DAILY RECORD, Vernon. Texas. April 30.1872 EDITORIAL COMMENT Casualty of the Primaries It was no surprise that Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine decided further effort to win delegates in primaries would be a labor in futility. Collapse of a prospect of being a first-ballot winner of the Democratic Presidential nomination is one of the more interesting developments of recent political history. As late as the day before the first primary of the year Muskie appeared to be far ahead of possible rivals.
He made a good impression as running mate of Hubert Humphrey in 1968. For the past three years he has been a popular favorite and was at least well liked by old pros among high ranking Democrats. Everything seemed to be in his favor. But for reasons not easily identified he failed to measure up to expectations. He made a few mistakes, but at the time they appear to be serious, until his tactless post-election comment on the primary results in Florida, and subsequent juvenile displays of temper and emotion.
In announcing withdrawal from active participation in primaries still to be held the Maine Senator, however, give up hope of winning the nomination. That means he sees the possibility that a convention deadlock might make it necessary to choose a dark horse candidate. He obviously regards himself as a logical selection. It could happen, but usually in deadlock situations, when none of the contenders seems able to command support of a majority, the choice goes to someone who has not been involved in pre-convention effort to line up delegates. In any case, there is a strong probability that party big-wigs will have the responsibility of meeting in the traditional smoke-filled room for the purpose of selecting a nominee.
Such a situation would be a strange climax to four years of effort to reform procedures connected with selecting nominees for President and Vice President. Following 1968 there was general agreement that steps should be taken to guard against the possibility of repeating the performance at Chicago. Committees were created to rewrite convention rules. The number of states holding Presidential primaries was more than doubled. All in the name of reform.
It appears nobody will go to Miami with enough votes in his pocket to win a first-ballot nomination. That would be something. Conventions of both major parties for a number of years have had little to do other than ratify a nomination which had already been settled, choose someone for second place, write a platform and denounce the opposition. Confused Leadership A few days ago editors of several hundred daily newspapers attended the annual meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, in Washington. Unlike many similar organizations this one devotes the time of its annual meetings to discussion and exchange of ideas on current political, social and economic issues and very sensibly makes no attempt to obtain consensus.
As a consequence, there are no pontificating resolutions. Reports of the meeting indicate it was possible, notwithstanding the absence of a formal set of resolutions, to get some insight into the thinking of the people who write editorials and choose the type of special columns their papers publish. Particular regret was expressed over the confused state of affairs on the national political scene. There were no firm predictions as to what may happen at the Democratic National Convention later this Summer, or who will be President running mate. Nobody dared guess at when or how the Administration will bring U.
S. involvement in the Vietnam war to an end. There was some feeling that it may drag on for some time, if the Administration continues use of bombers and warships as a cover for South Vietnam ground operations. Equal uncertainty was expressed concerning the national economy. By and large the editors feel the Administration recovery program will be only a partial success at best and that once the pressure of a general election is removed there will be a relaxation of the rules, and inflation will resume its relentless way toward that time, somewhere in the future, when people revolt against taxes and prices and settle the question by the simple process of refusing to continue with the madness.
GLOBAL Reds Build Thailand Take-Over RAY ROMLEY XEA Correspondent are no headlines, no tanks and no pitched battles between masses of troops, but in a number of ways the situation Thailand is even more dangerous than in South Vietnam Here is progressing steadily the slow, unglamorous political build-up of the underground that is the essential basis for successful insurgencies. The terrorism is precisely directed at killing key men- police. government officials and selected teachers, farm group leaders and sufficient numbers to enable the underground to organize with the minimum amount of interference. The Communist underground essentially is following the oil spot theory so popular with American planners in South Vietnam for several years. An area is built up with a competent underground to a level where, for all practical purposes, the Communist shadow government is the de facto political power in the organization, intimidation and outright terrorism Then organizers are sent to nearby territories to expand the base The Communists have been mining the Northeast the far North-Northwest and the Southwest for years.
Though the government is still normally in control in most of these areas, the Communist power is not to be denied Enough progress has been made so that organizers are moving southward from the North and Northwest and northward from the Southwest Small cells now dot the central heartland of Thailand. They are not yet powerful. But they are building It will probably take another five to eight years for these central Thailand pockets to grow to serious proportions. A sound countrywide Communist organization takes 15 to 20 years to develop. The Thai organization is perhaps 10 years old by this calendar.
There were communist groups in Thailand many years before this point," of course But the organized expansion began about 1962. The work before that was scattered and fragmentary, based primarily on the community of North Vietnamese which had fled Indochina in the fighting against the French. What we have then in Thailand essentially is the highly-skilled and persistent political organizing and recruiting which is the basis for any effective underground takeover. But with a special twist. These precinct workers are backed by armed terrorists who assassinate or terrify key members of the opposition and any hardy independent souls who stand in their wav.
But the basis is organization, however accomplished, and not military strength. The object is to get every citizen into at least four Communist-front organizations or clubs, say a group, or a association, a farm group, a youth group, a teachers group, a small merchants group or whatever else is suitable. Each of these groups, whether Communist or not is controlled where possible, by a Communist secretary, who makes the motion, organizes the actions and nominates the officers. The Communist underground thus has a means of Another Prisoner of War The need, quite obviously, is for a voice of cer- manipulating public opinion tainty from national leadership. But there is none.
Candidates talk a great deal, view with alarm and point with pride after the fashion of politicians. But their utterances reveal a state of confusion quite as real as the one which besets their listeners. These are some of the feelings that emerged from discussions among the daily newspaper editors. The fact that it comes from people who by the very nature of their job must be essentially optimistic should say something to all of us. THJLVERNON DAILY RECORD T.
B. QUILLIN, President NICHOLS, BREWER. Managing Editor- Published Sunday morning and weekday afternoons except Satur day at 1530 Cumberland Street, Vernon, Texas 76384 Entered as second class matter Nov. 2,1925, under the Act of March 1870 Member ot the Associated Press. The As sociated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for publication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper, and also the local news published herein RATES: Delivered by carrier-Year, week 45c.
Mail in Wilbarger, Foard, Hardeman, Knox, Baylor, Cottle, Tillman, Jackson, and Wichita Counties, Year, six months, three months, per month, Else where, per year; six 50; three months, one month, 00 through a wide range of as well as Communist organizations. The situation in Thailand is all the more serious because the government, however well intentioned. has once again eliminated the elected officials and elected legislative bodies and set aside the basic democratic of the constitution which was adopted such a short time back. The Thai developments do not call for troops or air power. Instead they call for a full play of democracy which will pit freely-elected political officials and self-governing villages against Communist-style organizing by stealth, terrorism and force.
7 JjMyr TIEDE REPORTS: First, Last Battle By TOM TIEDE FSB GRUNT 11. Vietnam NEA enemy rockets no longer light the evening sky around this First Air Cavalry outpost The men on the watch towers really expect any more attacks before dawn But although ground combat here has all but stopped, it is still not every so often, for the unfortunate G1 stragglers, the war is still as mean and unfair as ever For example Sgt Larry Harvey Married, 27 years old. from Independence. Kan Larrv Harvey arrived in Vietnam late in Despite his rank E-G i and service experience years f. it was his first trip here in Army uniform No one can say if he was looking forward to it Doubtless he was not There are better things for a career soldier to do than participate in a retrograde movement.
But. What the hell Sul Harvey didn't complain He might have, in letters home to his family, but he was mum on the subject here He was assigned to one of the handful of combat units left in the country First Battalion. 7th Cavalry. the Gary Owen unit George Custer's old group Harvey was given command of a squad. He wasn't put in the field immediately.
His compam commander. Capt Sharp, wanted him to feel his way around first Be sides, ins presence in the bush wasn't urgent. The war. once again, is winding down, and ground combat has all but stopped, et cet era Even when the sergeant did get into the field, nothing much happened initially A lot of effort has been ex pended on building firebase positions, and this has mized field activity. Then, too, even the patrols which do go out are not so aggressive as they once were Some months ago the First Battal ion was humping through jungles actively rooting out the enemy Lately, however, the tactics have been more VIETNAM passive, i.e., set up ambush sites and wait So it was the other that Larry Harvey's squad was ordered to set up an ambush site at the fork of a trail in a jungle northwest of Saigan.
Routine. Almost sleepy The men expect much There was some grumbling in the ranks about the positioning of the ambush site. It was in a good enough is. astride a well-used there were some mistakes made in setting up. For one thing, the ambush site was too open For another, there was a poor field of vision And.
finally, the officer in charge ia green lieutenant i did not set out claymore mines The mines are crucial to ambush patrols The idea is to set them out. wait for the enemy to stumble into the kill then detonate The I i ended soon enough Orders are orders And Sgt. Harvey and his men squatted in the brush for a long, hot wait Then Hours later Noises on the trail A single Viet Cong guer rilla wandered out of the jungle He looked around Saw nothing. Waved. And several a joined him.
Harvey troops did not open fire The orders were to wait until the VC were clearly in the open Then, supposedly, the machine gun would open up to precipitate the confrontation But the machine gun did not open up It was facing down the wrong trail The guerrillas walked around the ambush site until some of them were on the Hank Then, the wrong time actually, the battle began ne tossed a few rounds at a Cong and the enemy sprayed the area As battles have gone here, it was a minor sting It lasted a matter of minutes The opposing sides broke contact And the majority of warriors, of whatever uniform. did not stop to consider who won or lost Thev were just glad it was over And they beat it back to the security of less contested areas Except Except Sgt He was hit in the back by a burst of AK 47 fire, prob ably the first bullets shot He did not have time in his first meeting with the en emy. in his first battle of the war. to even use his weapon He was taken to a hospital by helicopter And died that night on the operating table WORLD ALMANAC FACTS n.x 1 (c 1972 br NU. Inc "Could you hold things up for a minute or two? We're still trying to figure out something original to say for the welcoming ceremony aboard the carrier" The number of active pilots in the United States reached a new peak of 732729 last year.
The World Almanac notes. They included. the Federal Aviation Administration reported, 195,861 student pilots. 305,826 private pilots. 186,821 commercial pilots.
34,430 airlines pilots, 6.677 helicopter pilots and 3.114 glider pilots. 1 7 Krilfi-jirisf- Barbs In the long run. education is much less expensive than ignorance. always leap year for pedestrians. been warned about pickpockets, but anyone who dips into ours and finds anything is to be congratulated Will power is what a rich relative has.
It's surprising what a neat appearance a girl tan ex tract from a cluttered purse OF OTHERS Under Fire on Guns New York City announced the other day it is putting 1,000 more policemen on nighttime, at peak crime hours. This week in Portland, Oregon the National Rifle Association is holding its 101st annual meeting and carrying on its anti-gun control law attack. more than a mere matter of 3,000 miles separating the events in New York and Portland. The larger gap is in the inability of gun proponents to see the relationship between weapons and crime and violence. familiar with the arguments that criminals that cause crime, not guns.
Each time we come out for stronger gun control laws our in-boxes are laden with letters and reprints of NRA articles. And yet we continue to hold that Americans are peculiarly and dangerously over-preoccupied with gun ownership, and that this habit is linked with the crime rate and police and citizen fatalities. Back in 1968 there were some 24 million handguns in private hands in the United States. Another 2.5 million-one every 13 sec being added each year. Every other household in America contains a gun.
Seriously now, we overarmed? The NRA reportedly is hopeful that the 1968 federal gun control law will be repealed. It hopes that the law will be replaced a federal law aimed at controlling criminals rather than harassing gun Harassing gun owners is hardly a fair estimate of the 1968 law's purpose. Responsible gun owners should hardly object to any of the requirements of that law. Indeed, the law should be made tougher. It left a loophole for the importantion of parts for the cheap Night handguns which should be closed.
One would hope the NRA would support closing this loophole, since genuine sportsmen would hardly be in the market for such weapons. At this point, the debate over guns and violence is where the fight over cigarettes and health stood for so many years. The tobacco industry resisted to the hilt and suggestion that a link between smoking and health existed. Getting smoking ads off the airwaves has not resulted in a major rollback of the numbers of smokers, especially since more women apparently now want to give smoking a try. Whatever the long-range effect, however, the action is important, because it puts the thrust of government policy on the right side of the issue.
This is vital to the integrity of government policy, regardless of any short-term effect. Similarly, in the area of guns and controls, government policy should be on the side of limitation of gun ownership Otherwise government policy abets the use of guns for violent purposes Christian Science Monitor. My Church? Reading accounts of the proposed new social creed offered United Methodists recently by their governing convention, it's plain that social yeasts continue to lighten the dogmatic loaf as much in this church as in others. This is no criticism of a commentary on the drift of most denominations toward a paradox. Churches no longer split theological hairs, but they are more than ever inclined to take specific positions on social issues A social creed is, of course, a formulation of conscience, not of law, yet it reads oddly to find that militarization of society must be challenged and that hom*osexuality no less than does married sex and that wealth must be more fairly distributed.
This is specific social doctrine, in keeping with, if not a consequence of, the doctrinal confusion that the dogma commission attempted to clear up. Members were increasingly asking, is a In substance, the commission said, anybody is a Methodist who saye he is; the less dogmatic the definition, the less confusion will result. The instant response to that was. if you can be anything and be a Methodist, why have a That is a hard question under the presocial definitions of a church, and it offers a paradox to a confused churchman confronted with a latitudinarian social creed promulgated upon undefined articles of faith. To know what he is, he must consult his denomination's position on the affairs of this world rather than those of the next News.
IT HAPPENED HERE Yesteryear in Vernon 30 YEARS 30. 1922 Vernon may possess a fully equipped radio telephone outfit in the near future if present plans of the local Chamber of Commerce are put into effect, according to J. V'. Townsend. With the arrival of a two-step amplifier, Curtis Hogsett of Vernon will possess what will probable be the first complete radio outfit in the city, Wilbarger Federated Club members Saturday afternoon heard at the library building the report of Mrs.
Blair, federation representative, who attended the annual convention of the seventh district of Texas Federated Clubs April 20 in Plainview. :10 YEARS 30, I C.T. Schlagal, Crowell mayor, announced plans for holding a mass meeting of citizens in Crowell afternoon if I can get to to make preliminary plans for rehabilitation work in that city after a tornado Tuesday night left 1,200 persons homeless. Postponed from mid-winter until after Spring practice, the annual football banquet for Vernon High School players, coaches and faculty members will be held Friday night at 8 o'clock in the high school cafeteria. Pat Gerald, head football coach, will be master of ceremonies All mailing was completed Thursday in the task of sending out occupational questionnaires to Feb.
16 registrants in Wilbarger County. E.A. Vernon, local Selective Service Board clerk, announced. 20 YEARS 30. Winners in the float contest of the Santa Rosa Roundup parade here Monday afternoon were announced today by judges Dallas Clynch, Clyde Vaughn.
Spencer Tease, Mrs I Breeze, Miss Dorothy Hicks. Bob Burnam. Tommy Allen. Volus Norsworthy and E. Rickert.
all of Wichita Falls. Members of Reinhardt District 15 of the Supreme Forest Woodmen Circle in Texas will hold their district convention May 5. at the Woodmen of the World Hall in W'ichita Falls, according to Mrs. Helena Schwede. district president.
Invitations have been mailed out to attend the formal opening to the Vernon State Hospital, according to W.N. Martin, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce State Hospital Committee YEARS April 30, Girl scout leaders from over this area gathered in city without a Girl Scout troop to its name- Monday for a two- day camp directors training session. Mrs. D.E. Bennett, executive director for the North Central Council, said Vernon was selected as a meeting site because of its central location.
New officers for the Vernon Morning Optimist Club will be installed in a special dinner meeting at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Ramada Inn, according to R.D. Bourland, retiring president. A city-wide Boy Scout Court of Honor has been called for 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Central Christian Scout Hut near the church on Sand Road.
Central District Advancement Chairman W.R. Moore Jr. has announced..
