Beckley Post-Herald from Beckley, West Virginia • Page 4

Four November 30, 1970 BECKLEY POST-HERALD A REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER FOR 70 YEARS PUBLISHED EVERY BUSINESS DAY BY BECKLEY NEWSPAPERS CORPORATION 33S-343 Prinof Sf. SecMey, W. Vo. 25801 AS Eecfcfey 253-3321 Second-doss sscil post ct Seckey. W.

Vo- cod Hlntoo. W. Vc. Top 0'The Morning JackAnderson- Toy Fund At Last g. J.

HOPEl MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tlie Associated entilSed to fcr repobEcatlon of ott the focal news pnnted in as u-aSTcs c2! Afi asws dispatches. Notional Advertising WARD GRIFFITH COMPANY, INC New York, Chicogo, Detroit, Atlanta, Boston, Pittsburgh, Son Francisco, Los Arsgeles "THE HISTORY of free man is never really written by chance, but by "Dwight Eisenhower. Students And Teachers In Contempt Of Plenty Since World War II the American educational system has developed lopsidedly until it has become just another "industry. Unlike other industries, however, its product is an intangible and its dividend hard to assess. One thing is obvious: there is a considerable amount of waste, not only of money but of human material.

In "past generations, education was something for which the individual, if he wanted it, had to work. It was not arrayed for him like a banquet table from which he could pick and choose, or reject altogether. In its free abundance, our educational system has overlooked a basic fact of human nature. The overgenerous man forfeits respect by his gifts and in the end wins only contempt. It is so with everything that is given too freely.

THE GREATEST ERROR LIES in the belief that all children, whatever their latent abilities, will benefit greatly if exposed to teaching long enough. To expose aU to the same fare under the mistaken idea that it is "equal opportunity for all" is foolish. It should be recognized that there are children who cannot learn certain subjects. Not everyone can become a doctor, a scientist, a lawyer, or a teacher. And we have great need of other talents.

Full, happy, and useful lives can be lived outside the strict limits of intellectual accomplishment. Too many competent teachers waste their hours trying to -force Iznowledge into minds that do not want to receive it. And often there is little attempt to entice or create needed interest. OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM has become an industry more concerned with quantity than quality, and so it Is self-defeatist. It carries mediocrities and dullards, who become bored and resentful because they are not permitted to get into the- groove of life for which they are fitted and where they would be content.

Too, many teachers are themselves mediocre dullards. These are simple facts, and the price we pay for overlooking them is high in wasted time, human material, and money. Capital Punishment The Supreme Court this term will decide whether or not the death penalty has a place in modern society, and more than 500 felons in death rows throughout the nation are awaiting the court's decision with earnestness. Because a determination by the justices has been in the offing, no one has been legally executed in the United States for three years. The question before the court is a difficult one.

There is a growing feeling that the death penalty is barbarous in the context of 1970 America, and many people believe the ultimate punishment fails to deter capital crimes. Beyond that, it is often the poor and the black who are put to death; more "respectable" folk generally receive a lesser sentence for crimes no less vile. But for all of that, we think it would be a mistake to abandon the death penalty altogether. There are certain crimes that are so heinous no other punishment is even remotely fitting; for example, political assassinations, the killing of policemen, and kidnap- murders. Too, the i a gangland killer rates nothing less than society's ultimate retribution.

The alternative to the death penalty is life imprisonment, possibly with the chance of parole, conceivably with the chance of escape. However dreadful the nation's prisons, cold-blooded murderers do not merit even the small comforts of a maximum-security lockup. On the other hand, the court might decide to lay down some much-needed guidelines on the kind of crime that should be punished by death. What might be excluded are crimes of passion, especially killings that occur during domestic arguments. And there should be new measures to compensate for the particular vulnerability of the poor.

Yes, we are aware that mistakes are occasionally made, that innocent men have been put to death and, when the truth emerges, they are obviously in no condition to benefit from society's second thoughts. But because all the choices are hard, that risk must be accepted. In "civilized" 1970, the death penalty Js particularly noxious. But not quite so noxious as the idea that those few kill xvith calculation may escape the only penalty that fits their all but incredible crimes. National Observer By EMILE J.

HODEL Things picked up a little over the weekend for Mac's Memorial Toy Fund. We had contributions from a dozen or so of the legion of Toy Fund friends. Most of them were good folk who have been supporting the effort for either all of their lives or all of the life of the TF. But there were also a uew ones who were most welcome. After all, without new supporters we would gradually lose all of the old ones, for each year there are a few stalwarts who drop by the wayside and are heard from no more.

This is a sad aspect of our task feere. This morning we have an "honor list" that adds $54 to the Toy Fund till. Though that is still lagging behind what we should have by now, it is still a decided improvement over what we had most of the last week or more. Surely, rather soon now we will begin having those fine $100 days when that much or more is added to the fund each day. If "we are to come anywhere near equaling last year's record, that will have to come soon.

Herewith now is the goodly list of donors: Mrs. Annie Long of 523 Highland in a beautiful Norman Rockwell card and a nice letter from this fine friend, S2; Cadet S. Sgt. Robert Anderson of Greenbrier Military School at Lewisburg (where we, too. struggled to learn at one time), this lifetime donor sent a pretty card, and TF regular J.

Binderman of 125 Westwood Miss Mary Scott of 221 N. Fayette St. an old friend (and the sister of the late former editor who ran the TF for some 10 or 11 years, Eugene Scott), $5. Waiter Via of Green Valley, a fine gift left at the office for us, $10; the Herbert Weilses of 102 Parkwood with a heart-warming letter, $10; Mrs. J.

Q. Hutchinson of 308 N. Kanawha a long-time friend and former neighbor of ours, in a lovely card Robin, Ben, and Tommy Susman of 200 Tally Ho children of Mr. and Mrs. Alan Susman, $10; and young Charles Carper of 117 Berkley son of Mr.

and Mrs. L. B. Caroer in a delightful card, $5. Those are "Santa's helpers" for the weekend.

And we thank each and every one of them for their timely assistance, so to speak. Would that hundreds of others might emulate their examples quickly now! Doll Aides Needed Though we haven't space for it all, a report from Mrs. Kenneth (Inez) Atkinson, the doll repair chairman, indicates that 455 dolls (I) have been contributed and there is need for more assistance on the repair and dressing work. No more dolls are needed. But there are 28 sinsll ones which need refurbishment of one sort or another and still have not been taken by volunteers.

Mrs. Atkinson says that all of them are 10-inch or smaller. Nineteen need complete outfits in the way of clothes and the other nine need present clothes freshened or certain added items to complete their outfits. Anyone wanting to handle a few of mem should get in touch with Mrs. Kenneth Atkinson of 325 Mankin Ave.

We will hope to pass along more of the report on doll activities In a later column. Meanwhile, we need those financial contributions. Just send yours to Mac's Toy Fund, Beckley Post- Herald, Beckley. West Va. 25801.

And top of the mora to you! White House Considers Assassinating Hanoi Leaders MY ANSWER by Is willingness to wait for a reward an indication of maturity? Is this Christian teaching? J. W. The mature Christian does not do things for personal reward or aggrandizement. Jesus said, "He that is greatest among you shall be your servant. Unselfish service to God and others carries its own reward, and asks for nothing more.

In the fine book, "Magnificent Obsession," by Lloyd Douglas, a doctor finds great reward in doing good deeds for others, and when he is offered a reward, he says, "I have already been paid." Loving parents ask no reward from their children except gratitude, and even when this isn't shown, they go right on loving and serving. The higher the form of life, the greater desire to serve. Animals live on a selfish plane, foraging for themselves, thinking only of themselves. Some humans live on the plane of animals, with their only drive that of self-preservation. Through faith in God, and a change of motivation, some people rise above the animal level and have consideration of others.

This is a sign of emotional and spiritual maturity Christian maturity. Read the biographies of great Christians and you will see this ethic of selflessness exhibited. Of course Christ was the great example of the perfect One. "He was rich, and yet he became poor, that we through his poverty might'be made rich." With Christ, work, in love and compassion for others, and you will be rewarded; and you won't have to wait for it. A I A a controversy has erupted over Secretary of Defense Mel Laird's threat to take "unusual means" to free U.S.

prisoners in Vietnam and White House secretary Ron "Ziegter's warning a North Vietnamese a would be "personally responsible" for any retaliation against prisoners. i a that has been i scussed at i ghest levels is end helicop- m- mandos i Hanoi to kid- a a assinate North Vietnamese leaders who are responsible for i abuse. The idea of dispatching a suicide squad to wipe out Hanoi's top leaders had been considered and discarded earlier. It was decided mat the slain leaders would merely be replaced by others even more intransigent. A plot against the Hanoi leadership might also encourage them to organize terrorist attacks upon U.S.

leaders. In any case, this wasn't the way Washington wanted to fight the Vietnam War. BUT PRESIDENT Nixon is coining around to the view, say insiders, that drastic action may be required to protect our prisoners. He hasn't ruled out the possibility of using commandos to retaliate against the North Vietnamese leaders who sanction the mistreatment of prisoners. Meanwhile, Laird's Mat that means -presumably new commando raids would be tised to free American prisoners has caused misgivings in the backrooms.

The abortive Son Tay raid, they feel, has now alerted the North Vietnamese, who' will guard the prison camps against airborne commandos. AU five known prison camps are located in the Hanoi environs. Only Son Tay was sufficiently isolated to make the helicopter raid feasible. Scmh. VSetaam failed A Smith Vietnamese unit once stumbled accidentally upon a prison camp.

Before the prisoners could be rescued, the Viet Cong guards bashed in the head of the only American prisoner. Some U.S. officials believe the Son Tay prisoners weren't far away when the commandos arrived to rescue them. A close study of the available intelligence has convinced these officials that the prisoners may have been within the grasp "of the rescuers, possibly in a nearby compound. league book- THE OTHER four are surrounded by too much development.

In any case, the prisoners probably will be moved frequently now as a security measure. There is also concern that the guards may kill the prisoners at the approach of a raiding party. Previous rescue attempts in 'More Power For Me Is More Prestige For You' A FEDERAL grand jury here is investigating charges that the United Mine Workers made an illegal $30,000 contribution to the 196S presidential campaign of Hubert Humphrey. The entire staff of labor's Non-Partisan League, the union's political arm, has been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury tomorrow. Although Justice Department officials working on the case would not discuss the specifics, this column was able to learn from other sources the following facts about the investigation: The $30,000 was allegedly paid from union funds to the two top officers of the league.

They, in turn, allegedly passed it on to the Humphrey campaign by checks drawn on their own bank accounts or those of members of their families. contributions from a union treasury are illegal, even if they are funneled through individuals so as to appear to be personal contributions. tbe keeper, and a secretary. The Internal Revenue Service originally investigated donation, which was allegedly ordered by union president Tony Boyle. The investigation was impeded, however, when the union was unable to produce the League's books for the period in question.

At the time, Howe, who reportedly has an extra set of books, was out of town. When he returned 10 days ago, he is said to have received a call from union officials instructing him to bring the books to UMW headquarters. The same night, however, also received a call from i IRS, which ordered him not take the books to the UMW. He is said to have received similar instructions from the FBI. Howe, apparently, will produce the books for the grand jury.

by other schools, could open the medical fcekl to more aspirants aud eliminate the doctor shortage. UNDER PRESSURE eliminate am a job discrimination against blacks, some agencies of tize vast U.S. Public Health Service have taken steps that seem to discriminate against whites. Toe result is that white employes are now complaining bitterly of job discrimination in the same agencies where similar black a i touched off a major controversy last summer. This ironic turn of events was caused by anti-discrimination orders such as the one issued at the National Center for Health Statistics.

It sets up an elaborate bureaucratic procedure to give minority employes a chance to be hired or promoted. SUBPOENAED ARE James Kmetz, the present league director, Robert Howe, the retired league director who was in charge in 196S, Anna Love THE AMERICAN Medical Association has deliberately sought to hold down the number of doctors in this country so they can continue to charge high fees. This is accomplished by rigid AMA control of medical schools. Result: only half of the applicants are accepted. Dr.

Neil Soloman, the Maryland public health director, has now arranged with Johns Hopkins University, in defiance of the AMA, to introduce a pilot program to speed medical training. Under the program, high school students will begin their pre-med training in their last two years of high school. Then they will take another two years in college, followed by three years of medical school. This shortened seven-year course, if it should be adopted THE ORDER requires that "all requests for personnel action will be routed to the deputy Equal Employment officer "for review." If the proposed action involves hiring a white person, the personnel office must certify minority candidates will not be available." If a white is to be selected over a black, the hiring official must "prepare a memorandum of justification." If no minority candidate is considered, the official must "prepare a memorandum. indicating the effort to secure minority candidate." While no one disputes' the seriousness of the discrimination problem at the Public Health Service, many white workers charge the new policies will give blacks preferential treatment because hiring whites involves too much red tape.

Andrew Tully-D. C. Plans Grading Teachers WASHINGTON Hell City not only grows more hellish in the jungles it calls streets, but our gleaming capital now seems determined to subside i complete idiocy in what might loosely be described as education field. i might be viewed by the citizen of Walla Walla as none of his -c ncern. He wrong.

Walla a a a every Am a community helps support this curious hamlet through annual congressional appropriations. Thus in the interest of his pocketboofc, as well as a decent concern for black children, we should all be appalled at the guerrilla warfare raging over a plan to teach D. C. public school children to read and do arithmetic. Yesterday And Today-Civil War Brought College For Negroes By SHIRLEY DONNELLY Few institutions of i naming in West Virginia have a more interesting history than West Virginia State College at institute This school a 1891.

It was chartered an act of the West Virginia Mature on March 17,. 1891. It a first called the West Virginia Colored Institute. It was an outgrowth of the second Morrill Act passed by Congress on Aug. 30, 1890, stipulating that no state should enjoy the benefits set forth in the bill unless provisions were made for the education of Negro youth within its borders.

WHEN THE CIVIL War ended, the country had four million Negroes who had just come out of the thraldom of slavery. Nine out of every ten of those people were illiterate. Far-seeing people in the country saw that if the emancipated slaves were to be incorporated into the life of the nation, the best thing for the country as a whole was to get them educated. Of the appropriation made by Congress under the Merrill Act, West Virginia Colored Institute received $3,000 for five years and at the end of the five-year period this stipened was to be upped to $5,000 annually. For the year ending June 30, 1890, West Virginia University received $15,000.

Thereafter it was to get $10,000 a year for 10 years on the condition that the school provided for "the instruction of colored students in such branches of study, whether in the same institution or in separate institutions." The sum received by the University and that received for the Institute was determined by setting a ratio between the white and colored population of the state of college age. WEST VIRGINIA Legislature appropriated $10,000 for the purchase of land on which to build this college for Negroes. Site chosen for the school was in Kanawha County at a place known as Farm. When the state commissioners set about locating land for the new school they met at a place called Piney Grove, where a conference was held with Elijah Hurt, Samuel Taylor and Scott Brown. These three men had married into the family of one Samuel I.

Cabbel, a wealthy slave owner, who was murdered at the close of the Civil War. Negroes then owned most of the land where the school stands today. The State Board of Public Education bought a 30-acre tract which was a part of the Cabbel settlement. This is today Institute. It is of interest to know that this school site was once the property of George Washington.

To him it was a grant from the King of England. Additional land has been bought since 1891, so that today there are about 80 acres belonging to the school. born a slave in Virginia. When he was three years old, he was sold like a farmer would sell a calf. His family finally landed in West Virginia.

As a boy in Charleston, I used to see President Prillerman. He had an earned master of arts degree. FIRST ACADEMIC building of this school was completed in April, 1892, at a cost of $9,546. It was named Fleming Hall in honor of A. B.

Fleming, then governor of West yirginia. In a grove behind Fleming Hall was the old Cabbel spring. Medicinal virtues were attributed to the water of this foundation by local dwellers. Behind the grove stood a number of Adena mounds, structures which bespoke the antiquity of the favored spot. J.

Edwin Campbell was the first principal of the new school. One of his faculty was Byrd Prillerman, who later was to be president of the school from 1909 to 1919. Professor Prillerman was SECOND PRINCIPAL of this school was John H. Hill. He, too, was a slave at Charlestown, now W.

in 1852, He became a lawyer and served several -enlistments in the U. S. Army. In 1915, the namt of the school was changed to West Virginia Collegiate Institute. In 1929, me school became West Virginia State College.

In 1957, the high school section of the school was discontinued. In 1966, while governor of West Virginia, Hulert C. Smith was the speaker at this college. That year the college conferred upon the Beckley man the honorary degree of doctor of humanities. The first kudo conferred by this college was in 1944, when Roland Hayes was given the same degree.

At that commencement, Hayes sang the commencement. When Eleanor Roosevelt was a special convocation speaker at this school in 1948, she also was given the same honorary degree. TODAY'S VICIOUS squabbling is over a plan drawn up by Kenneth B. Clark, a black psychologist at the City University of New York, to raise average reading and math scores in Washington schools to national norms within a year. The plan would set minirmini reading and math acheivement standards for grades 1 through 9, testing to see how they measure up, then classi- xying and paying teachers partly according to how much their pupils improve.

Now Washington's public schools are 94 per cent black, and may be the worst in the nation in terms of quality education. Yet there are those in official positions who seem determined to cling to the status quo. One of them is a school board member, Charles Cassell, a black, whose latest utterance would be incredible to anyone who has not lived in this lunatic community. should be encouraged among Irish and Scots students. CASSELL HAS denounced Clark, black and reared in Harlem, as a racist for proposing that city schools standard English to Negro children who speak a ghetto dialect.

"That's taking away what a black child is," says Cassell. "So much for Kenneth So much for Charles CasselL A black child is NOT what his ghetto dialect labels him. He is a child who deserves the best education the community can give him. Indeed, Cassell is flirting with the same- racism of which he accuses Clark' in seeking to perpetuate the "picturesque" image of Negroes as amusing and bursting with rhythm, but not quite the equal of the white hillbilly. DESPITE ATTEMPTS to cheapen it with lazy slang, standard English is what is spoken in the United States.

It is the language of the courts, the legislatures and even some of our universities. A knowledge of standard English is imperative for the child grown to manhood who seeks a decent job and a chance for advancement. Cassell is urging in effect that Negro children be set apart from their white peers. He is saying in effect that children of Italian immigrants should be condemned to speaking broken English the rest of their lives, or that the brogue and burr THE TEACHERS Union, of course, is protecting its own nest. Clark's plan puts sharp new pressures on teachers to get them, to the national level.

Today, they preside over a system in which pupils are promoted annually from grade to grade with almost no regard to their achievement. The result is the production, in-considerable volume, of high school-educated dolts, sentenced to a life of menial jobs or the relief rolls. Fortunately for taxpayers everywhere and, of course, for Washington school kids -Hell Gty now has a school superintendent capable of taking a rational approach to the Clark plan. Hugh J. Scott, a black, agrees with the plan's goals, but says they cannot be achieved until teachers have received extensive a i i in emphasizing the fundamentals of reading and math.

SCOTT REJECTS Clark's assumption that D. C. pupils are "normal," and thus could reach national norms within a year. The kiddies themselves may be normal, he says, but their backgrounds and surroundings are not. Ergo, more time and effort must be expanded on their basic schooling.

I think Til try to forget Charles Cassell and thank heaven, instead, for black educators like Scott and Clark. Both, in differing ways, accept the fact that black children need more help. Unless I misread them, both reject out of hand the practice of admitting to colleges and universities black students who are so woefully unprepared they become discouraged and often neurotic or paranoid. Scott and Clark may yet lead out of the wilderness those softheaded academic nuts across the country who plump for open admissions as a token of equal rights. Try And Stop Me By.BENNETT CERF A famous but unruly comedian held up shooting on a costly motion picture for three days because of a "persistent cough." When he tried to beg off for a fourth day.

the director shouted over the phone, "There are just two kinds of coughs, you fourth-rate ham: drunken and the kind you haven't got." the small society by Brickman t..