Corpus Christi Caller-Times from Corpus Christi, Texas • 12

ip gnf yrr MTf rl wrt riiTTTT srnni'T'rri MONDAY FEBRUARY 12 1968 LETTTIElffiS 1 I From Oar Headers Marina Improvements Needed SSfh-v boat md II HM I cmjldtnt BotJ to bekmg to the Yacht dob Iwt I om ly notanoj about the deteriorating condition of the Re spite all the talk and plans and no money on maintenance the marina is still less pretty( and less useful now than it was some years ago during an era of corruption at all levels of government: logic was' that the less the legislature was in session the less trouble it would That attitude held until World War II prior to which only four legislatures met annually But pressure for state governmental action Intensified so after that war that by last year 21 constitutions required annual sessions with only seven of those legislatures limited to budget-only sessions every other year lliough voters In four states turned down annual-session amendments in the 1966 general election the same issue will be voted on in four more states this fall Meanwhile seven other states are meeting the pressure for annual sessions by temporary expedients other than constitutional amendment '-Tlie biennial legislatures in five states recessed their 1967 regular sessions rather than adjourning sine die so they could continue their work this year Democratic Gov Warren Heames has made a practice of submitting only an annual budget to his biennial regular session thus making a special budget session necessary And that is what Gov John Connal-Jy of Texas did last year with the special budget session in this state probably to be held next summer It is rather obvious that most states are finding the affpirs of state government so increasingly complex and fast-changing that short biennial legislative sessions are frustratingly inadequate Annual legislative sessions will soon be the rule rather than the exception and the sooner Texas to strengthens its own state government the better a Republican list pledged to the Republican candidate a Democratic list pledged to Wallace and possibly an as yet unlabeled list pledged to the real Democratic candidate Alabamans like voters in some other states do not vote for presidential candidates by name This is Just one more shoddy aspect of the intolerable mess that the archaic electoral college system of presidential election has become And the interminable ineffective wrangle over how to1 reform that system fairly if indeed that is possible is steadily building up i public support for abolishing the whole thing and adopting direct popular election of the president and vice president State Legislatures Move Toward Annual Sessions 1 i Any comprehensive revision of the Texas Constitution such as is now being studied by special committee should provide for annual sessions of the Legislature Texas voters opposed this by more than 2 to 1 in the 1958 amendments election but the trend now is so strongly in favor of annual sessions of state legislatures that it is believed popular approval could be gained now The national Citizens Conference on State Legislatures a volunteer research agency for legislative reform recently reviewed that trend impressively It notes that state legislatures originally met annually mostly without session length limitations but biennial sessions became the vogue late in the 19th Century Wallace Campaign Revives Election Reform Demand The third-party movement of former Gov: George Wallace of Alabama may or may not succeed in throwing the 1968 presidential election into an undemocratic 1 one-state one-vote decision by the US House of Representatives But it conceivably could by preventing either major party candidate from winning a majority of the electoral vote That possibility alone should revive the demand for American presidential election reform However the need for constitutional amendment to reform the presidential election process is likely' again to be underlined well before the November general election That will be emphasized in the hassle to he expected in seating the Alabama delegation in the Democratic National Convention The Alabama Democratic party has already arranged for the election in the state's May party primary of presidential electors pledged to cast electoral votes for Wallace Then that state party will send a delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August expecting it to be seated to help nominate the Democratic candidate probably of course President Johnson for re-election whose name will not even be on the presidential election ballot in Alabama Even if a nationally loyal Democratic rump delegation from Alabama is seated that will not assure a fair election in that and perhaps other states Alabamans will likely end up choosing from three lists of electors The whole area behind the breakwater spottily silt- through the up badly The bay entrances to the marina ing breakwater are more awkward even hazardous than ever The spoil spilled Into the marina by accident still there and mare Is drifting in outside the breakwater beautified in any way 1 protective structure badly needed on the north end of the marina And the condition of the existing and T-heads leaves much to be for example the run down restrooms I understand of course that fixing all of thb up would cost a substantial amount of money But it ought to be worth it for the benefits to the people of Corpus Cnristi and what It would tnean to the tourist trade I understand too that some of the problems may need federal aid to solve he problems JOHN CHAMBERLAIN Negroes Pacifists Switch Positions on Lincoln Myths crutch is a point worth recording On quite another historical front the opponents of Johnson's fn Vietnam have discovered that Lincoln was the Eugene McCarthy or Bobby Kennedy of Mexican War times And In point of fact Lincoln as did a one-term congressman After so Lloyd Lewis called his book about the reputation of the Great Emancipator We have been comforted by the myths for more than a full century But thb Birthday represents some sort of turn in historical evaluations In tte February issue of Magazine Lerone Bennett Jr after combing over the Ebony Magazine Lerone Ben- nett Jr after combing over the ond Benedict in the Illinois State Register for doubtfng Polk's motives in starting the Mexican War So a full century and more after his assassination Lincoln is being disowned by at least some of our more Important Negro opinion-makers and at the same time welcomed by the New Left as its spiritual antecedent in opposing a war In which our armies willy-nilly were already engaged and that thb being sought and right now hard to get but every effort really being made to get these plans "TP hear a lot about beautifying the bayfront and redeveloping the downtown area but It seems to me that we are neglecting the main asset to both the bayfront and the downtown business area What the marina needs a complete reconditioning along with additional improvements LONG-TIME RESIDENT TV Deplored Editor the Caller: Yes Clark I have noticed that the pseudo-comic TV shows are not so comic I notified one of them that I am no longer purchasing the two products sponsoring their show until: 1 It becomes more comedy and 2 Less non-patriot ic I like to hear my President knocked on TV I like to see young men on TV putting town our war against communism wherever it Have they served their obligated military duty? Not that I ever1 heard of have you? You never near of service men knocking our President and our war against communism Just the draft card burners andor flag burners andor cowards do these unpatriotic deeds I fear My husband has been in the service of his country for over 20 years and he wants to get on with thb war and win it and aid It as soon as possible and he wants to support our President LBJ in doing thb too SERVICE WIFE i Pueblo Diplomacy Criticized Editor the Caller: List week demonstrators protested North set zure of the USS Pueblo The thousands of demonstrators were not Americans they were South Koreans and they were in Seoul not Washington It was' obvious that there was no progress through diplomatic efforts in the UN President Johnson said that the second meeting at Panmunjom had produced any satisfactory Such prolonged and Ineffective methods greater endanger the crew further humiliate the United States and make it apparent that a nation can commit an act of challenge President Polk to nBme the exact where Lincoln biographies has decided the Mexican War started that our Civil War President was in actuality a who had to be badg-eradjgalnsthb willinto signing ftrst ghots to the war had been In Linceta'i defense it ihnld the Emancipation i radamation fired not on US soil but on be said that it is given to few as a matter of military necessi- tenttory that belonged without ren-and to practically no sue- ty- question to Mexico This sounds rather like Bill Fulbright ex- cessful political figures-to tran- Magazine is a pressing dubiety not to say 1 acend their times Lincoln spe- Negro publication disbelief about what happened decision of influential Ne- in the Gulf of Tonkin to those gnoes that they had better dis- US destroyers in August of card Lincoln as an emotional 1364 Lincoln was called sec- dalista have never supposed that the Civil War was fought exclusively over the Issue of war and get away with it JULIA A' WE HAVE RESUMED NORMAL D'PLOMATIC JAMES RESTON ROSCOE DRUMMOND Red China Reign Coming to Chaotic End HONG KONG The reign of Mao Tse-tung ending visibly painfully and chaotically The consensus among the most careful and Informed China-watchers here where China meets the West is that the only question Is whether the regime or Mao will die first The evidence Is abundant: That the Republic Of China as conceived by the of is disintegrating as previous Chinese dynasties have disintegrated and will be more short-lived than most of them That nobody is really running Red China today That having launched the "cultural to restore Chinese communism to his own image Mao can neither stop it nor control it That after a lifetime of preaching that power cornea out of the barrel of a Mao is finding that it is not he who is holding the gun The army is But the army finding that the gui which It now has In lb hand and with which It supposed to restore order is not loaded at least not yet To this extent the army is still following dictate not to use force even to prevent the use of force by rival factions fighting each other This Is why having unleashed violence agakit established authority during most of the past year Mao and his colleagues nave visibly failed in recent efforts to quell violence and restore order Despite months of public appeals and declarations students continue to rebel against injunctions to settle down to school Classrooms and campuses in many cities continue to be the scene of brawls and confrontations between students and teachers Yet Mae and his supporters are understandably loath to apply their historic maxim that power must come out of the barrel of a gun They know that emj-iowerin the army to fire on groups wl the last Irrevocable Liquor Editor the Caller: That Liquor Control Board member from Jasper who asked those Dallas state senators to pipe down on their criticism of the LCB until after its investigation must be pretty naive His concern over is laughable His letter which the senators immediately publicly scorned lust got more for the board And he should have expected that if he knows anything about how little-d democratic politics and a free press work together like the Dallas senators said if It been for their criticism and the news about irregularities published in the newspapers and broadcast over TV and radio there probably have been any investigation And if everybody kept quiet while the investigation going (Hi it get anywhere and there Graduate Students And Military Draft freedom for the slaves With Lincoln it began as a war to hold the Union together Ebony Magazine is quite correct when it says that Lincoln was not opposed to slavery where it already existed he was opposed only to Its extension into the still uninhabited territories of the West In short Lincoln whatever his feelings about the sufferings of the slaves was bent on upholding the law of his times as It existed The evil of slavery was tap- ported by the and Lincoln's proposition was first to hold the Union together under the Constitution and second to work out some solution that would compensate slave owiprs for freeing their slaves over a rather long period When the Emancipation Proc- lamation finally came it was limited to those parts of the South that not yet been taken by the advancing Union armies It was a policy says Ebony Magazine that was At about the same ttoie Lincoln was involved in an abortive attempt to settle black people in the Caribbean or in a snarsely inhabited portion of Texas Does asy 'of tills detract from historical importance? The editors of Ebony might ask themselves whether an Abolitionist like William Lloyd Garrison could have been elected President of the United States in R60 If they had put this question to themselves which could hardly be answered affirmatively they might have concluded that Lincoln was not such a bad historical choice after all History is always a raped process and the actors hi Its dramas are set-1 dnm what the myth-makers would like them to be As for these who try to claim Lincoln as the blood-brother of Henry David Thoreau In unwavering opposition to the Mexican War the historical record quite back them up It perfectly true that Lincoln challenged Polk on the question of the legitimacy But he voted for all supplies for every the field obstructionist Douglas accused him in one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates of letting down our soldiers in the war ne was incensed to the point of dragging someone up to the platform to testify that he had voted precisely as Douglas himself nad voted on every specific supply Issue INI King Footer Syndicate be much done about anything it did find out Why for example did thb board member Crawford not seem to know anything or do anything until he was stung by what he now calls ad He has the attitude of too many government niWHatu They get to thinking that anything bad about their agency Just "bad that might to be hushed up and not news that the people must have if self-government going to be any good or mean anything not just business getting publicity" ifa the people's business And no publicity is that leads to reform of a faulty government agency 1 INDIGNANT CITIZEN Legislative Ethics Decried Editor the Caller: At long last our governor has spoken out against the lobbyist-legislators who govern thb state and Ihnpe the people of Texas will respond at the polls thb year We need a conflict-of-interest tew with real teeth In it We will never get one until we elect lawmakers who are not In debt to special interests start by voting only for those candidates for the Legislature who mate a full disclosure of their sources of Income as well as their campaign contributions DISGUSTED WASHINGTON It widely assumed that the relations be-' tween the government in Wash- aton and the students in the versifies are about as bad as they could be but thb not necessarily so They can get much worse and under the new military draft regulations they could produce a political and educational crlsb Consider the position of men completing their four-year undergraduate course thb June Normally those planning to go on to graduate work would now be applying for admission to the graduate schools In the past all graduate students in good academic standing were exempt from the draft and both they and the graduate school administrators could plan accordingly But this longer so The new draft law continues undergraduate deferments from military duty but abolishes draft exemptions for graduate students except those In certain fields of which were to be chosen National Security Coun revealing that the regime's will can be exercised only through the use of fore and that such an admission would nakedly disclose the Ideological bankruptcy One expert put the dilemma in these words: conjured up the genie of mass anarchy and public denunciation to shake tne regime he had fashioned throughout 18 years of Communist rule Mao now faces the awesome task of putting the genie back in the But the destructive disintegrating cultural revolution not being put back Into the bottle The end result is nowin sight: Mao Tse-tung being put back into the bottle It Increasingly evident that to a very large extent the centra government Isolated in Peking Because the regime controls the media of communication its words are heard everywhere but they are little heeded and certainly not in the crucial areas of administration education and economic behavior Of the three key Installments of national bureaucracy party and army only the army today has the capability of Instilling some degree of discipline and respect for authority essential to achieving any national cohesion responsive to will Mao can no longer do it The Communist party do It The bureaucracy do it Onh Only the army can do it and it will take time and probably tory to the Pentagon let alone the graduate schools or the graduate students: Under the atipa-latlon of the law1 theprosped according to statistics prepared by the Scientific Manpower Commission that between one-half and two-thirds of all men inducted by Selective Service into the armed forces in the year beginning next July will be college graduates or those who have been in graduate school for one year The Pentagon does not like thb because It would almost certainly increase intellectual dissent within the armed services The administration does not like it because if the law is enforced it will probably lead to more violent anti-draft demonstrations in the months just before' November's presidential election And the universities are against It for a variety of reasons In the first place the graduate classes next year would be cut from a minimum of IS per cent White House to a maximum of 40 or even 50 per the Council of Graduate and the impact of thb on the undergraduate faculties of many universities would be severe For example most of the largest universities rely on their graduate students for assistant teaching and laboratory Jobs Thb is why Nathan Pusey the president of Harvard was in Washington this week pointing out that the new law would be stopping the flow of teachers at a time when the growing undergraduate student bodies need more teachers every year Pisey and most of the ether college presidents are not asking that the graduate students be exempt from the draft but merely that the principle be replaced by some kind of lottery system so that the graduate students would take their chances with the 19-year-okb and the others The administration favors thb too It may ease the problem by allowing students who have completed one year of graduate study to continue until they have reached the first available degree but it would like to see the law changed to avoid what Pus- S- called devastating cut-of graduate students Thb however is opposed by Sen Richard Russell D-Ga and Rep Mendel Rivers D-SC the chairmen of the two armed services committees Congress in general seems to be in a mood to leave the law as it to and even to punish graduate students for the special privileges they have enjoyed In the past The consequences of thb however are not likely to be pleasant especially iffc is enforced in a spiteful mood Thb precisely what Joe Califano and Douglass Cater of the White House staff are trying to avoid but correcting the bill by administrative action wiU be extremely difficult if not impossible Now York Tlmoi Now Sorvko to kt ll atom to riw Wrltori' ootHW wW to wHMMS to to ootoUorod tor putoicatlea moot tow IWM tort aad some bloodshed Today the army being called on to do more O' help them In than it can to police the schools to patrol the factories to run waa the railroads to nelo harvest the crons and to nrevent hrawline ana when Stephen D( than the railroads to help harvest the crops and to prevent brawling for and when Stephen In the streets In the end it will succeed but It not going to do all this Just to see the turmoil start all over and to let thugs and hooligans Corpus Chrisli Caller FuMlihod owy wood day morning of 120 Lower Broadway Coraui Chrtitl Tom 7S4H by tho Callw-TImai Publishing Co Sunday idman-Tto Corpuo Christ! Coller-TImei band daw pSlago Fold at Carm CnplHfi rtxas Edward Hart FuMMim Rotort Jactaon iVEduJ Builnei Manoqcr John SfaINngi Manadna uw 6 Thomto AdJSrtlOlSSj ration Circulation Wluan Cornu reduction Monitor of tho AMuaalad Prow Tha Auodattd Pma It ntltM ilvfty to tho uh for publication of all local now printed In ttili i well at all AP newt dlioatchH MAIL RATES: Morning Evening and Sunday 12 month $3)1 i nwntiii i 2 month! W7S 1 month 2122 Dally (Collar or Tlmoi) and Sunday 12 manthi 224 month! 212 2 monflw 24 month 2 Dally (Caller or TTmw only) 12 manthi 211 4 month 21DJ0 1 month 2522 1 month 2172 Sunday only 12 mom hi 212 4 mnnltw 24 2 month! 22 1 month 21 RATES SY CARRIER: Collar dolly and Sunday 50 Cent! a wrekTrlmM dolly ond Sunday IS cants wort morning ovonlng and Sunday to 4 A liauL -U iMIH WMRt cil The law also stipulates that the oldest candidates for the that those nearest to shall be -taken first and since the National Security Council has not yet said whether mathematicians and engineers are to be exempt or poets and divinity students called up nobody knows where he stands There are several reasons for the present confusion The main one that Congress in trying to keep graduate schools from being a haven for draft-dodgers wrote a law that not satisfac- Mao lives the longer it will take to put what Ina back together Hie army not anti-Communist but anti-Mao will be the main Instrument for putting things back together Then Mao alive or dead will be painted gray and allowed to fade away Copyright INI PuMufiora-Hall Syndicate I.