THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE
SPEAKERS' GRAB BAG -
Anecdotes and Facts
Selected from Harry Fleischman's
Let's Be Hqman column
JEWS • 1
‫י‬
PRIEST HITS BIGOTS
Rev. Robert W. Gleason, chairman of Fordham University's department of theology,
reminded parishioners in a sermon at St• Patrick's Cathedral in New York City re•‫״‬
cently that the Christian who looks down on the Jews is an "apostate from the
Christian faith®"
Referring to Christ as a "Jew from a Jewish culture" who "speaks to us in the
accents of Israel," Father Gleason said: "His family was Jewish* His disciples were
all Jewish• He worshipped in the synagogue and the temple •••He observed the Jewish
rite and kept the Jewish feasts« He took the prayers He taught us from the prayers
of the Jewish people•" Added Father Gleason: "To have entered with joy into
Israelfs inheritance and to fail in gratitude to her would be ignoble, base, unChristian, unfilial• And yet Christians, historically, have been ungrateful•‫״‬
All of which reminds me of two very short poems I came upon the other day•
first, by N, W. Ewer, is called "The Chosen People•"
The
How odd
Of God
To choose
The Jews•
To this, Cecile Browne gives this answers
But not so odd
As those who choose
A Jewish God
And spurn the Jews•
MALLS DON'T SEPARATE
* 1When Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, the old spiritual tells us, the wall came
tumbling down. But in Jericho, Long Island, the walls have become a support to in•‫״‬
terreligious brotherhood• Two Catholic priests met their new congregation last
month within the walls of the Jericho Jewish Center•
The new parish has members, a pastor, an assistant pastor and the site for a churchy
but it will take two years until their church can be completed• The Jewish Center
not only orfered all its facilities for the use of the new Catholic congregation,
tout also made a monetary contribution to the new parish•
* An Anglican college in Canada is looking for an atheist teacher* Principal J•
Grant Morden explained that because the college serves a student body of various
denominations, he tries to achieve a balance of religious backgrounds in his teaching staff• "We have on our faculty Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Reform Jews and
Protestants," he said• "It does not impair our Anglican tradition but it does enrich our community life*
TURNABOUT
A Washington disc jockey recently delivered a spot announcement reporting classes
in French gourmet cooking at the Jewish Center• He's now waiting for the French
Embassy's classes in the proper way to prepare gefuellte fish•
JEWS - 2
EICHMAN
The Eichmann trial captured headlines in the world press for many weeks•
of well-meaning people asked 1,Why reopen old wounds?"
A number
Perhaps the best answer I have yet seen was given by Herbert B• Ehrmann in his
presidential address to the American Jewish Committee last month• "We investigate
thoroughly," said Ehrmann, "the cause of mechanical failure in an airplane disaster
which cost us 60 lives• Shall we not then study exhaustively the cause of human
failure which cost six million lives?‫״‬
.WHAT'S IN A NAME?
At Seattle University, a Jesuit school, students read the Old Testament from a
Protestant Bible and are quizzed on their readings by Rabbi Arthur Jacobovitz•
"He has the wave length of the students," said Very Rev• Webster Patterson, S• J•,
the university1s president, "and we certainly couldn't find a better authority on
the Old Testament•"
Rabbi Jacobovitz, believed to be the first rabbi to teach in an American Catholic
university, said he feels "right at home" on the campus and enjoys his freedom of
teachings but there was one difficulty• "It was a long time," he said, "before
the students stopped calling me Father•"
KOSHER STYLE?
A cooking contest was recently held in Israel to choose the Queen of Israel's Kitchens• The winner, whose recipe dealt, ,with hearts of artichokes, won $800• She
is an Arab Christian from Nazareth®
BIBLICAL ZOO
Jerusalem has a zoo different from any other in the world• It's reserved for descendants of mammals, birds, reptiles and fish of Old Testament fame. The idea began more than 20 years ago, when a zoologist collected some monkeys, an eagle, a
vulture, a leopard and a laughing hyena, to amuse and instruct Jerusalem's children
The youngsters were not the only ones delighted• Thousands of visitors come to
see its 700 animals, each identified by an inscription in Hebrew and English, and
an appropriate quotation from the Bible• Gifts and purchases from all ever the
world have helped round out the collection• Foxes for example, no longer roam
modern Israel, so Zoologist Dr. Aaron Shulov sent to far-off Australia for re presentatives of this important family. Now his zoo has "the faxes, the little foxes
that spoil the vines," just as they looked to King Solomon when he wrote the
"Song of Songs•" Here's an unusual way for a country to recall its proud past —
by bringing it back alive I
COMPACT PROSE
Sam Levenson, reports the United Hine Workers Journal• overheard a Jewish boy
trying to explain Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of penitence, to a Christian friaad•
"Let me put it this way," the youngster said• "Xom Kippur is sort of an instant
Lent•"
JEWS - 3
SINATRA SINGS AND SERVES
Frank Sinatra recent3ywas In Israel for a gala event — the ground-breaking of the
Frank Sinatra International Youth Center in ancient Nazareth for Moslem, Christian
and Jewish youth• Addressing a group of Histadrut (Israel's AFL-CI0) leaders,
Sinatra quipped: n I must be the highest union dues payer in the world, as I belong
to eight unions•11 Sinatra thanked Histadrut for selecting Nazareth as the site,
and expressed two hopes for the center bearing his name: that it might foster "Arab
and Jewish understanding" and that it might make "a lasting contribution to brotherhood among youth of all nations and creeds•"
Sinatra's music is sweet to listen to and sweet to the soul•
NO MAN IS AN ISLAND
In floods, earthquakes and strikes, the hand of brotherhood from unions here has
reached out to help struggling labor movements on other continents• But American
unionists are also watching with interest another unique friendship experiment in
Africa• Torn Mboya, secretary-general of the Kenya Foundation of Labor, and Aharon
Becker, secretary‫״־‬general of Israel's Federation of Labor, Histadrut, have set up
a joint development company to introduce into Kenya a system of consumers-coo per
tive stores, a construction company, and other joint enterprises along the Histadrut
pattern• In addition, a group of Kenyan youth leaders are being trained to organize
a pioneer-youth movement within the Kenja Labor Federation• Mboya, who has traveled
widely in the United States and has worked closely with the AFL-CIO, believes that
the new development project may well serve as a model for the whole of Africa•
BELIEVE IT OR NOT
A Negro paper in Los Angeles strongly supports the anti-white, anti-Semitic Black
Muslim movement• A recent issue contained a series of ads of local Muslim businessmen who had established shops "in compliance with the teachings of their
leader and teacher, the honorable Elijah Muhammed•"
In one ad, for the Crescent Sales Grocery & Market, appears the line: "Visit Our
Kosher Meat Dept."
A SAILORfS LIFE
Every maritime unionist and American sailor owes a debt of gratitude to a great
Navy Commodore who died just 100 years ago• His name was Uriah P• Levy — and no
name ranks higher among men who sail the seas, for Levy was the man who put an end
to flogging in the U, S. Navy• Back in the 18001s, 40 lashes of the cat-o'ninetails was routine punishment for American sailing men•
During the war of 1812 Levy and his famous brig Argus snatched prize after prize
from the vaunted British Navy• But his battle to banish flogging took years of
heroic effort• Finally, in 1850, Congress enacted a law providing that "no corporal punishment shall exist in the American Navy•"
Ending brutal beatings in the privately-owned merchant marine was another matter•
No Sailors Union existed until 1887• It was net until 1898 that it induced Congress to pass the White Act, forbidding corporal punishment in the merchant marine
as well*
JEWS - U
WHY THE SWASTIKA?
Many people were troubled by the epidemic of swastika daubing which raged through
the United States a few years ago• What motivated the youngsters who perpetrated
such acts? What kind of youngsters were they?
"I can't believe it• I can't believe it," a father exclaimed upon learning
that his 16-year-old son had painted a swastika on the driveway of a Jewish family
in Long Island• A neighbor said, "He's a model boy•"
"Most of the 22 youths who tormented a Jewish couple over a period of 15 months
are from ,better families,'" a San Francisco newspaper reported. "Some were in
college or plan to enroll• Some go to church regularly• They looked and acted
like ibcplorer Scouts, clean cut, alert, normal*"
In a study sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, the New York School of Social
Work's Research Center probed the facts behind the swastika incidents• They discovered that the majority of offenders, contrary to popular belief, did not come
from broken homes, had no previous delinquency records, and were not, for the most
part, poor children in slum neighborhoods• These striking research findings are
summarized in a pamphlet, Why the Swastika? — A Study of Young American VandgJ.s•
It's available at 35$ per copy from the American Jewish Committee, 165 East 5bth
Street, New York 22, New York•
ALONG FREEDOM ROAD5‫״י‬
ALONG FREEDOM ROAD
"Reverse" integration now has hundreds of white students attending colleges
that were once all-Negro • Central State College in Wilberforce, Ohio, now has
about 1150 whites in an enrollment of 2,300• Says Charles H• Wesley, its president,
"Integration is a two-way street•" At West Virginia State College, the change has
been so sweeping that enrollment has switched from all-Negro to 6f> to 70 per cent
white•
* When a British bus firm, the Bristol Omnibus Company, refused to employ
colored drivers or conductors, 7*000 Bristol West Indians boycotted the line• The
firm's main owner is the Transport Holding Company, a nationalized firm, which
ordinarily does not interfere with the running of local bus companies but directs
them only on questions of major policy. Sir Philip Warter, chairman of the holding
company, recently reversed the stand• "In future there will be no color bar on
Bristol buses• This matter has now become a matter of major policy•11
* University of Miami, Fla• student publications will no longer accept paid
ads from firms which reject student customers on a racial basis•
* Local 26 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in Suffolk, Va.,
won an agreement desegregating the plant cafeteria at Planters Nut & Chocolate Co•
In the contract settlement the union won the desegregation of "entrances, water
fountains and jobs•" Since then Negro workers have been taken on as plumbers,
metalworkers, machine operators, refrigeration men and other highly skilled technicians•
* Seventy-five porters and other unskilled workers, mostly Negro and Puerto
Rican, are receiving on-the-job training in a program to develop chefs and cooks
in New York's finest restaurants• The program is being conducted by Chefs and
Cooks Local 89 with the cooperation of 60 restaurants•
* The New York Telephone Company is now using Negro models in ads in New York
papers aud Rheingold beer ads on TV broadcasts of New York Mets games are also
integrated•
* The NAACP has cleaned up Bath House Row at Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas• In the past, many Negroes visiting the Park have been denied service in the
thermal bath houses• But since the bath houses are operated under the jurisdiction
of the U• S, Department of the Interior and have signed non-discriminatory government contracts, they have now agreed to accept Negroes as guests and to hire employees on a non-discriminatory basis•
* New York Painters District Council 9» faced with a growing shortage of appren‫״‬
tices, has discovered the untapped source of manpower available among the city's
minority groups• Working with the Urban League and settlement houses, the union
has recruited 300 apprentices, 130 of them Negro and Puerto Rican youngsters who
never had a chance to learn a skilled trade before•
* The New York Typographical Union has a five-year apprenticeship program•
Five out of the 15 graduates this year were Negroes.
* In April 1962, Alaska became the first state in the nation to adopt legislation barring all housing discrimination•
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* Two hundred Negro and Puerto Rican youngsters have been accepted as apprentices for Local 3, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in New York•
The local, seeking 1,000 new apprentices, worked with the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People, the Urban League and the Negro American Labor
Council to secure the names of applicants for apprenticeship•
* Two large new apartment developments that replaced a Negro slum in Chicago
are successfully operating on an "open occupancy" basis for 3,700 white and Negro
families• Because the neighborhood on Chicagofs South Side, near Lake Michigan,
had been so run down, it was difficult to get tenants when the project was started•
Only about a dozen white families were among occupants of the first 500 units* H o w
ever, white occupancy slowly increased to $0 per cent in the last of the Lake Meadows buildings• In the new Prairie Shores development, white families now occupy
80 per cent of the apartments• White and Negro families in both developments
participate in various community programs, including a nursery school• Bargain
rentals of $35 a room, reportedly 40 per cent below rentals of comparable new
apartments in the Chicago area, said the developer, Fred Kramer, have persuaded
many white families to sacrifice prejudice in favor of economic advantage•
* Actors Equity Association is launching a nationwide drive to wipe out
theatre segregation on stage and in the audience• A joint committee of union actors
and theater owners are meeting to work out plans•
* Illinois lawmakers passed a bill making it illegal for crematoriums to discriminate^ Revealed State Rep* Paul Simon? "The legislators would not pass any
laws to say all people were created equal, but they did get cm through that says
,
all people must be cremated squall1,1
* The AFL-CIO executive council has set in motion a program to speed the
investment of more than a billion dollars of union pension and welfare funds in
Government-guaranteed mortgages• Only two conditions were laid down by AFL-CIO
prexy George Meany: 1) Homes and apartments must be available on a non-segregated
basis; and 2) They must be built with union labor•
* The Chicago Federation of Labor voted to bar financial support, directly
or indirectly, to any hospital which practices discrimination or segregation "in
any form•" The action was taken after 10 Negro doctors filed an anti-trust suit
charging 56 Chic ago-area hospitals and 5 medical groups with a boycott against
Negro physicians•
WHERE THEY BELONG
Nineteen college students from all parts of the world were part of a novel work
project in Long Island, sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee• The
group — which included young people of all faiths — paid their own expenses to
help make life a little more pleasant for children from migrant camps and slums•
Of course, some of the local yokels failed to appreciate the whole idea. One afterneon, while 50 or 60 Negro children were enjoying a picnic at the beach, a stuffy
white woman strode* belligerently up to Hormoz Aiizadah, the Iranian student who
was watching the youngsters• "Why don*t you keep them where they belong?" she
demanded, pointing to the children• "Madam," came Aiizadah,s apt retort, "they
belong everywhere•"
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SIGN OF THE TIMES
* Before the Freedom Rides, there was a cafe 011 Route U• S. 1 near Fredericksburg, ?a., which flaunted a sign, FOR MUTES ONLY• Ben Muse of the Southern Regional Council reports that the same cafe wears a new look• Its sign now reads,
FRIENDS OF EVERYONE ON THE ROAD.
* A reporter for the Pittsburgh Courier set out on a unique shopping tour of
five-and-tens, department and hardware stores in Jacksonville, Florida• Failing to
find what he wanted, he finally asked a salesgirl: ,,Don't you have any 1White1 and
1
Colored1 signs?"
"We have white cardboard signs with blue letters and black metal signs with luminous
orange letters," she said helpfully•
"I mean with the words 1White1 and 1Colored1 written on them," he explained•
"Oh no," she said•
Figuring that they were sold out, the reporter asked, "When are you expecting more
in?"
"We* re not," she said, "It's a discontinued item• We sent all the ones we had
back•"
With Jim Crow signs so hard to find, would it be stretching things to call this a
sign of the times?
SO SCARED
The opening of the fall term in one Southern city, reports the Lansing Labor News,
saw the start of desegregation in the second grade• When the mother of one sevenyear-old came to pick up her daughter on opening day, she was eager to find out
what happened• Waiting until the child was home, and settled down with cookies
and milk, the mother asked: "How did everything go in school?"
The answer came promptly. "There was a little Negro girl sitting next to me all
day."
Cautiously nonchalant, the mother posed the next questions "What happened?"
"We were both so scared, we held hanis all day•"
UNDER THE GEORGIA MOON
When the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People protested the
existence of a segregated local at the Lockheed plant in Marietta, Ga., the International Association of Machinists promptly agreed to integrate the Negro members
in its three white locals (one for each shift*) Since there were only 1*20 Negroes
out of a total work force of 6,200, the Negro unionists felt this would weaken
their influence in the union and asked instead that all the locals be amalgamated
into one•
This was done and an election for three business agents was held• There were 2,320
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ballots cast and only 200 of the Negro menfoers voted• Yet J• 0. Waite, a Negro
unionist, was one of the three elected, proving once again that union members, even
in the South, can be color blind•
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
When Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the U• S• Court of Appeals by President
Kennedy, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chose a
white lawyer, Jack Greenberg, as its chief legal counsel• Asked by reporters to
comment on this, Mr• Marshall replied:
"As those who are fighting against discrimination, we cannot afford to practice
it."
UNIQUE PROTEST
Aroused members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Brooklyn succeeded in
getting quick action on their protest against irregular garbage collection in the
Bedford-Stuyvesant Negro ghetto• Demonstrators made their own trash pickups and
deposited three truckloads on the steps of Borough Hall• Next day, the Borough
President announced daily garbage collections from the Bedford-Stuyvesant area•
ON PROGRESS ROAD
Mason County, Kentucky, where Harriet Beecher Stowe witnessed the sale of the slave
she immortalized in "Uncle Tom‫״‬s Cabin," now has not only integrated public schools
but also integrated public-school faculties•
HARVARD NIXES BIAS
In 18U8, a Negro youth applied for admission to Harvard University• Faced with a
decision concerning the first non-white applicant, President Edward Everett settled
the issue then and for future generations• "If this boy passes the examinations,
he will be admitted," President Everett declared• "And if the white students choose
to withdraw, a H the income of the college will be devoted to his education•1'
Now, Harvard has demonstrated the same forthrightness in connection ‫״‬with attempts at
religious discrimination• Plans were all set for "Operation Jarba" — a goodwill
project to send 20 to 30 Harvard boys to Jordan, to help resettle displaced
Bedouins• Sponsored by CARE, the program was attracting many applicants at Harvard*s Phillips Brooks House• Then Jordan itself threw a monkey wrench into the
works by insisting that Jewish students be barred from the project• When news of
this Arab boycott against American Jewish volunteers reached the Faculty Committee,
they turned thumbs down on the whole deal• Dean John Monro noted that many students, including a number of Jews, "have urged us to be broad-minded enough to
overlook this•" But, he insisted, Harvard cannot "be involved in a project where
we must ask questions about religious belief and make a decision on this basis•"
ITfS A PLEASURE
New York state law provides that J "It is unlawful to exclude any citizen of this
state, by reason of his race, color or national origin, from the equal enjoyment
of the facilities furnished by cemetery associations•"
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5
REPENTING OF RACISM
"Prejudice is natural to everybody. You can't change human nature•" Oh yeah?
Let1 s take a look at recent history. In March, 19U2, as Bataan was falling in the
Philippines, Congress speedily passed and President Roosevelt signed a law permitting the Army to confine all Japanese Americans — including both the Americanb o m Nisei and the alien Issei iirraigrants. Bleak barracks behind the barbed wire
of relocation centers became the new homes of 112,000 Japanese Americans•
Our race prejudice showed blatantly. Although we were also at war with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, no one suggested interning all Americans of German or Italian ancestry, even though spies or saboteurs among them would be harder to spot•
Now, many years later, our once-deep anti-Japanese prejudice has been almost entirely ovyrcome. The heroic World War II combat record of Nisei soldiers in Amezlcan uniform sobered many Americans. Then in 19U8, Congress passed the Evacuee
Claims Aot$ under which more than $36,000,000 has been paid to evacuated families
in partia?. settlement for their losses• The 1952 Immigration Act replaced the Exelusion Art of 19214, which had made it impossible for the Xc3ei to become American
citizent ‫י‬
Today, Japanese Americans serve as judges, doctors, lawyers and engineers• Minoru
lamasaki was the architectural designer of the United States science pavilion at
the Sea‫־‬tt?e World1s Fair. Kiyo Tomiyasu is a technical director of General Electrie research. Before World War II, 70 per cent of the Nisei worked for Japaneseborn employers! today 80 per cent are employed by whites — and in increasingly
higher levels of professions and industry.
The University of California at Los Angeles has launched a $300,000 four-year study
to investigate this quick erosion of prejudice. The Nisei victory offers hope that
Uncle Sam will soon do right by his other colored nephews tool
POETIC JUSTICE
Several years ago Georgia Congressman James C. Davis, angered by United Auto Worker;
support for racial integration, tried to promote a decertification petition among
UAW members in an Atlanta, Ga. General Motors plant. Retorted W. A. Hemslee, then
president of UAW Local 3k* "Congressman Davis hasn't threatened to withdraw from
the House of Representatives yet, though it is not segregated. Local 311‫ ־‬intends
to stay in business, working for the benefit of our members and their communities•"
Local 3k is still going strong, but Davis has just withdrawn — involuntarily —
from the House® He was defeated for renomination by Charles L. Weltner, who ran
with strong union and Negro support. Weltner won by Ik,000 votes• The vote in
12 Negro precincts of Atlanta was Weltner, 16,068 to 535 — enough to provide the
margin of victory•
FREEDOM RBSIDERS
Many housing cooperatives, following the Rochdale principle of open membership,
have pioneered in inviting residents regardless of race, color or creed• Discussion at the National Conference on Cooperative Housing, held in Washinton, D. C•,
showed that such "open occupancy" practices help break down barriers among pot ential neighbors• These were some examples:
‫״י‬
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* In Sunnyhills, a suburban cooperative community set up by the United Auto
Workers in Milpitas, Calif., Negro and white neighbors, including families from
the Deep South, swap baby-sitters and drive each other's cars•
* In Jamaica, N. Y•, about 15 per cent non-white families attended the first
meeting of potential owners of union-supported Rochdale Village, whose 25,000
residents will form the world1 s largest housing cooperative later this year• (The
nearby area is largely Negro•)
* In a typical month the apartments in Park Town, a Cincinnati, Ohio cooper ative supported by AFL-CIO leaders and built on a foimer slum occupied largely by
Negroes, were sold mainly to Negroes but 30 per cent to whites•
* Near New Brunswick, N• J•, in a township of 20,000 souls, the first Negro to
be elected to a public school board was from a UOO-family cooperative, Pine Grove
Manor•
Backing President Kennedy*s order against housing discrimination, co-op member,
Wendell Addington of Pine Grove Manor, saids "We have had the ,freedom riders1 in
many states• This order could be a scrap of paper without :freedom residers•111
COMPETITION
Robert Gordon, born a slave in Richmond, Virginia, managed his master's coal yard
so faithfully that his owrer gave him all the slack resulting from the handling of
the coal• With the proceeds he purchased his freedom in 181*6• Moving to Cincinnati, Ohio, he invested his capital of $15,000 in a coal yard• When his white
competitors banded together to squeeze him out by reducing the price of coal, Gordon filled all his orders by buying his coal from the white coal yards - sending
mulattoes who could pass for white to make the purchases•
When a freeze of the Ohio River made it impossible to bring coal to Cincinnati by
boat, Gordon was the only dealer with a large supply on hand• The profits he
made during this period were invested in U # S• Bonds during the Civil War so that
his money could help free other slaves•
THE MIRACLE OF HUNTSVIILE
In Huntsvilie., Alabama, the rocket city which calls itself the Space Capital of the
World, most citizens are proud of the fact that their city is helping develop the
rocket power to send American astronauts into orbit and to place the U. S• on the
moon• But Negro residents argue: "Before we get a man on the moon 180,000 miles
away, let's get a Negro child in school right across the street from the arsenal•11
The schools aren't integrated yet, but there have been signs of progress• Just a
year ago Huntsville had a racial crisis on its hands• For three months, there were
sit-ins at lunch counters by high school and college students, aided by Negro
businessmen and professionals• Henry Thomas, a staffer for the Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE), was doused with mustard gas and chased out of town• Outraged
Negro ministers told their parishioners to wear overalls and rags to church Easter
Sunday "just like Jesus Christ" to dramatize the plight of Alabama Negroes•
Adding to the pressure of Huntsville Negroes, CORE members picketed the New York
and Chicago stock exchanges with signs saying "Don't Invest in Huntsville, Ala. —
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It's Bad Business.11
which includes space
mittee member, J. E.
businessmen downtown
This was too much• The Mayor set up a biracial committee,
wizard Wernher von Braun. Action soon followed• As one comHarris, Atlanta Life Insurance district manager, put it: "The
realize that Alabama cannot survive segregated•‫״‬
Today the city ‫ י‬s major lunch counters, public parks, auditoriums, bus station and
taxicabs have been integrated• Proposals are now in the works to desegregate the
public schools and the local campus of the University of Alabama•
All of this must be might bad reading for Alabama's new governor, George Wallace
who, just a short while back, swore to maintain segregation in his state with his
"last drop of blood •‫״‬
BREAD CAST UPON THE WATERS
Mars Hill College, in the mountains of North Carolina, was established back in
1856. For its first years it had hard financial sledding — and at one point, one
of its trustees, the Rev. J. W. Anderson, mortgaged his slave, Joe Anderson, as
security for a loan. It was Joe himself who suggested that he sit in the county
jail until the necessary funds to pay off the mortgage was raised• Joe Anderson
became a college hero, and each year the students hold a ceremony commemorating his
contribution to the college•
Joe's contribution has now been repaid. Mars Hill College, owned by the North
Carolina Baptist Convention9 admitted its first Negro student, Oralene Graves,
great-granddaughter of the :nan who stood personal security for the college more
than 100 years ago•
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CHALLENGE TO SUBURBIA
David and Lois Jones moved to Kildare Street in Skokie, Illinois, rocks were
thrown, shattering their front picture window© An old story? The Jones family,
though cultured professionals, were guilty of being Negro•
When
But the story didn't end there, reports Work, paper of the Catholic Council on
Working Life• The village manager and trustees of Skokie offered full protection
to the newcomer So Father Arthur Sauer of St• Peter's Catholic Church took the lead
in telling his parishioners, "We will not be another Deer field, or another Little
Rock•" And Rabbi Sidney J• Jacobs, of one of the largest Jewish congregations in
Skokie, put it this ways
"Skokie applied this year for the Ail-American City Award. I want to see Skokie
merit the award — not the all-white city award, not the all-segregated community
award, but the Ail-American Award•
The Jones family is remaining in Skokie.
SAN FRANCISCO
Two 7-yea.v-old boys, Frankie Presto and Donald Wong, are good San Francisco buddies
Frankie taught Donald to speak Italian, while Donald has made a Chinese linguist
out of Frankie. The other day, says Herb Caen in the San Francisco Chronicle3 the
two were jabbering away in Chinese when a curious tourist lady tapped Frankie and
asked: "Tell me.* son, are you Chinese or white?" Quick as a flash, Donald hopped
in with: "Neither, lady. He's San Franciscan."
THE NEW ORLEANS STORY
An ironic footnote to the New Orleans school desegregation crisis is afforded by
McDonogh School #19—where the attendance of one small Negro girl has sparked intense strife•
John McDonogh, a Baltimore native, for whom the school was named, lived in New
Orleans from 1800 until his death in 1850• Willson Whitman, of Southern Pines,
N, C» (who, some years ago, wrote a novel based on McDonogh's life), recalls that
McDonogh once oraied land entirely surrounding New Orleans, and was considered the
largest landholder in the world•
His entire fortune, relates Whitman, went to establish free schools "whose existence
relieves New Orleans taxpayers of a considerable burden•11
And what did McDonogh's will provide? For "the establishment of free schools where•
in the poor of both sexes, of all Classes and Castes of Color, shall have admittance•®
If New Orleans citizens have no regard for the law of the land, suggests Whitman,
"they might at least have a decent consideration for the last wish of their
greatest benefactor."
COLOR - 1
ANGRY LETTERS
An editorial in the Detroit News warrants a wider reading 1
"There have been several murders in Detroit and southeastern Michigan in recent
weeks• In certain of these, the assailants were Negroes• This has brought out a
tide of adverse (and worse) comment, not on murder and murderers, but on Negroes
in general• Two mild samples in our mail!
" 1 We are constantly being pressured to integrate, lave your neighbor, etc.
How can you love your murderer?*
" , I wonder just what excuse the NAACP will give for the atrocious crimes
their race has committed in the last month ••• I used to feel sorry for the colored
race, but not any more•1"
Concludes the editorial: "We note just this: Two more brutal murders were solved
last weeko In each case, the confessed murderer is possessed of impeccably white
skin and an unassailably Anglo-Saxon or Celtic surname• Where are all the angry
letters demanding to know ‫ י‬just what excuse' Anglo or Celtic whites will offer
'for the atrocious crimes their race committed?fW
WHICH PLACE?
A young girl visiting Orlando, Florida, went to a department store to buy a swim
suit• Selecting a blue one, she went off toward the dressing rooms, marked
"colored" and "white j" "Why did you go to the wrong dressing room?" the salesgirl
asked when she emerged‫ ״‬The customer replied, "I bought a colored bathing suit•
Where was I supposed to go?"
A VIEW FROM ABROAD
A cartoon in an Italian magazine depicts an African native woman telling her two
little boys about the world• "On the banks of the Mississippi," she says, "there
still live ferocious tribes of white men•11
WHAT COLOR IS GOD?
The recent vogue in adult coloring books has prompted a whole slew of "color"
questions• The Reverend Richard W• Miller, president of the Greater Milwaukee
Council of Churches, was asked on a recent TV show, "What color is God?" He replied: "What color is lave and justice and mercy? When you know that, then you
will know what color God is•"
MONEY
A white merchant in Kansas City, Mo., asked the teller of a Negro-operated savings
and loan association, "Do y'all take white money here?" "No," replied the clerk,
"but we can handle any green money you may have•" The merchant, reports Jet
magazine, chuckled and made a deposit•
COLOR - 1
CRAZY QUILT PATTERN
The new republic of South Africa has a unique form of segregation to boast about•
On their way to and from work, black and white workers at the railway workshops
near Salt River Station, outside Capetown, must use separate tunnels, which link
the station with the workshops• Once they get to their jobs, however, reports
Caribbean Labour» workers of different races share the same work benches•
ROUND THE WORLD
Discrimination, alas, is not confined to any one nation• In India, reports the
Malayan Union Her aid3 the Calcutta Swimming Club, which boasts some It,000 whiteskinned members, has never admitted an Indian as a member or even as a guest•
GREGORIAN CHANTS
Dick Gregory, the hottest new comedian in the nation, tells the truth about segregation in a way that brings tears — of laughter• His illustrated book of chucklers, FROM THE BACK 0? THE BUS (Dutton, $!•95), tells us:*"You just gotta admire
those Freedom Riders — going through all that trouble just to eat in a bus-stop
lunch room® Why it's giving new meaning to those immortal words of Lincoln: 'With
liberty and heartburn for allI‫"ז‬
Here are a few more of this great Negro comedian's wry coranents:
* Things were a lot healthier thirty years ago when kids didn't wanna go to
school — not because other student.? were black — or other students were white —
but 'cause they didn't wanna go to school•
* There is no truth to the rumor that Georgia is passing a law banning mixed
drinks•
* Let?s see now• They've broken the four-minute mile; the sixteen foot pole
vault — how 'bout dealing the color bar next•
* You'd be amazed at the places segregation pops up in• I went out to the
racetrack last week — every horse I bet on was shuffled to the rear•
* Are you aware that over 14‫ ־‬million of ray people have left the South since
1950? It's like Exodus with pork chops instead of matzohs•
He's got a million more•
Get the book and you can read them all•
LITTLE REBUTS
When a white Charleston, S. C. family moved North, reports the city's News and
Couriers the mother was concerned about how her children, accustomed to segregated
schools, would adjust to Negro children in their classes. After their first day
at the new school, the youngsters reported that they had eaten lunch with Negro
children. Surprised, the mother asked why.
"Well,11 they protested, "you didn't think we'd eat with those Yankees!‫״‬
COLOR - 1
HOW ABSURD CAN YOU GET?
Segregation in Robeson County, North Carolina, is perhaps the most extravagant in
the nation• The county, which has U0 per cent white population, 30 per cent Negro
and almost 30 per cent Indian, operates four school systems• One is for each of
the above groups plus an ‫״‬Independent" school for the "Smilens," a small, racially
mixed group of people who are rejected by whites and Indians but who themselves re•
ject Negroes•
NO CULL AH HERE
Therefs something particularly exasperating to me about individual members of
minority groups who are themselves prejudiced. Yet, this happens all too often•
A Negro unionist, enrolled in a civil rights course I taught at an AFL-CIO summer
school in Ohio, told the class about a bartender who refused to serve him because
of his race• The crowning insult, my Negro friend intimated, was that "that bartender was a foreigner• He couldn't even speak good E n g l i s h W h e n I asked if he
would have preferred to be discriminated against in better grammar, he had the
grace to look embarassed•
A H of which
Nevada owned
Mexican,, the
from India.
owner ran at
reminds me of Harry Golden's story about the elegant restaurant in
by a Chinese couple. The cashier is Anglo-Saxon, the waitresses are
bus girls are Navajo Indians and the janitor is an exchange student
But one day, a Negro family entered for service — and the Chinese
them, shrieking s "No cull ah here, no cullah."
CIVIL RIGHTS - 1
UNFAIR I
Louisiana segregationists are unfair to humorists. When the straight story is so
funny, who needs us? Mary Ethel Fox, Voter Registrar of Plaquemines Parish (county)
said she disqualified anyone who could not correctly complete a form in which an
applicant must list his age in years, months and days. When asked by the Federal
Civil Rights Commission in New Orleans to fill out such a form herself, she gave
her birth date as Sept. 29, 1923, and said she was 37 years, 8 months and 2 days
old on May 5, 1961. Commission chairman John A. Hannah, president of Michigan
State University, noted she was 37 years, 7 months and 6 days old. "You would have
disqualified yourself,‫ ״‬Dr. Hannah said.
Another registrar, Mrs. Estelle Wilder of Jackson Parish, said she required applicants to interpret passages of the Federal Constitution. Asked whether she herself
knew the meaning of "due process‫ ״‬ffae.oono^ted she' did not•
But Mrs, Leimie L. Linton, registrar of Claiborne Parish, really took the cake.
Segregationist leaders in the South have been ranting for years about "fifth amend‫׳־‬
ment Communists." What did Mrs. Linton do? She pleaded the Fifth Amendment and
refused to testify on her registration practices on the ground of possible selfincrimination•
0 Tempore.* 0 Mores, 0 Fooey®
LIKE A GEORGIA MULE
The American conscience, writes Prof. C. Eric Lincoln in The Black Muslims in
America (Beacon Press, $lw95), is ‫״‬like a Georgia mule drowsing under a mulberry
trees it will twitch where the fly bites; now here, now there, and so to sleep
again•"
The Black Muslims — extreme nationalists who preach total rejection and hatred
of all whites, and self-segregation for all blacks
have been growing rapidly.
Dr. Lincoln suggests that this may serve a useful purpose by stinging America in
a tender spot® "We must attack the disease of racism and discrimination, not its
symptoms. When we have done so with the determination and moral conviction so
brutal a problem deserves, there will be no Black &xslim&• There will be no need
for them. And America will be a better place for us alio‫״‬
MY NOMINATION
Speaking in Burlington, Wise., William Goodman, a personal representative of
Mississippifs Gov. Ross Barnett, told businessmen and high school students that
racial segregation in his state helps both the Negro and white races to prosper•
He failed to mention that it has helped them prosper so much that Mississippi now
has the lowest per capita income — for both whites and Negroes — of any state in
the Union! Eut then, as one alert observer pointed out, Burlington is the home of
the famous Liars Club, which annually selects the greatest tall tale from those
collected during the year•
CIVIL RIGHTS - 1
WHO'S WHO?
In Ed White's household (he's a former teacher, now on the staff of the Steelworkers
civil rights committee) two topics have gotten a heavy play at the dinner table —
what to do about teen-agers, and Negro progress• Ed's four-year-old son drank this
all in, but with a bit of confusion• When Ed took him to buy a pair of shoes, he
saw a five-year-old Negro boy also getting shoes• "Look, Daddy," piped up Ed's
"there's a teen-ager•"
CHUCKLE OF THE WEEK
Comic Dick Gregory teHs his night club audiences: "X understand Governor Bamett
of Mississippi is going to put all the Freedom Riders on a plane and fly them back
and forth to Miami until somebody hijacks them•"
BELIEVE IT OR NOT
* The Non-Violent Movement of Negro students has established an office in
Jackson, Miss•, on Lynch Street•
* ‫?׳‬lie son of segregationist Sen• James 0• Eastland of Mississippi, is attending an integrated private school in Alexandria, Va. South Carolina Congressman
Mendel Elvers removed his non from the same school one day after it accepted its
first Negro student this fall• But, reports Jet magazine, Ward Eastland, the
school's star football player and son of Mississippi's chief white supremacist,
remainedQ
‫־‬8‫ ־‬The high school library in Cunningham, Tennessee, contains a volume entitled "Tbs Unbiased History of the War Between the States, from the Southern
Point of View•"
GIVE THE K U N AN INCH
There's an old saying^ "If you give the Klan an inch, they'll take a yard• And
when they take the yard, they'll burn a cross in it•" In Alabama, notes Jet magazine, where Kluxers have flogged Negroes without fear of punishment, they recently
became bolder and flogged a white couple who had allowed a Negro nurse to discipline their child• Imagine the Kluxers' surprise when arrested and found guilty•
In Tylertown, Mississippi, a Negro voter registration instructor, John Hardy, was
hit on the head by Circuit Clerk John Q• Wood after Hardy asked Wood to administer
registration tests to two Negroes• Wood first pulled out a pistol and ordered
Hardy to leave• When Hardy turned to leave, the circuit clerk hit him from the
rear, then had Hardy arrested for breach of the peace•
John Doar, lawyer of the U. S. Justice Department's Civil Rights division, asked
newly appointed Federal Judge Harold Cox to halt Mississippi's prosecution of
Hardy on the grounds that its purpose was only to "deter other Negroes from registering to vote•" But Ccac, a close friend of Senator Eastland, refused• (Cox, it
is worth noting, was appointed to the bench by President Kennedy despite warnings
that this might make it hard to enforce voting and other rights for Negroes in
Mississippi•;
CIVIL RIGHTS - 1
A SOUTHERNER SPOKE
With the celebration of the Civil War centennial, the Southern Regional Council
suggests that this is a good time to call attention to the views of a beloved and
admired Southern leader, General Pierre Gustave Tout ant Beauregard• In a New
Orleans speech on July 1, 1873* Beauregard told the people of Louisiana:
"A frank and cordial concession of absolute and practical civil, as well as political equality between all citizens, without discrimination on account of race or
color• •owould remove the last barrier which opposes the political cooperation of
good men, of whatever color, for the regeneration of the State••• •
"As long as we assume a position antagonistic in principle of his rights, and
thereby drive the colored men into opposition to us, if h a m results we must lay
the blame upon ourselves, rather than on the system•
"I am persuaded that the natural relation between the white and colored people is
that of friendship• I am persuaded that their interests are identical; that their
destinies in this state where the two races are equally divided, are linked together; and that there is no prosperity for Louisiana which must not be the result
of their cooperation•"
Uhfortimately, General Beauregard's sound advice was disregarded — and Louisiana
and other Southern states have suffered the economic and social maladjustments he
predicted. Wouldn't the best celebration of the Centennial be to adopt his proposals for unity in equality•
AN IDEA FOR ROUTE 110
Our nation has been deeply embarrassed by the refusal of restaurants on Route U0
in Maryland to serve African diplomats• So conscious has President Kennedy been
of the sad consequences of rudeness and discrimination that he wrote the Southern
governors, urging them to prevent indignities to non-white visitors• ‫ ׳‬In response
Governor Almond of Virginia suggested that such visitors wear some identifying
insignia• Which prompted the Washington Post to comment acidly that we're in a
fine pickle if one must establish that he is not an American citizen in order to
be treated with decency and respect•
After appeals by the State Department and Maryland's Governor failed to move the
offending restaurants, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) called for a freedom ride along Route 40• Forty-two restaurants promptly agreed to integrate, but
there are still some 23 holdouts®
One of my colleagues, Ted Leskes, has an ingenious proposal to finish the job•
Let the government, either Federal or State, open up good, attractive restaurants
on Route k0 to compete with those that discriminate, agreeing to close them when
the restaurants abandon their discriminatory policies• Wouldn't this be a good
way to prove that bias doesn't pay?
CIVIL RIGHTS - 1
QUOTES
* "It is still true that a voteless citizen is a helpless citizen — just
like a caught chicken, all he can do is squawk• - Roy Wilkins, NAACP executive
secretary•
* The paradox of race relations is that as they get better they are also apt
to get worse• The Negroes are in an accelerating social revolution and it is the
story of revolutions that the crises and violence come not when things are at
their low point but as they really begin to improve• — T.R.B. in the New Republic
STRANGERS —
THEN NEIGHBORS
The history of America is summed up in the title of Clarence Seniorfs brilliant
little book, Strangers — Then Neighbors (Freedom Books, 9$$)* Discussing the
waves of migrants who have made America great, from Pilgrims to Puerto Ricans,
Senior examines the stereotypes spread against "foreigners" over the years by
Ku Kluxers, Know-Nothings, and other so-called "100 per cent Americans•" Ironically, notes Senior, xenophobia (anti-foreignism) is a disease that often attacks
even those whose ancestors were foreigners•
Sometimes, the author poi^s out,, a stereotype can affect the health or even the
lives of members of a min^dty group. On April 22, 1958, The New York Times reported that Puerto Rican sewing-machine operators in a Manhattan factory became
hysterical one morning, streaming, fainting, running for the fire escape• The
health and fire departments, looking into the reasons for the commotion, discovere*
that tha workshop contained "a very high, deadly concentration of carbon monoxide•'
But a physician first called to the scene, originally had dismissed the entire
matter on the grounds that "Puerto Ricans are a very high-tensioned people•"
PRAYER
I watched the unedifying spectacle of Alabama's Governor George Wallace squirming
through a TV interview and explaining that he has to violate his oath to uphold
the U• S• Constitution because he "gave his word" to Alabama's voters to "stop
with his body" any attempt by Negroes to enter the University of Alabama• It reminded me of the prayer composed by Rev* Lyman Beecher more than a century ago ‫נ‬
"Grant, 0 Lord,, that we may not despise our rulers $ and grant, 0 Lord, that
they may not act so that we cannot help it•"
HOW PURE CAN YOU GET?
Back in 1925, notes Ed Rcvner, civil rights director of the International Union of
Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, when the KKK was campaigning to keep the
vote from foreigners and Negroes, Kluxers were demanding four years of schooling
as a prerequisite for franchise• But times have changed and the Klux standards
are far too liberal for today1 s racists• Now Southern Tories and Northern Bourbons join in the fight against a bill which would give the vote to any citizen
with six grades of schooling, on ground that this isn't "literate" enough for
their refined tastes•
CIVIL RIGHTS - 1
BARBECUE
When the integrated South Carolina Labor Council, AFL-CIO, held a barbecue, about
100 members of the state legislature showed up• But after three Negro couples
arrived, some lawmakers stormed out, muttering that the General Assembly should
"check its invitations" more carefully• However, reports Jet magazine, about 75
solons were still around eating two hours after the barbecue started•
TURBANS
Governor Ross Barnettfs efforts to replay the Civil War have left two men dead,
scores wounded and hundreds arrested• James Meredith continues to attend the
University of Mississippi, escorted by marshals and protected by Federal troops•
Meanwhile twelve "dark-skinned Hindu students from Bombay" enrolled at Ole Miss
are quoted as saying that they have had a friendly reception so far. All are
living in a fraternity house at the university.
It was Harry Golden who suggested that if American Negroes wore turbans, the hard••
core segregationists might mesmerize themselves into believing that they were
foreign students and therefore acceptable.
IN YOUR GHI'iRCH
"Did a Man Wearing a Hat and Smoking a Cigaret Ever Walk Into Your Church?" With
that provocative title, the Atlanta Constitution editorialized on Negro use of
civil disobedience to win civil rights©
"Why doesn*t he (the Negro) just register and cast his vote and seek his representation in government the way the white people do?" The Southern paper answers this
question with a case study — the invasion of a Negro church in Sasser, Ga., where
Negroes were talking about ways to vote in a county where only 51 Negroes are registeredc Terr oil County Sheriff
T• Mathews, two deputies — one fingering
a •38-caliber revolver — and about 1$ "disturbed white citizens" walked into the
Negro church with their hats on and cigarettes drooping in their mouths• Warned
the sheriff! "W8 want our colored people to go on living like they have for the
last hundred years ••©We are a little fed up with this voter registration business•"
Still another answer was given when night riders fired three shotgun blasts into a
Dawson, Gae, home where voter-registration workers were staying, wounding two white
youths and a Negro woman. A week earlier, gunmen sprayed bullets into the homes
of four Negroes in adjacent Lee County, who were also taking part in the registrar
tion drive* There have been no arrests•
Viewing such incidents, the Atlanta Constitution urges every Georgian to read such
stories "before he says anything more about the Negro's failure to act through
democratic processes, and then ask himself one question: How comfortable is his
conscience?"
CIVIL RIGHTS - 1
WHERE THERE'S A WELL
Apprenticeship training is the toughest nut to crack in dealing with employment
discrimination• Negroes throughout the land fill less than two per cent of apprenticeship spots, despite concern and pressure by civil-rights groups, Federal,
state and local government agencies and some labor and management organizations•
Yet I can't help but feel that where there's a will, a way can be found•
I'm reminded of the farm lass who walked down a country lane with a boy who had
a pail in one hand, a shepherd's crook in the other, a chicken under one aim, and
a lamb tied to a rope* As they came to a forest, the girl said, "I'm not going
into the forest with you• You might try to kiss me•"
"With a pail, a crook, a chicken and a lamb?
How in the world could I?‫״‬
"Well," replied the girl, "you might push the crook in the ground, tie the lamb
to the crook and put the chicken under the pail•"
California industrialist Eddy Feldman needs no such lesson in ingenuity• Feldman,
head of the Los Angeles Furniture Mart, has devised a plan to stimulate minority
group inclusion in an enlarged apprenticeship program. The problem, Feldman
stresses, is not so much dreaming up new ways to combat discrimination as it is to
create -.cequate numbers of on-the-job training opportunities. Therefore he calls
for administrative action and legislation by the State of California to require
that £1‫ י‬state contracts ir which journeymen would be employed-, include clauses
providing for non-discrimir.‫׳‬atory hiring of at least one apprentice or trainee for
every five journeymen•
The U. S 0 Department of Labor reports that hundreds of thousands of workers are
needed for "hard-to-fill" skilled jobso If we expanded Mr. Feldman's proposal
to cover the entire nation, mandatory training quotas for Federal, state and
local public works, public service and defense projects would go a long way toward
filling this gap and strengthening equal opportunity in training at the same time*
MOON OVER MISSISSIPPI
Believe it or not, one of the casualties of the segregationist riots against Negro
student James Meredith at Ole Miss was the state's tax on bootleg liquor. Mississippi is the only "dry11 state in the country. Its citizens consistently vote to
keep it dry. But they drink wet — and being "realistic," the state government
long ago levied a 10 per cent tax on sales of bootleg whiskey.
When Federal check-points were established on all highways around Oxford, Miss.,
in connection with the rioting at the University, bootleggers decided to lay low
lest Federal agents search their trunks and find liquor on which no Federal taxes
had been paid. It is now reported that the state of Mississippi is asking the
Federal government to reimburse the state treasury for $1,200 in bootleg taxes that
would have been collected if there had been no period of Federal supervision in
Mississippi«
PRIVATES AND GENERALS
Shortly after the Civil War, relates the Southern California Teamster3 a former
private, John Allen, ran for Congress in Mississippi against a foimer general. Dur
CIVIL RIGHTS - 1
ing a campaign debate, the general gave a stirring oration, emphasizing his role
in the war and dwelling at length on his service as general• Undismayed, Allen
commended the general's wartime service• "I'd like to suggest that all you generals
vote for my opponent," he concluded, "and you privates vote for me•" Private John
Allen served for years in Congress•
Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana and other Southern Bourbons know that lesson
well• They figure the way to handle the situation is to keep "privates" from voting• Freely conceding that Negroes are not permitted to vote in parts of Louisi*
ana and Mississippi, Ellender plaintively argues: "Thetfhitepeople are just scaled
to death by all those areas where the Negroes are in the majority• If they get the
vote, why they'll hold all the offices."
CHICKEN-FEED JUSTICE
Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel, noted theologian who addressed the National Conference on
Religion and Race in Chicago last month, reminded his listeners of an earlier conference on the same subject that took place in antiquity• The main participants,
explained Rabbi Heschel, were Pharoah and Moses. Moses declared: "Thus says the
Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go•" Pharoah retorted? "Who is the Lord,
that I should heed his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover I will not let Israel go•"
Even today‫־‬j said Rabbi Heschel, Pharoah is not yet ready to capitulate• "In fact,"
explained the rabbi, "It wa? easier for the children of Israel to cross the Red
Sea than for a Negro to cro&s certain university campuses®"
This was no exaggeration© The case of James Meredith vs« the University of Mississippi is, of course, well known to all the worlds Less publicized, however, is an
earlier story concerning Negro army veteran Clyde Kennard, who in 1959, tried to
enroll at all-white Mississippi Southern College® As Kennard left the office of
the university president, state highway patrolmen arrested him on charges of speeding, reckless driving and possession of liquor• Though friends and neighbors insist
that Kennard "doesn't drink, smoke or even chew gum," Kennard was fined $600 — a
sentence which was set aside on appeal•
Meanwhile, in another exairple of Mississippi "justice," Kennard was arrested for
"conspiracy" to steal five bags of chicken feed. Johnnie Roberts, an illiterate
Negro who admittedly took the feed, testified that he and Kennard plotted to leave
the door of the feed store open on a Saturday night• When other testimony brought
out that the store closed at noon that day, Roberts was allowed to correct his
testimony® The all-white jury that tried the case set Roberts free on probation
and sentenced Kennard to seven years in prison•
In prison, it was discovered that Kennard was suffering from cancer• Nevertheless,
the Superintendent of the Mississippi State Penitentiary, C» E. Breazelle, refused
to transfer him for hospital treatment and instead ordered Kennard to work at the
prison's toughest work camp• Last month, after Kennard's mother and sister appealed to the State Supreme Court, Governor Ross Barnett ordered Kennard transferred to
the University of Mississippi Hospital and later suspended his sentence and set him
free• The Governor explained, however, that the suspension would be revoked if
Kennard's conduct were not good• Suppose Kennard still wants to go to a white
university? Would that be bad conduct, Gov• Barnett?
CIVIL RIGHTS - 1
THE NEW NEGRO
Jim Farmer, executive director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), swears
that the sit-inners really tell this down in Mississippi•
An old Negro servant knocked on his employer's door• When his employer said, "Come
on in, Sam," Sam walked in and saids "Mr• Charley, there's a New Negro in Mississippi today• We believe in equality• You can call me Sam, but from now on there's
no more Mr• Charley• It's just plain Charley• And there's no more Miss Ann• From
now on it's just plain Ann."
While Mr• Charley looked on dumbfounded, Sam walked out the door but then returned?;
"And another thing• It's no more Mississippi• From now on it's just plain Sippi•"
BROTHERHOOD - X
OPERATION RECONCILIATION
For the next six months, a group of 20 West Germans will be hard at work in Jerusalem with shovels, cement and bricks — in a token gesture of atonement for the
deeds of their elders• Their projects to build a home for the blind in Israel*
Their pays 500 of pocket money a day — plus the possible satisfaction, at the end
of their stay, that they have in some measure helped reconcile West Germany with
Israel• Four other groups are working in Belgium, France, Greece and Norway, in
villages ravaged by Nazis in World War II• These young people are all part of
Operation Reconciliation, launched four years ago at the suggestion of the Evangelical Church of West Geimany, and supported by Germans of all faiths• Some 300
young men and women have volunteered so far• Each work group tackles the same
difficult task! to show the people who suffered at the hands of the Nazis that the
younger generation recognizes Germany's moral guilt — and feels obliged, as individuala‫׳‬, to repudiate the past• For these young Germans, conscience is a hard
taskmaster indeed•
A LETTER FROM NOAGA
Teen-agers in New Jersey heard about a grade school in far-off Africa — where the
schoolhou.se is a hut with neither seats nor desks, and the pupils sit in the mud•
Inspired by the overseas work of UNESCO, the United Nations ag5‫׳‬ncy which works to
spread, literacy and aid schools the world over, the American youngsters decided to
help tlxis strange little F<,hool* Three hundred New Jersey high school councils
jointly raised money for a gift• Their reward was this priceless thank-you notes
"Dear Big Brothers and Sisters from New Jersey,
"We are little African girls from the bush, but now we have a great piece of luck
in having wonderful friends far away• Thanks to you, our school will soon be the
prettiest in all the countryside• We now have treasures and beautiful things to
help us learnc Our teacher told us that it was you who had spoiled us® She told
us that you gave all your cake money and your fruit money to help us• That would
be hard for us to do. Here at school there are little girls who ccme without
having eaten anything in two days• But now we are very happy because the school
can give us something to eat, and we have beautiful books, a globe and a scale,
and even a volley ball game I We thank you for all these beautiful things• We
invite you to come and see us at Garango• Our teachers salute yout All the
children salute youS I'm one of the biggest• I am eleven years old, and my
name is Noaga Zarl•11
Noaga's letter is a touching reminder of the many other children waiting the world
round• You can help them by spreading the good word about UNESCO•
SARIS WITH A UNION LABEL
A slender young matron from India isn't wasting a moment during her husband's assignment to the United Nations in New York• Mrs• Gyan Khanna is learning mass‫״‬
production methods of making blouses and petticoats at Manhattan's High School of
Fashion Industries 0 Her training has been arranged through Local 62 of the
International Ladies Garment Workers Union, which often helps interested visitors
to the U• S. A• learn not only about unionism but also about modern manufacturing
procedures• An accomplished sewing teacher herself, Mrs. Khanna used to supervise
BROTHERHOOD - X
young girls doing handiwork in India• When she gets back to Delhi, Mrs• Khanna
hopes to set up a small factory and turn out women's clothing in a twinkling• It's
a safe guess that fashions in India may soon undergo an amazing transformation —
with the ladies wrapping their colorful saris over bargain-priced blouses and
petticoats with a union label•
RITE OF BLOOD
Almost 14,000 American Peace Corps volunteers, including many unionists, are scattered around the globe, serving as teachers, doctors, engineers and agricultural experts• Every country asking their help knows about a hard-and-fast Peace Corps
rule — that assignments are made without regard to the race or religion of the
volunteer• At the beginning, everyone warned that this policy would never work•
Protestant volunteers would not be accepted in Catholic countries• Arab nations
would refuse to cooperate if Jewish volunteers were sent• Despite these warnings,
the Peace Corps stuck to its rule• The results have been surprising• In the three
Arab countries where the Peace Corps operates, Jewish volunteers have been well received by their Moslem hosts• In the Catholic countries of Latin America, where
extensive Peace Corps programs are underway, not one incident has been reported by
the many young Protestant volunteers• Unfortunately, it took a tragedy to show how
dramatically the walls of bigotry and distrust have been broken down• The first
two men to die in Peace Corps service were killed in Colombia, South America, in a
plane crash that also claimed the lives of 32 Colombians• The Bogota newspaper,
El Tiempc j offered this tribute to the young Americans, one a Jew, the other a
baptist !"°‫״‬T hey were the first to fulfill the rite of blood which united them with
our countrymen. It is the ardent hope of millions of human beings that this sacrifice will not be in vain•‫״‬
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, U. N.
A fast-growing family celebrates its 17th Anniversary on October 21;, United Nations
Day. Since 19k$j when 51 countries signed the UN Charter, the family of nations
has more than doubled in size. By the end of this year, there will be 110 members•
The UN's peacemaking efforts have fended off five wars• Remember Indonesia?
Greece? The Sum Canal? The Kashmir? Remember the Congo, a storm-center two years
ago? Without the UN, any of these trouble spots might have gone down in history
as the starting-point of World War III• Working 'round the calendar to prevent
future conflicts, the UN has fed the starving, helped conquer disease, famine,
poverty, ignorance and prejudice• The UN has adopted a world-wide Declaration of
Human Rights, similar to our own Bill of Rights — a first step in protecting freedom everywhere o
RHINO ROAST
Tomorrow's African housewife, says the Butcher Workman^ may well dip into her
supermarket's frozen-food bin and come up with neatly packaged breaded zebra cutlets, a rhinoceros roast or elephant steak• For in Africa, claims United Nations
expert Peter R. Hill, wild animals could yield more food for man than domestic
animals. That's because herds of elephant, zebra, hippo and other vegetarians
make more efficient use of grass, shrubs and trees than pampered domestic herds
do.
In his report to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FA0), Hill estimates
BROTHERHOOD - X
that in one region a square mile of marginal land stocked with mixed game could
support 95,000 pounds of meat contrasted with a mere 16,000 pounds of beef• The
region, he notes, needs facilities for slaughtering, drying, freezing, distributing
and marketing• Hill hastily adds that wild animals could still be preserved in
numbers great enough "to leave a spectacle for tourists•" With the UN's help, the
call of the wild may soon liven the menu•
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY
What area has the largest July Fourth celebration? Chances are, you've guessed
wrong• It's in Rebild National Park, Denmarki Fifty years ago a group of Danish‫־״‬
Americans, in tribute to the country that had treated them well, purchased a tract
of land in Rebild Hills, and donated it to the Danish Government• With the grant
came the stipulation that every year on American Independence Day, the Danes would
celebrate the day in a gala hands-across-the-sea expression of international good
will and friendship® Even during the five bitter years of Nazi occupation, the
Danes raised the U. S, and Danish flags each July Fourth, under the very noses of
the Nazis, to uphold a tradition which to then seemed vital in the cause of freedom. This year more than 50,000 Danes and Americans attended the festival•
GOOD S'TOIES NEVER DIE
Thomas Thomas, a minister end grandfather of America's leading dissenter, Norman
Thomas, visited one of the new Welsh communities in Pennsylvania in the 1850's,
and was asked if he was teaching his family to speak Welsh•
"Oh, noj" the elder Thomas replied•
States•"
"It's not necessary here in the United
His questioner shook his head, "You're making a great mistake• What are they
going to do when they get to Heaven?"
When Dr• Thomas asked what possible difference that could make, the other replied,
"Welsh is the language of Heaven©"
"What makes you say so?" asked the good Reverend• Whereupon his interrogator drew
a little Welsh Bible cut of his pocket, opened it up and began to reads "And God
said unto Adam•" "You see," he said, pointing to the Welsh words, "He talked
Welsh!"
The story dates back more than a century, but the other day, in the Negro Digest»
I read about a little old Kenyan woman who took her pastor to task for saying that
Jesus spoke Aramaic• Jesus, she insisted, was African and spoke Swahili• "My
dear sister," her pastor replied, "you may have some difficulty proving that•11
"None at all," she declared — and produced her Swahili Bible to show him that
the words of Jesus were all in Swahili•
SALUDOS AMIGOS
For a day, my 13-year-old son Peter was a Mexican schoolteacher• Well, not really,
but that was his role at a Mexican fiesta in Levitt own, Long Island• The fete had
its inception last summer when Richard Streb, head of social studies at the Jonas
BROTHERHOOD - X
E. Salk Junior High School, was vacationing south of the border• He came upon
Escondida, an isolated village 150 miles west of Mexico City‫־‬, where the one-room
adobe school had no running water, no electricity and no books• But the h$ improverished Mexican children, 19 of them orphaned, were thirsty for knowledge•
Back at the well-equipped Salk School, Streb described to his students the plight
of the youngsters in Escondida• The 1,300 Salk students launched a one-day fiesta,
to bring books, clothing and food to Escondida1 s boys and girls• They boned up on
exciting and colorful Mexican music and folk dances• Authentic Mexican jewelry,
arts and crafts were on sale• The Fonda de la Luna, a Mexican-style restaurant
operated by home economics students, served tortillas, chili and tacos, while the
Restaur ante Norte Americano competed with hot dogs•
The Salk students, teachers and parents knew they cannot solve all of Escondida1 s
problems• Their wonderful fiesta did raise #3,000 for Escondida1 s youth — certainly a lively and practical approach to social studies — and to brotherhood
across borders•
WHERE THSRE'S A WILL
How do you break the language barrier for Spanish-speaking members of the ParentTeachers Association? This was the problem faced by a friend of mine, New York
State labor mediator Julius Mans on, at Public School 61 in Manhattan•
At least half of the pupils in PS 61 are from Puerto Rican families• This made
translations a tedious must at PTA meetings — a process that bored English-speaking parents, doubled meeting time and cut down attendance• A way had to be found
for simultaneous Spanish translations•
After much shopping around, the PTA bought a mail order, one-tenth watt radio
transmitter kit, costing less than $15• Julius is as handy with electronics as I
am — nil — but his 11-year-old son, David, put the transmitter together in two
weekends a
Last October, the transmitter was put into use• As parents entered the auditorium,
David adjusted their portable radios to an unused frequency, and two bi-lingual
parents, Mrs. Lucy Cartagena and Mrs• Conchita Lamm, provided the translations•
With earphones to avoid disturbing others in the audience, everyone present can
now understand T7hat the speakers are saying•
WHAT'S Y0TJR RACE
Dares Salaam (the name means Haven of Peace), Uganda is the current address of
Mark Starr, who recently retired as the garment workers' education director• Mark
is having a fine time teaching at the exciting African Iiabor College of the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Kampala• Anyone leaving
Kenya, Mark notes, must fill out a Departure Declaration Foxm which asks the
individual to check whether he is European, Asian, Arab or "other race•" More
and more people, Mark reports, are answering this question with the word, "human•11
THE E3TE OF A NEEDLE
Larimer Mellon, heir to the famous steel fortune, was 37 when he first heard of
BROTHERHOOD - X
the medical missionary, Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Leaving his old life behind,
Mellon returned to college.
He received his medical degree at the age of UU and with his wife, Gwen, set out
for poverty-whipped and disease-ravaged Haiti. Pouring their wealth and energy
in their new work, they created the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, which now treats
over 1,000 patients a week and dispenses tons of medicine, clothing and blankets•
The staff teaches Haitians to read and write as well as to observe basic health
and sanitary rules.
St. Matthew said8 "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." But I don't think Larimer
Mellon should have too much difficulty.
CIVIL LIBERTIES » 1
UNFAIR COMPETITION
Don't be surprised if you see the Burns Detective Agency picketing the John Birch
Society with signs "UNFAIR TO PROFESSIONAL SPIES.‫ ״‬This jurisdictional warfare
business has strange ramifications.
College presidents throughout the nation, reports the New Republics have received
a widely circulated letter from the Bums Agency. "Almost every department," says
the letter, "has its (sic) controversial faculty member. These departments invariably ares Religion, English (Literature), Biology, History, Government, Journalism, Speech and Drama. A 1student* trained in his duties as a Burns Operative,
can enroll in the usual manner, attend classes and send daily, confidential reports to the Agency. These reports are analyzed and all reports are then sent to
the client. After the necessary body of fact and information is developed, corrective steps can be made quickly, quietly and efficiently."
But with the John Birch Society recruiting unpaid spies to snoop in the classrooms?
the Burns Agency may be having a hard time. At any rate, we've heard of no college
presidents responding eagerly to either offer.
TOUCHE
The Ohio_ AFL-CIO New,? and Views reminds us of a squelch absolute delivered by
Robert M® Hutchins, when hi was president of the University of Chicago, in response
to a sarcastic critic. "Is Communism still being taught at the University?" asked
this character. "Yes," replied Hutchins, "and cancer at the Medical School, tool"
BIG WINDS BATTER BOOKS
When Hurricane Carla battered the Texas coast in September, it destroyed thousands
of textbooks. At the same time, an even uglier wind, spawned by a "know-nothing"
group calling itself "Texans for America" huffed and puffed at the capital city
of Austin against so-called anti~ American history books.
Testifying at a hearing of the State Textbook Commission, the ultra-conservative
group made it clear that their version of Ameri canism has nothing in common with
the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights. Argued Rancher J. Evetts
Haley:
"The stressing of both sides of a controversy only confuses the young and encourages
them to make snap judgments based on insufficient evidence. Until they are old
enough to understand both sides of a question, they should be taught only the
American side."
And what are some of the evils protested by "Texans for America," and their ally,
the Daughters of the American Revolution? Here are a few examples cited in
Publis hers* Weekly?
Ameri cat Land of Freedom* published by D.C. Heath, failed to mention that social
security — being "socialistic" — is a social evil. Living World History (Scott
Foresman said World War II was caused by "superpatriots" and would thus "discourage
patriotism•") Mrs. William Moler, Dallas housewife, blasted Story of America
(Holt, Rinehart and Winston) for not mentioning that Alger Hiss helped write the
United Nations charter and for not reporting that "U*N• military forces have always
CIVIL LIBERTIES » 1
been in the hands of the Russians." (Mrs. Moler forgot about Korea — or maybe
she just doesn't know her history!) Attorney R.A. Kilpatrick hit the inclusion
of such "un-Americans" as Upton Sinclair, Jack London. Carl Sandburg, Pearl Buck
and Allan Nevins in United States History (B.C. Heath).
How do literate Americans feel about such shenanigans?
Texas writers, told Publishers' Weekly8
J. Frank Dobie, dean of
"These objectors are really objecting to the Twentieth Century. They seem unaware
of the modem treatment of social history. They want to go back to history writing
that consisted mostly of accounts of wars and heroes, and that left out the masses
of people." And if we're not on our toes, they may get away with it•
BIRCHERS TAKE NOTE
The current hullaballoo over teaching about c o m m i s m in our schools again reminds
us that there's nothing new under the sun. Back in 1920, the New York Board of
Education asked pupils in the city's high schools to define Bolshevism• Here's 0n3
youngsteres response:
"Bolshevism is a danger to New York because if the Bolsheviki blew up the Mayor
of New York the Government would be going on making laws which would not be approved by the Mayor*"
INTO THE ACT
The John Birchers may be a menace, but they certainly have generated a good deal
of fresh humor• Washington jokesters, for instance, are passing arcund membership
cards in the B. Smirch Society, whose motto is: "Drive dangerously• The pedestriai
you hit may be a Communist."
Robert
3h, labelled the "real life Chicken Little" by the Ohio APL-CIO News,
said in OiacimahLrecently that organized Communist opposition was the single most
important reason for Robert A* Taft's loss of the presidential nomination in 1952•
"And all along," quips the News, "we thought it was the organized Eisenhower opposition."
A Tucson storekeeper sent Rep. Morris K. Udall (Dem• Ariz•) a few "Modest Proposals
for the Provision of Adequate Shelter in Case of Atomic War." Among them were:
* Befriend a Commie Plan: Since we all know they won't drop a bomb on one of them,
befriend a Commie in your block and stay with him. Write to your local John Birch
cell for a list of neighborhood pinks•
* National Essay Contest (The prize to be survival space in a shelter): Suggested
topics include, "Why I Deserve to Survive," "Why My Breeding Entitles Me to Special
Consideration," and "Why (If I Survive) I would impeach Earl Warren (If He Survives).
Then there is the William Birch Society, proclaimed in The Luther an 5 magazine of
the Lutheran Church• One of its chief goals is to abolish the Red in traffic
lights• They are symbolic of creeping traffic socialism• A brand-new Thunderbird
is expected to come to a halt at a Red light alongside a beat-up 19h9 Chevy, and
that's fellow travelling•
Also, every pastor who wins a Doctor of Divinity degree has a Red hood placed over
his shoulders. We must, says The Lutheran, "eliminate from the clergy all these
Red Ridinghoods•'1
CIVIL LIBERTIES » 1
HOOVER A RED?
Since World War I, Herbert Hoover has been vitally concerned with caring for the
children in nations afflicted by hunger and famine• One of his early aids, Maurice
Pate, now the executive director of the United Nations1 Children's Fund (UNICEF),
reveals that it was Hoover who originally proposed the creation of such an agency
and who is the real "father" of UNICEF•
UNICEF sells "Season's Greetings" cards which help more than one hundred countries
improve the health, nutrition and well-being of their children• One box of cards
provides enough vaccine to protect fifty children from tuberculosis• Five boxes
pays for a glass of milk each day for a month for forty-two children•
Yet, members of the Daughters of the American Revolution have been urged to boycott
the cards on the grounds that they are "part of a broader Communist plan to destroy
all religious beliefs and customs•" According to this logic Herbert Hoover either
consciously or unwittingly helped get us entangled in Communist tentacles• (If
the Birchites can call Eisenhower, Truman and Roosevelt Communists, why shouldn't
D.A.R. go after Hoover?)
If you find this nonsense as repugnant as I do, why not follow the advice of The
New York Times: "Those who think the D.A.R• is wrong in this instance may indicate
their opinion by sending a check to UNICEF — perhaps in exchange for some of its
charming Christmas cards, and in the hope, of course, that the child who drinks
the milk the cards may help to buy will grow up to believe in peac3 on earth*
goodwill to men•"
THE IDES OF APRIL
With income-tax time fast approaching, I confess to a certain sneaking fondness for
all those ultra-rightists who claim that the income tax is an invention of that
ole debbil - Karl Marx• (I once debated Congressman Ralph Gwinn who placed the
blame on the radical socialist, William Howard Taft•) But now the true culprit
has come to light• The first legislature in America to tax incomes, believe it or
not, was that ultra-communist body in the South, the Confederate Congress!
OUCH
Harry Golden reports that a furniture dealer in Eugene, Oregon has redone his bath*
room in wood paneling• This feat, Golden insists, makes him a member in honored
standing of the Birch John Society•
LOST CAUSE?
One of the nation's top civil liberties and civil rights lawyers in battling a ease
which seems lost from the start• Francis Heisler is bringing suit to halt all
nuclear testing — by America, Britain and the Soviet Union•
On behalf of 186 plaintiffs from the U»S* and 21 other countries (not including
the USSR), Heisler is seeking an injunction in the District Court in Washington,
D« C• to restrain the Atomic Energy Commission and the Defense Department from
further testing•
Heisler, who is also general counsel of the Workers Defense League, has mailed the
CIVIL LIBERTIES » 1
same complaint to Moscow. He is prepared to argue the case there if he can get a
Soviet visa, but has been informed by the Soviet Embassy that he can get a regular
visa only if the Soviet's chief prosecutor, Procurator General R• A• Budenke, invites him• Otherwise he will have to apply for a tourist visa•
Among Heisler' s clients are such distinguished world citizens as Rev• John Haynes
Holmes, Dr. Karl Barth, Norman Thomas, Dr. Linus C. Pauling, Rev• Martin Niemoller,
Francois Mauriae and Bertrand Russell•
Heisler's suits are based on the United Nations Charter, the general welfare and
due process clauses of the U. So Constitution and various precedents in interna•
tional mediation cases• Asked if he really expects to get anywhere with a suit
like this, Heisler replied: "I filed 136 suits against restrictive convenants
in Chicago over a period of 20 years. I lost all of them except the last one•
But there are no restrictive convenants in Chicago today lf>
BIRCHERS TAKE NOTE!
Ultra-rightists are fond of quoting military men to lend authority to their views‫״‬
Out of the goodness of my heart, I offer them for free Admiral William C• Mott , s
remark.
"Amateur anti-communists are as useful as amateur brain surgeonson
SONG OF A MODERN VIGILANTE
A top official of the FBI brought the following poem by Bradley Moris on to my
attention‫ ״‬as an accurate insight into extremist groups• I think it's so good
and so true I want to share it with you:
I sometimes fancy as I spy
That I excel the F.B.I.
Right now I'm making little lists
Of folks I think are Communists•
I have no proof on anyone,
And yet the lists are loads of fun.
All friends of foreign aid, I think,
Must be set down as rather pink•
A little pinker, not far off
I list, perforce, the college prof,
And pinker yet the college crowd
That lauds the Bill of Rights out loud•
U. N. supporters, as I've said,
Are also ipso facto redj
And redder still, on my red lists,
Are all the integrationists•
Just for good measure in my labors,
I add a few of my good neighbors•
Thus I rejoice that loyalty
Resides alone in you and m e —
Although, before my work is through,
You may, good friend, be listed too•
CIVIL LIBERTIES » 1
THE STATE OF KNOWLEDGE
Henry Adams once said that "practical politics consists in ignoring facts•" If so,
we are one of the most practical nations one could imagine, judging by an article
in the Spring 1963 issue of Public Opinion Quarterly, entitled "The Polls: Textbook
Knowledge•" The article reviews public-opinion polls in recent years on subjects
of political and civic concern• And it indicated that the average American knows
far too little about what is going on around him•
A high point in civic knowledge, the polls revealed, was reached in 1952 when 93
per cent of the respondents knew that the President is elected for four years•
But in the same year, a mere 19 per cent knew what the three branches of Government
are called• And in 195U fewer than half knew that there are two U ‫ ״‬S # senators
from each state* In 191*5, only 21 per cent could give a correct answer to "Do you
know anything in the Bill of Rights?"
The article points caustically to what television and the movies have done for the
American public• Asked to identify quotations by famous people or characters, 71
per cent knew that the Lone Ranger immortalized "Hi Xo, Silveri" and 61 per cent
were able to associate "Come up and see me sometime" with Mae West• But only 37
per cent remembered FDR's "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself;" 32 per
cent correctly credited Lincoln for "With malice toward none and charity for all
and a tiny Hi per cent knew that it was Woodrow Wilson who said "The world must
be made safe for democracy•"
]PEACE - 1
THE PEACE SEEKERS
Now that the holiday season of gift-giving is over, let me mention one ad,
appearing in comic books, that gave me shudders. Youngsters were exhorted
to buy ,,the World1 s Greatest Nuclear Naval Battle Game," so they could enjoy simulating the calculated risks of atomic destruction.
After this jolly gesture to the season of good will, I came upon No Place
To Hide, an original paperback edited by Professor Seymour Melman (Grove
Press, 75 cents). Here I learned that rats have a far better chance than
men to survive a nuclear war• A top Government scientist, John N• Wolfe
of the Atomic Energy Commission's Division of Biology and Medicine, notes
that rats are not only less susceptible to radiation than man, but they
probably would be more shielded than human beings during an attack, since
they burrow into buildings and rubble• Moreover, noted the distinguished
scientist, disease-producing bacteria, insects and flies all are more resistant to radiation than
In the event of a nuclear attack, they
would feed on the filth of the city and transfer disease to human beings
whose resistance already would be seriously lowered by radiation and deprivation•
The Air Force, it is true, is less pessimistic• One Air Force paper sugges
ted that "a surplus (of food and housing) may be created," after a massive
nuclear attack, "due primarily to the sharp reduction of population." A
nice way of saying almost everybody will be killed•
When our first H-bomb lit up Pacific skies last July in a rich kaleidoscope of changing reds, purples, yellow-oranges and whites, a Samoan
native exlaimed "Crazy white man!"
THE YOUNGER GENERATION
An eighth-grade student at a Los Angeles Junior High School, reports Local
1199 Drug News• chose as the subject for her term paper, "Peace or Oblivion
She dedicated iti "To my dog, a member of a species to which the world is
going."
DID YQU KNOW
The world's oldest peace treaty, a chunk of baked clay shaped like a soccer
ball and covered with tiny cuneiform signs, was recently on display at an
exhibition of Yale University's Babylonian Collection. The treaty ended
500 years of border warfare between the Sumerian states of Lagash and XJmma*
Maybe there's hope about the cold war yet!
FUELING AROUND
Speaking of nuclear war, the Reader's Digest tells about the driver of a
heating-oil truck in Spokane, Wash•, who mistook some fallout-shelter air
pipes for heating-oil fill pipes• It wasn't until after he had pumped 600
gallons of oil into the shelter that he finally realized his mistake•
]PEACE - 2
WAR AND PEACE
Sam Goldwyn, long known for his curious ability with ‫־‬words, recently was heard
to warns "Watch out for that H-Bomb; it's dynamite!" Ogden Nash, in his new
book, "Everyone But Thee and Me," (Little, Brown & Co., $3,95), comes up with
the other side of the same coin. His poem, "Is There an Oculist in the House?"
concludes with:
Now at the daily boasts of "My retaliation can lick your retaliation"
I am with apprehension stricken,
As one who watches two adolescent hot—rodders careening headlong toward
each other, each determined to die rather than chicken
Once again there is someone •ye don't see eye to eye with,
and maybe I couldn't be dafter.
But I keep wondering if this time we couldn't settle our differences
before a war instead of after.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"There
on the
on the
Harold
is too, much emphasis in current discussion about having more fingers
nuclear button. This is the wrong approach. It is not more fingers
button that we need; it is more fingers on the safety catch."•—
Wilson, leader of Britain's Labor Party.
WIT AND WISDOM
When a poor man eats a chicken, one or the other is sick. That old Yiddish
proverb is one of more than 3,000 aphorisms contained in the witty, wise and
often ironic Viking Book of Aphorisms, edited by poet W. H. Auden and novelist Louis Kronenberger (Viking, $6?50).
Whatever page I turn to, I find my head nodding in agreement with some keen
comment on human behavior. For instances
*It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of
greatness to cteal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases.
-‫ —י‬Friedrich von Schiller.
*Law cannot persuade where it cannot punish.-- Thomas Fuller .
*In peace, sons bury their fathers; in war, fathers bury their sons.
Herodotus.
—
*Where it is a duty to worship the sun, it is pretty sure to be a crime
to examine the law of heat. — John llorley.
*More people are flattered into virtue than bullied out of vice* —
Surtees.
But why settle for samples?
R.S.
Get the book and enjoy the whole feast.
INTERNATIONAL LAW
When we look at the Communist record of broken treaties and imperialist aggres
sion,we tend to become complacent about our own virtues. I received a useful
jolt recently when I read of the following incident in Felix Frankfurter
]PEACE - 3
Reminisces (Reynal & Co•).
Before World War I, reports Frankfurter, his office adjoined that of the
Array's Judge Advocate General, Enoch H• Crowder• Just after the U.S. armed
forces seized the customs house at Vera Cruz in Mexico, Gen. Crowder said to
Frankfurter:
"I've just been over to the White House and I'm asked to write a memorandum
whether that 00isure should fee treated ao an act of war and what its
in international law• Will you work with me on that?"
is
Frankfurter, later to become a U.S. Supreme Court Judge, shocked Crowder with
this replys "General, I'm going to ask to be excused• I don't have to work on
that. I know the answer to that."
"You do?"
"Yes, I do."
"What is the answer?"
"It would be an act of war against a great nation; it isn't against a small
nation•"
"I can't give him that•"
"I know you can't, but that's the answer."
In the Bible it is written* "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"
WITHOUT HUMANS
Should unions and other organizations active in the field of racial and reli—
gious discrimination expand their program to deal with problems of world peace?
Here's what Dr• John Slawson, executive vice-president of the American Jewish
Committee, has to say:
"How can you have human rights without humans? Unless there is peace in freedom, nothing else we are doing, nothing we have done, will be of any avail."
REMAIN CALM!
Remember the government booklet, "Survival Under Atomic Attack," which counsels
every American to "keep calm" and "Never lose your head" if nuclear bombs shoul
start failing on American cities? Saturday Review's Harold Hadley Story has
this poetic comment on that sage advice?
While being dismembered by a nuclear bomb
Remain calm!
And don't, while being irradiated,
Get agitated.
If devastation rains upon your city
It's a pity••••
But such is life in time of nuclear war, so
Keep your head although you lose your torso•
]PEACE - 4
THE YOUNGER GENERATION
)
There's been a lot of talk abont a conservative surge on the campus. But Fletcher
Knebel, in the Washington Post, says he •won't believe it until he sees college
boys striking against their parents for the right to earn their own way through
school.
Of course, talk about the younger generation is hardly new. Back in 4,000 B.C.,
an Egyptian priest mourned that "Our earth is degenerate in these later days.
Children no longer obey their parents." And Socrates, in the fifth century B.C.,
complained that children "no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table,
cross their legs, and tyrannize over their teachers."
Yet I can't give up our younger generation for lost when I hear of the five-year-‫׳‬
old boy whose parents decided to hole up for a week in a radioactive fallout shelt9r to find out what life would be like under such conditions. The youngster,
reports the United Mine Workers Journal, came up with an idea that might help us
prevent World War III. He suggested that President Kennedy and Soviet Premier
Krushchev spend the week with the family underground.
EUH?
"In the event of an H-bomb explosion in the area," reads a sign in a Canterbury,
England pub, "drinks are on the house."
WHO SAID IT?
Some years ago, a University of Illinois professor tried an interesting experiment. He gave a class, whose political sympathies he knew, a speech which con•‫׳׳‬
tained an equal number of pro-New-Deal and anti-New-Deal paragraphs — then asked
the students whether the speech was for or against the New Deal. The Democrats
in the class all claimed the talk favored the New Deal, while the Republicans vigorously dissented. All of which proved the professor's point that the students
had been listening only to the statements with which they agreed.
Is this true of the rest of us? Do we all listen selectively? Take the address
made not long ago to the graduating class of Michigan State University. The
speaker said:
"No longer can global warfare be a successful weapon of international adventure.
If you lose, y9u are annihilated. If you win, you stand only to lose. No longer
does it possess even the chance of the winner of a duel. It contains now only the
germs of double suicide." The same speaker declared that people of both East and
West want peace, but their leaders might bungle into a war. And he added that
accelerating the arms race may itself spark a global war of extermination.
•
How would you evaluate these words? Do they sound like the ravings of "fuzzyminded" pacifists, the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, or one of Robert
Welch's "better-Red-than-dead" Comsymps? And how do you feel about the ideas
expressed after you learn that the speaker in question was General Douglas
MacArthur?
COMMUNISM - I
FREEDOM
last Easter, Congressman Otis Pike (D., NY) was viewing the Berlin wall from the
roof of a nearby building• A German border policeman brought a lovely 8-year-old
girl up the stairway to the roof• She was all shined up in her holiday best —
a bright red dress and immaculate •white shoes and socks. The guard told Pike she
had come to wave to her grandmother who lived in East Berlin• He said, ,,Watch the
window on the third floor of the fourth building on the right side of the street•‫״‬
The little girl took out a spotless white handkerchief and waved it• There was a
single answering flash of white from the window• The little girl saw it, laughed
and kept on waving for five minutes, although there was no other answering wave•
In East Berlin they keep track of who waves•
Freedom, says Pike, is where grandparents play with their grandchildren. Communis
is where they don't even dare to wave to a little 8-year-old girl in her best
Easter dresso
LAUGH, COMRADEj LAUGH
Here are a couple of jokes from the Christian Science Monitor3 which I thought you
might enjoys
Budapest teachers "Why is our city growing?"
Pupils "Because the country people are flocking to town•"
Teachers "Now think carefully, children• How can we stop the influx
from our rural areas?"
Pupils "We could set up collective farms here, too•"
One East Berliner asked another what he would do if the Berlin W a H
suddenly came down•
0,‫״‬0‫י‬1‫>ג‬
a
"Why^"
"I wouldn't want to get trampled in the rush•"
GUILT BY ASSOCIATION
When a matronly lady was accused of being a Coimiunist before a Senate Committee,
alleges the Metal Polisher, Buffer and Plater, she hit the ceiling• "You call me
a Communist because I once lived in Russia," she cried, "but I'm not. I once
lived in Germany, too, but that didn't make me a Nazi."
Then, as an afterthought, she added, "In fact, I've even lived in the Virgin
Islands."
TRUE HAPPINESS
What constitutes true happiness in the land of the Soviets? There is a knock on
your door at 3 o'clock in the morning and a voice says, "Ivan Ivanovich, this is
the Secret Police. Come with us." True happiness, says Ohio's AFL-CIO News,
is when you are able to answer, "Ivan Ivanovich lives on the next floor•"
tree•"
COMMUNISM - 2
PROPERTY RIGHTS VS. HUMAN RIGHTS
When auto workers staged sitdown strikes in Michigan auto plants 2$ years ago, they
raised the slogan, "Human Rights Above Property Rights." In the Soviet Union, once
acclaimed by many as the "workers' fatherland," at least 6h persons have been sentenced to death since May 1961 because new Soviet laws regard property rights as
superior to human rights•
The "economic crimes" for which the death penalty has been imposed include currency
speculation and black marketing• One man was doomed for running a private cosmetics business« Three others were condemned to death for selling low-grade apples
at top prices•
Communist propagandists, of course, have spoken often of the inevitable disappearance of crime under communism. The new Communist Party program, adopted at the 1961
Congress in Russia, boasted thats "Anyone who has strayed from the path of the
workingman can return to useful activity•" But one thing puzzles us• How can a
man who has been shot to death return to "useful activity"? Or is the U*S.S.R.
now claiming another "invention" - reincarnation?
IT HAD TO HAPPEN
With the American Communist Party dwindling rapidly, and the House Un-American
Activities Committee searching desperately for new Communists to investigate, it
was inevitable that this shcald happen. Mrs. Julia Brown, a Communist for the
F.B.I*, exposed Mr. and Mrs® Kelvin F. Hardin as fellow members of a Communist
Party cell in ClevelandA Her charge was true — but with a slight catch to it.
The Hardins were also Communists for the F 0 B.I e
OUCH
A high-ranking official of the Government of Red China, says Edward Echols in the
Saturday Review., has been thrown into prison for deviationist tendencies• He was
found to b V Occident-prone•
SUCCESS
On a recent visit to the Soviet Union, an American businessman talked to sane workers in a factory in Kiev• "I began as a shoeshine boy," he told them, in typical
Horatio Alger style, "and today I am a millionaire." Leaning on his broom, an
elderly floorsweeper nodded his heada "I almost had a career like that too," he
sighed• "But at the 22nd Party Congress it turned out that I'd been polishing
the wrong shoes for the past 30 years!"
MISCEU.ANEOUS
1 -‫י‬
MAMA MACHINE FLOPS
Some months ago I reported that psychologist Harry F• Harlow, of the University of
Wisconsin, had created a "Mother-Machine" that baby monkeys loved• The wire-fi*ame
mother, with foam rubber and terry cloth added for softness, was equipped with a
breast to provide milk and a light bulb central heating system for warmth• Newborn monkeys, reported Dr• Harlow, were soon happy and thriving with "a mother
soft, warm and tender, a mother that never scolded its infant, and never struck
its baby in anger•" Human babies, too, suggested Dr• Harlow, might learn to love
such a substitute mother*
At the time, you may recall, I plumped bravely and boldly for real motherhood (I*m
also against sin and Communism)• Said 18 "We will accept no substitute• No
scientist is gonna make monkeys out of us!"
I needn't have bothered• The monkeys aren't gonna accept substitutes either, reports sci3nce writer Leonard Engel, in The New York Times Magazine• The more than
100 monkeys raised with the aid of these '1surrogate mothers^5 have proved to be
among the queerest monkeys ever‫ כ‬They are almost entirely asocial• A few rage
at passersby from their cages, others direct their aggressive feelings inward,
biting and mauling themselves• Many more sit hour after hour in strangely contorted positions or huddle in the corners of their cages seeming to see and hear
nothing• Noted Engel5 "They reminded me of mentally-ill children I had seen in
a visii> to a Chicago hospital a few days before•11
Although disappointed by the ultimate outcome of his experiment, Dr• Harlow now
says! "The surrogate-reared monkeys make dramatically clear the critical role of
the mothe‫ ?־‬in helping the infant to grow emotionally, and in starting the infant
on its way• In monkeys, as must also be the case in man, motherhood is not yet
dispensable•"
Shucks, I knew it all the time•
DOUBLETALK KIFG
When A1 Kelly gets up at a meeting of his union, the American Guild of Variety
Artists, everybody has to listen closely to find out if he's making a point of
order — or disorder• For Kelly, the King of Doubletalk, is a man who likes his
work•
In the AG7A News, Kelly tells of the time he spoke to an audience of judges, ambassadoFs, senators and members of the American Bar Association• They listened
respectfully as he was introduced as Professor A• L• Carson, noted antitrust
lawyer•
Kelly walked to the microphone and for five minutes extolled the virtues of democracy and the due process of law• Suddenly there was a shaking of heads and
straining of ears• Jurists leaned forward as "Prof• Carson" said in measured
sober tones ‫" ג‬And it is important to the sacred statues we serve how manistalling
witerment we can get in our thinking today• The monopolies must heed the renticlus
of our present laws•"
Lawyers are solemn folk• Fifteen minutes later, someone finally caught on• There
was a ripple of laughter, a polite hush, then a thunder of applause• And then the
accolade• Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton told the Doubletalk King, "Mr•
Kelly, if ever a man belonged in Washington, you do•"
MISCELLANEOUS - 2
OH, MT ACHING BACK
Got a Junior Red Cross aide or a boy-size would-be medic? A patent has been
issued for a new toy that's just what these budding doctors would order. It‫״‬s
called a "Doll for Selectively Exhibiting Symptoms of Illness."
Tou can move the limbs to simulate broken bones. Inflate the neck, and the poor
thing has mumps. Turn a switch, and a light inside illuminates pock marks and
fever rashes. The teeth can be taken out and put back® The tongue goes in and
out too, and can be capped with an unhealthy looking coating•
Not all is gloom, fortunately. The inventors, Anita West Bills and Dorothy S•
Clark oi Northbrook, 111., have placed a small hole in the doll's a m or leg.
That*s where you insert a toy hypodermic needle• Maybe it's easier to simply
convince our kids that we all need socialized medicine•
TOO MUCH FEDERAL CONTROL
I like social security, unemployment insurance, TV A and many other government
measures bo protect all Americans. Bub now they've gone too far• The Code of
Federal Regulations, Title 2?-Labor, Section 785•1 is entitled: Sleeping Time and
Certain. Ooher Activities. Now reallyS
WARNING ALL BUREAUCRATS
When Brooks Hays, Assistant Secretary of State, suggested to Secretary of State
Dean Ruck that the latter handle a difficult problem personally, Rusk demurred
and said a staff member could take care of it• But Hays insisted, and reinforced
his views (says Jerry Kluttz in the Washington Post) by reminding Secretary Rusk
that the Bible says: "When Jacob leaned on his staff he died•"
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Noted sociologist Clarence Senior swears he saw this sign outside a dance hall in
Nashville, Term.: GOOD CLEAN DECENT DANCING EVERY NIGHT IN THE WEEK EXCEPT SUNDAY.
SSHH
An Illinois library boasts a sign, says Publishers1 Weekly j which reads "No Friendly Conversation with the Librarian allowed." But PW adds that the Boston
Public Library has a sign which tops that: "Only Low Conversation Permitted•‫״‬
NEW FRONTIERS
Congress is ever mindful of ways to defend America at this time of national stress®
In its recent session, Representative Florence Dwyer introduced H.J. Res• 526, a
joint resolution providing for a National Mothers of Multiple Births Day• (That'll
show the Russianso) The burden of considering this weighty measure was undertaken by the House Judiciary Committee•
MXSCELLANEOTS - 3
TOUCHE
Far be it from S perry Rand to knock IBM, but the following sign, we are told, has
been posted throughout its plants: "Think—Belli Compute I"
PUN MY WORD
The Saturday Review tells the story of a beatnik mother whose infant was reading
Voltaire when a passerby snapped the book out of its hand* "You square I" cried
the mother• "That's taking Candide from a babyl"
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Little Susan's mother took her to a psychologist who asked, "Are you a little girl
or a little boy?"
"A boy," replied Susan•
"When you grow up are you going to be a man or a woman?"
"A man/' said Susan•
Noting the mother's worry over these answers, the psychologist reassured her, "Your
child is perfectly normal• Whenever a child that age is asked a silly question she
gives a silly answer•"
CONTENTED COWS
A farmer in Axmouth, England, reports the Christian Science Monitor, has installed
television sets in his barn because he found that his cows gave more milk ‫־‬while
watching television than they did while standing sullenly in the barn's dim gloom*
Just think what this might mean• In some rural areas, TV may be viewed by more
cows than people• What will happen to Nielsen ratings if cows give more milk
while watching "Frontier Circus" than they do with "Ozzie and Harriet"? There
might even come a time, suggests the Monitor, when "cows would have more to say
about program ratings than ‫־‬vice-presidents" of ad agencies•
Somehow the thought comforts me.
I don't think they can possibly do a worse job•
FIGURES OF SPEECH
Statesmen (i.e• elected politicians) are often unintentionally amusing• Take
these gems delivered by Wisconsin legislators in the last session, and printed in
the United Mine Workers Journal•
"The bankers' pockets are bulging with the sweat of the honest workingmen•"
"That was a blow between the belt*"
"This is enough to make your head stand on end."
"That's a horse of a different feather*"
"I will defend anyone's right to agree with me•"
"That's one of the best maiden speeches he's made all year•'1
"When we get to that bridge, we'll jump•"
MISCELLANEOUS - k
IT AIN'T HUMAN
It's bad enough to hear so much talk about hydrogen and neutron bombs, but now
they're overdoing tilings• The Washington Post reports that a chap named Jesse
Kauffmann of Syracuse has come up with an infernal device that switches restaurant
juke boxes to commercials when a record ends• The commercial continues until
another dime is put in the box•
WE GO TO WORK
Back when the century was young and "class war" was a phrase that accurately described relations between capital and labor, the Industrial Workers of the World
(Wobblies) popularized this chant: "We go to work to get the dough to get the
food to get the strength to go to work to get the dough, etc•" Thomas Carlyle
challenged this with "Work along is noble••• Even in the meanest sorts of Labor,
the wh03.e soul of man is composed into a kind of real harmony." Clarence Darrow
had a different answer• When a newspaper asked him on his 70th birthday to what
he attributed his success, Darrow answered cynically: "Hard work• You see, when I
was a boy9 my father put me out in the field to dig potatoes* So I decided I
would never work again and became a lawyer." Of course, Darrow also said, "I can
debate any question in the negative•"
An old friend of mine, Aaron Levenstein, notes in his new book, Why People Work —
Changing Incentives in a Trembled World (CroweH-Collier Press, 13.95), that men
have always been torn betwei'ra two views of work: one, that it is a blessing and
the other, that it is "a miserable burden imposed by an unfeeling nature and an
equally unfeeling society•" The Book of Genesis, Levenstein points out, amphasizes the view that work is a curse imposed on man for his sins "In the sweat of
thy face saalt thou eat breads" Bab necessity is only part of the human story•
We all know men who work for countless other reasons as well — pride, creativeness, 10ve9 curiosity, a sense of mission•
Levenstein offers a challenging study of what makes people tick• He laments that
professors of the humanities, who once advocated learning for its own sake, now
"compete for funds with their scientific brethren on the ground that the cultured
is a weapon in the cold war • It is — but what happens to us when we amphasize that a knife can be used for murder and subordinate its values as an instrument for surgery? We tend to reshape the scalpel, then, into a dagger•11
ALL BY MYSELF
Wherein lies responsibility for society's ills? When Norman Thomas several years
ago criticized this generation for its fatalism and apathy, a young listener argued
that it was the fault of the kind of world youth had inherited® This, notes
Murray Seidler in Norman Thomas * Respectable Rebel (Syracuse University Press,
$5.50), reminded Thomas of the religious mother whose son liked to fight• She used
to tell him, "Jimmy, when you think of fighting, remember that it's the Devil
that's telling you to fight•" He said, "Yes, mother•" So she went downtown - and
when she came back she pulled Jimmy off the neighbor boy, Johnny. And she said,
"Jimmy, Jimmy, didn't I tell you that when you feel like fighting it was the Devil,
and you should say, 'Get thee behind me, Satan'?‫״‬
"Yes, mother, it's true the Devil told me to hit him, but I thought of kicking
him all by myself•"
MISC2XLANE0US - $
WHO'S REASONABLE?
"The reasonable man," George Bernard Shaw once trenchantly observed, "adapts him*
self to the world• The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to
himself• Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man•"
SMALL WORLD
Ray Nasher of Dallas tells us that his 9-year-old daughter wrote a composition for
school entitled, "The Universe and Other Things•"
MAN VS. MACHINE
Ever since the Luddites in Britain a hundred and fifty years ago wrecked machines
and burned factories, man has been trying unsuccessfully to fight against labor••
saving mashinery• We can't lick automation but it is nice to know that some m m
are ingenious enough to cope with some of its harassment•
The Saturday Review tells of a "professor who tried desperately to resign from a
book club only to be hounded by new books and perforated billing cards every month!
in spito of his frenzied pleas• His ultimate solution was to punch several new
holes in a card,, returning it to the book club without comment© He's been
liberated every since•"
If you can't lick em,, join 'em, I always say•
THOUGHT C? THE MONTH
Longshoreman philosopher Eric Hoffer reminds us that "Rudeness is the weak man's
imitation of strength•"
POSTERITY
Senators in Washington have tried a variety of ways to squelch filibusterers, but
they'll have to go some to top the remark of Henry Clay, more than a century ago•
When a boring, tedious Alexander Smyth observed in Congress: "You, sir, speak for
the present generation; but I speak for posterity," Clay replied: "Yes, and you
seem resolved to speak until the arrival of your audience•"
QUOTE
To make any dream come true you need first to wake up• —
ing star•
Leslie Uggams, TV sing-
PEOPLE IN GLASS HOUSES
A i|2nd Street theatre marque, says Local 1199‫י‬s Drug News, advertised this double
feature: GO NAKED IN THE WORLD and LOOK INTO MY WINDOW•
MISCELLANEOUS - 6
SNEAKIER THAN THE SWCRD?
We hear that Channel Press editors are still in a dither about an order for one
copy of their new writers' handbook, "More Language That Needs Watching," by
Theodore M. Bernstein of the New York Times• The order came from the Central
Intelligence Agency•
STRANGER THAN FICTION
Can you multiply 51321*37201 by 1*5273650278$ and get the right answer within seventy
seconds - 23236U1669H4U37U10U785^ Neither can 1• But a nine-year-old boy, who
had previously failed in arithmetic, was able to accomplish this after studying
the magical Trachtenberg system of mathematics•
That method is not only speedy but simple and makes lightning calculation almost
as easy as reading a story• It looks like sheer wizardry, but its rules are based
on sound logic, ably expounded in a new book, The Trachtenberg Speed System of
Basic Mathematics• (Doubleday, $iw95*)
As fascinating as the mathematical system itself is the story of how it was developed Jakow Trachtenberg, a Russian engineer, who fled to Berlin after the Soviet
revolution, spoke out courageously against fascism and, when Hitler rose to power,
once mors had to run for his life, this time to Vienna® After Hitler took over
Austria, Trachtenberg was shipped to a concentration camp, where he remained until
19hk»
To keep his sanity, Trachtenberg moved into the logical world of numbers• He devised shortcuts for everything from multiplication to algebra, working everything
in his head, putting down on scarce bits of paper only the finished theories•
Finally, he invented a fool-proof system to make it possible for even a child to
add thousands of number together without making a mistake•
Shortly b3.fore the war ended, he managed to escape to Switzerland, where he established th:: Mathematical Institute in Zurich• The Trachtenberg system is used in
Swiss banks, business firms and in the tax department• Will it become popular
here? I don't know, but when my son brought the book into his sixth-grade class,
he found that his teacher had already ordered a copy to try out its principles•
0133 GRANDAD
A mellow touch was added to the Congressional scene by Rep• Joseph Addako (D•, NY),
reports the GOP's Battle Line• Rep. Addabo wants the first Sunday after labor Day
designated as " Old Grandad Day," in tribute to grandfathers throughout America•
Says Battle Line drily, "The bill is bottled up in committee•"