St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 23

ww w'vw i 'rfr wn 2B ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1956 nry a ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Utterly Unthinkable founiii by JOSEPH PUUTZER Ditmhn 11. lilt Th Pulilwr Publunma, Co. f)flll Aiinn MAm Hill- till Olive Si.

THE POST-DISPATCH PLATFORM I know that my rrtirrnirnt will make no different in in cardinal prinriplta; that it will alwaya fitht Three United Slates Senators Republicans Mundt and McCarthy and Democrat Eastland have Joined in a shocking assault on the integrity of the United States Supreme Court. After fullest allowance is made for these three Senators, 'still their collective attack remains an outrageous thing. Can it be that the. people of South Dakota, Wisconsin and Mississippi are content to have their stales Identified with these slurs agaimt the nation's highest tribunal? Can it be that, other members of the Senate do not intend to disavow this dangerous demagogy? Fair criticism of the Supreme Court Is not only wholesome but necessary. The decisions of our Supreme Justices always are subject to review in the still higher court of public opinion.

But there is all the difference in the world between criticism that is reasonable and the intemperate rantings just heard in the Senate Internal Security subcommittee. lor progrria rriurui, ncrr iui- erale injuilira or corruption, alwaya fight drmaaofiira of all partita, nevrr Monaj to any party, alwaya ppoae privilrcrd rlaaara and puhlir plunderara, never lark aympathy with the poor, alwaya remain df-rotrd to the publir welfare; never lie aatiifierl with merely printing nfwa: alwaya be draitirally inde. pendent; never be afraid to aitaek wrens, whether by predatory plu torraey or predatory poveriy. JOSEPH PULITZER. April 10, 1907.

elety to maintain the highest possible standards. Adherence to this code should relax the apprehensions which called It forth. It should eliminate misunderstanding, and it should help the private colleges to get adequate support for their important part In American education. a i 'Crisis of Perplexity' In his last-minute appeal for the Elsenhower Administration'! foreign aid program, Secretary of State Dulles spoke of "crista of perplexity" in the Communist world. He related this to a scoreboard discussion of Soviet foreign policy gains and losses.

Certainly there is a crisis of perplexity in Communist affairs across the world. The denunciation of Stalin and replacement of fallen idols seem to be leading toward important shifts in the Soviet system. But the evidence so far indicates that this crisis is chiefly domestic and political. At least it has not noticeably interfered with the vigor of Soviet foreign policy. Secretary Dulles told reporters he did not regard the Communist arms deal with Egypt as a triumph for Communism.

He said he did not consider the Iceland election returns to be a defeat for the West. He gave the Kremlin generally a score of zero. Yet the fact Is that the Communist bloc has armed Egypt and made approaches to the Arab states. Indonesia has just formally accepted a Russian offer of economic aid matching that, currently received from the United States. And Moscow's relations with Yugoslavia have improved at least to a point where Marshal Tito believes the Soviet Union "is ready to struggle for peace." These events may not add up to major tri Thuraday, June 28, 1956 LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE The bitter outbreak occurred when the committee was considering the Mundt-McCarthy-Eastland bill to cancel the Supreme Court's recent ruling against the firing by the Government of employes in non-sensitive positions.

The stand of the Supreme Court was that the right to fire employes applied only to those in sensitive positions, as related to national security. This decision was written by Justice John Marshall Harlan, an Eisenhower appointee, and concurred in by Chief Justice Earl Warren, also an Eisenhower selection. Others who joined in it were Justices Black, Frankfurter, Douglas and Burton. The ruling was eminently sensible and practicable in addition to being considerate of the welfare of many thousands of Government employes. Yet the Mundt-MeCarthy-Eastland trio denounced the decision as a "concoction" that substituted the Supreme Court's "own version of the intention of Congress." New legislation was demanded, the three Senators argued, to "counteract this high-handed usurpation of power." But thai was only the start.

Taking out particularly after Chief Justice Warren, Senators McCarthy and Eastland sought to identify the Supreme Court under President Eisenhower's first appointee with either yielding to Communist influence or being incompetent. These demagogic Senators agreed that Chief Justice Warren, as reported by the Post-Dispntcli correspondent, "was a hero of the Communists" who "never should have been selected for the bench in the first place." The MeCarthy-Eastland pair did stop short of accusing the Chief Justice of being "a Com Take It or Leave It To tha Editor of tha Poat-DUpaleh: Your subscriber who signs himself "A Realtor" suggests that our local Mortgage Bankers Association explain the money market to our local population; this we will attempt to do. It should not be necessary to explain it to a realtor. It is now common knowledge that the cost of money has been increasing so that today a 4'4 per cent yield on 25- or 30-year loans is not realistic and cannot compete with more attractive yields that are available to the investor. Unfortunately, the O.I.

and FHA rates are frozen at 4 per cent. The investor, therefore, can withdraw from the mortgage market completely, or purchase a 4'2 per cent mortgage at a discount high enough to make his yield attractive. One point discount will increase the yield 1-10 of 1 per cent. It therefore requires a five-point discount to increase the yield is of 1 per cent The FHA and VA regulations will not permit the borrower to pay more than 1 per cent to secure a loan. The seller, therefore, can either pay the discount as part of the cost of the sale, or ask his realtor to find another buyer who can secure conventional financing at the prevailing rate of interest without any government restrictions.

Traditionally the mortgage banker serves as the intermediary between the investor and the borrower and in the case of FHA nnd G.I. loans is limited to a fee of 1 per cent. The Mortgage Bankers Association hat the position that a flexible interest rate for FHA and G.I. financing would eliminate the need for discounts. We have recommended that Congress pass the necessary legislation to bring this about.

J. GRIFFIN, Memher, Board of Governors, Mortgage Bankers Association of St. Louis. umphs of Soviet foreign policy, but surely they show that Soviet foreign policy retains' both skill and boldness. Secretary Dulles himself was first to insist that this "new look" In Soviet foreign policy is one against which the West must be on guard.

In fact, if the crisa of perplexity had infected the Kremlin's conduct of foreign affairs, there would be less need now for the strong appeals for foreign aid from Secretary Dulles and from Senator George of the Foreign Relations Committee. But as Chairman George said, this is no time to liquidate the free world's strength. And as Secretary Dulles said, this. Is no time for complacency. Keeping score on East-West gains and losses is not a very profitable business.

An objective appraisal of the crisis of Communism might show that there is strength as well as weakness In it. If so, the West will need to adapt its policies to meet that new look in Moscow. a Nothing may be more certain than death and taxes, but what about the outcome of a congressional vote on a veterans' bonus in an election year? 30 l'Atra Days of Daylight Readers who noted that the House has approved an extra month of daylight saving time THE SUPREME COURT OF SOMETHING OR OTHER Not One Witness Tha Mirror of Publif O'pimoH Mississippi Negro is shot down on courthouse lawn in midst of big Saturday crowd, yet, sheriff, prosecutor and grand jury can' not find one person who saw the crime; reporter says man was killed after refusal to be "run out of town" before primary. II. Austin Smith in The Christian Century In October for the District of Columbia may say: "Good for Washington! But what about St.

Louis?" Daylight time is a matter of local option. A bill to give St. Louis an additional month of daylight is pending in the Board of Aldermen. When it was thrown Into the legislative hopper some two months ago it appeared assured of speedy handling and passage. Twenty-two Democratic aldermen had joined in introducing it.

Any day now the aldermen may recess for the summer, but not, let us hope, before they pass the daylight bill. The measure will be popular and it will be worthwhile, and those ought to be reasons enough for a majority of the munist party member," but said that he had shared positions taken by the Communists. Meantime the National Conference of Governors, meeting in Atlantic City, has allowed itself to be used in this increasing warfare against the Supreme Court. Even Gov. McKel-din of Maryland, who nominated President Eisenhower at Chicago, voted for a resolution In protest against the Supreme Court's decision declaring the primacy of federal legislation in the detection and prosecution of subversive activities.

This doclslon, also wholly sound In our opinion, was made possible by the vote of Chief Justice Warren. The time has come for a strong counterattack. The Supreme Court obviously cannot defend itself, but there is nothing to keep Attorney General Brownell or some other high Administration official from returning the fire and telling the counlry how dangerous this reckless game is. There Is nothing to keep outstanding members of the American Bar Association its living past presidents, for example from backing up the Supreme Court. The professors of law, too, can follow the example of Paul A.

Freitnd of Harvard in his recent Washington University commencement address on this very subject. The alternative Is to leave the field to the Mundts, McCarthys and Eastlands and that it utterly unfhittJcnblel Between Book Ends Opus Giganticus TIFFANY THAYER'S MONA LISA: I. THE PP.INCI OF TASANTO, by Tiffany Thayer. (Dial 'ran, I voir, 11,247 $12.50.) "Sixteen years ago," Mr. Thayer reminds us in his introductory remarks to this gargantuan novel, "there was a popular American superstition to the effect that I knew more about women than any other articulate male since Solomon and before Kinsey." Since that time, however, not a public peep has been heard out of the articulate Mr.

Thayer. What has he been doing in the intervening 16 years? This many-pillared mansion of a novel is the answer. In an age when size itself means so much, this multitomed work of fiction concocted by Tiffany Thayer will win for itself an undisputed place as the biggest novel ever written by anybody in any language. These opening volumes of 400,000 words are merely an appetizer to be followed by at least six more of equal size, with the ultimate possibility that Cut Kate Unionism? To tha Editor of tha Poat-DInatch: The cute maneuver pulled off Jointly by lawyers for Sears Roebuck Co. and Pete Saffo's Teamsters' Union, which achieved the ouster of the AFL-CIO Electricians and a lower pay scale for the same type of work performed, makes one wonder if Messrs.

Dave Beck and Harold Gibbons, of the Teamsters oligarchy, aren't advocating "cut rate unionism" as the answer to big bus-lness's labor problem. LAWRENCE T. KING. the entire opus pi-ganticus may run to 3,500,000 words. The Bible, "War and Peace," "The Decline and Fall" will all be beggared by this Niagara of a narrative.

To what end Is all this effort directed? Well, Mr, Thayer has conceived the idea of writing a novel about the Mona Lisa, but some w4 hat to Do With Stuffing To tha Editor of tha Poat-Elapateh: To the person who complained In your column about the amount of advertising mall "stuffed" in his box, here are several suggestions: 1. Get a bigger box. 2. Read it. (Throw it away if It Is rot interesting).

3. Check with some one who knows and is not prejudiced about the use of third-class mail. He will report that this mail properly prepared and delivered to the post office according to regulations requires no cancelling and a bare minimum of effort or handling, it is weighed in hulk and shipped direct to the individual stations at slack periods or at a time when the personnel would be waiting for regular deliveries of first class mail. 4. Our largest and most Important industries are dependent to some degree on this Important media and realize that third class mail Is a very necessary part of their advertising efforts.

R. GORDON. Harvesting the Sucker It's harvest time for gypsters on the farms. Confidence men are gathering in the sheaves of suckers. In Illinois, where they are reported busier than ever, the State Criminal Identification and Investigation Division issues fair warning.

James Christensen, its superintendent, makes some observations which could well be taken to heart on this tide of the Mississippi. Mr. Christensen warns of the "termite treatment" which consists only of a little crude oil daubed on the foundation walls for $100. Chimney repairs, well cleaning, and installation of lightning rods are also well-worn occasions for shearing the gullibft rural dweller, he reports. "Genuine Irish linen" and "imported rugs," virtually worthless, are offered by high-powered artists who have all but applied automation to swindling.

They work the field as many as 25 at a time, traveling in big, expensive cars, Mr. Christensen says. In the country, as In town, the best rule is either to deal with established and known firms, or to demand and obtain references which can be reliably checked on. Tiffany Thayar me about our local situation. It was agreed that the plan 1 have outlined would afford protection, and there was no need for the National Guards." On Tuesday afternoon, Sept.

20, the local rand jury issued its final report: There was one killing which occurred near the courthouse and on the courtyard and although there were quite a number of people al-ledged (sic) to have been standing around and near said killing yet this grand jury has been unable to get evidence sufficient to make out a case of either murder or manslaughter, and failed to get the evidence although It was generally known or alledgcd to be known who the parties were in the shooting, yet people standing within 20 or 30 feet at the time claim to know nothing about it, and most assuredly somebody has done a good job of trying to cover the evidence in this case and trying to prevent the parties guilty therefor from being brought to justice, and this grand jury recommends that further investigation be made with reference to this case, but this Rrand jury has been unable to get so much as one witness whs would testify to the facts in this case. We think that it Is impossible for people to be within 20 or 30 feet of a difficulty in which one party is shot and lost his life In broad open daylight and nobody know nothing about it, or who did it. Ditney Smith is a symbol. He symbolizes the tenuous hold any Negro in the Deep South has on life itself. He symbolizes the "perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes" of citizenship shorn of equality before the bar of justice.

He Stood His Ground Ditney Smith's real offense was revealed in the statement that precipitated his murder: "No white man is big enough to run me out of Brookhaven!" He considered himself a full-fledged American citizen. A prominent white citizen a political power behind scenes told Prentice after the shooting: "I knew Ditney well, hunted with him on occasion. I'm sure if there was any reason for the shooting it was that Smith thought was as good as a white man." One bright spot in the dark picture is the press. Papers like the Jackson State Timet and the Brookhat-'en Leader-Times provide at least a probing finger of light that can focus public attention on the problem. They exercise this function at considerable risk.

Hugh V. Wall, prominent Brookhaven attorney, is quoted in the Aug. 24 "If all the papers would close up and quit, it would be a blessing to the country." Prentice declares: "The Lender-Times will continue to cover the news as ft occurs, presenting fairly both sides of any issue, confining editorial comment to the space designated for such expression of policy." But what will the news be? "No white man is big enough to run me out of Brookhaven!" Those were Ditney. Smith's last words. A white fist landed in his face.

The 60-year-old Negro rolled 20 feet and came up minus two teeth but fighting. His antagonist was a larger man and years younger, but Ditney Smith was tough. He was slugging it out toe to toe when a second assailant thrust a gun into his ribs and fired. Smith ran' a few paces, fell and died on the courthouse lawn. Brookhaven Is the county seat of Lincoln county, a shopping center for three counties.

The shooting occurred on a Saturday, last Aug. 13, nine days before a primary election. George Prentice, now business manager of the Brookhaven Leader-Times, was then employed by the Jackson Slate Timet. He covered the story for the Jackson paper. The reconstruction of events above is based on his files.

Eight days after the killing Sheriff Robert Case arrested Noah Smith, Mack Smith and Charles Falvey on a warrant issued on the authority of District Attorney E. C. Barlow charging them with first-degree murder. They were released under bond. The Prosecutor's Report Light is thrown on this incredible delay by the signed statement Barlow gave the press: With reference to the killing of Lamar Diddle Smith (colored) in Lincoln county.

on Saturday, Aug. 13, 1955: This killing occurred near the northeast corner of the chancery clerk's office while quite a number of people were at or near the scene and although I was within a block and a half of the courthouse at the time I did not know about the killing until after the body was picked up and a jury of inquest impaneled. Sheriff Case told me he saw Noah Smith leave the scene of the killing with blood all over him. I got no further information with the exception that one witness said he heard the commotion and heard the gun fire but did not know who it was and although Case claimed to know who the man was, he made no effort to pick him up after being requested to do so by me until I signed an affidavit and had Judge Allen issue a warrant. District Attorney Barlow further stated that he phoned Gov, Hugh White and asked that Investigators from one or more of the state bureaus be sent to Brookhaven to look into the case, but his request was not granted.

The Governor did visit Brookhaven on Monday, Aug. 21, to confer with Sheriff Case concerning a petition signed by 450 residents of District 5 requesting National Guard protection during the election to be held on Tuesday. Following this conference Sheriff Case issued the following statement: "The Governor was kind enough to come down this morning to confer with where along the line the project seems to have become infected with verbal elephantiasis. These inaugural volumes are merely prefatory to the lady's entrance. She will make her appearance, the author assures us, in the next- installment due in 1957.

This first trilogy, which is complete In itself, is devoted to the Prince of Taranto and his exploits, amorous and otherwise. Mr. Thayer saddles Francois Villon with his prose, a neat device, but we confess that it reads to us much more like the sexy romancing of a high-voltage advertising writer, which is our author in his alter ego. His story abounds with characters, action, intrigue and, most of all, with seductions and bedroom activity of every kind. To boil down so prolix a tale to a few paragraphs is out of the question, but in a nutshell this is the story of the efforts made by Taranto and his two cousins his "cabal" to grab tha Kingdom of Naples from the nympho-nunlac Queen Joan II and her villainous lieutenant, Serjlannl Caracclolo.

If this monumental project catches the public fancy tand there's a good chance that it will), we will be reading thres-decker Thayer for years to come. Start building those bookshelves, boys! JOHN BARKHAM. Police Court Persecution To tha Editor o( tha Poat-tiiipatch: The writer has personal knowledge of a $35 fine recently imposed in one of the St. Louis Police Courts for an alleged offense of speeding 22 miles per hour in the 20-mile an hour speed trap on South Fourteenth street. The party fined was a young man of very moderate means who has no previous speeding history.

High-handed tactics of this nature are persecution, plain and simple, of persons driving automobiles. One of these fine days the automobile-driving citizens are going to rise up and put an end to such persecution and all moronic and unrealistic traffic regulations as well. UNITED WE STAND. Swift, Sure, Severe A particularly vicious crime was committed when a 13-year-old girl was held prisoner for two hours and raped by several youths In O'Fallon Pari; Tuesday night. St.

Louis police apparently did an efficient Job In rounding up suspects as the victim Identified five of them and two of those admitted guilt. Last December tin Instance of such criminality in this area occurred when a 14-ycar-old girl was abducted by three youths in University City. Last March two of them received 10-year terms on charges of assault with intent to commit rape and the third drew five years for kidnaping. The youths in this new case should be tried as soon as possible and if found guilty of rape should receive much more severe punishment. It can be expected that this type of crime will increase if the community does not show that It is vigilant.

Punishment alone does not prevent crimes of this type but If it is just, swift and sure it should act as a deterrent to those who may believe that the public is indifferent to such heinous acts. Colleges and Corporations There hps been a spectacular Increase in the proportion of the college population attending slate-supported schools. In 1952, according to statistics compiled by DcPaul University, the margin over endowed colleges was only 7 .1 per cent; by 1954 this had grown to 27 per rent. With legislators none too generous, the state universities aro finding it increasingly more difficult to maintain their standards. The shift also suggests that family income factors are changing the historical pattern of a strong proportion of private colleges f-r the sake of diversified thought in the nation.

The endowed schools are feeling a pinch akin to that of the state schools, and this when both face a tidal wave of applicants. So private colleges have turned more and more to corporations as sources of income. And some are wondering whether this is not bringing on a new set of problems in the form of commitments, expressed or Implied. This question Is regarded as so serious that the heads of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard. Princeton, Stanford and Yale, perhaps the schools least subject to pressure, have drawn up a code covering the acceptance of such gifts.

Tlie code emphasizes the independence of the colleges, making It clei.r that gifts should not he deemed a form of advertising nor a claim on faculties, students or research results. While donors are entitled to recognition and, to an adequate explanation the workings of a school, they may not epect It to devote itself to any purpose other than its obligation to so- When It Comes to Spoutinq; Commenting on the Army-Air Force rivalry, Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson remarked in Montgomery, last June 15 that "spouting" could cause considerable trouble. He told an anecdote about a whale and Its baby that ended up with the sage advice: "Only when you are spouting are you likely to be harpooned." Judging from Secretary Wilson's subsequent slip, when he commented that the Senate had Indulged In some "phony" action on the military budget, It may be that he Is also familiar with Oscar Wilde's remark: "The only thing to do with good advice Is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself." Thoughts in the Hox Office The musical stage is getting limply too intellectual for any use.

Hardly had George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion" become a smash musical hit as "My Fair Lady" when plans were announced to produce a musical version of Voltaire's "Candide." Now George S. Kaufman is working on a musical based on a satirical article in The Nation, all about the cosmetics industry. People yet living can remember way back when the musical theater had hardly a brain in its pretty head. The only story line required was that of the female form divine. Musical comedy's plotlessness was.

In fact, its dominant characteristic. "Oklahoma!" changed all that. Now the musical play Is growing so cerebral that we would not be surprised any day at all to hear of a brand-new production that was packing them In and laying them In the allies, all based on an editorial in The W'nll Street Journal. Looking fcr something cheerful In recent days, the Cardinals displayed a third baseman who cricked two home runs and now leads the National League with 19. Babe Boyer, that Is.

How to Buy Athletes C. E. McBnde in The Kansas City Star As to a Council in Wchstcr To tha Editor or the. Poal-Olipatrh: In an article you published June 14 announcing an organization meeting of the Webster Groves Council for Education, the statement was made that the council grew out of a St. Louis County League of Women Voters study on education and that the League of Women Voters recommended that such a council be formed.

There Is no St. Louis County League of Women Voters. Leagues having members in the Webster Groves School District ate the League of Women Voters of Webster Groves and the Provisional League of Women Voters of Rock Hill. Neither of these leagues recommended that the council for education be formed. This docs not imply any criticism we the newly formed council.

Many league members In the Webster Groves School District may choose to work with the council for education, but the organization Is not. sponsored by the league and is not an outgrowth of any official league action. MRS, R. I. BRUMBAUGH.

President, Leagu of Woman Voters of Webster Webster Groves. ') Communicative 1'roccns IAN6UA6I: A MODESH SYNTHESIS, by Joitiue Wn.tmouah. (SI. Martin i Praia, New York, tit M.S.) Written by a professor of comparative philology at Harvard, this analysis of the structure and use of language presents hit theory of selective variation, a mathematical theory of the evolution of man's communicative process. As a specialized study of the only articu-lata animal's articulation, it depends upon expert terminology and involved style which will not communicate much to the average reader.

Of some immediate interest in present controversies about education is Whatmough paying respects to United States teaching of languages many of the pleas that have to do with 'cultural' tradition or as advanced by teachers or language, who are by no means disinterested parties, have little or no justification." And, "to say that certain basic changes in a student's mind are produced by the learning of languages, and this result can be achieved in this and In no other vay, is contradicted by the entire history of education. doing. This frankly stated need at Colorado points to the fact that all big schools, under N.C.A.A. regulations, are setting aside vast sums of money to buy athletes of senior rating in high schools. Thus professionalism has struck deeply into the college athletic system that originally was organized for students, selecting their colleges according to their liking but certainly not for pay.

In nearly every case, N.C.A.A. rules have been flouted, with a business of under-table passing, sometimes even to the old folks. How long before our college faculties are in open rebellion? Colorado needs an extra $20,000 with which to hire more and better athletes. The shame of it isn't the acknowledgement because it is an honest avowal of athletic conditions at Colorado and all according to current N.C.A.A. rules and practices.

The shame of it is that our great educational institutions have allowed themselves to be saddled with this monstrous Frankenstein that now overpowers the faculty. Colorado needs an extra $20,000 with which to buy athletes in the open market. Colorado admits that it needs this $20,000 more in order to keep up with what the other Big Seven members art i.