Brown's father had hired
a lawyer to bring suit against the
bus company. It was a clear-cut
ca se./k
"While Dad and I were sitting
there waiting for something to
happen," Brown recalls, "I kept
thinking about the time I saw a
big black man take a little pig out
of his pen at hogkilling time. He
took the pig and tied him to a
post, patted him on his back a
couple times, then picked up his
ax and hit the pig on the head
and killed him.
"The pig died without giving
anybody any trouble. And every-
body was happy because we were
all friends and part ofdthe family.
The only one who. didn't have a
friend there was the pig.
"When the lawyer called us up
to the bench and the kind-looking
judge looked at us like it was his
first time seeing pigs like these, I
had the feeling that this fool in
the black gown was all set to kill
something before he was sure of
what it was."
The judge granted the Browns
$100, half of which went to the
lawyer. The rest didn't come close
to even paying the hospital bill.
A judge trying to get re-elected
without losing any friends. A
lawyer who just didn't gave a
damn.
No big thing, of course. It isn't
like accident litigation is at the
heart of "due process."
MORE TO THE POINT is some-
thing like the Brown case of 1954.
That's a valid example of how
human rights and due process do
work hand in hand.
And, which people of Social
Circle, Ga., do you suppose are
still defying law and order in
1968? Yes, the black people. They
were arrested for disturbing the
peace, trespassing, loitering and
damaging property just recently.
They chose to break the law
just because the Board of Educa-
tion in Social Circle had decided
to use students to teachfellow
students when it couldn't find
enough teachers for the "Negro
school."
1968.
In Orangeburg, S.C., rioting
broke out when a bowling alley
refused entrance to Negroes,The
city called in wedges of police and
platoons of National Guardsmen.
To arrest the bowling alley pro-
prietor for breakig the Civil
Rights Act of 194?
Not quite. Instead, they shot.
and killed five Negroes and in-
jured several more.
Whether the guardians of law
and order opened up fire without
provocation will probably remain
a moot issue despite the current
investigation. Regardless, the five
people will remain dead. And the
bowling alley proprietor remains
alive and out of jail.
I'D ALWAYS believed that cites
like Social Circle and Orangeburg
were anachronisms of the Suth.
I mean, Bay City didn't pro-
pagate injustice like that.
But thinking back to high school
days at Bay City Central, I re-
member two isolated incidents.
One happened while I was a
freshman. A group of us would
eat our lunch across the street
at a place called Gasta's. It had
a couple of tables with chairs,
a fountain with stools and a pin-
ball machine in the corner.
A girl (I forget her name) work-
ed behind the counter. She was
nothing special. But one day, a
black guy walked in. I don't 'know
what else he said or she said, but
we all heard him call her a slut.
Two or three of the bigger guys
jumped up and slugged him. He ran
outside with them right behind.
We all followed. They caught him
and were really going at it when
the cop came. He asked a few
questions and took the black guy
away. The black guy went to the
juvenile home. The rest of us went
back inside Gasta's. We all felt,
pretty good.
ABOUT TWO YEARS later, I
was in another restaurant down-
town. Coincidentally or not,
one of the guys who used to
hang around Gasta's was there
with a friend. They were razzing
the hell out of a little Negro sitting
in the booth next to them,.
He refused to look at them,.
poking at his supper. Suddenly,
one of the white guys leaned over
and whispered very loudly, "You're
nothing but a Jew nigger."
They had been taunting him
with worse jibes. At least, I
thought so. But the little Negro
Jumped up looking like he was
going to kill both of them.
He didn't say a thing. But he
tore a; table top off its base and
held it up real high. I'd never
seen two men more scared.
A policemen cruising past in his
car noticed the fight through the
plate glass. He rushed in, grabbed
the little Negro and hustled him
outside.
He didn't wait for an explana-
tion. And no one in the restaurant
got up to go outside and give him
one.
4
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PARIS-IT HAS always been
evident that unless the peace
negotiations were to be held some-
where in Asia, Paris was much the
most suitable city. This is not on-
ly because all the active partici-
pants in the war have some kind
of representation in Paris. It is
not only because France, which is
and twhich remains an ally of the
United States, has taken explicitly
a public position against the
American intervention, .
The most interesting reason for
the choice of Paris is that no-
where else -- literally speaking,
nowhere else - are there to be
found so many men who have ex-
erience and expertness about In-
dochina. There is in Paris a con-
siderable Vietnamese colony which
includes all kinds of Vietnamese
opinion. In the French government'
there are diplomats and soldiers
who carry with them much of the
knowledge accumulated during the
lundred years or so of French rule.
All this means that the nego-
tiations will take place in an en-
ironment of knowledge and ex-
perience, an environment where
real knowledge acts as an in-
surance against mere propaganda.
Since coming to Paris I have
h-d some opportunity to under-
stand how France looks upon these
negotiations. We may begin by
noting the belief among the
French that in his address of
March 31 President Johnson put
his foot on'the right road which,
OPINION
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subjects of their choice. They
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leads to honorable peace. The es-
sentially right thing he did was
to take the initiative, as befits a
great and invincible power, by
deciding- to limit the bombing
without haggling about the price.
The strength and generosity of
this move have, say the French,
given the United States the right
posture: that of deciding deliber-
ately to lead in the process of the
negotiation. The French speak of
the President's action as a com-
bination of strength and, gen-
erosity, which, if continued, will
make increasingly flexible Hanoi's
reaction.
While the French are fully
aware that the making of peace
must be long and complicated, they
insist that a clear American deci-
sion on the central issue of the
conflict is crucial. The decision is
not to surrender under pressure,
which is militarily absurd and un-
necessary, but to make clear and
unmistakable the intention of, the
United States to withdraw from
South Vietnam by specified stages
under agreed conditions within a
visible and definite period of time.
The French feel reasonably cer-
tain that if Hanoi and the Viet
Cong are really convinced that this
is our :intention, a negotiated ar-
rangement is quite possible. Ob-
viously, they expect to play a part
in convincing Hanoi when our
decision has really been made.
Except that no one can guaran-
tee forever the political constitu-
tion of South Vietnam, the French
believe that there will be two Viet-
nams for a considerable time to
come, perhaps for 10 to 20 years.
The two Vietnams will remain
separate though friendly and per-
haps even be confederated.
They feel sure that if such a
peace really comes in sight, the
military attacks on Laos, Thailand
and Cambodia will subside. They
are part of the war and not of a
scheme of conquest. The French
have no doubt that Hanoi and
Saigon want independence 'from
China. And they dismiss as ab-
surd the idea that a unilateral de-
cision by the strongest power on
earth to bring all this about will
be regarded as a humiliating
American defeat.
Recently, buthnot in Paris, I
had a talk with a French ob-
server who knows how the Al-
gerian war was liquidated. We
could do nothing, he said, until we
nerved ourselves to make the main
decision, which was to negotiate
the withdrawal of our army and
not to fight on forever.'
You will, he said, have to make
the same kind of decision in Viet-
nam. Perhaps you have already
done so. For while you could stay
in South Vietnam indefinitely, you
will never make peace, and you
will accomplish nothing. If you
decide as we did to withdraw,
leaving the internal problem of
South Vietnam to the Vietnamese,
you will start a process which will
open up the prospect of peace
and reconstruction. You will not
be punished for doing the com-
mon-sensical thing.
That reflects accurately enough
what is believed to be possible for
us in Paris. It means that we must
make a big and brave decision, as
we are a big and brave people. The
prospect in Paris, because all of
this is primarily in our own hands,
is by no means unfavorable.
(Copyright 1968 washington Post Co.)
'All letters must be typed,
double-spaced and should be no
longer than 300 words. All let-
ters are subject to editing;
those over 300 words will gen-
erally be shortened. No unsign-
ed letters will be printed.
t!
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14
ANOTHER VIEW
Eastland, whose land
AMONG THE marchers enrolled for,,the is presumably calculated to guarantee a
Poor People's Campaign this week in fair income for the farmer when he is,
the Quitman County town, of Marks, besieged by economic circumstances be-
Mississippi, was a 19-year-old youth who yond his control.
used to harvest cotton. He was paid at
the maximum rate of $3 a day, when he THAT PRINCIPLE has been defende-
was working, and also distorted - for years by
Among those U.S; Senators who no the hardest-shelled conservatives in
doubt deride the march is a man who Congress. Few, if any, are heard lament-
owns a 5,200-acre plantation in the Sun- ing the size of the Washington bureauc-
;flower Copnty town of Doddsville - racy required to administer price sup-
about 50 miles southwest of Marks - ports and acreage allotments. They do
and who was paid by the federal gov- not lament the loss of the farmer's ini-
ernment last year not to harvest, or tiative and independence; there are few
even grow, cotton: He averaged more complaints of waste and maladministra-
than $461 a day, every day in the year. tion from this quarter.
Gross as it is, this domestic imbalance All these protests are instead reserved
of payments would arouse far less no- for sanctimonious lectures to the urban
tice if Sen. Eastland (D-Miss.), bene- and rural poor.
ficiary of the lavish price-support pay- If the farmer is entitled to realistic
ments, had exhibited any concern for price supports, the poor are entitled to
his impoverished constituents. That he realistic support in a period of soaring
has spurned and scorned them is one of prices. It is a tawdry spectacle when Sen-
the reasons the Campaign is attracting ators and Congressmen who represent
so many recruits. the high-pressure farm lobby denounce
What does the price-support program an effort by the poor to lobby for justice.
amount to In theory - as distinguished
from the greedy, gouging practice de- -New York Post
scribed yesterday in this newspaper? It May 8, 1968
The politics of ...
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HOW BAD LAWS become enacted de-
partment:
The House is making noises about re-
fusing loans to students who participate
tn campus demonstrations. Specifically,
students who "take part in a campus up-
rising that disrupts a college's opera-
this kind of violent student demonstra-
tion anymore."
How the congressman defines violence
is unclear, just as it is uncertain exactly
what the proposed legislation means by
"disrupting a college's operations." There
has been violence connected with stu-
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GO INTO0
C'O3UI.
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