President Travels Into Poverty Area
By Merriman Smith UPI White House Reporter
President Johnson journeyed on a six-state tour of the poverty-plagued Appalachian area today, talking man-to-man with jobless workers and pledging a new "American revolution" to help their plight.
At his first stop of the two-day trip in Cumberland, Md., Johnson sounded the theme of his trip when he pointed to cabinet members accompanying him and declared: "We came because we care."
From Maryland, he went to Martinsburg, W. Va., for a brief stop. The schedule then called for a swing into Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia. Five speeches were on the agenda, including a breakfast talk tomorrow to members of the Georgia legislature, but he was expected to make even more.
AT CUMBERLAND, JOHNSON quickly sought out the man-on-the-street. He visited a state unemployment office in the Maryland community and talked to the jobless workers there.
One of those applying for unemployment compensation was Mrs. Mary Mallow, wife of an unemployed elevator operator, who had with her their three children, aged 6 months, 4 years, and 6 years.
At the high school stadium where his helicopter landed, the President was greeted by a turnout of about 8,500. At the Cumberland town square, where he delivered his first speech of the day, an estimated crowd of more than 3,000 heard him declare a war to "free 30 million Americans from the prison of poverty."
Johnson stopped briefly at Martinsburg to change from helicopter to his Air Force jet where he was given a warm welcome at the airport.
HOME MADE "WELCOME LYNDON" signs were flourished on his arrival at Martinsburg and high school bands played enthusiastically in the Spring sunshine, giving the occasion the air of an old-fashioned political rally.
The President's stop in Ohio was at Athens for a speech on the 160th anniversary of Ohio university. From there, his itinerary was Knoxville, Tenn., Rocky Mount, N.C., and Atlanta, Ga., where he will spend the night.
In his prepared speech at the county courthouse in Cumberland, the President said Maryland was a state that always had fought for the rights of man, starting with its achievement of self-government in 1638.
"AND IF THAT BATTLE takes place on different fronts today than it did 300 years ago, Maryland must help to win it," Johnson said. "Because that same spirit still lives in Maryland today, I come here to ask your help in carrying forward the American revolution.
"In many ways today's battles are even more difficult.
"Then the enemy was clear.
"Today, the enemies which menace our people are more complex. They will not yield simply to guns or force. They take the form of disease and poor schools—of untrained men and chronic unemployment—of exhausted mines and obsolete skills.
"We are preparing to fight these enemies.
"OUR FIRST OBJECTIVE is to free 30 million Americans from the prison of poverty. We do this for those who are poor. We do it also for those generations who will be condemned to poverty unless our generation provides a way out."
Johnson said figures, statistics and pictures did not tell the entire story of poverty in the Appalachian area.
The President said, "We will not win our war against poverty until the conscience of the entire nation is aroused.
"We WILL NOT SUCCEED until every citizen regards the suffering of neighbors as a call to action," he added. "We will not overcome until every city and town mobilizes its resources to create the true American community, where all are equal in hope and expectation."
Lawrence, Kansas
61st Year, No. 135
Thursday, May 7, 1964
Dailu hansan
Petitions Seek Reverse Of Suspension Decision
"The persons I talked to expected only. 1,000 signatures." Mills said.
Petitions asking University reconsideration of the suspension of Michael Mount, Wichita senior, were circulating today.
The petition is addressed to no one. Mount is a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. Mills, a fraternity brother, said neither he nor Mount are circulating the petition and emphasized it was not initiated by Phi Gamma Delta members.
MILLS SAID THE response to the petition has been greater than expected.
The petition is addressed to no one.
Mount said last night he was suspended for at least the remainder of the semester for writing a bomb scare note in Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.
The disciplinary committee, which made the judgment Tuesday afternoon, declined to announce what action it took.
Bill Mills, Topeka senior, said this morning that 1,500 to 2,000 persons have signed petitions asking the suspension be reconsidered.
"They felt that if they got this many, that would be all they would want."
Mills said the organizers of the petition may give it to the administration because of the large number of people who have signed.
Mills and other persons contacted last night and this morning would not divulge names of persons circulating the petition.
Rumors that the Panhellenic Council had told sororities not to allow the petition to be signed were scouted today by Kay Weber, Wichita junior and Panhellenic president.
"Several people have called me asking if I had told sororities not to sign the petition," she said. "There must have been some misunderstanding. One sorority president called me last night before I knew anything about the petition and asked what should be done. I told her then is was all right for girls to sign them as individuals."
EEFORE HE LEFT for Wichita last night, Mount declined to comment on the disciplinary committee decision or the petition started in his
Rail Union Strikes Violating Injunction
behalf.
Bulletin
"I'm tired of talking to people." Mount said. "I'm just going back home and I have no immediate plans."
PEORIA, Ill. — (UPI)— Firemen and enginemen went on strike against the Toledo, Peoria and Western railroad and a local switching line today in defiance of a federal court order barring walkouts.
Firemen and enginemen went on strike against two small but important Illinois railroads today,but the walkout was called off at midmorning.
Members of the brotherhood of locomotive firemen and enginemen walked out against the TP&W and the Peoria and Pekin union railroad at 12:01 a.m. CDT, the same time that the nation's railroads put into effect work rules changes that will wine out the jobs of more than 4,000 fire-
A spokesman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (BLF&E) said union members would go back to work on the Peoria and Pekin Union (P&PU) and the Toledo, Peoria and Western (TP&W) Railroads.
"And when they have a public
Student Peace Union Plans Picketing Of ROTC Review
Mount, who was enrolled in four courses for 14 hours this semester, said he may petition for reinstatement next month to attend summer school. He had previously been accepted into the School of Law for this fall, but said yesterday he does not know his status there now.
The Student Peace Union announced plans last night to picket the "Chancellor's Review," to be held May 15 by the three ROTC units at KU.
"For example, when they have military recruiting tables in the Student Union, we have peace tables. When they have a military ball, we have an unmilitary ball."
at KU.
Reading from a prepared statement, KU-SPU vice-president, Charlie Hook, Topeka freshman, said the specific purpose of the demonstration would be to ask ROTC members "to drop out, to discontinue their personal participation in the war machine, and join us to work for a peaceful world."
"IN ORDER TO dramatize these alternatives, the SPU attempts to provide a response to the examples of the military machine on campus," he said.
Hook said that the main function of SPU is to provide alternatives to war.
WHEN INFORMED of SPU's plan to picket, Midshipman Captain Douglas Pickersgill, Kansas City senior and overall commander of the ROTC units for the review, said, "they've got all the right in the world to do what they want, but they don't have the right to disturb our proceedings. As long as they are orderly and do not interrupt the program, fine. They have the right to be there.
demonstration of the military machine on campus, we have a public demonstration."
Hook said the picketing of the ROTC would be an appeal to the individual conscience. Reading again from a prepared statement, he said, "SPU calls on individuals to drop the military definition of reality and the self-prediction that there are no alternatives."
we feel that we don't have to justify our existence to anyone. This is strictly a student program. We've worked long and hard for this. It's a show from us to the Chancellor. The officers have nothing to do with it.
men. Other railroad employees honored picket lines.
Humid and warm weather with recurring thunderstorms is expected through Friday. Southerly winds from 25 to 40 miles per hour this afternoon are expected to diminish tonight, becoming strong southerly Friday, the Weather Bureau said.
Kappa Kappa Gamma was the victim of two bomb seares Monday. The first occurred shortly after midnight, when the KU switchboard operator was told a bomb would explode in several minutes. The Kappas were routed out of bed and stood outside for almost an hour in trenchcoats and nightgowns while police searched the house.
"The SPU is out for a theoretical state, which I'm all for, but right now, the military machine is necessary. Their principles are fine, but their means are questionable."
Weather
Railroad representatives went to court in Washington Tuesday and obtained a court restraining order prohibiting walkouts because of reported strike votes taken on several lines throughout the country.
When asked if the picketing would affect him personally, Pickersgill said, "I pay about as much attention to them as I would a small dog barking at my heels. Right now, I'm more concerned with my studies and graduation."
The high this afternoon is expected to range in the upper 80's and the low tonight is expected to be in the middle 60's.
The union declined to give any reason for its walkout here, but it was apparently in response to the new work rules. The effects of the isolated action were not immediately determined, but the 236-mile system of the TP&W was at a standstill. The railroad serves as a connection between major eastern and western railroads.
Operations on the Peoria and Pekin Union, a terminal line which daily switches 2,000 freight cars for seven major railroads, were also shut down. It was possible that freight cars containing perishable shipments could be tied up.
Kuss Esslinger, vice-president on the TP&W, said the entire line was "not operating."
The history of the TP&W has frequently been marred by violence. It was the object of the longest railroad strike in history, was the first private corporation taken over by the government in World War II and was the scene of violence, gunfire and bloodshed.
E. J. Brasso, superintendent of the P&PU, said, "I don't know what's going on. All I know is I've got a strike on my hands.
"I haven't talked to any of our people yet, so I don't know what we're going to do," he said.
MOUNT SAID HE heard about this incident from classmates the next day.
The Supreme Court has refused to consider union challenges to lower court decisions upholding the award.
A BLFE SPOKESMAN said that the Pennsylvania abolished all but 10 per cent of the Firemen's jobs in its Conway yard in what he termed a clear violation of the award's protective provisions.
Picketing in Peoria, Ill., also was triggered by misapplication of the award's provisions for elimination of some firemen's jobs, the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the arbitration board charged with interpretation of rail awards reconvened today. The board's job is to make rulings on disputes arising out of the award on eliminating fireman jobs.
H. E. Gilbert, head of the Enginemen and Firemen's Union, had said only yesterday in Washington that there would be no strike in view of the injunction.
The accounts of what happened late Monday afternoon differ.
Mount said yesterday he wrote the note which said, "A bomb in the house is set to go off at 11:25 p.m." as a joke, then tore it in half and put it in an ash tray in a telephone booth of the sorority.
He said he had gone to the Kappa house to borrow some notes and forgot about the note he had written after he left.
However, Emily Taylor, dean of women, said this morning her original investigation of the matter showed Mount had left the note on a table in the sorority, where it was found intact by two Kappas.
Dean Taylor said the two girls asked Mount if he knew who had written the note, and he said no. She said Mount tore the note in half after the girls left and put it in the ash tray, where it was found after police arrived.
KU Negroes To Join Rush
For the first time in several years, Alpha Phi Alpha and Kappa Alpha Psi, the two Negro fraternities at KU, will participate in the formal summer and fall rush periods.
The presidents of both fraternities and Interfraternity Council President James Johnston, Independence, Mo. junior, agreed that this would allow an opportunity for social contact between the races and a formal apparatus for pledging any man going through rush week.
Robert Terrel, Jackson, Miss., junior and president of Kappa Alpha Psi, said he felt the major problem in fraternity discrimination is a lack of communication and interaction.
"IT HAS ALWAYS been voluntary whether Alpha Phi Alpha and Kappa Alpha Psi participate in the regular rush but this will allow all fraternities to consider all men on their own merits," Johnston expained.
"This will give the men and the houses a chance to get better acquainted so that they will be able to judge on merits other than color," Terrel said.
ALPHA PHI ALPHA president George Vaughn, Kansas City sophomore, said he agreed that this was an advancement for the Negro fraternities and for the IFC.
George Ragsdale, Lawrence senior and chairman of the Civil Rights Council (CRC) could not be reached for comment. Ragsdale had expressed a strong desire at the Human Rights Council (HRC) and the IFC-sponsored, fraternity-sorority discrimination panel last week that the Negro fraternities should encourage Negroes to go through rush at KU.