Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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JIM FARRELL EDITOR LUCRETIA JONES DAVE LUNDGREN MANAGING ED.. AD. MNGR. EDITORIALS People should decide amnesty A Vietnam amnesty has been proposed to President Nixon. In The Oct. 9 "New Republic," James Reston Jr., author of "To Defend, To Destroy,"' set the proposal forth, urging its acceptance by Nixon. In effect, if the proposal were validated, all draft dodgers, draft violators and deserters would be granted amnesty by the U. S. government and would be allowed to return to America and revive the life style that had been interrupted by the military. Reston places all the authority in the matter to the president's office. Notwithstanding the other aspects of the amnesty, this segment is questionable. After all, why leave it in the president's hands even though there is clear precedent in favor of it. Indeed, after the Civil War, am nesty was granted to the Confederate forces, high officers excepted. The Civil War amnesty was "general amnesty." It included stipulations. But why not take the amnesty out of the president's hands and put it in the people's? Instead of declaring amnesty by presidential order, why not hold a national referendum? Just what would the passage of the referendum achieve? Much: Presently, according to Reston, there are "over 50,000 American exiles in Canada. Members of the Canadian Parliament expect this figure to reach 150,000 before the war and the draft are over. The F BI received 146,554 draft violation complaints between 1966 and 1970. .. over 89,000 American soldiers deserted the military in 1970. In 1968 723 men were in federal prisons for draft related convictions."Amnesty for these men would mean thousands of America's sons could return to the country they loved, but had to leave because it had alienated their consciences by what it had become. Susggestion: as a condition of the amnesty, the men could serve in a domestic service, such as VISTA, a ghetto work or environmental service. This would not serve as a penalty, fbr most have probably suffered enough even though they shouldn't have been forced to, but it would serve as a means for the men to help build up the country in a very positive manner. Our times Jackson t BY SMITH HEMPSTONE Columnist For the man from Snohomish County, March 14, 1972, is the red letter day of his long and honorable career. Because if he cannot win and win big--in Florida's Democratic presidential primary, Henry M. ("Scoop") Jackson, one of the lwt Democrats best placed to beat Richard Nixon in 1972 (the other being Teddy Kennedy), can kiss goodbye his hopes of winning his party's nomination. The junior solon from Washington, whose foes--because of his ardent support of the SST like to call "the Senator from Boeing," know this as well as the next man. And for this reason it is likely he will skip the New Hamp shire primary, the nation's first, which takes place a week earlier. Jackson can afford to concede New Hampshire to Senator Ed mund Muskie of Maine for basically the same reason that Muskie can let Oregon go by default to Jackson: For reasons of geographical contiguity, Muskie is virtually a favorite son in New Hampshire, as Jackson is in Oregon. But Florida is neutral ground for both men and, in a sense which New Hampshire and Oregon are not, a microcosm of the nation. The Sunshine State has a heavy Jewish and Spanish-speaking population in the Miami area, with pockets of blacks there and throughout other counties. There is a considerable blue-collar vote in the urban areas and a conservative rural con stituency in the northern part of the state. In short, the Florida results will provide the best early indication of the relative national strengths of the various Democratic presidential hopefuls. Only a few short months ago, the 59-year-old Jackson was con ACTION (Editor's note: This is the first in a series of two columns written by ACTION Director Joseph H.' Blatchford.) "University Year for ACTION" is the government's latest - and potentially broadest - response to the hundreds of thousands of young people now ready and eager to make their lives count for something. This fall, approximately 500 students from 11 universities and colleges will enroll in school and then, without reporting for classes, set to work on the problems of poverty in nearby communities. How many more do so next year is up to students, faculties, and ad ministrators of our other colleges and universities. We believe many more should. For, by joining "University Year for ACTION," universities can loosen their embrace on their students, tear down the walls that keep the students in and the greater world out, and break the Isolation which has -estranged so many campuses from the broader community in recent years. "University Year for ACTION" will a enable medical students from the University of Nebraska to deliver health services to migrant laborers, business majors from Pepperdine College to help black owned and operated businesses succeed in Watts, and education students from the University of Colorado to help Indians in South Dakota develop their own unique educational avataan ests natioir sidered the darkest of horses in a field containing such unlikely starters as Senators George McGovern, Fred Harris and Birch Bayh. But in recent weeks the well financed Jackson, with his 30-year record of liberalism at home and anti-Communism abroad, has come on strong, and the public opinion polls are beginning to reflect his new stature. For those to whom legitimacy and continuity are important, it all makes sense. For Jackson, like Muskie and Humphrey but more so, is in the direct line of ideological descent from FDR and Truman, from Jack Kennedy and LBJ. Jackson is clean as a hound's tooth on civil rights, as his record in both the House and the Senate shows. Although George Meany denies he is personally and irrevocably committed to Jackson, it is well known that organized labor is solidly behind the senator from Washington. Because of his hawkish stance on the Middle East, Jackson has been described as "Israel's Number One choice for president," which eases the task of his fund-raisers and gives him a solid base of support in key states such as Florida and New York. Although his advocacy of the SST unquestionably cost him the support of many environmental freaks, he is the only politician ever to have received a Sierra Club Award. Jackson has strong support from the veterans' lobby, industrialists and the military establishment. His youthful appearance, a photogenic wife and a young family (children eight and five) go a long way toward discounting any problem posed by Jackson's makes lii And while doing all this, students will not be delaying their own careers, but will be enriching them with practical experience. Full academic credit up to 30 hours will be awarded for a full year's voluntary service. Student volunteers will receive a modest subsistence allowance, varying with community living costs. The average monthly allowance will be $185. The volunteers also receive paid medical insurance. But for many students, par ticularly married students with families or students who have no financial resources, participation will require a significant personal financial -sacrifice. Volunteers work full time and are prohibited from securing part-time or summer employment. To mitigate the financial hard ship for students who otherwise would receive scholarship aid or who rely on part time a.nd summer employment to ~finance their Gain The GAME COCK is puolished tri-weel with the exception of University holiday forms, subscrIption requests and other USC, Columbia, S.C. SubscriptIon rat4 semesters. Bulk copies are $o per 100 $50,000 from the student actIvity fund scription to the paper. Offices of the GA A Russell House on the UnIversity campu 3666. Second class postage paid at Coiun' publication of the students of the Univers publIcation of the University. The opinli represent those of the UniversIty, the st GAMECQCK. ial image relatively advanced age. Admired by presidents as disparate as Kennedy (who wanted him for his vice president) and Nixon (who offered him the secretaryship of Defense), Jackson in many ways would seem to be the ideal can didate. Why, then, despite his recently developed momentum, does Jack son still rate as a longshot who must win in Florida in March and then go on to capture California's 271 delegates in that state's win ner-take-all June primary if he is to have any chance at all? Jackson lacks the national image which Muskie, Humphrey and Kenndedy have. And he is not the most inspiring of speakers. But the truth is that the absolutists of the left (to employ Jackson's phrase, and it is a good and ac curate one) are out to get Jackson because they regard him as a cold warrior, a hawk who committed the unpardonable sin of supporting ihe Vietnam policies of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. So opposed to Jackson is the freak fringe of the Democratic party that many of its members threaten to field their own can didate (perhaps Bayh), which almost certainly--although Jackson would deny this-would throw the 1972 election to Nixon. Ironically, the man best placed to torpedo Jackson in Florida-, thus ending the threat of a split in the Democratic party, is party bolting George Wallace. If Wallace enters the Florida primary, his populist appeal could drain off enough of Jackson's support in the conservative northern part of the state to give the victory to Muskie or Humphrey. And Jackson deserves better than that. COPYRIGHT 1971 THE WASHINGTON STAR :e count education, ACTION will set aside $50 a month in escrow to be paid to these volunteers on completion of 12 months service in the program. Any student, undergraduate or graduate, enrolled in a par ticipating university is eligible for the program. The university itself will seek out work assignments in poverty areas, looking to the poverty organizations and low income people themselves to define the areas where assistance is needed. "University Year for ACTION" is a partial fulfillment of a pledge President Nixorl made in January to students at the University of Nebraska. "University Year for ACTION" is a major attempt to forge that alliance. But beyond "University Year for ACTION" are other initiatives which must be con sidered if we are to provide young people with the equipnwent to make our world a more fit place in which to live. ecock ly during the fall and spring semesters i and exam periods. Changes of address 'nali Items should be sent to Drawer A, 5s are $3 per semester or $6 for both The GAMECOCK this year received entiling full-time students to a sub 4E COCK are in Rooms 316 and 316 of the i. Phones are 777.8176, 777-4249 and 777 bia, S.C. Atthough the GAME COCK is a ity of South Carolina, it is not an official ins expressed herein do not necessarily udent bod, or all saff mem-r of th