Newspaper Page Text
Page 6
THE MAROON TIGER
From The Nation’s
The End Of Forebearance
United Nations Notes: In
the hours after President
Kennedy’s decision on Cuba
the inevitable pettiness of
mankind appeared. The
curious Goldwater conser
vative party in New York
produced speaker who
screamed denunciation of
Kennedy's weakness and de
manded immediate invasion
of Cuba and the military
destruction of communism.
Here and there in the
country were persons so
politically partisan and nar
row of vision that they
thought of the decision only
in terms of politics. There
were others blessed with
second sight who insisted
the embargo should have
come much earlier. But the
overwhelming reaction of
most Americans was one
of shock and the realistic
conclusion that “it had to
come; better now than to
have learned of the nuclear
weapons after they were in
stalled and plentiful.
At the United Nations the
spectacle of the grim
struggle between the world’s
two military and economic
giants attracted the minds
and fears of most of man
kind. Red China's momen
tous aggression against India
became, for time being, at
least, a gory and meaning
ful side show. This small
war with so vast a potential
previously had held all with
a morbid sort of fascination.
That India, the professional
neutralist who had explained
away her own military con
quest of Goa as a moral
self-interest move, is now
at war with her neighbor
lessened the shock of the
United States-Soviet con
frontation. This Asian blood
letting prevents some of the
more hypocritical and self-
righteous opportunists in the
U. N. from concentrating on
the Kennedy decision.
U. N. Record
The United Nations was
created 17 years ago. It has
a record of accomplishments
and of failure. It has a
charter, which the Soviet
Union signed, pledging mem
bers against aggression. In
those 17 years there has
been slow erosion of the
charter's principle. That
Russia should in fact as
sume direction of the Cuban
government and staff it with
military and techinal ad
visers and managers and
create there a nuclear strik
ing base of enormous po
tential is an affront not
merely to the charter but to
the demands of national sur
vival. The United States
could no longer restrain
counteraction. Once Soviet
nuclear bases were in fact
placed permanently in Cuba
and further augmented by
mobile firing pads for 1,000-
mile-range missiles,
neither the United States nor
any nation south of her would
have been able long to en
dure.
With a base of such power
in Cuba, "Castro” revolu
tions would have been creat
ed and supplied in Latin
countries. Once a great many
of these flames were rag
ing they would have been
quite out of the control of
the United States or their
own peoples. With Soviet
ICBM missiles in Russia,
East Germany, and in Po
land, the United States and
many other areas of the
Western hemisphere for
years have been in the enemy
target. If the newer Cuban
bases had been added, the
position of nations in the
Western hemisphere soon^spiritual splace even as the
would have been doubly
flanked by the ultimate
power.
Brazen Move
It was a brazen move to so
try to establish a major
Soviet nuclear base that
brought a patient United
States to what Adlai Steven
son described in the Secu
rity Council as an end to the
day of forbearance. Mr. Ste
venson related how we
watched Castro betray his
own revolution into total
itarianism, how he was free
to join the Soviet bloc, to
accept defensive weapons
with impunity, and welcome
thousands of Soviet techni
cians and military experts.
But when he turned his coun
try over to the Soviet Union
for a long-range missile
base, then the day of forbear
ance ended. So we come from
/the indispitable evidence of
photographs of the Russians
building their bases in Cuba
to the hour of decision. These
photographs were shown to
NATO and OAS members
soon after the President’s
speech; the effect was de
scribed as electric.
There will be no turning
back. If war comes it will
be one which will be horrible
beyond compare, but the
alternative was to sit and
wait for the enemy to make
world victory and enslave
ment inevitable. Only that
is worse than nuclear war.
A Matter of Life
and Death
A nation is not a juxta
position of individuals. It is
a society based on commun
ion of minds, union of hearts.
India for centuries has been
the mother to all those who
made this country their home
and helped them by providing
intellectual nourishment and
mother who lets each one of
her children find in her the
comfort that each individual
ly needs.
In our national concerns
we adopt democracy not
merely as a political ar
rangement, but as a moral
temper. It is of a piece with
our great traditional habits
of behavior. Freedom has no
meaning save in the context
of equality and there can be
no equality without economic
justice. These are not pos
sessions to be defended but
goals to be reached.
We have often lapsed from
our goals and suffered in
consequence. In a mood of
humility and national re
pentance we should strive to
correct our past mistakes,
remove indignities which we
have imposed on our fellow
men and march forward. We
cannot move into the future
by walking backwards.
Our way is very different
today and we have to adjust
ourselves to the traditional
revolution which is in pro
gress. It poses for us the
greatest problem of our age,
the matter of survival of the
human race.
At the same time, it pro
vides a great opportunity for
all us to take a moral step
forward and enter into the
new phase of human history.
It is a question not so much
of freedom or slavery, as of
the life or death of ourcivili-
Southern Conference
Educational Fund, Inc.
CLARKSDALE, Miss. — Two students from Michigan
were jailed when they arrived here with food, clothing,
and medicine for Negroes being harassed for trying to vote.
Local police said the ship-
charged Donaldson and Tay
lor with possession of nar
cotics.
Bond was set at $15,000
apiece and they were held
in jail pending action by the
Coahoma County grand jury.
National civil rights groups
began protests and legal ac
tion to free them.
Among those calling upon
the U. S. Attorney General
for help was Methodist Bis
hop Edgar A. Love, Balti
more, president of the Sou
thern Conference Educa
tional Fund (SCEF), New Or
leans. SCEF was one of the
groups that sponsored the
relief shipment.
The Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
(SCLC), Atlanta, headed by
Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.,
asked the Department of
ment included narcotics do
nated by doctors in Louis
ville, Ky., from whence the
truckload of material was
sent. The physicians swore
that there were no sedatives
or narcotics in the truck
when it left Louisville.
Ivanhoe Donaldson and
Benjamin Taylor, both 21,
were arrested after their
arrival at the Fourth Street
Drug Store, operated by
Aaron Henry, state NAACP
president. The store is a
receiving station for aid to
starving people in the Delta
area of Mississippi.
The young men arrived
at the store before it was
open, so they went to sleep
to wait for Henry. Police
found them, took them to
headquarters, and searched
the truck. Officers then
zation. We love life and
should therefore believe in-
the holiness of life. This
faith would give us the
strength to overcome moral
inertia.
We should not put national
security above world
security. The absolute
sovereign Nation State is
outmoded. Behind all na
tional interests there is an
irreducible minimum of
values which are the posses
sions of all mankind.
All human beings wish to
live and therefore need
things which are essential
for life. They wish to live
well. They need certain
ideas, philosophical convic
tions, ethical postulates and
political aspirations.
All men can be freed from
political subjection, econo
mic slavery, and social in
equalities. On the basis of
community of society which
will protect national values
and preserve would security.
If moral imperatives do not
shape the pattern of our be
havior, national and inter
national, there will be fear
for the future.
Justice to investigate.
Donaldson and Taylor
were arrested on their
second trip to Mississippi
during Christmas week.
They first delivered a truck-
load of goods from Michigan
Friends of the Student Non
violent Coordinating Com
mittee (SNCC), at Ann Ar
bor. Donaldson and Taylor
are students at Michigan
State University, East Lans
ing, and Donaldson works
with SNCC.
After delivering the first
load, the two returned to
Louisville to pick up food
and clothing collected under
auspices of SCEF; the Stud
ent Nonviolent Action Com
mittee (SNAC), Louisville
affiliate of SNCC, and Louis
ville CORE.
Dr. Marshall King of
Louisville had directed the
gathering of medical sup
plies to go along with the
shipment. Dr. King said that
he and a druggist checked
the material carefully to
make sure there were no
objectional drugs.
In Clarksdale, Henry said
he thought the police object
ed to the food and clothing
as much as anything. He
noted that aid to the hard-
pressed Negroes here will
cripple efforts of plantation
owners to discourage regis
tration and voting.
He declared that police
were looking for something
to charge the students with,
and “they’re using it against
the total freedom move
ment.”
Henry said he hopes that
people elsewhere will con
tinue to send relief to this
area, where thousands are
on the verge of starvation
FEBRUARY 1, 1963
Press
I'M GIVING TO THE
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
THIS YEAR.
MAYBE SOME YEAR
IT WON'T BE NECESSARY.
This space contributed by the publisher
because of the voter-regis
tration drive. He also asked
friends everywhere to seek
action by the Federal
Government to aid the suf
ferers and to stop harass
ment of persons trying to
help.
“Let tons of material be
the answer of the civil-rights
movement to this latest
harassment by Mississippi,”
he said.
BUSHED?
STAY
AWAKE
TAKE
ALERTNESS
CAPSULES
Combat fatigue almost im
mediately. Keeps you alert
and full of pep for hour after
hour, after hour.
Continuous Action Capsules.
Completely safe
Non-habit forming
NO PRESCRIPTION NEEDED