The Anniston Star from Anniston, Alabama • Page 4

World is suffering enao xeforaaers may fas- Some rules changes smack of partisan maneuvering shortage of leaders with moral purpose elve the people a conviction of purpose except that blacks and women stand high in the theology of "new politics" and state political organizations do not. In fact, a political convention is a place where bargaining of all kinds ought to take place among interest groups, ideological groups, regional, state and local groups. Only through that kind of bargaining an the party agree on a ticket and a' program with which it-can-wage an election and. if successful," conduct a government. ONCE THE RIGHT of public participa-.

tion in that process has been secured, as the proposed rules for the Democratic convention secure it, then there ought to be room for all knds of bargaining and maneuvering and dealing by the delegates. The danger is that some of the reformers, having succeeded in improving the rules of the convention, now want to apply them selectively to predetermine its outcome which they have no right to do. That some of these same reformers are already threatening to bolt the party if the convention chooses a candidate of whom they disapprove, just increases the danger that genuine reform may be damaged bv some of its most ardent friends. Their argument is that a favorite-son candidate denies the voters of his state an opportunity to express their choice among the "serious" candidates. That assertion is at best, questionable.

A favorite son can block a "serious" candidate from competing for delegates in his state only if he has so much strength that the "serious" candidate cannot beat him. In that case, who is the "serious" candidate and who is not? ACTUALLY, THE Bode-Duffey-Rauh group does pot have the consistency to argue that only "serious" candidates for President should seek delegates. On the contrary, they specifically approve of black candidates or women candidates running in states or congressional districts, where they have a chance of capturing delegates from the national contenders. The purpose of such candidacies is to exert influence on the final choice of the convention bv assembling a bloc of negotiable delegates. That is exactly the purpose underlying favorite-son candidacies.

IF THERE IS a principle that makes it legitimate for a black caucus or a women's caucus to operate at the convention, but not an Ohio caucus or an Illinois caucus, it is not apparent As an example of. the latter category, there is the recommendation from the O'Hara committee that the roll call of states for the presidential nomination voting be scrambled, by lot rather than proceeding alphabetically. THIS PROPOSAL is designed to any presumed advantage state late in the alphabet may have in bargaining with a candidate to deliver the votes that put him over the top. But the supposed advantage "ephemeral. Can anyone say what-Wisconsin got in return for the votes that nominated President Nixon? Only a perfectionist would think it important to scramble the alphabet, at the expense of tradition and common sense.

What gain is there for reform if millions of television viewers conclude that the Democrats are a party which cannot even call the roll straight? MORE SERIOUS in its implications is the effort by some reform advocates to interpret the proposed rules to fit their own preconceptions. Ken Bode, Joseph Duffey and Joseph L. Rauh, three prominent reformers, have declared on behalf of Americans for Democratic Action that "favorite-son candidates explicitly violate the intent of the reforms. and should be discouraged by all possible means." BvDAVffiS. BRODER The Washington Post WASHINGTON As the long struggle, to reform the Democratic presidential nominating convention reaches its final stage his week, there is some danger, that the momentum of the impending victory may carry the reform advocates right over the brink to self -destruction.

The Democratic National Committee meets here Wednesday to vote on the convention rules changes drafted by RepK James G. O'Hara's committee. Along with the reforms of delegate selection procedures ordered into effect by the national committee at an earlier meeting, these rules will guarantee, so far as any set of rules can, that the choice of the nominee at next July's convention will be open, fair and democratic. AS HAS BEEN said before in this space, the Democratic convention reform effort is one of the most important and heartening developments in politics in recent years'. But the achievement may be damaged by the over-zealousness and doctrinal rigidity of some of the reform advocates.

For one thing, the reformers, by wrapping into a single package changes which are vital and changes which are trivial or questionable, have diluted their own product. By ROBERT S. ELEGANT The Lot Angeles Times MUNICH In one of his memorable meditations, Eugene McCarthy suggested that the American presidency should be a more spiritual and less active office. McCarthy's reflective temperament inspired that He proposed that he President should no longer attempt the impossible task of directing the innumerable details of daily administration. Instead, the government would in large measure be allowed to run itself, while the President concentrated upon the greater task of inspiring the United States; MCCARTHY TOUCHED upon a great truth and a major problem.

Because life has grown so complex, rnost men feel themselves powerless in the grip of abstractions they can neither understand nor manage. Beyond guiding practical policies, their leaders must Frances Cobbs Foreign Service cancels a plot in fear of public embarrassment Murray Smith III, has now been hastily reinstated because the department feared discovery of the secret letters and wished to avoid the scandal. But their 11th hour attempt to set things right cannot undo their deeds. Smith is a member of that supposedly At the congested heart Of Anniston is a small tribute to the permanence of nature. The flowering little park in front of Anniston National Bank is a refreshing retreat from the jangling and transitory signs along the boulevard to the north and south.

Frances Cobbs often was in the park with her garden gloves on, pruning, weeding, generally tending and supervising its care. Of course, she had many larger responsibilities which crowded her life: as a devoted mother and sister, an omnipresent civic and cultural force in the community and as a vice president of the bank with heavy professional duties. But, no matter what weight of of ficial responsibilities pressed on her during lunch in the second-floor Oha tehee Room, it is certain she looked down into the park with both an -appraising and appreciative eye. Just before the vacation trip to England which ended in her tragic death she was in the park tending the roses. They are faded now.

Frances would have seen no heavy symbolism in the fading of the roses. -Ar-any gardener Imowsr falling-rose petals are only part of the permanent process of nature renewing itself We will continue to think of her in that little park as a participant in that process. By JACK ANDERSON WASHINGTON Confidential letters in our hands show that top State Department officers connived to arrange the ouster of an anti-war diplomat at the same time they were feigning grave concern for his constitutional rights. The ousted foreign service officer. by evoking dedication to a common cause.

0-- Chiefs of state or government, electM or hereditary are, above all, symbols of authority. The art of leadership fls not primarily making the right decisions In a world where men's initiatives are mocked by uncontrollable events. The true art of leadership, as it has evr been, is generating moral excitement, THE PROBLEM is acute.The was formerly troubled by the dollar gap, because foreign nations did riot hold enough dollars. The United States is now troubled by the dollar drain because those nations hold too mahy dollars. But the entire world suffers from the glamor gap and the charisma 'drain.

The world's leaders are no longer what they "were or appeared to be. They are failing in their highest duty, which is to inspire ordinary mortals by the erratic splendor of their lives and the occasionally eccentric forcefulness of their personalities. seemed otherwise in the 50s and '60s. The gray hue of life in the somber 70s Was reflected by the recent meeting of Emperor Hirohito of Japan and President Nixon. Whatever their other excellences, the pair are the very embodiment of non-glamor.

i THE GROCER'S son from Whittier, and the descendant of the goddess Ameterasu-Omi-Kami came to spiritual leadership by different routes. But thfy are alike in their inability to move men's souls. Their offices endow Mr. Nixon and Hirohito with inherent advantages. But they detract from, rather than enhance, the glamor of their offices.

President John Kennedy and the Emperor Meij i were qtiite different. Pressure on the President is greater. The United States, which desperately needs glamor, surrounds him with! a minimum of the trappings and pageantry royalty displays. Mr. Nixon must create his own glamor, but, obviously, cannot.

THE AWE WHICH surrounded the emperor was manufactured in the 19th 'century by men who knew the value of glamor. They transformed the Mikado into a god-king in order to provide a concrete living ideal as Japan asserted itself in the modern world. MacArthur, who would brook no rival, destroyed the myth. Years ago, a young Japanese clerk turned out to see the emperor. He was later asked, "What did you do?" He replied in surprise, "Bowed deep!" But he grinned and added, "Then I laughed.

What a funny little man!" THE JAPANESE "fiM learned that Hirohito was a highly fallible mortal, put they were offered no alternate ideal except the pursuit of commercial and industrial power. As United States is learning, MacArthur was too efficient. Elected presidents or premiers need the indefinable quality called style even more than do monarchs. When the young complain that a Nixon or Hirohito is "not relevant" they are really saying he leaves them cold. President Dwight Eisenhower was -a nullity as a statesman.

But he matte Americans feel secure. John Kennedy's accomplishments were limited. But ne inspired a new sense of purpose, Americans knew they were on the high road, even if they didn't know where they were going. THE PROBLEM is not American 'or Japanese, but universal. Consider Moscow's triumvirs, Western, Europe's monarchs, presidents, and premiers, jor even the Pope compared to their predecessors.

All are pallid. All must command loyalty and dedication by their spiritual authority and glamor -r before they can lead effectively. Unfortunately, they do not. Smith an opportunity to contend that his constitutional rights have been "violated." THE LETTER NOTED that Smith had not been promoted for some time and "if he is not promoted by the selection board's which meet this fall, he will be forced to retire." The letter includes specific recommendations as to how his performance report should be written to assure he was not promoted. This is highly improper because only Smith's immediate superiors are supposed to participate in writing the report.

Further, it said this: "Smith has not been told that he was ranked in the low five per cent of his class by the selection boards this year, nor should he be told because if he fails of promotion next year he -will be out. China's screened mystery elite corps of diplomacy, the Foreign Service, which is so demanding that men are fired merely for" failing to be promoted. Such procedures to assure that all Foreign Service officers will be "brilliant." BUT THIS HAS ALSO produced a Foreign Service that is run like an Eastern prep school: stuffy, rigid and ridiculously snobbish. Naturally, there was horror in the plush suites of the striped-pants set when Murray Smith signed an anti-war advertisement in the Washington Star in 1968. He was the only Foreign Service officer on the list.

Smith's superiors threatened to use this against him by citing it in his promotion file, but the American Civil Liberties Union intervened to head this off. Nevertheless. Smith soon found himself assigned to a distant post in Iran, where he began to circulate an anti-war petition among the American community. The U.S. ambassador.

Douglas MacArthur II, nephew of the famed general, was apoplectic. HE FIRED OFF a "Confidential -Eyes to Washington urging that Smith be shipped elsewhere. But Washington feared any such overt reprisal would get the ACLU after them again. After all, any citizen has a right to dissent among his fellow citizens. So the Foreign Service's director general.

John Burns, conferred with his boss. Deputy Under Secretary William Macomber. The saccharin Macomber had been polishing his image by boasting about the "505 reforms" he had instituted to bring the Foreign Service into the 20th Century. Here's what Macomber told my associate Brit Hume about his attitude toward the Smith, case: "Smith was not undermining the President's policy abroad. His efforts were in-house.

within the American community. "I DIDN'T WANT the fact that he disagreed with a certain policy to result in him being thrown out of the service. 1 didn't want people to judge him on that score." But John Burns 's reply to MacArthur, written with Macomber's approval, makes it clear that they were all eager to get Smith out of the Service for his anti-war activity, while making it appear that his ouster was for other reasons. "In the case of Murray Smith, we would like to avoid the confrontation he apparently wants to provoke." the letter said. "We do not want to give IT IS ESTABLISHED State Department policy to tell a man if he is in the bottom five per cent so that he will be warned to improve his performance.

Yet Burns, with Macomber's approval, specifically directed that this policy be violated. MacArthur's reply to Burns, also marked ''Confidential Eyes Only," agreed to Washington's recommendations but contained some whining criticism of such things aj Smith's wife's clothing. "She is a mini-mini wearer," the ambassador declared petulantly. These disclosures come at a bad time for Macomber and the bigwigs in the Foreign Service. They are already under fire for the grossly unfair treatment of another officer, Charles Thomas, who committed suicide after being kicked out.

THE SAME RANCHERS who sent gunmen on helicopter hunts for federally-protected golden eagles are grazing their cattle on federal land. While Fish and Wildlife agents have been despairing over the eagle carnage by the ranchers, other branches of the Interior Department have been passing out permits to these ranchers to graze cattle at bargain rates. Belatedly, the department is now considering "administrative action" against the permit holders who slay golden or bald eagles. The killings in Wyoming Texas and elsewhere threaten the proud birds with extinction. commanders support him and his moderate (or less intransigent) approach to both domestic and foreign policy, that Chairman Mao appears more and more to be a venerated but power less relic.

Further, it seems indicated that Chou since mid-September may now have beaten back a challenge from the dissident and radical minority in the party to his "moderation," to his invitation to President Nixon to visit Red China. The situation by last week was under control sufficiently to trot put Chairman Mao to greet visiting Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, and public announcement that Presidential Advisor Henry Kissinger would again travel to Peking soon to complete detailed arrangements for Mr. Nixon's visit also bolsters con-, elusions that the emergency whatever it is is well in hand. Given the" mystery (to Western eyes, at least) of the Eastern mind, complicated by the traditional secrecy of Communist infighting when the reins of power are up for grabs, it may be years before the world knows what has happened, or is happening, in China this September and October of 1971. And the suspense is heightened by the possibility that powerful China may, in the meantime, have taken a significant basic change in course that could affect world history.

The Orient is never so inscrutable as it is when it decides to keep unto itself the in-house machinations of a Communist power struggle. Perhaps it isn't a power struggle that currently is (or has been it may be over by now) going on in China; the only conclusion reached by consensus in the China-watching ranks is that something is going on. That it is a power struggle is supported by the absence from public view for several months of Lin Piao, Peking's defense minister and officially designated successor to Chairman Mao Tse-tung, cancellation of the Red Chinese super-celebration of National Day on Oct. 1, the interruption of air movement in mid-September and later revelation (from outside China) of a mysterious air crash in Mongolia that preceded the suspension, and a string of other peculiar actions and the non-actions that sometimes are so important to China-watching, such as the non-appearance of any major Chinese military commanders at public events since mid-September. Interestingly enough, history (if some day the complete story ever emerges) may show that Richard M.

Nixon, President of the United States, may have played a role in this unconfirmed leadership struggle. Clues emerging so far support conclusions that Premier Chou En-Lai is emerging as Peking's strong man, that the great number of the military Star readers Speak out! HOSPITAL PROBLEMS As an interested citizen I would like to express an opinion about the referendum on liquor-by-the-drink in this city. But not only that, I also want to question the problem that has come to light recently at Anniston Memorial Hospital. First, wet and dry people may bicker over the service of liquor for many reasons be they Christian or for taxes. However, the fact remains that Memorial Hospital being a city hospital receives very little if any subsidy from city government.

Moreover, the nurses who work there make less money than if they worked in surrounding community hospitals. Also many improvement? are needed, equipment is needed. Costly things are out of scope because of the lack of money." If you go to Anniston Memorial Hospital you would expect the best care; then why not help them have it? JLet have the equipment and also enough money for salaries of the nurses. Second, it came to my attention recently that the personnel of the Intensive Care Unit at Memorial Hospital were reluctant to move into the new unit, why? Because they needed more personnel, and because they wanted more money for the added responsibility. What did the hospital do? Well, after a petition for more people and more money was sent to the board of trustees, the supervisor was re-assigned.

Mrs. Rester the supervisor, the lady who had made the ICU the best in this part of the state, the lady who spent two years giving herself and her staff to create this unit. Why was she replaced? It was stated because she lacked constructive leadership PHOOVl Not so. But because she didn't cow down to the administration, she was replaced. She wanted you, the patient, to receive the best nursing care possible.

But she lost. The people who work in ICU are unhappy, Mrs. Rester is unhappy, most of the doctors are unhappy; but who can fight city hall. Ask yourself the question: Why should someone who took pride in her work and in her subordinates' ability to help someone return to jgood health be replaced just prior to moving into a new Intensive Care Unit that she helped to plan, that she had worked hard to get, then why is it if she was not adequate that she wasn't replaced sooner? Why is there such desperate long faces and disharmony in ICU now? These are just a few comments I think should be brought out to the readers and citizens of Anniston. mm Berry's World Look back Oct.

13, 1921 Miss Alice Clark Carre, who is studying in Birmingham, will arrive for a weekend visit at home. A Oct. 13, 1946 Dr. Wade H. Brannon is at Camp Kilmer.

N. and will sail for dutv with the United Suites Army in Europe. DORSEY B. WILLIAMS Eastaboga, Rt. 1 SJtmtstott Ibtar if EiteblUhed IW2 MRS.

EOfcL y. AYERS, Chairman ot th Board RALPH W. CALLAHAN, Pretldenl H. BRANDT AYCRS CODY HALL STEVE TRAYLOR P. SANpuiNETTI vice Gen.

Manager SAM OGLE JR. Circulation Manager ALMUS J. THORNTON Secretary Treeurer Editor and PuWIther Executive Editor Managing Editor Horry M. Ayers, President and Publisher, 1910-1964 tin SUBSCRIPTION RATES One Wik One'' Month Including Tax MAIL RATES ON REQUEST THE CONSOLIDATED PUBLISHING Pushing It.rnoon and Sunday morning at Watt 10th Street Second clan pottage pald'at Anoltton, Ala MM I Wednesday, October 13, 197 it says 'NEW diet soft drink no cyclamates, SUGAR added. Hey, that sounds just like OLD, regular soft drink, with 'DIET' added! 4 'Okay here are the broad guidelines! Now, get in there, teeth and.