The Delta Democrat-Times from Greenville, Mississippi • Page 4

(TCditorial Letter to Mayor Dunne Dear Mayor Dunne, When a minority mayor, onetime congressional candidate and part- time public servant gets caught out in an untenable situation, I suppose the natural thing to do is to attack the press which reports the facts. It's an old politician's game, and as an old politician, you are pretty good at it. Since you didn't bother to address yourself to the basic issue raised in Bill Vaughn's story on the Shine Simpson case and in the subsequent editorial, perhaps we ought to review it once again. An unqualified applicant for a position in the fire department was hired, despite his inability to read. That applicant was a known supporter of yours in the city's mayoralty election last year.

He washired through a process you set up which centralized all personnel screening in the office of the city purchasing office. That process has never been ratified by City Council. That is what Bill Vaughn reported. If reporting it "created unrest within the total city," the unrest is the result of an administrative foul-up in City Hall. If the story pits "blacks against whites," as several black leaders have explicitly denied, it is because blacks and whites alike don't like to see totally unqualified persons named, for political reasons, to posts closed to more qualified applicants.

If there is "distrust, cynicism, disunity" and constant strife, it exists because a majority of the voters have lost faith in the city's highest elected official. Your determination to bring some kind of order out of the age-old personnel chaos in City Hall is laudable, as have been many of your innovations during your years as mayor. (Were we trying to sell papers when we commended you for them?) But in the Shine Simpson case, your explicit instructions in inaugurating the new (still unratified) personnel system were totally ignored. Point three of those instructions specifically require that the personnel office submit "as many applicants as he has on file" to the department head who needs em- ployes. Despite the fact that there were several other fire department applications on file in addition to Shine Simpson's, his and his alone was given to Fire Chief Kenneth Johnson.

Just who is it that is "not interested in truth, but rumor and false charges?" In a way, I suppose everyone ought to appreciate the comic relief you have injected into the local political scene. Most of the issues we face are highly complex in this summer of 1972, but the one you have raised is simple. Should a mayor, or any other public official, be treated like some kind of semi-deity, above and beyond public scrutiny and public censure, or is he a mortal like any other man--or "anonymous editorial every utterance and action is open for all to see? Somehow we have always believed the latter, although we understand your occasional wish that you could walk without leaving tracks. Well, you'll continue to be mayor and we'll continue to publish a newspaper, and that means inevitable clashes. Much as we would like to believe that mortal men are incapable of making mistakes, and mayors and editors even more so, the historical record belies that fond wish.

So you'll keep hustling for votes, and we'll keep trying to sell 10 cent newspapers by reporting the facts. I expect the Republic, and the city of Greenville, will somehow survive. Warmest personal regards, Hodding Carter III, editor P.S. Incidentally, the Sunday edition which carried Vaughn's original story costs 15 cents. Fischer in perspective Bobby Fischer is a refreshing sports champion.

According to the myth perpetrated by Wheaties commercials and innumerable fan magazines, the American sports champion is cheerful and agreeable. Fischer is dour and cantankerous. The sports champion is stoic and generous. Fischer complains a lot and is out for as many bucks as he can get. In short, according to the myth the American sports champion is the embodiment of all virtues revered by Americans.

Bobby Fischer is not. Why should we expect him to be? The most important thing in his life is chess. He measures his success or failure according to the moves of pieces on a chess board. When Fischer appeared on the Dick Cavett show last winter, he was asked what part of the game he likes best. He said he savors most the moment when it becomes apparent his opponent will lose, "and I feel I can crush his ego." Back in the 1950s, when Fischer first began to play seriously at the Manhattan Chess Club, his reaction to losing was dramatic.

"He took it very seriously," said one good player who beat Fischer at rapid chess during that period. "Once he cried for half an hour." That was no exaggeration. He meant 30 minutes of uncontrolled weeping. At times half the club gathered around and tried to convince Fischer that there was more to life than chess, that it was, after all, only a game, that nobody can win all the time. It had no effect whatever.

While it is possible that sports can teach valuable lessons about life, it does not necessarily follow all sportsmen want to learn those lessons. The fact that a person excels at chess or baseball or football or whatever means nothing more than that. The American public has a distressing tendency to raise sports heroes to the status of demigods. It's good to have a Bobby Fischer occasionally to remind us how foolish that is. Only yesterday 5 Years Ago--1967 Thomas B.

Holloway of 627 West O'Hea Street is named in the latest listing of Who's Who in the South and Southwest. Holloway is head of the geography department at Mississippi Valley State College, where he has been teaching 15 years. Holloway is married to the former Rosa Craig and has one daughter, Minnie Rose. Miss Diane Dunn of Washington D. was complimented at a luncheon given by her aunt, Mrs.

Jimmy Dunn, at the Greenville Country Club Tuesday. Miss Dunn is the daughter of Read Dunn, also of Washington, D. C. She is here visiting the R. P.

Dunn family. Guests at the luncheon were Miss Celia Farr, Marsha Morphis, Mary Hudson Morrow, Charlotte Alexander and Susan Williamson. 15 Years Ago--1957 The gardens of the Brodie Crumps and the Charles Swartzs on Weatherbee Drive will look like a mammoth scene from "A Mid- Summer Night's Dream" Thursday evening when the Twin City Theatre Guild presents its first summertime production there. The play is a one-act fantasy with a gaudily costumed cast. Climaxing the play will be a ballet by Dot Virden, Greenville's highly acclaimed professional.

As mood setters, a group of banjo and guitar strumming minstrels including Brodie Crump, Humphreys McGee and Marley Kittleman will stroll among the spectators. It was Saturday night and time to howl when Mr. and Mrs. Wilburn Kent entertained at the Community Center with a Hot Dawg supper and scavenger hunt for their son, Buddy, in celebration of his thirteenth birthday. Supper was served picnic style from a long table at one end of the ballroom after which the more than seventy guests were divided into groups of ten and given a list of the things they were to find.

A prize (new quarters) was given the winning group. NEW FIKHER: Mr. Ford and the lobbyist WASHINGTON-It can now be documented that House GOP leader Gerald Ford had a cozy relationship with an influence-peddling Washington lobbyist who repaid Ford's favors with donations to the Republican party. As far back as January 27, 1970, we reported that lobbyist Robert Winter- Berger was operating out of Ford's office. We then lacked evidence, however, that Winter-Berger gave campaign cash in return for Ford's intervention in federal cases.

Now, Winter-Berger has confessed his relationship with Ford, including the financial quid pro quo, in a book entitled "Washington Pay Off." Ford has denounced the book as "a bunch of innuendoes and fabrications." The Republican leader said he knew Winter-Berger slightly but could remember only a single instance in which he helped one of the lobbyist's clients. This was an immigration case which Ford said was "meritorious." Ford's staff told us the office files contain only a half-dozen letters relating to Winter-Berger, all of them dealing with the immigration case. Said Ford's top aide, Frank Meyer, of Winter-Berger; "He was not a close friend. He was no different than dozens of people who come into the office." Our own investigation, however, has lancovered close to 50 letters from Ford's office involving Winter-Berger. We have also turned up several cases in which Ford went to bat for Wiinter-Berger's Once, Winter-Berger arranged for the GOP leader to give a public endorsement to an organization seeking to standardize the world calendar.

Another time, Ford helped Winter-Berger in his efforts to get a diplomatic appointment from the Nixon Administration for Francis Kellog, president of International Mining Corporation. Despite Ford's insistence there was "no quid qro quo" in his relationship with Winter-Berger, we have obtained copies Jack Anderson of letters Ford wrote to the lobbyist thanking him for campaign contributions. A typical letter, written after Winter- Berger donated $500 to the GOP in 1967, declared: "Many, many thanks for your most generous contribution." The letter is signed simply "Jerry." Another "Dear Bob" letter, thanking Winter-Berger for $250, calls the money "wonderful help'" and says Ford is "deeply grateful." Ford's principal help to Winter-Berger was the use of his office. This enabled the lobbyist to impress his clients with his friendship with Ford. The congressman has now denied that Winter-Berger used the office.

But letters in our possession show that the lobbyist was close not only with Ford but with members of his staff. Ford doesn't deny that Winter-Berger made donations to the Republicans but insists that none were made to him. Yet we have found Winter-Berger gave campaign contributions in ways that could be of direct help to Ford. For example, the lobbyist gave hundreds to the Republican Finance Committee in Kent County, which happens to be Ford's home base. A 1969 letter of gratitude from the GOP county finance chairman advised WinterBerger: "You have become a member of a small and distinguished group of Kent County 'Pace Setters' who donate $500 or more to the Republican cause." The letter adds significantly: "Your good friend Jerry Ford was of course, reelected.

kind of party support was a major factor." A tear for democracy When the South Vietnamese had their election in 1967, Lyndon Johnson invited a bunch of liberal professors to go over there and satisfy themselves that the election was clean. This they did, and one professor from the Boston area reported to the President his conclusion that the election in South Vietnam was as clean as the typical election in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This comment was the source ol enormous underground mirth among the cognoscenti, who understood exactly what the good professor was trying to communicate. That democracy in South Vietnam, while passably fair, is a pretty relaxed thing, along Massachusetts lines. I think it was in Boston, or maybe it was in Chicago, a little while back that an election district reported 183 votes, all of them for the Democratic candidate, and guess what? By sheer coincidence, the 183 citizens had filed in and voted alphabetically! That is democracy plus law and order.

I have always thought that if you're going to have democracy, you may just as well do it right. After the decision is reached as to what voter qualifications are, let them vote, and go ahead and count their votes. The evidence is overwhelming that the political machine in Brooklyn, New York was recently concerned to return the incumbent to office, rather than to ascertain whom the majority wanted. It would have been absorbed as routine Democratic graft except that the challenger is none other than Allard Lowenstein, the president of Americans For Democratic Action. Mr.

Lowenstein has a particular stake in the contest unrelated to the question of whether he will be sent to Congress. He is the young man who has already made the history books in virtue of having persuaded Eugene McCarthy to make the race against Lyndon Johnson in 1968, thereby proving that The System was alive and well. He is as influential among the young as anyone in America, and if he gives out the word that you cannot have a reliable democratic contest in the heart of metropolitan New York, his constituency will experience a disillusionment that will redound to the benefit of the crazies in American politics. William Buckley In his primary contest, every kind of fraud and harassment was exercised. New voters found their registration cards missing.

Others were given runarounds. Some spent as much as four hours trying to locate the right polling place, and filing their votes. Others found machines One lady wrote, "I was told that I had been redistricted. That I should vote at 75 Cadman Plaza. I left (but there is) no 75 Cadman Plaza.

On my walk back I noticed that some people were voting at 140 Cadman Plaza. I stopped in there and was told I would have to go to 75 Henry Street. When I got to 75 Henry Street I was told that it would be another two hours' wait. I gave up." There were only 30,000 votes cast, and yet the Lowenstein forces are talking about as many as 14,000 irregularities, and hard-core fraud in four to five thousand cases. At that, the incumbent beat Lowenstein by only a few hundred votes.

The evidence suggests that Lowenstein would have won by something like a landslide. So now it goes to the courts. It being widely suspected that local state judges are not going to upset the political machine that put them where they are, Lowenstein will probably end up in federal court. There he will be given an opportunity to document his grievances, in behalf of the electorate. And the message may go out to the bosses: cut it out.

It happens that Mr. Lowenstein backs enthusiastically almost every mistaken political idea that ever issued out of the social imaginations of man. But that isn't the point, any more so than when us good guys sat around in 1964 worrying how many votes would be stolen from Barry Goldwater by the Democratic poll tenders. Fair elections, like precautions against accidental wars, are in everybody's interest. It is lucky for our international reputation that we didn't invite any South Vietnamese professors over to monitor the Lowenslein election.

(Letters to the editor WABG-TV snafu To the editor: ATTENTION ALL CONSERVATIVES Did you have to wonder Tuesday night, July 11, who the program director of WABG-TV was backing for president? All the liberals aired their views but at the announcement that George Wallace's ramp was being laid for him to come onto the podium, the announcement was immediately made that Channel 6 was leaving the Democratic Convention to resume one hour later. I immediately turned the channel to WLBT-TV and George Wallace was being wheeled on to the podium for his speech. Conservatives you know some of the Liberals who control Channel 3. One lives right in your town but they carried it full strength without interruption. If one candidate is to be heard, all should be heard.

If the conservatives will stop buying from the companies who advertise on Channel 6 and urge others to do likewise then the conservative voice can and will be heard Loud and Clear. There will be a meeting of the Conservatives in the near future and we will meet them head-on come November. Mearl N. Strickland Leland P.S.--We really appreciate George's picture on the front page of today's paper (July 12). Editor's note: WABG program director Lane Tucker told the Delta Democrat-Times he apologizes for leaving the ABC network coverage of the Democratic national convention just as Gov.

Wallace was preparing to come onto the speaker's podium. "It was our policy throughout the convention to leave at 10 p.m. local time to do the local news. It was purely an accident on our part we neglected Gov. Wallace.

We didn't want to do that," he said. However the local news ran only 30 minutes, not an hour as staled in the letter, he said. "He had to set some kind of policy. Unfortunately, we did pull away just as Gov. Wallace was to be brought up.

We apologize. It was no means intentional," Tucker said. North Vietnam resolute, tough Page4 Thursday, July 20,1972. Hodding Carter, Publisher Hodding Carter 111, Editor John Gibson, General Manager The Delta Democrat Times Monday through Friday and Sunday By: The Times Publishing Greenville. Mill.

3870. Delivery.by motor route 1J nir month; by city carrier, 11.75. Mail payable In Advance to living tn Washington and adjoining counties not served by dealers and carriers, 3 months Vi.six monms. year Entered dab- matter at 'he Post Oltif.f Grf-f-nvill under Act 01 March 1879. HANOI--1 came to North Vietnam early this month to assess the outlook for peace in the wake of President Nixon's recent diplomatic, military and political moves.

I wind up my trip feeling that an early political settlement is possible. But not probable--and only on condition that Mr. Nixon abandon the pressure policy that has dominated his approach to Vietnam. For the President's two greatest strokes--the voyages to Peking and Moscow, the renewed bombing of North Vietnam and the mining of its ports, and even his rise in the Gallup Poll--have not had a decisive effect here in Hanoi. That general impression derives from many particular experiences in North Vietnam which I shall describe in subsequent columns.

Bui first I need to say a word about reporting from this country, for the conditions are different than any I ever encountered in the Western world or the Communist world--including China. I was met at the Gia Lam airport outside Hanoi by a chauffeur, an interpreler and a woman guide from Ihe Vietnamese press association. With one exception, they dominated what I could do and could not do during the rest of my visil. The one exception was the foreign community. It was possible to see in private, as I did, diplomats from Western countries, from Russia and China and smaller socialist nations, and from some Asian and African states.

It was also possible to mix freely with a foreign press corps which included one or two knowledgeable non-Communists. But no medieval monastic order was ever more cut off from the world of the flesh than the foreign community in Hanoi is cut off from the world of the Vietnamese people. One diplomat acknowledged to me that he came closest to piercing the official veil when he bought an antique, ivory opium pipe. He noticed that the pipe had been much smoked, and quite recently. That was his and only, intimation that the famous Vietnamese habit, supposedly banished by the Communists, in fact continues.

Apart from such sniffs of life below the surface, everthing I have done in North Vietnam has been arranged by my hosts. They established the emphasis of my coverage. They decided whom I saw and did not see. They controlled my contacts with the local population. The emphasis the North Vietnamese wished to impart to the trip announced itself from the start.

My first appointment was with a vice-minister of water control who described American bombing of this country's dikes. Thereafter, no effort was spared to acquaint me with evidence of the "criminal" damage done by American bombing. I was twice taken to points distant from Hanoi to see towns that had been obliterated and dikes that had been damaged. An interview with two captured American pilots, both of them vocal in condemnation of the war, was arranged. So was a press conference in which Vietnamese doctors described damage done to hospitals by American bombing.

When it came to learning about other features of life in North Vietnam, difficulties presented themselves. I had only three conversations that were not supervised--one with an official of a foreign ministry who has asked not to be identified. I met two truly important political figures--Le Due Tho, a member of the politburo and chief negotiator at the Paris peace talks, and Nguyen Duy Trinh, another politburo member who is also deputy premier. But when it came to meeting other leaders, and to the interrelationships between them which comprises the essence of Vietnamese politics, I was told: "Our regime was born from a secret resistance movement and we still observe the rule of the throe nothings--'Hear nothing; see nothing; know There was one totally unrehearsed opportunity for conversation with an ordinary North Vietnamese--at Sunday mass at the cathedral in Hanoi. 1 said a few words in French to a woman who had that indefinable look some women have of being well-bred.

She obviously understood. I thought a conversation was about to begin. But my interpreter came up; there was a burst of talk in Vietnamese he told me she was busy and had logo. I do not conclude from this that North Vietnam is a state seething with discontent and dissent, anymore than I suppose the North Vietnamese army to be comparable to the Arab fedayeen. On the contrary, the capacity to cut off contacts so thoroughly gives me the opposite impression.

As the actress Jane Fonda, who has also been visiting Hanoi, said in a characteristic burst of unrestrained enthusiasm: "I have never seen so many unalienated people." My impression is that the North Vietnamese regime is one of the most Communist of Communist regimes anywhere in the world--tough, resolute, disciplined, organized to the rice roots and with a missionary belief in revolutionary purpose that absorbs nil internal dissension. The character of Communism in fjforlh Vietnam is one of the reasons it has 'been so hard for the United Stales to boat the men from Hanoi or to make peace with them..