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Nixon’s Victory

This week the country made its choice and
elected Richard Nixon president of the United
States. The country chose the worse of two evils
and will suffer for it.

The people chose to be insensible to the prob-
lems of the ghetto, the problems of unemployment,
and the other social problems of America. They
chose to prolong international tensions and the
armaments race,

Mr. Nixon has said that “We have been poure
ing billions into those Federal antipoverty programs
and we have reaped a harvest of riot, frustration
and failure.” On account of the Vietnam war, how.
ever, the first items in the budget to be out have
been the antipoverty programs. Besides, the Con-
gress has never appropriated the amount of money
the bills’ sponsors have stated was necessary for
the accomplishment of the programs. Nixon has in-
dicated that he intends to reduce the national bud-
get by scrapping most of the antipoverty programs.
His answer to the economic problems of Black peo-
ple is to provide tax incentives for “black capital-
ism," a solution hardly adequate to the magnitude
of the problem.

Nixon has suggested as a solution to the prob-
lem of inflation an increased unemployment What
kind of man would suggest a method for solving
one problem that involved the creation of another
which would mean vast misery to innumerable peo-

1e.7
p On the major issues of our time Mr. Nixon kept
silent throughout his campaign, Nixon spent only
four years in the House of Representatives and two
years in the Senate, For the last sixteen years he

as had no position of public responsibility. As vice
president to Eisenhower and as a private citizen
Nixon showed himself as neither an innovator of
legislation nor as a statesman. As a member of Con-
gress he spent most of his time warning America
about the evils of communism.

Our best hint of what the new Nixon admin-
istration will be like came when Nixon chose Spiro
Agnew, a man inexperienced in national poli-
tics, as his vice presidential running mate. Ag-
new is also a man of questionable morality consid-
ering his purchases of lands intended for public pro-
jects and his other conflicts of interest. We can also
wonder if the affection shown at the Republican
Convention between Strom Thurmond and Nixon
will continue when Nixon resides in the White
House.

In this cold war, now two decades old, there
have been few calming enterprises One of the maj-
or steps in relieving the enmity between the Soviet
Union and the United States was the sale of Ameri-
can wheat in 1963. Mr. Nixon called the sale “a
foreign policy blunder even more serious than the
fouling of the Bay of Figs.

Mr. Nixon, unlike the unsuccessful Democratic
nominee, has never indicated much interest in slow-
ing the arms race. During his campaign he claimed
that the United States was suffering a “security
gap” and losing its nuclear lead over Russia. He
has indicated that, if elected president, he will in-
crease the country’s nuclear arsenal, already large
enough to kill every Russian several times.

The United States faces hard times. But we en-
dured Eisenhower, and we even endured Johnson,
for the gods put an enduring heart in men. Perhaps
we shall survive Nixon.

SCARLET AND BLACK

Friday, November 8.196.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Steve Kent Compares
Crosseh‘, Schneirov

I dislike the position of having
to correct another of Mr. Cross-
ett's chronic and jaded mis-
readings of history, but I would
like to set the record straight
on one matter.

Never in my time at Grinnell,
did I instigate, draft or circulate
any petitions whatsoever (ex-
cept on behalf of certain candl-
dates for office).

With regard to the numerous
petitions circulated by a variety
of well-wishers and participants
on the day of the lllriamed sleep-
in two years ago, I did not par-
ticipate in the drafting or cirr
culatlon of any of these peti-
[Ions which, I understand, gar-
nered over 800 signatures in the
space of apprDleately twelve
hours. Nor were these petitions
ever used by me, or even all
collected from their circulators,
precisely because some of them
were sloppily drawn and be-
cause the fast-pace of events
made it questionable in our
minds that all of the signers
were fully aware of the implica-
tions of signing.

Your relation of the facts sug~
gests that you may have those
petitions confused with one
widely circulated among my
class by some of my classmates
a few days before our gradua-
tion. This petition, which called
for a realistic review of the
opens policy, something i still
believe IS needed at Grinnell,
was published in the 5&3 in a
substantially altered form, to
the chagrin of a number of its
signers, including myself. who
were not given notice of the
changes. 1 had nothing to do
with the drafting or circulation
of thls petition in either its orl~
ginal or adulterated form and
was one of those who requested
that their names be removed
from the list of signers.

“Demagoguery”. “dishonest".
"mampulation" are 5 tr 0 n 3
words, particularly when associ-
ated with an incorrect relation
of the facts. Doesn't this kind of
public character assassination,
Mr. Crossett, done behind the
victim’s back and without the
decency of reasonable notice.
strike you as being just a bit
uhtalr and reprehensible — per-
haps, as you might have it, even
Schneirovian?

I have done some things that
I would be hard-pressed to de-
fend in retrospect, but gross
deception is not one of them.
And. really, Mr. Crossett, to
style me as a demagogue is not
a little like accusing Phyllis
Diller of being a sex-pot. It's
a flattering charge but one that
just can't be sustalned under
scrutiny.

My own preference always
has been for the politics of cans
ciliation and of compromise
and, l think, with the exception
of a radicalized moment or two,
I have been a fairly consistent
practitioner of that brand.

I like to think that had
some of us been better heeded
two years ago. some of the dlvls
lions that now plague the cam-
pus might have been avoided.
Yet 1 rather doubt that anything
I could have done (or not done)
in the short time available to and

would have greatly changed the
course of recent Grlnnell his-
tory. I may be a good case
study for the proposition that
"the evil men do live after
them while the good is oft ins
terred with their bones. . ." but
I hardly qualify as the commits
ter of the Original Sin.

I suspect that the. drug-cult,
the black power movement. the
politics of confrontation and
S. D. S., distasteful as they are
to me as well as to you. Mr.
Crossett. were. if f date use the
term, hlstorlcal lnevitahillties
tor Grinnell as they probably
were for the nation. I suspect
also that these phenomena will
largely modify or pass away
within a relatively Short time.
Their premises are too irration-
al and inadequate to long satis—
fy the discerning mind of the
Grinnell student.

I doubt the gross clamorings
of the S. D. S. are very repreA
senlatlve of the true proclivi-
ties of more than 8 handful
even Within the S. D. 5., al»
though I'm sure that you could
get a majority to claim that
they were it you picked the
right moment to ask.

Nor do I consider the evident
weakness of the present S.G.A.
to be representative of the true
potential of student government
at Grinnell. And I intend that
analysxs as no dlsparagemem or
our successors ln S.G.A. It is
only natural that student gov-
ernment should be in a de
pressed state. Virtually the en-
tire political and social fabric of
the student society has been
rent and lain to waste by the
abrupt and drastic “reforms"
of the past year and a half,
leaving only a void to operate
in where custom, precedent and
tradition once served as guides.
When I recall the care given in
attempting to put a compar-
atively modest reform, the also
lltlon of women’s hours, on a
posltlve footing, l shudder at the
innocence with which Gl'innell-
ians have played with institua
{ions in recent months,

p e r h a p s all administrators
as well as students have been
guilty at one time or another of
taklng too many cues from the
Revulutlon and not enough from
Burke. Still, I remam in the be-
lief that the great majority of
Grinnell’s Students are intelli-
gent enough and wise enough to
know, or to soon rediscover,
that the key to power and influ-
ence lies not in passion but in
reason. not with the politics of
confrontation but with the pull-
u'cs of compromise.

I still have confidence in the
ability of Grinnell students,
given a strong and healthy insti~
tutional undergirding, to largely
govern themselves responsibly
and tolerably well and to parti-
cipate constructively in the plan-
ning and operation of the Col-
lege.

No, Mr. Crossett, we wlll al~
ways be at odds. For it seems to
me that in your own way you
are as blind to the possibilities
of good In the students as Mr.
Schncimv is to posslbililies for
good in the administratlon.
Neither perspectlve, in my oplm
ion, is a particularly healthy or
productlve one to maintaln.

You and Mr. Schneirov,
thounh udniluodly bole: man.

are In fact two or a klno, Mr,
Crossett: dogmatic and blind
in your opinions, incapable of
reasonable compromise, so sure
of your hold on The Truth. The
College community would do
well to avoid taking either of
you too seriously.

Steve Kent, ’61

Brotherhood Review
Called Ludicrous

To the Hilton

Mr. Stump's and the souls
Criticism of the Brotherhood,
lure the reason given for print-
ing the Wallace ad, reflects a
high degree of American intel-
lectual excretion, Do not pester
me wlth Amerlcan rhetoric,
ethics or morals for they have
been tried and proved wanting.
The son need not speak to the
Brotherhood as to what a paper
should or should not print.

What kind of game do you
think the white races have been
playing with the colored people
of this world — Hopscotchl
Your article clearly demon-
strates that you know nothing
of American political realism.
.You have unwisely rushed into
a Black area of human eXpea
rience of which you know
little. If you being white can.
not even understand the human
motivations of your own race.
then how in hell are you going
to be able to say anything in-
telligent about the human moti.
vatiuns of Blacks? In short,
when it comes to defining real-
ism for Blacks, the 5&3 staff
should keep its juvenile mouth
shut, for lts naivete has already
led to moronic utterances of
the most ludicrous nature. I!
realism makes you nauseous,
then crawl to the nearest hole
in the ground and discharge
yourself there but do not be-
come emetic at my feet.

The fetus deep within the
womb of Mother America Cries
out in wretched anguish, for
even before birth it has come
to realize that the American
by stem engenders incurable
sick blood cells which will
eventually destroy even tho
healthiest of brain Cells. Ac-
cept your mother’s blood and
go insane.

T. L. Gillespie

Rothsfein Rut
Rakes Review

To the Editor:

I hope I will he pardoned for
being in a rut, but it seems that
being in a rut ls very fashion-
able among certain members
of the 58:3 staff with whom I
wish to take issue.

In particular, I have in mind
that distinguished columnist,
ooh Stump. His latest calumny,
“Where the Truth Lies . . .,"
in a perfect example of what I
mean. To begin with, Mr.
Stump shows his unfailing ahll-
ity to misinterpret that which
he does not wish to agree with.
He states, with reference to
The Brotherhood, that “Most
of the paper was addressed to
fellow Black students with the
purpose of gaining unity and
political power." This ll true“

LETTERS—
(Cont’d. on Page I. col .1)