Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 60

Why Kill More? THE STATE JOURNAL LANSING, MICHIGAN FOUNDED APRIL 28. 1855 NUMBER 238 Comments and Opinions Page SUNDAY. DECEMBER 21, 1969 E-4 VOLUME 115, Education Session Produced Momentum pand pupil testing, establish local programs for school dropouts and others. Added to these were the tax raising bills (cigarettes) and the major school aid appropriation which included a paro-chaid provision. Even two or three of these proposals would be enough to consume a large portion of a full legislative session particularly the school aid bill which was without precedent.

The Michigan Legislature is composed of 148 individuals, men and women, with widely divergent constituencies and views. Acceptance of new concepts seldom come quickly in this democratic framework. It was this way with constitutional reform and the state income tax, both of which required years of preliminary debate and review. Educational reform and new concepts as well as new methods of financing, have been topics of legislative discussion for a decade. It is a complex (sometimes chaotic) part of current public problems.

In the past the Legislature has never attempted to meet the issue on anything other than a patchwork basis. The governor's approach marked a turning point in which lawmakers were asked, to tackle a comprehensive program cutting across vast areas of educational problems. Thus, it is not surprising that the brief fall session was unproductive. But it was not, as some contend, a worthless effort. The public debates as well as those in legislative committees and in caucuses have started the momentum toward real reform.

Not too surprisingly, educational reform as proposed by Gov. Milliken is back on the shelf following adjournment of the 1969 Legislative session Friday. But as the governor noted, his program is still very much alive and will be ready for reconsideration when the Legislature reconvenes in the new session Jan. 14. Some have already concluded that the fall session was a great spinning of wheels since virtually nothing was decided on the educational reform issues or education financing.

To a large extent it was that. It is the nature of the legislative process to operate that way, particularly when the issue is of far reaching consequence. Milliken's proposals were so sweeping in nature that it was almost a foregone conclusion that much of the program could not get off the ground in the brief time available between early October and mid-December. This became a certainty when the legislators took a two-week recess in mid-November. A look at the substance of Milliken's package gives some idea.

It included proposals to abolish the State Board of Education and replace it with a state superintendent (one-man director); institute a state-wide property tax and drastically revise local school property levies for operations; establish regional school districts to replace existing intermediate districts; establish a commission to reorganize local school districts establish a budget review system for local districts through regional boards which would be responsible to the state department of education. Then there were the proposals to ex Griffin Again on Hot Spot Editor, The State Journal: How much of a body count lead do we need before we cease our inhuman, destructive actions in Vietnam and commence serious peace negotiations with the NLF and North Vietnam? According to our Defense Department box score as of November 1, 1969, the NLF and North Vietnamese had suffered 566,501 deaths compared to 142,568 dead for U.S. and Saigon government forces. President Nixon's policy of limited, gradual withdrawals of U.S. troops means that most of our burden for killing will increasingly rest with the U.S.

artillerymen, our Air Force men who fly bombing and strafing missions, and ground forces of the Saigon govern-m t. President Nixon's alleged Vietnam "policy" does not yet recognize a very simple truth serious peace negotiations can happen if our leaders insist that the corrupt, repressive. Saigon regime be forced to broaden its representation to include all existing political points of view in South Vietnam. If our President is unwilling to insist on conditions which can bring a stable peace in Vietnam now, then perhaps he needs to reflect on the actions mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Letters to this column should normally be limited to 300 words, and the editors reserve the right to edit letters to this limit. Letters must bear the signature of the writer and no letter will be published without the writer's name.

Please include address and telephone number for purposes of verifying authorship. a collision course, just as in the Haynsworth case. Hart's move was an unusual power play which he was able to carry off, in part, because he is a member of the Senate Democrat Policy Committee. An aide said Hart was convinced if the matter had gone to the Senate Judiciary Committee he could have gotten a 10 to 7 vote in favor of extending the existing act. Obviously, Hart was calculating that Griffin, also a member of the committee, would be among those voting with him.

What Hart and other members of a bipartisan civil rights' group were afraid would happen was that either Eastland or Sen. Sam J. Ervin, a subcommittee chairman, would maneuver to keep the committee from making a choice between the administration bill and the extension of the act. Scott now sees the possibility of a compromise which would take him and Griffin and other Republicans who think like them off the hook with the White House. While some sections of the administration bill would soften up enforcement of equal voting rights guarantees, it contains two features commanding widespread support.

Oen would enable any person who moved into a state not later than Sept. 1 before a November election to be eligible to vote for President, rather than observe the residence requirements of a year or more some states now require. Another would suspend literacy tests in every state and thus would do away with the southern-oriented nature of the present act. COULD GO ALONG In Scott's view, if these two changes could be added to legislation to extend the 1965 act for five years you would get the best of both measures. Presumably Griffin could go along with that arrangement and so could Hart.

From the point of view of Griffin and Scott, such a compromise would have the added advantage of keeping them from engaging in another test of strength with the White House on the Senate floor where their usual duties are to support the administration's legislative recommendations. Having made it clear that he was not going to be maneuvered out of an opportunity to try to extend the 1965 act, Hart finally stepped aside and let the House approved bill be referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. He said "our concern has been made clear" about possible dilatory action in committee. Referral of the bill included instructions to the committee to act by March 1. That assures that the voting rights issue eventually will reach the floor of the Senate.

I Letters 1 I I to the I i I Editor I that 32 Australian trade unions have urged be taken by Australian conscripts serving in South Vietnam, According to the article in The State Journal of December 15, 1969, these 32 unions urged the 3,300 Australian conscripts to lay down their arms and "mutiny against the heinous "barbarism perpetrated upon innocent men, women and children hi Vietnam." How many more My Lai's before we move decisively and quickly to a negotiated peace-in Vietnam? HOWARD L. JONES: Lansing Hits Airport? Transfer Editor, The State Journal: Real estate taxation is not" tha proper source of funds fori the Capital City airport. Why is the State attempting to turn over the Capital City Airport to local it be that the state seeks: to unload a white Also, what is so unique about a property owner that he should, be in the airport business? -1 We of these three counties had better stop and contends plate what we're getting into; Our local units of government who are looking to such an au-? thority as a source of funds fori their satellite airports should consider the proposed expendi-I tures at Capital City airport and then figure how they will; divide the pittance that will be? left over. It seems that the ownership? of the airport by the State Michigan is more than fair, considering that it is one of the) prime users of air service inl Lansing. The funds required by an air! port authority are more needed to assist needy humans, build: classrooms in local and improve county: roads.

On the other hand a-grand airport facility will be better place for state officials to receive visiting dignitaries," it will be nice for the out-state-lawmakers with their measly salary and expense allowance to fly home, and it will be a great place for officials and their wives to get their pictures taken while leaving for a study of slum conditions in Hawaii during January. Benefits untold will come local business when an expediter or supplier goofs up and the problem is solved by flying in the necessary material. Capital City airport is now controlled by the proper unit of government. Let the state match its authority with like responsibility in this case. LEO LAWLESS Grand Ledge Quotes In the News WASHINGTON Sen.

Warren G. Magnuson, chief Senate negotiator on the welfare appropriations bill, indicating he would like to discuss President Nixon's opposition to the measure. "I'd like a call from the White House, but I haven't had one." LOS ANGELES Attorney Marvin L. Part, noting that the Sharon Tate murder aroused more interest than the trial of Sen. Robert F.

Kennedy's con victed killer: "The public likes to see sex and movie stars and violence." NEW YORK-Justice John R. Starkey, sentencing a 77-year-old "female Fagin" to prison for selling heroin and other dangerous drugs to children: "This inoffensive-look-ing, dainty-appearing grandmother-type senior citizen does not deserve probation She was causing the death of other people's children." Scornful Label Maligns Original Uncle Tom, Besides Impeding Today's Negro Leaders Haynsworth to the Supreme Court. To work to water down voting rights would go against Griffin's record on civil rights, and would be politically dangerous, as well, in a state with a large Negro vote. As the author of the strong 1965 Voting Rights Act, Sen. Philip A.

Hart, has a keen political and emotional interest in seeing the salient points of this statute remain on the books. JANUARY CLASH Thus, once again, Michigan's two senators of different parties find themselves assuming a parallel course on a major issue. Voting rights legislation probably will provide the first big Senate clash in the new session of Congress which convenes in January. Griffin and Hart can expect to find themselves at center stage. Griffin, the Senate minority whip, and Pennsylvania's Sen.

Hugh Scott, the minority leader, both collected frowns from the White House for participating in the bipartisan effort which blocked Hayn-sworth's confirmation to the SupFeme Court. Both would like nothing better now than to go along with the Nixon administration on voting rights, but not in the controversial form in which the President's measure cleared the House recently. Griffin and Scott hope to persuade the White House to accept a compromise which will improve rather than diminish the 1965 act, which has been described as the most successful of all civil rights laws for adding nearly a million Negro voters to the election rolls in the South. Moderates and liberals in Congress of both parties wanted a simple five-year extension of the 1965 act which now applies just to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. They ex-pressed concern that any tampering with this statute would weaken its thrust and place blacks in the South back where they were in 1964 when they often were unable to reg- Don Wheeldin, who teaches Afro-American history at Fresno (Calif.) State College, is a former president of the Congress of Racial Equality's Pasadena (Calif.) Chapter and once was a member of the U.S.

Communist Party's National Committee. That purpose should be the elevation of blacks to equality in every facet of American political, economic and social life. The urgency and magnitude of the problem are such that all the time and energy of the black community will be better employed if directed toward unity rather than placing undue emphasis on a few real or imagined frauds who, in the course of inevitable confrontations, will either betray themselves or stand exposed. As a result of their singular experience, black people have developed a deepened perception of who is "for real" and who is just "blowing and rapping" in their community. HIltHMBI and personalities.

The confusion is further compounded by black militants who lump everyone over 30 in that same ignoble bag. Among those who have been so dubbed are: Dr. Martin Luther King, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, Dr. Ralph Bunche, Adam Clayton Powell, Joe Louis, Roy Campa-nella, Jackie Robinson, Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong and the late Nat (King) Cole. UNDERMINES LEADERS Probably the most tragic consequence of this kind of buckshot branding is that it robs the black community of a prime condition that is indispensable to its own progress; unity in its own ranks.

This, of course, poses the question: unity for what purpose? mwmmmmmtWWmm ister without undertaking lengthy court fights. Rather than approve a continuation of the present law, however, the House by a five-vote margin voted to replace that statute with the broader Nixon administration bill which has nationwide rather than regional focus. BETRAYAL CHARGED Southern whites cheered this first defeat in the House of legislation backed by the civil rights movement since Con-g began enacting civil rights statutes in 1957. Civil rights spokesman, including Clarence Mitchell, chief lobbyist for the National Association for the Advancement of Col-o People, bitterly maintained the House action betrayed Negro hopes for equal political rights. The most controversial provision of the administration bill would drop the requirement that states clear voting law changes in advance with the federal government.

Instead, the attorney general would be empowered to bring suits to strike down voting laws he believed discriminatory. According to civil rights spokesmen, this would revive the old game of "the federal government chasing the southern state legislatures." Laws could be passed in the South to disenfranchise Negroes or dilute their voting power, and it would take the federal government years to strike down such laws on a case-by-case basis. To keep the prospect of extending the 1965 act alive, Hart successfully carried off an un-usual maneuver when the House-passed administration bill reached the Senate. Instead of allowing the House bill to go automatically to the Senate Judiciary Committee presided over by Sen. James O.

Eastland, Hart had the measure kept on the Senate calendar. That kept open the option of having the bill ultimately called directly to the Senate floor where Hart and those who think like him could get the extension of the 1965 act substituted for the House bill. That would put the Senate and the White House on health, research and economic opportunity programs cannot be justified by general and often superficial references to the danger of inflation. Inflation may indeed dictate firm control of the total federal budget but the committee has serious doubts about the priority federal budget" ROLES REVERSED When it comes to tax policy, there has been a curious reversal of political roles this year. The Democratic liberals who in the past have defended high revenues to finance public programs have now become the champions of tax reductions that would turn money over to the private sector.

In a letter to the Washington Post, Charles L. Schultze, budget director in the Johnson Administration, took his Democratic colleagues to task for cutting revenues while advo-eating increased domestic spending. He wrote, in part: "There is much brave talk about' 'new but with the large tax cuts enacted there simply will not be the revenues available to pay for these new priorities. When the chips were down on tax cuts, those who talked about priorities for pollution control and education, and an end to hunger voted for a different set of priorities for beer and cosmetics and whitewall tires." By TOM OCHILTREE State Journal Washington Bureau WASHINGTON As a member of the Senate Republican leadership, Sen. Robert P.

Griffin, R- i h. finds himself in by White on the boxed the House voting rights issue in much the way he was when Pre sident Nixon nominated Judge Clement Ochiltree What complicates their problem is their powerlessness to select and protect the leaders who do emerge. FOCUS ON MISSION However, the very nature of the black condition and the gap between the general development of Negroes and that of whites dictate two clearly emerging imperatives. 1 That black leaders will inevitably continue to be produced in greater numbers and be tested and developed in the crucible of impending confrontations. 2 Consistent with the political history of the country, the black movement will find allies among a wide strata of the white population that will be forced to see sooner or later that its own self-interest is more closely connected to that of the blacks than to the increasingly arrogant power centers.

Such are the great questions that should preoccupy every thinking black today. Never mind the name-calling. Don't Democrats, such as Mike Mansfield, the Senate Democratic leader, and Sen. Fred R. Harris of Oklahoma, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, immediately interpreted the threat as a test of national priorities, thus deliberately setting the stage for a likely campaign issue of the 1970 congressional elections.

As described by the Democratic leaders, the appropriations bill represented an attempt to reorder national priorities so that, as Mansfield put it, "the needs of the people will be given top-most priority." In a deliberate effort to keep the political initiative, the Democratic leadership was attempting to work out an arrangement under which the appropriations bill would be passed but not reach the president's desk and a possible veto until early next year, at the start of an election-year Congress. To demonstrate that they were being fiscally responsible, Democrats were quick to point out that Congress this year had cut the Administration's over-all appropriations request by nearly $6 billion, with most of the reduction being made in the defense budget. Their argument was that some of these appropri. tions savings could and shoul ihouff mmiiiiii 'Priorities' Get Priority By DON WHEELDIN Special to The Los Angeles Times History like God works in mysterious ways its wonders to perform. A clear and present example of this is found in the branding of some blacks by others with the mangy accusation of "Uncle Tom." The equivalent of such branding among Christians would be to call one a Judas; among American patriots, a Benedict Arnold; among slave rebels, a house nigger.

t. INSPIRING FIGURE The irony is that when Harriet Beecher Stowe introduced the character in 1852 in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," she invested him with such nobility and sympathy that millions of people the world over were won over to the great antislavery cause. The original Uncle Tom refused to become a field driver for the hated slave owner Simon Legree because he could not bring himself to whip other slaves. For such refusal Uncle Tom was mercilessly beaten. Following the beating, Legree ordered him to proceed with the flogging of Cassie, a proud and defiant woman slave, but Uncle Tom replied: "I'm willin' to work night and day while there's life and breath in me, but this yer thing I can't feel it right to do; and Mas'r I never shall do it NEVER." Although bitter abuse is heaped on blacks who are real or imagined racial defectors, termed UncleToms, nobody seems to remember that the real villians of the novel were Sambo and Quimbo, brutal black slave-drivers used by Legree to push the slaves to unendurable limits in the cotton and cane fields on pain of torture or death.

REAL PERSON Mrs. Stowe's character, Uncle Tom, was based on the early life of a slave named Jo-siah Henson, born in Port Tobacco, in 1787. He escaped to Canada where he became a well-known Methodist minister. In 1858, Henson returned from Canada and met with a group of black abolition-'ists in New Bedford, where they discussed among other things the feasibility of publicly urging the slaves to rise in armed insurrection. He is known to have opposed the move on the grounds that the slaves had no weapons with which to fight.

He is recorded as having said: "When I fight, I want to whip somebody." Today's perverse usage of the term Uncle Tom has meant rejection for a long list of distinguished black spokesmen (kmndarih By JOHN W. FINNEY (C) 1969 New York Times News Service WASHINGTON In the closing hours of the congressional session, a Democratic Congress and a Republican Administration have at last squarely and openly joined battle on the issue of national priorities. It has been a latent issue throughout the congressional session, underlying the dissension over the Vietnam War, the debate over an antiballistic missile system and the drafting of the tax bill. Over the months of sparring between congressional Democrats and the White House, the issue has shifted as each side sought to define its priorities. It began at Democratic initiative as a test between military and domestic priorities.

In the developing political battle there is still an element of this civilian vs. military competition for funds. But in recent weeks the White House has tended to redefine the issue along the more tradi-t i a 1 economic lines that vaguely distinguish the Democratic and Republican parties. TWO SIDES ARGUED On the one side is the Administration stressing "fiscal responsibility" and seeking to brand the Democrats, as Vice President Agnew did in, are-cent speech before the Republican governors, as inflationary be reallocated to domestic programs. One difficulty in this already obscured economic debate is that while Congress is citing appropriations, the administration is looking at the other side of the budgetary ledger, namely the spending column, which determines the inflationary impact of the federal budget.

Admittedly, Congress has cut appropriations. But as the President pointed out in a letter earlier this week to the congressional leaders, Congress by its other actions or inactions such as an increase in social security, increased educational aid and refusal to revise postal rates, is threatening to load $5 billion in spending "onto an already over-heated economy." Appealing to Congress to hold down spending and tax reductions, the President warned thet what was at stake was the "credibility" of the government in the battle against inflation. The Democratic rebuttal came in a Senate Appropriations Committee, report drafted by Sen. Warren G. Magnuson, an old-line liberal from Washington: "While the committee supports the goal of holding down federal outlays in an inflationary period, we do not believe this should be accomplished at the expense of vital domestic programs.

Cuts in education, spendthrifts. On the other side are the Democratic liberals and moderates in Congress, particularly in the Senate, proclaiming that fiscal responsibility does not require sacrifice of vital domestic programs and suggesting that there will be enough money for the civilian front if the Administration will only record its military-oriented priorities. While some liberal Republicans are concerned that the Administration is assuming too inflexible an anti-inflationary stance, the battle is shaping up primarily as a partisan one be-t congressional Democrats and the Administration. What finally brought the issue to a head was a presidential letter last week to the Senate threatening to veto a $21 billion appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, and Health, Education and Welfare as well as the Office of Economic Opportunity. The bill, which provided $1.5 billion more than requested by the Administration, contained the heart of the Democrats' domestic program with increased funds for such areas as education, pollution and medical ra-search.

While sympathizing with the objectives, the president emphasized that "I cannot, at this critical point in the battle against inflation, approve, so heavy an increase in federal spending." FIFTY YEARS AGO 1919 Sunday After a year of work and effort on the part of the printers and the engravers, The Ingham County War History is off the press and will be ready for distribution Tuesday afternoon The Lawrence and Foster Pharmacy Co. opened a drug store at 1100 W. Ionia corner of Ionia and Logan Streets Saturday morning. This is the first time a drug store has been located in this residential section of the city. A NINETY-FIVE YEARS AGO 1874 From the Lansing State Republican; "Early rising may be beneficial to the health, but it's very unpleasant these cold, frosty mornings" 'Change is stamped on but there is more than the usual amount on butter when it brings 34 cents per pound" "George E.

Washington has removed his clothes-cleaning institution to the Morgan gun-shop building, opposite the Lansing House" "On Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, the Lansing Cornet Band will have a puouc social ana aance at Hart's Hall the proceeds to go to 1 cuiieiu expeieas oi me Dana. tlj.