ustxtxb_obs_1968_05_10_50_00015-00000_000.pdf

peace. Let us pray for a rapid negotiated settlement that will bring our young men back to lead peaceful lives, and stop this dollar drain that is threatening our entire economy.” This may be regarded as the culmination of statements bearing on the war which began last August when Yarborough, responding to a hint in Time magazine that the United States might invade North Vietnam, declared, “There would be no end to it, short of complete conquest of everyone who looks hostile. General MacArthur warned us against getting involved in a land war in Asia; General Ridgeway warned us against getting involved in a land war in Asia. . . . I have not been one who has expressed criticism of the Administration’S conduct of the war in Vietnam. . . . But I must serve notice that this step is where I get off. Any land invasion of North Vietnam . . . would be escalation gone mad. . . . [T]his hinted contemplation of landings in North Vietnam is a course of near madness. . . . I N THE DEAD of winter, Yarborough told the national electric co-ops’ convention in Dallas: “We are fighting a hard and very expensive war 12,000 miles from here. . . . We in Congress are being urged to . . . cut back on all domestic spending. . . . The Bureau of the Budget has proposed only $345 million this year for REA programs, down from $390 million last year.” Yarborough opposed the cuts. In the course of a discussion of “education and economy” in his Feb. 17, 1968, newsletter, he remarked that “Even during our Civil War 100 years ago, President Jefferson Davis complained about taking children out of school for military service. He called it ‘using up our seed corn’.” Condemning the draft system as “riddled with loopholes and inequities,” he cosponsored Sen. Edward Kennedy’s bill to reform it. On March 11 he referred to “the steady expansion” of the Vietnam involvement. On March 16 he said in Swisher county: “This is an uneasy year in Washington. Our energies and our worries and a great deal of our treasure is being diverted to a disagreeable war in Vietnam, and perhaps because of the war and its side effects there is a feeling of pessimism that prevailsespecially on the grey winter days that we still have in the East. . . . We are fighting a long and expensive war and it has hurt our domestic programs, there’s no doubt about that.” . Two days later, in a discussion of the draft system delivered to the Whig-Cliosophic Society of Princeton University, Yarborough spoke on “an ever-deepening conflict that has interrupted the domestic pursuits of over half a million young Americans and put them 10,000 lonely miles away.” And his condemnation of the draft system before the Princeton forum conveys more about his humanist concern in the midst of this violent era than anything he has said on the war itself. The ,National Advisory Commission on Selective Service, he noted, has found out that 96.9% of local draft board members are white \(1.3% are Negro, 1.5% are average age of these men is 58onefifth of them are over 70, and 12 members were found to be between 90 and 99 years old,” Yarborough said. These “white, male, aging” board members are given great discretion to decide who shall serve, and under this system, “equity has not always triumphed. . . . [P]erhaps one’s father is influential and the other’s is not; perhaps one espouses unpopular political opinions and the other does not; perhaps one is black and the other is not. . . .” Drafting graduate studentswhich the Congress has authorized as of June 1st last yearstrikes Yarborough as “an illogical and unproductive use of our greatest human resources.” On the other hand, Edward Kennedy’s bill, Yarborough said, “probes into some new areas with a study of a volunteer army and a study of a national service alternative, which would consider other ways to serve one’s country besides toting a gun.” The System on Trial in 1968 There has been a lot of talk for some time now by young people about the “system” and electoral politics …. In a very serious sense this year with gubernatorial and presidential elections the “system” is being given some sort of “chance.” Many young people who have serious doubts about the viability of our democratic institutions are nonetheless flocking to the side of Senators McCarthy and Kennedy and, in Texas, to Don Yarborough and John Hill to see if the American people really have enough sense to see that we need the type of leadership that these men can provide. The dedication of these young people is both above question and somewhat amazing. The “get clean for Gene” campaign has produced haircuts and shaves which signify in a sense the willingness of the youths to shear themselves of all vestiges of their previous rebellion in order to work at maximum effectiveness within the system. Many are practically ruining their chances in school by contributing tremendous amounts of time to campaign work. In short, they are using all their amazing energy and intuitiveness to prove to themselves once and for all whether or not the present system is worth keeping. Walter Lippman, in a recent article said that we are living out the end of an age here in America; our old solutions and customs no longer meet the problems with which we are faced. This is what the W ITH McCARTHY and Robert Kennedy running for president. and before Johnson withdrew, Yarborough, in a statement discussing the three of them as candidates for the Democratic nomination, said, “I believe a vigorous effort by the administration toward a negotiated settlement, without additional escalation, will go a long way toward smoothing the divisions that exist. . . . In my opinion the divisions in the party and in the nation are caused by the war in Vietnam. These men did not cause the divisions in the party and the people; they responded to existing divisions.” When, then, Johnson withdraw, Yarborough said his act represented “the ultimate sacrifice for national unity.” A few days later the senior senator from Texas said, “I have opposed escalation to a bigger and bigger war. I have urged the president to seek a negotiated settlement and to end the war honorably. In his speech [April 1] the president said he would do just that.” Yes, sir, the president would go anywhere, anytime, to do just that. Let us pray . . . R.D. youth have been saying for some time now without much of any kind of a response from anyone “over thirty.” Can we meet this new age with new solutions and leaders. This is what the young people are trying to find out. The results could be profound. Hawkins Menefee, 1414 Arena, No. 105, Austin, Tex. A -System Gone Wrong The season’s come to shake the money tree And all the candidates are gathered ’round Fine principle is dropped for expediency As liberal cause gives way to “safe and sound.” Anonymous As usual, we find ourselves getting out the votes, we liberal Democrats, only to turn them over to candidates nominated by a system dependent on big contributions. Big contributions determine who will get the billboards, the prime TV time, favored coverage in the press, the flood of well-timed and carefully planned junk May 10, 1968 15 ATHENA MONTESSORI SCHOOL CHILDREN 2-6 Red River at 41st GR 6-9700 or GL 4-4239