University of South Carolina Libraries
TARNISHED HALO Those of us who speak out from time to time in opposition to socialism expect to hear the retort “Look at Sweden.” Very well. Let’s look at Sweden. That nation is endowed with large de posits of minerals, extensive water power, vast forests, a population al most wholly homogenous and 95 per cent literate, There is a large, skilled working force, a network of modern transportation; its industrial complex suffered no damage in two world wars. Surely these are ideal condi tions for building Utopia, f" Last November was the 35th anni- i versary of the Social Democrats’ ac- i cession to power in Sweden. But things i haven’t worked out as the planners j planned. Numerous news stories in j recent years have indicated growing j problems for Sweden’s Great Society, j In its summer. 1968 issue. "Modern | Age” reviews some.of these problems: j the current waiting period for an j apartment in Stockholm is ten to ^eleven years—repeat, years. A wide spread black market has developed with payments as high as $4,000 per apartment. "Overutilization of medi- j cal facilities has contributed to a cat- astrophical lag in the care of the ill in Sweden," the survey states. Many have been unable to obtain necessary | operations for years. Education has : been considered primarily a political ] matter by the regime, according to • some University professors. A high ’ school teacher declared: "Sweden is : becoming a culturally impoverished • country in which an anti-cultural men-] totality is almost fashionable.” Contrary to the claims of the theor- ~7sts. "cradle-to-grave” security has ; not solved the nation’s social prob- ; lems. There nave been numerous in- i i stances of lawless mobs. The crime rate ; has increased 97 percent from 1950 to I 1965 ; 80 percent of all violent crimes ; have Oeen committed by persons und- I der the intluence of alcohol. The Swed- : ish suicide rate is 80 percent higher ; than in the United States, and is one i of the highest in the world. There :Jias been a startling increase in drug use and addiction. Labor troubles are ■increasing; taxes have about reached ther limit, but still do not provide all Uhe "welfare" that is being demanded. j If socialism has not flourished in jthe ideal soil of Sweden, perhaps our ;home-bre<? spod^Rr^ ar^TSeTrig 'hasfy in ^establishing it here. Maybe they jshould wait and watch the Swedish ^experiment through the next 35 years. « J MAO S BEST-SELLER From time to time there appears in the press a story date-lined Peking which asserts that the book “Thoughts of Mao Tse-tung” has reached a new plateau in sales and readership and bids to be the most widely read vol ume in all history. It was only a few months ago that the little red book was a sort of status symbol on certain campuses in this country. But it is the expensively produced Peking edition that has had the wid est distribution. There s a color pic ture of Mao in the front, the binding is red leather, and the paper is rice paper, a fancy grade customarily re served for high-priced books such as dictionaries and the like. In our country the Peking edition couldn’t be produced for the $1 selling price. But in Red China all things are possible, if Mao deigns to put slave labor to the task. The latest episode in the saga of "Thoughts of Mao Tse-tung" is not making news in Peking, however. For that reason only, it deserves a bit of space here. In recent months Red China has been fomenting trouble in Burma. Rebel Kachim Hills tribes men have been raiding villages and generally spreading Communist ter ror. The Government of Burma has mounted a campaign to liquidate the Kachim Hills terrorists. Peking brag ged not long ago about how popular the famous red book was among the tribesmen, and how those same terror ists were employing it to seduce the citizenry of northern Burma. There were reports of huge quantities of the little book being shipped to the Com munist-supported “liberating forces.” Only a few days ago the Burmese army captured a rather large con tingent of the terrorists. They did. indeed, find that Mao’s little red book was a popular item. Almost every Communist had a copy. But none of the copies was intact . All had pages missing. The Communist troops weren’t inspired by the thoughts on the pages. They were using those pages as cigaret paper. Hundreds of the expensive red leather covers were found in the trash in the camp, each-ahawrirng evidence that the pages had been stripped out one at a time, by soldiers who "rolled their own.” Poor Mao’s thoughts had gone up in smoke . The Other Side ^ The August issue of The American Legion Magazine carried an article reporting on a Defense Department survey concerning the number of erican servicemen who have sought haven in foreign countries in order to ,pe their military obligations. b it revealed that of all the thou- ds of GI’s in various posts around globe, a mere 282 have sought asy lum in other nations to elude the au thorities. Of these 282 only 181 were utizens of the United States. Fifty of them have already returned to face the music. In the same two-year period cover ed by the survey prepared for Con gress more than 25,000 European-bas ed soldiers have volunteered to go on active duty in Vietnam. During the same period, more than 60,000 of the young Americans in that war zone have requested extension of their tour of duty for a minimum of six months beyond the normal one year of combat More Tanks On Czech Soil Rockitty, Rock, Rock... The Vanishing Trains 10_THE CHRONICLE, Clinton, S. C., Sept. 12. 1968 UNITED STATES SENATOR ERNEST f. HOLUNOS REPORTS TO SOUTH CAROLINA POLICE BRUTALITY September fi, 1968 WELLESLEY HILLS, MASS.- Scarcely a month now foes by without announcement of further curtailments in railroad passen ger service in the United States. Already, direct passage for peo ple by rail between many of the nation’s leading cities is but a memory and further cuttiacks are in the offing. CHALLENGE Decline of railroad passenger service is the result of a num ber of developments. These in- dode: Wider acceptance of tra vel by auto; growth of long-dis tance bus service; competi tion from the airlines; sharply higher wage and other costs which impelled rail managements to fa vor the money-making freight sector of their business; and the heavy hand of government con trols. vice will never again be as per vasive and extensive as it was in the early decades of this cen tury, it can and should be a vital link in our over-all transporta tion system. Public convenience demands this and there are economic benefits that will flow from a rejuvenation of such ser vice in sectors of the country where the need for it can be shown and where government and public support for it will be forth coming. The federal government must play a leading role in any such move. The Department ofTrans- portation already has broad re sponsibility in this area, and in the years immediately ahead we may expect to see that respon sibility expanded. We are a na tion of 200 million already, and still growing. There is a place for every type of transport with in our borders. Instead of the hodge-podge we have today with its self-defeating inadequacies and unhealthy competitiveness, we can have a well-inter gated system beneficial to all—in which rail passenger service will have its own secure and profitable niche. The gift of America to civilized society is its republic form of government — repre sentative government. Under girded by the freedoms of speech, religion, press, and as sembly—and capped by Frank lin Roosevelt’s freedom from f ear — W e have attained new heights in civil rights and civil justice. But now disrespect for government, disrespect for law and order, like Samson, is about to tear down the temple and ruin us all. For this is the lesson of Chicago. For me it started when Na tional Leaders appeared on TV and commented, with ap proval, that when government doesn’t respond, those with grievances have no recourse but to take them to the streets. This gave marchers official sanction—and to the politician a challenge. Rather than perform the duties of his office or enforce the law, now it was up to him to show con cern and identify with the cause. Find out which way the demonstration was headed and then run up and lead the parade. It made no difference if Communists and militants mingled in. It made no differ ence that laws and court in junctions were being violated. The Supreme Court called it symbolic free speech, and the President intoned, “We shall overcome.” And in no event was the politician to be caught on the side of the policeman. Thus in the riot in Detroit, the Mayor, the Governor, and the President all vacillated over their prime responsibility as chief law enforcement officers. This virus spread to the Con gress, which has always har bored a great distrust for local government. The poverty pro gram, i.e. Office of Economic Opportunity, is the best ex ample. The OEO idea is to dis regard the mayor and city council, disregard the county, the health and welfare official —form a citizens group. In this way the poor was to re ceive relief in the form of “in stant government.” With no one accountable to the public vote, however, poveity officials received most of the money, with the poor being denied. And never has there been such waste and scandal. The seed and plant of disrespect and disregard for the orderly proc esses of government continued to grow. Before long the non violent turned to violent, the Communists joined to turn parade into panic; and all the chickens came home to roost in Chicago. The parade started in New Hampshire with high hopes for peace and new leadership. As it crossed America it was joined by the poor and “new politics.” By the time it reached Chicago, there lay in waiting the professional agita tor, and professed Commu nist as David Dellinger. There congregated a bearded, dirty, lawless rabble using every sort of provocation against the police and national guardsmen, spitting in their faces, vile taunts, lye solu tions, bricks and human waste. They blocked street in tersections, blocked traffic, tried to charge the hotels, and charged police lines estab lished for the safety of everyone. With this sort of anarchy, it is remarkable that not a single life was lost. For enforcing law and order, the police deserve congratulations rather than criticism. Instead, the news media and many offi cials seem intent on giving the police a black eye—just when they deserve and need the support of our citizenry. There isn’t a police force in the country that is not under manned and overworked and underpaid. The policeman must be dedicated to stick with this job, and the only way he can succeed is with an under standing citizenry. There must be respect for authority. The President, the Senator, the Governor, the Mayor, and those in positions of public trust must quit deriding the police, and stand for repre sentative government. When pacifist and student protester join in the streets with the violent and the Communist to have their way, police force must he used to protect life and property. You shouldn’t call for law and order—get it —and then shout “police bru tality.’’ Finally, the rignt of petition guaranteed by our forefathers contemplated peti tioning in the halls of govern ment, not the streets of America. And when college students are led into the jaws of David Dellinger at Grant Park, this is political brutality. Each of these drawbacks is serious. Collectively, they have almost spelled the end of rail passenger service in the nation. Are they insurmountable ob stacles, instead of a challenge to free enterprise? Time is run ning out, but perhaps it is not too late to save the railroads from extinction or from govern ment ownership. NEED FOR ECONOMY Concentration on their lucra tive freight runs will not in it self assure the rails a profit able future featured by expand ing business. Their break-even points are high and still moving . .hamstrung by government controls. Their competition from highway,, water, and air trans port is increasing by leaps and bounds— and hurting in a grow ing number of instances. Their need for expensive equipment and maintenance is continuing and ex panding. The only real hope for the rail roads is a concerted campaign to reduce costs, curb the excess de mands of labor, and improve pro ductivity. Without this economy and more efficient management, it just isn’t going to be possible in the long run to operate with a profit large enough to attract suf ficient investor interest And failure would probably bring gov ernment ownership. MANAGEMENT’S RESPONSIBILITY In many instances the abandon ment of passenger service was (he inevitable result of circum stances beyond the control of railroad managements. But there have bean quite a good many cases, too, where cut-offs and cartaBments could have been a- votded if the roads had exercis ed more responsibility and been less eager to divest themselves of passenger service. Railroad managements could have fought harder to preserve economically useful and feasible wgimntg of their passenger ser vice. They can still make a mighty caatrfbutton to medium-haul putmagar service, which needs to be restructured to relieve the bur dea placed on airline facili ties In recent years. GOVERNMENT’S ROLE WhOa railroad passenger ser- Everyday Counselor Auto License Forms Mailed Most motor vehicle owners In South Carolina received vehicle license application forms for new licenses from the State Highway Department by Tuesday, Septem ber 3. Over-the-counter applications for new licenses may be made at any vehicle license office in the state. Vehicle owners may save 30 cents In postage by tak ing advantage of the 'over-the- counter'’ license service. Fur thermore, the applicant will be assured of getting his plates ear lier. Owners who have purchased a different automobile or tuck dur ing the year may not receive an application form through the malt They most fill out the nec- mail. They must fill out the ne cessary forms at the Highway De partment before a license plate Is issued. New 1969 plates for automo biles range from an “A* class up through “G* class. There are other series for trucks, motor cycles and other type vehicles. Letter prefixes designate the ap plicable weight of vehicles re gistered. However, trucks are li censed for maximum per- missable loads, as indicated on the plates issued. New plates are powder blue with white numerals, which is the reverse of the 1967 plates which were blue letters on a white background. A different shade of blue was used. The 1966 plates were white on blue. First time blue was used on a South Caro lina license plate was 11 years ago. The 1957 plates were white on blue. The 1968 plates are black and white. * BY DR. HERBERT SPAUGH All of us at times are in volved in embarrassing situa tions. Fortunate is he who has enough of a sense of humor to extricate himself. If personally embarrassed to the extent that others may laugh at him, he had better join the crowd and laugh at himself. I recall a situation which be fell me sometime ago as I was filling an engagement to preach and preside at the Holy Commun ion in one of our churches. In my denomination we wear a spe cial white robe for the adminis tration of the Holy Communion. This engagement had been made verbally and without a written letter of confirmation, and so I forgot that I was to preside at Holy Communion and had not brought my white robe along. When the minister of the church asked me where my robe was, I confessed I had forgotten, but I told him I would simply wear the extra white robe which most of our churches have for visit ing clergy. When I went into his office at the church to try the robe on, I found that it was too long and the belt was too tight for me. He brought out another belt which was a little longer and which I could fasten if I walked very erect. The vest was fastened with, snaps. He pinned up the sleeves and I went into the service. I walked in very erectly and sat down. Then I relaxed and I heard the snaps pop, and I knew I was in trouble. I thought I would simply slip the belt off and let the weight of the robe take care of it from the shoulders. I rolled up the belt and slipped it under my chair on the lower platform. In due time, I was called upon to preach, and so I went to the upper platform and into the pul pit. I hoped no one would notice the absence of the belt, but my minister-host did, picked it up and handed it up to me in the full view of the congregation. The congregation tittered, and I was embarrassed. Then I decided to tell the truth and so confessed to them that I had forgotten to bring my own white robe and that I felt like David in Saul’s armor. The whole tense situation re laxed, we chuckled about it, and I went along as if nothing had happened. Fortunately, I didn't even trip over the long robe. This brings to mind another embarrassing situation I en countered in a Philadelphia pul pit where I was preaching for a week’s Lenten services. I left home with a cold which by mid week had turned into laryngitis. I conserved my voice and took medication, and got off to a good start. The more I spoke the more my throat closed up. The fact that a little lady in the front pew before me was holding her hands to her ears and calling “louder, louder* didn’t help any. FinaUy, in the midst of my ser mon, my voice completely closed. Fortunately, I had a manuscript, so I turned to my host minister who was seated nearby, handed him my manuscript and whis pered, “My dear brother, you will have to finish. I can’t.’ The con gregation which had been strain ing with me relaxed. He smiled, took the manuscript and finished the sermon. I should add that I never go into the pulpit without saying a brief prayer to the dear Lord to help me through what He wants me to do and say. SPENDING — “I led an un successful fight in the Public Works Committee to kill a bill that would provide money to acquire a site for a new Senate Office Building (esti mated cost, $30 million). This legislation was approved by a 12 to 7 vote in Committee. I hope to have more success on the floor of the House,” said Rep. James Cleveland (R - N. H.) “It seems incongruous at a time like this to be spend ing money to further this sort of project.” ‘