The Danville Register from Danville, Virginia • Page 4

The Register: DonviHe, Sunday, July 16, 1972 Hanoi Must Be Confused Associated Press Correspondent Wil- liam L. Ryan, who took over as head- quarters resident analyst of world af- fairs from the late J. M. "Buddy" Rob- erts, called attention to the confusion that must exist in Hanoi as leaders of that People's Republic try to make heads or tails of a number of mystifying cir- cumstances involving their main foe and their allies. Sir Winston Churchill called Stalin an enigma wrapped in a riddle, which is a way of saying he was a double-coated mystery.

Comrade Leonid Brezhnev, who holds Stalin's old post as General Sec- retary, has ended the anti-Stalin posture of 'the regime and is a tough man to Ea thorn. The Chinese have been called in- scrutable by Asians alike. Europeans and fellow North Vietnamese are close cousins to the Chinese but cousins often misunderstand each other and the rulers in Hanoi appear uncertain of Chou En-lai's dealings with the Russians and with the Americans. to all this developing riddle is the U.S. presidential campaign, where orie candidate seems ready and anxious to give Hanoi a complete victory simply by waiting until he is elected, and the other, who is waging a peace offensive leaves them in doubt whether the pro- spect of a McGovern victory is sub- stantial enough to justify holding out on a negotiated peace with President Nix- on's representatives.

McGovern cried out to stop the bomb- ing, stop the breaking of dikes, the mining of harbors. He would refuse any aid of any kind to the present South Vietnamese government and leave the people who chose it and who support it to the tender mercies of General Giap and his exponents of genocide. McGovern looks too good to be true to the leaders in Hanoi. But they must ponder what is going on among their big friends and big foe, and what it may portend for North Vietnam and it program to communize all Indochina. Should they negotiate seriously at Paris, or elsewhere? Can they afford to wait on.the outcome of the U.S.

election in November? Can they rely upon Peking or Moscow in the years ahead What will happen to them if they do hold out for the promises of McGovern? Those Americans can be confusing, too. They must be, when seen from Hanoi. GETTING AHEAD OF HIM! An Vgly American The international chess champion- ship underway in Iceland rapidly is de- generating into a one-sided contest where the skill and the sportsmanship appears altogether on the side of the Russians. Bobby Fischer, instead of hav- ing: countrymen on his side cheer- ing for him, has conducted himself in a manner that leaves some doubt he is in the same class with Boris Spassky as a master of chess and as a competitor series barely plays by the rules. Already, with the started, Fischer has lost one game at tnie board and one by his gracelessness aid his pettifogging petulance.

Unless he proves that he came to Reykjavik to pjay chess according to the rules, the world championship may as well be called off; as a huge and costly mistake. has given Americans no rea- son to cheer for him. He agreed to terms and then held out for more money. He was rude in references to the Icelandic hosts of the match. He was rude to his opponent.

He forced inexcusable delays in the start of the match. He objects to silent cameras recording the play--an essential to having the contest pay for itself. He openly breaks the Laws of Chess as formulated by the World Chess Federation by not showing up for a scheduled game and then demands that he not be penalized for his infractions. Americans rarely applaud a bad ac- tor and poor sport in any contest. Some have lost respect for Fischer and that young man faces a turnabout if he is to regain any standing among his country- men.

To the rest of the world, he prob- ably will become known as the prototype of the Ugly American of which they have heard so much. L. D. Johnson Jeffrey Hart The Bitter Sweetness Shared By Democrats Chaplain, Furman University MIAMI BEACH (KFS) There Is plenty at bitterness the background here. You find it in delegate meetings and in the 'caucui rooms and the anti-McGoyern mater- al circulating privately.

But the striking thing on the sur- face is the general amenity and cheerfulness. Little jokes from the podium. An atmos- phere of agreeabkness on the convention floor. In addition to the regular campaign buttons the ubiquitous funny ones; Free Martha Mitchell," "I Am a Grass Root," "Relia- ble Source," Terry Sanford for President." In many ways, the McGo- procedural re- forms are a great success. M.

Fraser is the Min- nesota Congressman and chief spokesman for the reformers.) Gone are the phony demon- strators long familiar on the convention floor. Gone are the ego-trip, favorite-son nomkia tions and the intenmdnable speeches. Even complkated, tenskMWfilled issues like the California credentials fight are allowed only 20 minutes of de- bate time before the vote, 10 minutes for each side. Once, when a delegation chairman tried to preface his vote count with some of the usual blah about the Greal State Of, he was admonished from the chair: "Just announce your yes anc no votes, please." The result xrding to the GaUup Poll, and wre in the convention he it winning the key votes by very lim majorities. The split is almost down the middle of the convection.

So, one sense, he is somewhat iver-reprsented 'here. But here is also no doubt that his 0-plus per cent of the delegat- is does acurateJy reflect the nergy and organizing ability his wing of the party not at all negligible thing to have represented. One is struck by he lack of these qualities in his rivals, the representatives of the "old" Democratic party, who somehow forgot to scram- le for delegates. No one can really much mourn the- fate of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, whose ollowers are still claiming that the seats of the Illinois Daley men were stolen by con- vention vote. If so, it is a case of the bitter bit.

theft of the 1960 election in Cook County for John F. Kennedy is one of the neglected scan- dals of American politics. Vacant lots and empty build- ings and graveyards turned in solid Democratic majorities. "After the votes were record- ed," Bob Finch once remarked to me, "They threw -the machines in the- river. There was tiothing we could do." In actual fact, 1960 Presi- dential election was in Illinois and Texas.

Dumping Daley was a national service, Not To Restore But To Create Williamsburg, Virginia is one of the most fascinating places in Its charm is its quaintness. Here the visitor can walk up and down cobblestone streets and enjoy the sights of the restoration paid for by Mr. Rockefeller's money. Thi is America of the pre-revolution- ary days. It is authentic co- lonial Virginia.

But it is a showcase, and it is not authentic 20th century America. America is not like that any more. We might wish it were, but no amount of wish- ing will make it so. The only way we can be true to the past toration? is to be faithful to the signal for this glorious res of the present. A graphic illustration comes to mind from an account of one of the post-resurrection ap- pearances of Christ to his dis- ciples.

Luke in his introduction to The Acts telis that when they met him they asked: "Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" The question voiced the longing of Jews for the recovery of a former glory. They had be- lieved that the Messianic King- dom meant the establishment of God's reign through an earth- ly ruler. Was his resurrection Holmes Alexander Larry O'Brien Proves Master Of The Gavel The Lettuce Boycotters The McGovernites not only captured Party; they rechristened with Senator Edward M. Kennedy serving as the political priest who gave the name Fellow Lettuce Boycotters to. those who acted as the representa- tives of its membership.

new name is suitable to the new Now that McGovern has broken with tradition again by naming Mrs. Jean Westwood to be Democratic National Chairman as successor to the able Law- rence O'Brien; and a New York black National Vice Chairman, he almost certainly would name Cesar Cha- vez, the militant farm worker organizer who is behind the lettuce boycott, to be his Secretary of Agriculture, if elected. Thus McGovem is establishing a repu- tation for post-convention consistency. He is running on course to fulfill the promise that this will indeed be a new type of campaign by a new type of political party and a new type of candi- date. If the Lettuce Boycotters should win the election, the pastures in Washington would take on the look of a lettuce field but a blue mold would be on our water- logged currency and our overburdened national credit.

And taxpayers by the millions would have curvature of the spine from the weight of "De-ducts" roosting on their backs as the McGovern tax reforms provide for a welfare pro gram that will see 80 million workers paying from their earnings the welfare benefits given 93 million people. Fooling Around With Utility Rates Roanoke Times Both State Corporation Commission opinions in the Virginia Electric and Power Co. rale caw lamented, that North Carolina and West Virginia customers of Vepco pay lower rates Virginia customers. Lt. Gov.

Henry Hpwell sugfcfts that the federal price-commission hold THE DANVILLE REGISTER All Departments Dial 793-2311 Entered at Danville, post office as second-class mail matler. Zip code 24541 Al SrtKriptibM Payable in Advamce SUBSCRIPTION RATES AND SUNDAY (in cily and suburbs) Ifr; carrier delivery 50c a week. SINGLE COPIES lOc each. SUNDAY ONLY 20c. DAILY AND SUNDAY (by mail).

One year six months $10.50, Ihree months $5.25, one moatt $1.75. Notice mailed 10 days before expiration. Sub- scribers should give prompt attention to re- aewab. iber ef The Associated Press Aatociated is exclusively entitled to the use for republkttion of all news dis- patcher credited to it or not otherwise credited to this paper and also the local news published AH ricbto of reproduction on special dis- areabo reserved. IB HtANKAM COMPANY New Atlaata, Detroit, New (Meals, Kansas City, St.

LMb, Charlotte, Sea Fiaaciecu, Lot Anfteto, Miami, MIAMI BEACH Time wasi when the gavel swung the chair- man. But at this Democratic 'onvention. Chairman Larry 3'Brien is complete master of the big stick. Memory goes back to Chi- cago '68 with Chairman Carl Albert, closer to being a five- footer than a six-footer, proving himself no match.for the mace in his hand. He was outshouled, outsmarted, and all but undone by the maddened, frightened frustrated Democrats of that stockyard melee.

Older memo ries call up the bald, florid, arrogantly unfair Chairman Sam Rayburn pounding down Democratic upstarts who were trying for recognition, going ovor 'their maverick heads to recognize the boys of the party's innermost back rooms. O'Brien is all but flawless. He bangs for order before it's too late. He says "Please. In the tone of a proctor im- ploring high school students to quit behaving like junior grnd ers.

"Some of you are ignoring Mrs. Harris." he chided dele who were jabbering in the aisles whils the Credcn tials Chairman was explaininj imporlant procedures. He die nol pull his rank on petty vio lations. as when speakers ran a few minutes overtime. But he spurred the Convention up against the bit and finished th credentials session in 10 hours although it was officially mated to run twice that length up the rate increase until thai inequity i He carried a strong arm in cured.

There's a problem here. In North Carolina and West Virginia there are people like Henry Howell who protest rate increases sought by a public utilily. These are Tar Heels and West Virginians who are against Ihe "Big Boys." they seem lo know al once lhat a rate increase is unjustified. If Virginia must wait until the rates of North Carolina and the western neighbor are adjusled, Vepco won't do much expanding. Judge Ralph T.

Catterall, chairman of the SCC, pul ii this way: If We could force the company lo lake Ihe issue lo the Supreme Courl of Ihe Uniled Slales we would do it. In Ihe meanlime we ought nol lo punish the Virginia customers by fixing rales in Ihis jurisdiction lhat will make il impossible for the company to allract necessary capital. It is beller lo Two spirits, neither belonging this Convention, seem to rood here none the less. The roblem of violence contain- ient is the same that Mayor )aiey faced in Chicago, but the methods have been re- ined by experience and prepa- ation. The other spirit is that of Richard Nixon who somehow las worked nationwide wind- down of violence.

But it's been O'Brien's Con- tention all the way. He is the 'irst 20th century man to pre- side over the assembled party, nd he has succeeded well by the human realities. The troublemakers outside the 'cnce are treated as irrecon- cilnbles who came to make rouble, and not as Les Jliser- bles with answerable griev- If O'Brien should turn up some future administration, could well be in the role of he late J. Edgar Hoover, or in -he guise of a Democratic John Mitchell. The stamp of the pcrmissivist.

which las become the hallmark of his party, missed Larry O'Brien. It will not do to say that the delegates and candidates der his governance are lamer or nobler than Democrals past. The several maelstroms oj the floor have showed treacherous tides, but he has steered clear with a steady hand. The seek- ers of the nomination have whceled-and-dealcd. choosin? expediency and junking their ideals with familiar regwlaritv.

side a well-tailored sleeve, fist of Ihe un-bossed Demo cralic Convenlions was possihlj the most monitored. When th Kennedy in Los Angeles of first inlroduced a field telephon system on Ihe floor, tied into a central command post, the pur pose was to lead the troops a victory for JFK. The Gold water forces in '64 at San Fran ciscq did the same for tnei nominee. But the wiring oi th present Convention is to sta bilize the Convention itself. sn O'Brien's intelligence staff i never taken by surprise.

Yo could call it surveillance preemptive overkill. Outside the hall, the ram tactics of security by smolhcra lion have reduced threats to the status of mere nuisances. Th elements of disruption are here subsidize a few foreigners than to put the th not as merous as 5 lights out in Virginia. There are few people with experlise in rate-making and only a few of Ihese have spent the lime to know Ihe Vepco case. The main hope for fairness is lo put the most qualified persons lhat can be found on Ihe SCC, give the SCC a large and able lechnical staff, and make the hearings subject to de- lailed and informed debale.

The SCC is still not what it ought lo be, but it has been im- proved. The hearings were fair enough. Firsl Vepco, ultimately the consumer who wants electricity, "ought not to He penalized by Mr. Howeil's Apolitical indulgences. i Chicago of four years ago, an (hey are never allowed lo unil long enough lo ignile.

Yippies zippies and crazies. Jesus peo pie and poor people, are Ih shut-outs of the season. They march forlornly aroun the perimeter of the iron-lin fence, and occasionally mak abortive foray. Flyin squads of riot-slicked cops tro into position inside the barr caJe. ready to reinforce thei buddies on Ihe outside.

The de fensive peace keepers alway gel their fuslest wilh the most est. Christ's reply is an instruc- tive comment about God's lime- lable and an imporlant lesson to all people who keep looking for Utopia. "It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority," Jesus said. No a knows God's sched- ule. Anybody who tells you when that "great day is corn- in' is fooling himself and you.

Nobody knows but God. The history of Christendom is dotted with the records of those who confidently announced the date of the end of time. "It is not for you to know." But it is for you to hope. We are to live in expectation. God has not abdicated.

The resur- rection of Christ was seen by his disciples as the irrefutable evidence that God is in charge He is the proper authority fig ure in the management of this universe. Another insight arises from the conversation between Jesus and his men. "Will you re store they asked. How strange that they should have thought of th perfect day one of restoration! It is a com mon trick of the mind. W- romanticize the past until i looks like Utophia and tiien long for the good old when Ihings were just right Oh, if we could only go bac a generation! Not me.

You can have 1932. I don't want to se that day restored. has been an immense gain in dignity and seriousness. The lepublicans will make a big mistake next month if they come over TV with the olc joopla which had its roots in the gaslight era. The question of "representa- tiveness" is a complex one, and, as I have noted recently, he McGovern delegates in many ways are not "represen- alive Democrats." They are more affluent, more ac- Yet in a rough sort of way, the re-.

forms worked here too. True enough George McGovern is supported by less than one- of Democratic voters, ac even 11 it was accompiisnea by tfie left-wing lettuce boy- cotters in New York and Cali- fornia. I mentioned above the bit- terness of the anti-McGovern forces. They has only their own complacency to blame. Organ- ized labor is circulating a 50- page, anti-McGovern document accusing the of being a numbskull on Communism: "Senator McGovern sees Com- munism as being just 'another economic which 'some people want to be organized That is George Meany's opin- ion of McGovern.

The disaster is that Meany, in my opinion, is quite correct. Chamberlain The Uneasy Business Of Categorizing People MrAiMI BEACH (KFS) It was certainly a different group of delegates who milled about the aisles as the temporary chairman, Larry O'Brien, rap- ped for order at the opening of the Democratic Convention. The advertisement was there for all 'to see: with blacks, chicanes, twenty-two-year-olds, eager-eyed young matrons and white "ethnics" from the big industrial centers grabbing for the telephones and scouting "no, no" or "yes, yes" to O- Brien's rulings, it was obvious that at least one of the two major TJ.S. political parties had been opened at the bottom. This surely represents tfre in- just plain young at a given xint in time.

Since every liv- ng person is different from every -other person, even in case of identical twins, cate- gorical thinking is bound to do violence to the natural va- a-iety the human race. The whole history of freedom has een an effort to get away rom quotas. The only moral, -as well as the only logical, thing to do is to insist ftat every party member has a sright to vote in his primary as freely chooses, even if the results on the convention floor do not necessarily conform to abstract percentages. In the long run, of course The fact is that every past had its pressures and problems, just as every present does. That is the name of the game.

The pressures change as the times change, io be sure, but the fact of pressure does not. I am not blissfully unaware of the (errors of this time, but neither should I forget that other days saw great terror also. After we're only 30 years away from the gas cham- bers of Hitler. You can't go back and re- store the past. If you couM it probably wouldn't be any more idea! than it was when people were 1 living through it.

What- ever of value, whatever is worthy of preservation out of the past can be be honored by meeting the challenge of the present. What is good about the Ameri- evibile trend, and the Repu- blicans, if and when they go out of office, will have to con- form to ttie new Democratic practices in order to compete for the swing groups that de- termine our elections. But if there is no argument against open primaries, the non-representation at this con- vention of Ben Wallenberg's and Richard Scammons' "real majority," as symbolized by the middle-aged Dayton house wife, points to significant dan- ger in ttie current inlerprela- tion of the so-called McGovern Rules. An open primary is one thing, but what if you happen to be a middle-aged male Wasp living in a precinct tha' is forty per cent black, twenty per cent Slav, fifty-three per cent female, and thirty per cent in the under-twenty-five can Revolution? Why, the uni- year-old category? Thn sunken-faced Humphreyjversal good is th courage and and the gaunt Muskie are. if anything, more bitter against McGovern than Convention also- rans of old.

O'Brien did not come here with better material, but h- has set belter standards for the party as his opening address showed. It's doubtful if this party has ever before been warned "excessive in Ihe past." which has tradi- tionally been demonstrated in boastful recital of great names and feats. It was a unique ex perier.ce to hear a Democratic Convention sparked with addi- tional warnings against promis- ing much and delivering little. Whatever else the Democrats have produced, they have found a man to match the mighlv conviction of trie patriots who pressed for independence. Do we suppose that everybody was an advocate of rebellion against England? Historians say that no more than a Ihird of the colonists were.

A third opposed it and the othf third remain- ed non-committal. But the fu- ture was on the side of cour- Those of us who chose 1972 as the year we were really going to get things done might as well realize that it is half over, and there's no point in starling anything now. Certain moral principles re- main and campus practice of buying term papers must be abolished, congressman sludge- pump thunders in a ghost written speech. The old adage that what man has done, man can undo does not necessarily apply to snarled fishing line. With the arbitrary decree that your delegates must con- form to the percentages of the district's makeup, what real freedom do you have to exercise your choice? The old gag floats to mind: "Comes the revolution, and you'll eat strawberries and like them." If a significant proportion i i OIUC UL UOUr- age and conviction.

Perhap- it of th fl percent of Mlin Mvnf always is. So, what good old days do you want restored? Forgel it. It won't happen. Does this bury the past, dismiss it as irrelevant? Not at all. It hon- ors the past by trying to emu- late the qualities that produc- ed whatever nobility we see in it.

If the past has anything to teach us it is thai the con- structive use of one's life is found not in trying to restore something that served its day but in creating something thai can serve one's own day. This is our task. Jesus told his disciples that their work was to go out and give witness to the events thai God had brought about. Thus they were to be celebrants, participant and creators. The Christ who had died was not in a tomb.

He was Ihe ever- living, ever-present Lord. One of the New Teslamenl writers calls him "Ihe Author and Finisher of our failh." He is the pacesetter, the trailblaz- cr. The way is always ahead. the American population that is female just don't want to be re-presented by Gloria Steinen and Betty Freidan, why shouldn't they be privi- leged to choose thirty-three- year-old mates to carry their wishes to a convenlion? Provided, of course, that no cily boss or rigged local cau- cus keeps them from voting their preferences. the pros of politics will learn how to manipulate the new rules much as they manipulat- ed the old.

Indeed, they have already demonstrated consi- derable acumen to this end. On the very first evening of the convention, the "ideal- ism" of the domkiant McGo- vern forces was subordinated to the exigencies of parliament procedure. Obedient to the slide rules of the McGo- vern statisticians, a selected few actually threw their votes on a South Carolina represen- tation challenge to the "ene- my" in order to avoid a pre- mature appeal from the floor that might have hurt McGo- vern's chances when the far more important California question came up. After the first convenlion evening was over, Ben Wallen- berg, one of the Sen. "Scoop" Jackson leaders, was heard to remark that the next presi- dent after Richard Nixon will be a "Chicano female," aged eleven." It was a statistical ex- pert's sardonic commentary on Ihe deification of categoriz- ing that has revolutionized, for the moment at least, a great party.

But the -new rules that have been applied with enough rigidity to exclude old masters such as Boss Daley of Chicago will not apply in November, when the ethnics, the religious minorities, the women, the mkJdJe classes and the poor will be choosing be- tween two wiiite middfe-ages who can only be fcrentiated by Ihe ideas in their heads. The McGovern worked to rules promote a have very crude sort of representational justice. But something will have lo be done in future years lo refine the making of pou'tical categories. If color is a category, what a- bout IQ's? What about people who divide according to the ideas in their heads? If being young is a category, what a- fooul the overlay of categori- cal elhnic considerations or the fact of merely being young? The birth rales may vary groups, leading to an imbalance between Catholic young and Wack young and We never thought KP did any harm. One often hears a man say that the army made him a killer by giving him a gun, bul nobody was ever turned into a pot washer just because they gave him a GI brush.

Frankly, Ihe current summer scenery is not our favorite, what with women in; long skirts and men in short The first American automo- bile was produced around 1883. Which must that the first antique car parade was held at some county fair about 1918..