Month: February 1956

Perhaps my comments last week regarding J. Edgar Hoover’s proposal that Sunday school be made compulsory were a little premature. Rather, they were made from reading part of his statement out of context, which was all that was available at the time. The full statement is now at hand. He says:

“Shall I make my child attend Sunday school? Yes. And with no further discussion about the matter. Startled? Why? How do you answer Junior when he comes to breakfast on Monday morning and announces that he is not going to school any more? You know. Junior goes. How do you answer when he comes in very besmudged and says, “I’m not going to take a bath?” Junior bathes. Why all this timidity then, in the realm of his spiritual guidance and growth? Going to let him wait and decide what church he’ll go to when he’s old enough? Quit your kidding! You don’t wait until he’s old enough to decide whether he wants to go to school or not… What shall we say when Junior announces he won’t go to Sunday school? Just be consistent. Tell him, “Junior, in our house we all go to church and Sunday school and that includes you.” Your firmness and example will furnish a bridge over which youthful rebellion may travel into rich and satisfying experience in personal religious living.”

I am glad to quote the whole statement, for the excerpt that I did quote gave the wrong impression – the impression that there should be compulsory Sunday school attendance laws.

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Paul Blanshard in his thought-provoking book, The Right To Read, has a paragraph that seems worth sharing with you. He says, “Many local district attorneys in recent years have taken upon themselves the role of extra-legal literary censors, and have issued blacklists, containing the titles of books and magazines never condemned by a court, to local dealers. Because of their economic position, local newsstand dealers rarely bother to challenge the suggestion of a prosecutor that a certain book is undesirable or objectionable or downright illegal. In almost all instances they withdraw it promptly without prosecution. What happens, then, to our right to read?

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From a report of the Carnegie Corporation of New York comes an explanation of one aspect in the current controversy over the quality of education the children in the schools are getting. This time, it is an explanation of why so many children dislike their arithmetic. Quoting from the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, New Jersey, the corporation says that while “All states required education sources for secondary mathematics teachers, a third of the states require no mathematics for certification of math teachers.” And “In the majority of instances, a prospective elementary school teacher can enter a teachers college without any credits in secondary school math. In most states a teacher can be certified to teach elementary school math without any work in math at the college level.” This being the case, the corporation concludes, it is no wonder that elementary teachers are for the most part ignorant of the mathematical basis of arithmetic.

Living in a cash economy as we do, when at every turn in an individual’s behavior, some sort of mathematical calculation is necessary, it is difficult to see how we can justify ignoring to prepare capable instructors for this very important branch of basic education. To continue to do so is permitting the blind to lead the blind, and we both know that in the biblical account both fell into the ditch together. We cannot afford such ditch falling. What about your child’s teacher?

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A reasoned and reasonable statement was recently directed by the ACLU to the Eastland Committee on Internal Security, urging that the committee not invade the protected areas of private political beliefs. Portions of the statement seem worth quoting. They say:

“The American Communist Party is not only a political agitational movement. It is also part of the Soviet conspiracy. Insofar as it is the first, its members have all the rights of members of other parties; to the extent that it is the second, its members may in some particulars be restricted by law…

“Investigation of real subversion is a matter of proper concern for Congress. But when an investigation enters the area of political beliefs and associations as such, an area in which Congress cannot legislate, the inquiry is improper.

“We recognize that it is extremely difficult to distinguish between conspiratorial activity and political association. Nevertheless, we respectively but vigorously urge that the subcommittee do everything possible to help preserve the principle of free association, by exercising special care in its questioning not to invade constitutionally protected areas of private political belief…”

And, I might add that respect for private political belief is as important in our system of things as is respect for private religious belief, for freedom is indivisible.

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The Right Rev. Horace W.B. Donegan, Protestant Episcopal bishop of New York, has announced his opposition to religious instruction in the public schools. “No one faith or denominational teaching can be chosen as the basis of instruction,” he said, “nor can even a general theistic belief he promulgated without the violation of the rights of teachers, children, and parents who have chosen an atheistic or secularist way – much as we might wish they had not.

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This program has frequently and somewhat regularly been concerned about the cause of education and the federal government’s responsibility in relation to it, for your reporter believes that better schools make better citizens, educationally, socially, morally, and spiritually. Consequently, he has perhaps harped on the theme more than you listeners appreciate. However, there is so much lack of information and even misinformation as to the Eisenhower proposals for federal aid, that in the interest of reducing this lack, he would like to outline briefly just what the president did propose in his special message to Congress.

1. Federal grants of $1.5 billion for five years to be matched by state funds to supplement local construction efforts in the neediest school districts;
2. $750 million over five years for federal purchase of local school construction bonds when school districts cannot sell them in private markets at reasonable interest rates;
3. A five-year program of advances to help provide reserves for bonds issued by state school financing agencies. These bonds to finance local construction of schools to be rented and eventually owned by the local school systems;
4. A five-year $20 million program of matching grants to states for planning to help communities and states overcome obstacles to their financing school construction.

In other words, the president proposes that the federal government spend not over about $2 billion in a situation that needs far more than that, and needs it right now. We can agree with the president’s recommendations for providing funds to states on the basis of need and in relation to pay, but the amount which he suggests is grossly inadequate for the job which needs to be done.

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Washington: A survey of the nation’s synagogues reveals that Judaism is enjoying the same religious revival as the Christian churches. The revival is particularly evident in suburban areas where hundreds of new synagogues have been built. Leading Jewish rabbis say the return movement to the ancient faith of Judaism parallels the booming growth of both Catholic and Protestant churches. America’s Jewish community is the largest in the world. It is estimated at about 5.5 million persons – the vast majority of them living in big cities. New York City alone accounts for about half of them.

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Indianapolis, Indiana: Seventh grade pupils in the public schools of Indianapolis are getting religious training in a unique way. As the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Herman L. Shibler, puts it, “We aren’t teaching religion – we’re teaching about religion.” For example, the students have learned that Alexander Hamilton was an Episcopalian, that John Adams was a Congregationalist. And that crusty old Andrew Jackson, “Old Hickory,” knew how to pray. In the eighth grade, the students learn, for example, that the word “God” appears four times in the Declaration of Independence, and that Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish religious services are held regularly in the Pentagon. Sectarianism (so it says here) is strictly forbidden. Teachers are cautioned to avoid any subjective evaluation or criticism of any religion. In the forefront of the teaching is a quotation from General Omar Bradley: “This country has many men of science, too few men of God. It has grasped the mystery of the atom, but rejected the Sermon on the Mount.”

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Lourdes, France: More and more Americans are among the pilgrims at the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. Authorities say some 6,000 Americans prayed at the shrine last year for restoration of health. The shrine is the site where the peasant girl is said to have seen a shining lady in white nearly 1,000 years ago. In 1950, Americans made up only a handful of the two million persons who visited the shrine. The rest were Europeans, but the number of Americans has increased steadily since.

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Iowa City: A leading clergyman says foreign students attending the University of Iowa have soured on democracy because of racial discrimination in Iowa City. Rev. John G. Craig, chairman of the Human Relations Committee of the Iowa City Ministers Association, says the problem had reached serious proportions. Monsignor John D. Conway, pastor of the St. Thomas Moore Catholic Church, says one Negro couple was refused housing in Iowa City.

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Bellevue, Nebraska: The Most Rev. Edward J. Calvin, founder of the Catholic St. Columban Missionary Society, died in Dalgan, Ireland, of leukemia contracted while he was a prisoner of the Chinese Reds in Manyang, China. Announcement of Father Calvin’s death was made by the society’s headquarters at Bellevue, Nebraska.

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Washington: The American Catholic Philosophical Association has announced it will hold its 30^th annual meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 3 and 4. The meeting will be held under the patronage of the Most Rev. Karl J. Alter, archbishop of Cincinnati, and of Catholic Universities and senior colleges and seminaries in the area.

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London: The British Broadcasting Corporation has apologized to the Protestant Alliance for referring to St. Peter as the first pope, during a radio quiz program. The Protestant Alliance contends it has never been proved that St. Peter was a pope, or a Roman Catholic, or that he ever lived in Rome.

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New York: The Church World Service has rushed 25 tons of relief materials to blizzard-stricken areas of Italy for distribution to victims of one of the most severe winters in Europe’s history. Rev. R. Norris Wilson, executive director of Church World Service, says additional supplies are being prepared in case they’re needed in other areas.

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The official newspaper of the New Orleans Roman Catholic Diocese has warned Louisiana Catholic lawmakers they face possible excommunication if their proposed segregation bills become law. The lawmakers want to keep private schools in Louisiana segregated. Most private schools in Louisiana are Catholic. They are slated soon to accept both white and Negro students. Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel of New Orleans has approved the editorial that warned of possible excommunication. But the Catholic lawmakers are reported to go ahead anyway. Meanwhile, Louisiana’s incoming governor, Earl Long, has stated that undoubtedly the archbishop is right from a religious standpoint. But he thinks the prelate is perhaps a little too advanced. Long is a Baptist. (Though what that has to do with it, I do not know.)

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In Montgomery, Alabama, 23 Negro protestant ministers have been among 100 Negroes indicted on charges of boycotting the bus lines. The Negroes want desegregation in the transportation system. Alabama’s boycott law could mean sentences of six-month prison terms and $1,000 fines. The Negroes have held mass prayer meetings. At one of them, the Rev. Martin Luther King asked them to pray for guidance. The Montgomery situation and other segregation problems have drawn comment from many religious leaders and groups. In Pittsburgh, the North American Area Council of the World Presbyterian Alliance has warned that intolerable situations have developed in the fight against the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on racial segregation. In Greenwich, Connecticut, the Protestant Episcopal Church has laid down a set of principles aimed at helping rid it of racial barriers. The church’s national council has also declared “Any attitude or act in the house of God which sets brethren of different races apart form one another is sinful.” And it is difficult if not impossible to find any error in this.

First, a potpourri of religion in the week’s news as reported by the wires of Associated and United Press.

In Oxford, Mississippi the segregation issue has closed an annual religious event observed by many U.S. institutions of higher learning. The University of Mississippi has cancelled its “Religious Emphasis Week” after five ministers suggested the religious atmosphere of the program had been ruined. This followed a long dispute over the revoking of an invitation to a pro-integration speaker. This controversy began when the Rev. Alvin Kershaw of Oxford, Ohio, said he would donate part of his TV quiz show winnings to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Kershaw is the Episcopal minister at Ohio’s Miami University, and had been slated to address the Mississippi student religious program on the subject of “Religion and Drama.” However, the invitation was withdrawn when he said he would speak on segregation if the subject arose.

Following this, five out-of-state ministers cancelled their speaking engagements. This week, five other ministers from the university town suggested the event be called off and cancelled their own speaking engagements for Religious Emphasis Week. Instead of the planned program, the students will have 30 minutes of silent prayer and meditation on three days this coming week. It would seem that they well could meditate on the fact that the God to whom they are praying is the Father of us all. Wonder when Mississippi is going to join the Union anyway?

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Sunday school once a week cannot make a child a Christian according to Mrs. Marian M. Kelleran, a prominent religious educator. Mrs. Kelleran says not one child in 1,000 can find a meaningful faith in Sunday school unless the lessons he is taught are lived out at home in a family that upholds the same values. And to that this reporter can find nothing to add except to wish that this were true of all homes.

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Lowell, Massachusetts: Archbishop Richard J. Cushing, Roman Catholic prelate of Boston, has been awarded the “Man of the Year” award from the B’nai B’rith, a Jewish organization. The archbishop was cited for his lifetime of distinguished service to the cause of human brotherhood.

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Berlin: East German communists have threatened East German Protestant leaders with serious consequences if they do not drop their anti-communist campaign against atheism. A statement printed in the Communist Party newspaper accused church leaders of luring East German youths to West Berlin and distributing anti-communist propaganda.

Well, can you imagine communists anywhere not trying to distribute their own propaganda? And how can they expect a minister, Protestant or otherwise, not to campaign against atheism? If he were sympathetic to atheism he probably would not be a minister. But logic or reason has never been the forté of the communists.

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Miami Beach, Florida: the National Planning Committee of three joint Jewish organizations has opened its third annual mid-winter conference in Miami Beach. The organizations are the Jewish Theological Seminary, The United Synagogue, and the Rabbinical Assembly of America. The conference is sponsored by the University of Miami, The Historical Association of Southern Florida, and The American Jewish History Center.

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Cincinnati, Ohio: The United Student Christian Council has urged its 3,000 chapters on American college campuses to abolish segregation within their ranks. A resolution adopted by the Student Christian Council also urges college and university officials to abolish racial segregation in dormitories, restaurants, and theaters.

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An item from Boston emanating from FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover has a curious twist. It says: “Sunday school, like public school, should be compulsory for all children in the opinion of J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Chief.” Yes, that’s what it says.

In an interview with a Roman Catholic priest, printed in the Boston archdiocese publication, The Pilot, Hoover also urged reestablishment of religious exercises in the home. The article also quoted Hoover as saying the church must provide two-fisted forthright men who are not afraid to trample on toes when the honor of God or country is at stake. End of item.

Now this reporter shares with what he is sure is the vast majority of the American people – a profound respect for the way Mr. Hoover has administered the most important law enforcement agency in the world. But when it comes to making Sunday school compulsory, Mr. Hoover is strictly off the bean. He should refresh his knowledge of the First Amendment which prohibits government from establishing or aiding any religion. We can agree with him that all children should go to Sunday school, but as to requiring it, that is another matter. Perhaps the chief G-man was misquoted. Let us hope so.

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Vatican City: Pope Pius XII on Friday received in audience 170 American airmen who flew an armada of flying boxcars from Germany to Italy to bring aid to Italian towns isolated by severe snowstorms. The airmen were led by General Emmett B. Cassady, United States Air Attaché at the embassy in Rome. The pope spoke in English, praising the airmen for their courage and charitable work, and imparted a special apostolic blessing to them and their families.

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New York: Church World Service says American farmers last year contributed nearly $1 million in commodities and cash for overseas relief through the Christian Rural Overseas Program. R. Norris Wilson, executive director of Church World Service says the 1955 total for the crop program was $924,000, an increase of $108,000 over 1954.

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Hartford, Connecticut: An American priest will become bishop of a newly created Roman Catholic diocese on the French island of Madagascar. The Very Rev. Paul Girouard, who has been missionary on the island since 1928, will be consecrated bishop at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Hartford, Connecticut, on March 7. He is a native of Hamilton, Rhode Island, and to refresh your geographic memory, I might add that Madagascar is located off the east coast of Africa.

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A stiff legislative fight may be in the offing between the Roman Catholic Church and some Louisiana segregation leaders. The church said recently that integration of white and colored persons in its schools may come by September. Now four state representatives have asked the Louisiana legislature to enact measures to prevent mixing races in private schools.

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A Negro bishop has been named the ninth member of an inter-Protestant church group to visit Russia in March. He is Bishop D. Ward Nichols of New York, presiding bishop of the First Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

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Restoration of the Ministry of the Laity to the church has been urged by a Protestant theological professor. He is the Rev. Dr. Reuel Howe of Alexandria, Virginia, and says the real ministry is carried on in the frontiers of where men live, work, love, and play. He describes the officiating minister as the pastor of pastors and the teacher of teachers. Dr. Howe’s remarks were made in Cincinnati this week at a preliminary session of the annual meeting of the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches.

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An interfaith group has cited three prominent persons of different religious backgrounds for distinguished work in human relations and brotherhood. The awards from the Northeastern Region of the National Conference of Christians and Jews have gone to Robert Cutler, former White House administrative assistant; Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts; and Dr. Harry Wolfson, professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy at Harvard. The week coming up is to be Brotherhood Week, under the auspices of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

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With this being a presidential election year, it is inevitable that the news will be more than ever filled with items of a political nature, even on such a program as this, for politics deals with government, and whatever government does is, or should be, the concern of everyone. A rather revealing glimpse of the habit of politicians to view with alarm when things go against them and point with pride when they have done something they think will be approved comes by way of a massive report by Sen. Bridges of New Hampshire, chairman of the Republican Senate Policy Committee. He views with alarm the fact that 41 labor unions spent considerable funds in the 1954 congressional elections.

In reply to his report, the CIO Political Action Committee has revealed some interesting comparisons. Assuming that the amount spent by the labor unions all went to Mr. Bridges’ enemies, which it probably did not, union expenditures were still less than $2 million, and they came from 18 million members. At the same time, approximately $1.5 million spent by Mr. Bridges’ supporters came from only some 738 contributors of $1,000 or more. In short, for every $1 contributed by a labor union member, each of the wealth contributors on the other side put up nearly $2,000. Ten members of the Rockefeller family alone donated a total of $66,000, while 14 members of the DuPont family put up $51,000. How about that, Senator Bridges? We little folks, the sovereign voters, want to know such things, but we want to know the truth on both sides. We’re getting pretty tired of the numbers racket, whether it be security firings or campaign contributions.

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And while on the subject of government, it seems appropriate to recall at this time something that happened a year ago when 17 freshman congressmen, recently elected from districts widely scattered across the country, got together for a two-hour plea for a revitalized foreign policy which would, in their words, “put some political, social, and economic flesh on the bare bones of our present military measures against communism.” These young congressmen were fresh from the people: They knew what the people back in their districts from both parties were thinking. They looked at their new colleagues, listened to them, and finally could stand it no longer. Finally, one, Charles Vanik of Ohio, revolted and made the following speech: “I have sat here day after day and patiently listened; I have listened for hour after hour to tedious eulogies of congressmen who were and no longer are. I spent, I believe, a portion of one day listening to a eulogy of the ground hog of Pennsylvania. Entire sessions of Congress have been consumed in mutual exchange of birthday greetings. We have spent more time debating the service of food and the quality of food in the Capitol cafeteria and restaurant than we did in total on the Formosa Resolution.”

One of their number told a reporter that their revolt and the resolution that followed would not have happened if these young congressmen had not felt that the people back home wanted something done, that they had misgivings and were confused about the conduct of our foreign policy. Edith Green, e.g., from Portland, Oregon, was sure that her constituents were more concerned over the dangerous drift in diplomacy than over any other issue.

These congressmen had seen Dulles piling up air mileage in lieu of diplomatic achievement. They had heard of the reckless promise to “unleash Chiang Kai-shek.” They had heard the blustering threats of massive retaliation; the new look in defense; or a bigger bang for the buck. These and many more, until they were tired of slogans. So they told the House some simple facts and insisted something be done about it. Well, nothing has been done about it yet. Some of these facts were:

1. That nuclear war is capable of destroying civilization, and this country can no longer ignore some of the tensions, quite apart from the centers of communist power in Moscow and Peking;
2. That military containment is not enough. It must be accompanied by efforts to unite a free Germany and to permit free governments in central and eastern Europe;
3. That it is about time we were backing the fight of under-developed peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East for freedom from colonialism and feudalism;
4. That there must be economic aid on an international basis;
5. And that ours must be a position of non-involvement in great power rivalry.

It was a wonderful challenge, but nothing has been changed. The discouraging thing about it all is that nobody in high places seems to want to change the situation. What are your and my senators and representatives doing these days? It might be well for us to find out and let them know what we expect them to do, for politicians are afraid of nobody but the people, and if they know what we want, they will respond. They probably will not unless we do. That presents us with a continuing challenge.

Several weeks ago I reported on the conclusions of an Atlanta newspaperman who had made a study of the performance of faith healers in that area and arrived at the conviction that it was a hoax. This week’s news carries a similar item by the religious editor of the Miami Herald, one Adon Taft. He attended the tent meetings of the Rev. Jack Coe of Dallas, who was drawing a crowd of some 6,000 Miamians nightly. In the front page of his paper he showed there had been no real changes in the physical conditions of those he claimed to cure. In one instance he pointed out that a woman who had thrown away her crutches and walked without them had never ordinarily used them anyway. Three ministers in the city have offered to pay Coe $2,500 if his faith healing cures anyone who had been duly certified as ill and who, after his ministrations, is certified as cured. Thus far, Coe has not accepted the challenge.

And another alleged faith healer, Oral Roberts, is meeting with disappointment in Australia. After the newspapers and ministers there denounced him in Sydney, and after his meetings attracted only about 5,000 in a tent whose capacity is 14,000, he moved on to Melbourne. Reports do not indicate what success, if any, he is meeting with there.

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One of the things about which men of social consciousness will, or should, always have continuing concern is any segment of our people who labor under something of an inherent handicap because of circumstances beyond their control. In this connection I have in mind the farmers of this country. We are faced with a paradox of hardship for the farmer in an age when they are producing huge surpluses. Government, in the hands of both parties, has never been able to offer them anything other than an aspirin for their financial headache and much of what both have offered has been the same, regardless of what name it went by. The Democrats have generally stood for rigid parity support of 90 percent for basic crops; the present administration has fluctuated between a sliding scale policy of parity from 75 percent to 90 percent, and now it is the soil bank idea. And this week the Senate committee by a close vote decided to recommend again rigid 90 percent parity support. In the meantime, surpluses of all kinds are piling up at an alarming rate and the cost of warehouse facilities alone runs into some $20,000 per [?]. Moreover, 58¢ of the consumer’s food dollar is lost between the point of his purchase and the price the farmer gets for what he sells. Meanwhile, in vast areas of the world millions are starving or are on the verge of starving, while we store potatoes to them useless, or dump good food into rivers or otherwise destroy it.

Even the simplest of us can see that there is something basically wrong with a world where such things take place. And the United States has opposed setting up in the United Nations a special food agency to see what can be done about getting our surpluses distributed throughout starving areas to lessen our own problem and to save lives of people with not enough to eat. This food, if properly handled, doubtless would go far not only to save lives but to create good will for the West in those places where now we offer them only guns with which to arm in a possible conflict about which they know, and probably care, little. It is about time that men of both parties address themselves to the basic problem created by the situation I have just described to the end of alleviating our own domestic problem, aiding undernourished people throughout the world, and using what we have a surplus of to help us in our race for competitive existence with the non-democratic world. There is a large block of neutral nations in the Middle East and Africa. Perhaps our avoidance of war will depend upon how well we can woo the allegiance and support of these people to the cause of freedom. We certainly are not going to do it with the policy Mr. Dulles is pursuing with all the emphasis upon military assistance without very much if any attention to economic needs. Mr. Dulles apparently does not know any better, or is afraid to pursue any other course. But that course is one of expediency only.  It is not one of statesmanship; nor does it, in the long run, contribute to our own security, about which he seems so concerned.

Hence, our own domestic problem here, affecting some 15 percent of our working population, illustrates how much of a seamless web there is to all life on the planet today. Whatever we do or fail to do locally may well have world-wide ramifications, calling for attack upon almost all our problems from a world perspective.

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One of the essential elements in a two-party system in a democracy is that these parties take positions on fundamental issues that are sufficiently different that voters going into the polling booth will have a real choice between alternative policies. Looking at the picture of politics as as of now in the present Congress, it is difficult to see much difference between the two. And while there will be much breast-beating between now and adjournment – and election, if these first few weeks are any indication of the way things are going throughout the session, it would seem that next November we shall have a choice about like that between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Perhaps the most noticeable trend on the part of both parties is the mad scramble to get in the middle of the road (whatever that means). Apparently, both parties have convinced themselves this is not the time to be caught on either the left or right. Under the ever-militant leadership of Sen. Johnson of Texas, Senate Democrats were committed to a program of very mild do-goodism. And with some, perhaps considerable, prodding from Eisenhower lieutenants in the White House, Republicans are trying to toe the center line as closely as possible, even inching their way a little toward that horrible nightmare of four years ago, “the welfare state.”

The result of this is that on the very issues that should reveal real differences between the parties, the leadership of both seems to be in almost complete agreement. For example, in his State of the Union message calling for aid to schools, the president asked for $1.25 billion over a five-year period, while the Democratic measure that went through the House committee last year provided for $1.6 billion in four years.

Both sides are pledged to “do something” about housing, and Eisenhower has called for a goal of 35,000 units, which is a little below that asked by the Democrats but still higher than either hopes to get through Congress.

On highway construction, the administration has abandoned its vast bond sale, simply calling for a plan of adequate financing.

In the matter of tax reduction, neither side seems capable of making up its mind whether it wishes to champion a balanced budget or make a bid for votes in an election year by cutting taxes. The bets are pretty good that if any reduction comes about, it will be in places and at a time when both think it will do them the most good politically.

The farm problem, I have already dealt with today in another connection. On it, the parties are not very far apart, not enough to make any real distinction between them.

Curiously enough, it is foreign economic aid where the confusion is greatest. The president seems to have taken the position that foreign aid of an economic kind is necessary for “projects and programs which we approve and which require a period of years for planning and completion.” You will recall that foreign aid of an economic nature was originally a Democratic creation. At that time the Republicans howled. But it now looks as if the Republicans have stolen Democratic thunder on this issue, and it is the Democrats who are howling that this sort of thing cannot go on much longer.

If time permitted I could go on pointing out the anomalies of politics as she is being played by the two groups at the present time. Certainly the Democrats are going to have to convince the voters that there is enough difference between them and their opponents to justify ousting the incumbent of the White House and putting one of their party in, while the Republicans will have to be just as assiduous in convincing us that it is for the best to keep one of their number at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. You and I, the voters, are going to be caught in the crossfire of a welter of claims and counterclaims, charges and counter-charges that will require almost the wisdom of a Solomon to see through. It is a serious responsibility, and how well we separate the wheat from the chaff and discharge that responsibility will determine in large measure the well-being of us all.