The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, January 07, 1971, Image 2
PAGE 2—The Newberry Sun, Newberry, S. C., Thursday, January 7, 1971
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SENATOR STROM
THURMOND
REPORTS TO THE
PEOPLE
TWO CANALS
Attention is now focused upon
the two great artificial water
ways of the world, the Suez
Canal and the Panama Canal.
The Suez Canal has long been
closed by Egypt, while the Pan
ama Canal has never been closed
willfully by the United States.
By a strange twist of fate,
the nation that most desires the
opening of the Suez Canal is
Egypt’s ally, the Soviet Union.
Once the Suez Canal is opened,
the land-locked Soviets will at
last have control over the vvarm-i
water route from the Black Sea
through the Suez Canal and the
Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.
Soviet ships are already on sta
tion at Port Sudan and Aden;
they are rapidly increasing their
presence in the Indian Ocean,,
driving their range of influence
down around the Cape of Good
Hope and into the Atlantic.
Thus, in time of war, the enor-1
mous Soviet fleet will be free to
roam the seas at large.
NARROW WATERWAYS
The prospect of this develop
ment shows us the strategic im
portance of holding control over
the narrow waterways of the
world. For just as the Soviets
have been striving to get effec
tive control over the Suez, at the
same time they have sought to
undermine United States control
over the Panama Canal.
It is highly disturbing, there
fore, that a Presidential Com
mission appointed by President
Johnson in 1964 has just deliv
ered an elaborate study with
conclusions which would require
the United States to give up its
sovereignty in the U.S. Canal
Zone, and build a new sea-level
canal under international con
trol.
The new Canal recommended
would cost $2.8 billion and be
excavated by conventional
means. But, most important, it
would require the negotiation of
new treaties, giving Panama
participation in the operation,
income, and control of the
Canal. The Commission argues
that such an arrangement would
be less vulnerable to radical agi
tation in Panama, and therefore
easier to defend.
LOST RIGHTS
But the example of the Suez
Canal reminds us that once the
British and the French gave up
the rights of sovereignty and
ownership, the so-called treaty
rights were of no value. Ulti
mately, Egypt was so weak that
the Soviets moved into the vac
uum left by Britain and France;
and now the Soviets are about
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"Whatsoever Things'
By DONALD E. WILDMON
Minister
Lee Acres United Methodist Church
TUPELO. MISSISSIPPI
PAY THE PRICE OR FORGET THE CAUSE
Gerald LePage is a pacifist. He is
a pacifist 1 admire. For he is one
of thousands who claim that title who
is fit to wear it.
LePage, a 26-year-old Specialist 5
from Waterbury, Connecticut, was ar
rested by military police shortly after
attending a midnight Christmas ser
vice. The HP’s didn’t have to do that
because he was on his way to turn
himself in, he said. LePage had
served 10 months as a clerk in Viet
nam. He told newsmen he would be
a hypocrite if he continued to serve
the military. He would have been
eligible for an honorable discharge in
a couple of months.
A Deserter
He had earlier said he would remain
AWOL at least 30 days—long enough
to be classified as a deserter—and then
would turn himself in. At the Christ
mas service LePage read a statement
saying, “ ... this sanctuary is just the
beginning—the commitment to love
and freedom and life will endure.”
Four blocks from the church after the
service, MP vehicles stopped a car
LePage was riding in and he was ar
rested.
LePage said he could have used
underground connections to get to
Canada, as literally thousands of
others. But LePage didn’t want to
go. “Canada is a cop out,” he said.
And he is right, that’s exactly what it
is.
Here is the reason this man gained
my admiration. “It’s my right to
speak out and then take the punish
ment for it,” he said. That is a sign
of bigness in a man—to go against
that which he believes is wrong and
then to be willing to pay the penalty.
LePage asked no favors. He knew the
punishment. But he believed some
thing, believed it enough to pay the
price of punishment. That man I ad
mire.
If you will recall, there was another
Man some two thousand years ago
who felt the same way. There w^as
wrong in society, He said, and He set
out to correct it. He walked the hill
sides of that little province of Galilee
teaching men a new way of living, a
new way of worshipping, a new way
of serving. He went from Jerusalem
to Jericho to Sidon teaching those who
would listen about a new way of life.
Prepard To Pay
And when it came time for Him to
face the authorities concerning this
new way of life He preached, He did so
fully prepared to pay the penalty. And
so the powers that were took His life
on a Judean hillside, hanging Him on
a tree between two thieves.
I admire a man who stands up for
that which he believes to be right, and
then is willing to take the punishment
for his belief. I have nothing but dis
gust for that person who knowingly
breaks the law and then tries to
escape punishment. While they both
do the same thing, there is a world of
difference in their methods and rea
sons, and in themselves. With one I
will stand, with the other I have
nothing in common.
If there is an unjust law, first make
up your mind that you will pay the
penalty for breaking it. And if you
aren’t willing to pay the penalty, for
get it. Yo do the cause more harm
than good.
It is a pretty little person who wants
the benefits without the Cross.—
FIVE STAR
to walk oflf with the lon^-sou^ht
prize.
A defense treaty with Pan
ama is likewise of no value if
we do not have the rights of a
sovereign in the defense of the
('anal. We cannot share defense
rights when a small defenseless
nation is given ultimate author
ity. In an emergency, we would
lack the proper initiative to act;
in the long run, we would face
the danger that the Panamanian
government could become radi
calized or overthrown. It is folly
to reach out for a new canal,
when, in doing so, we would let
fall our historic rights.
Moreover, the closure of the
Canal in such a situation would
have a serious effect upon our
strategic preparedness. Studies
show that 70 per cent of all the
cargo that goes through the
Canal is bound for or coming
from U.S. ports. In World War
11. the Korean War, the Cuban
crisis of 1002, and the Vietnam
War, the Canal has played a
vital role in logistics and naval
deployment. Loss of the Canal
would he equivalent to losing a
large part of the Navy.
UNWISE
The conclusions of the Presi
dential commission studying the
Panama Canal problem are both
unwise and unnecessary. Mod
ernization of the present lock
canal would require no new
treaty, and would provide al
most as great a capacity at a
fraction of the $2.8 billion esti
mated cost.
I have introduced such a pro
posal in Senate Bill S.2228.
With eur sovereignty undiluted,
the U.S. would he in a position
to defend the Canal more easily
and quickly, and to take strin
gent security measures. All de
cision-making and key operating
personnel on the Canal should
be American citizens with unim
peachable security records.
The Panama Canal is too im
portant to the United States to
surrender it to other hands. We
should learn our lesson from
what is happening in Suez.
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