Snow Hinders Turnout in First'64 Primary
CONCORD. N.H.—(UPI)—A late winter snowstorm and high winds slapped New Hampshire today, slowing and perhaps curtailing the vote in the nation's first 1964 presidential primary.
Heavy snow warnings were posted throughout the state and gale warnings on the coast by the U.S. Weather Bureau.
There was speculation the bad weather would cut down on the predicted vote of perhaps 175,000—125,-000 Republicans and 50,000 Democrats.
The state's Republicans were voting to offer the GOP some counsel on the choice of its 1964 presidential nominee. The meaning may be blurred but the results will be read closely for signs of strength or weakness shown by the major Republican presidential possibilities.
IN THE COASTAL city of Portsmouth, the snow was whipped by strong winds, traffic was slowed to a
crawl and the voting turnout was very light. But voting was reported heavy at the South Main Street engine house at Manchester after the polls opened, and Democratic Gov. John W. King was among the first to mark a ballot.
At Laconia, a city of 15,000 in the middle of the state, the vote was heavy when the polls opened but it tapered off.
Before the storm, a turnout of about 175,000 was predicted—125,000 Republicans and 50,000 Democrats.
New Hampshire has 302 polling places, most of them open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., because only one city, Portsmouth, has voting machines, and because of the extreme length of the Republican ballot, significant results from the Republican popularity poll are not expected until late tonight.
THE MOUNTAIN hamlet of Dixville, voting at the stroke of midnight, was the first community to
vote in the primary. The nine Republican voters gave two votes to New York Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, one vote to Sen. Barry Goldwater, three write-in votes to Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge and three write-in votes to former Vice-President Richard M. Nixon. Political observers generally figured Goldwater would carry the town.
Goldwater. Public opinion polls on the eve of the primary gave a slight lead to Goldwater over Rockefeller, both announced candidates for the GOP presidential nomination.
THE SAME polls indicated extraordinary strength for two write-in contenders—Lodge, U.S. ambassador to South Viet Nam, running third, and Nixon, running fourth. Trailing were Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine and Harold E. Stassen, former governor of Minnesota and a previous presidential hopeful.
Goldwater, Rockefeller, Mrs Smith, and Stassen all have their
names on the popularity contest section of the ballot above the space for write-in votes. The Republicans also will elect 14 national convention delegates from among slates favoring Rockefeller, Goldwater, Lodge and Stassen and a slate of uncommitted delegate candidates.
- ROCKEFELLER—Today's vote provides his first test outside the public opinion polls to show whether or not he still must worry about the political handicap he acquired by remarriage to the divorced mother of four children.
- GOLDWATER -While the Arizona senator has said he can win the nomination without victory in New Hampshire, he has said it is important to show whether a Westerner from a small state can command support in the northeastern section of the country.
- LODGE—A strong showing would compel a reappraisal of Lodge's appeal as a presidential candidate and subject him to pressure to return from South Viet Nam to become an active candidate. But outside New England, Lodge's popularity rating is still low among Republicans who will be delegates to the national convention next July.
- NIXON—The Nixon write-in campaign, led by former Gov. Wesley Powell, seemed weaker than that for Lodge but a creditable showing will keep him among the GOP possibilities and encourage him to become more active.
- MRS. SMITH—She is described as the first serious woman candidate for President, but she has not conducted a serious campaign. She toured the state, just once, a month ago. She has no organization and no delegate slate.
- STASSEN—This once bright political prospect has not been taken seriously as a political candidate since 1948 and his campaign here is not taken seriously.
Dailu hansan
61st Year, No. 100
Lawrence, Kansas
Tuesday, March 10, 1964
Court's Libel Decision Seen As Press Support
WASHINGTON — (UPI) — The Supreme Court's historic decision in the New York Times libel case was viewed today as massive support for the right of the nation's press and people to criticize public officials.
The court, in a decision that establishes sweeping guidelines in the field of freedom of the press and speech, yesterday threw out a $500-000 libel judgment against the Times and four Negro clergymen who were co-defendants.
The judgment had been won in state courts by a Montgomery, Ala., police official.
A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL can collect damages only if he can prove "actual malice," said Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., who wrote the decision.
The court's majority opinion stated strongly that critical statements about official conduct of government officers are protected by the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press.
decision.
Brennan defined "actual malice" as a statement made "with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not."
The court stopped short of ruling that an official can never bring a libel suit based on criticism of his official conduct, thus there remained a bar on reckless lying, for instance, in a political campaign.
The decision was seen as a block to retaliatory libel action against newspapers like the Times, or other news media, which, according to Justice Hugo L. Black's concurring opinion, could conceivably be labeled "outside agitators" in some section of the nation.
BLACK WOULD HAVE the court go further and rule that no libel suits can be brought against critics of a public official's conduct in office. He was joined in this view by Justices Arthur J. Goldberg and William O. Douglas. Goldberg noted particularly that he was not including the "private conduct of a public official or a private citizen."
He said the $500,000 verdict against the Times in the state courts gave "dramatic proof . . . that state libel laws threaten the very existence of an American press virile enough to publish unpopular views on public affairs and bold enough to criticize the conduct of public officials."
Black said he believes the first amendment to the constitution insures "an unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs."
GOLDEERG SAID: "If liability can attach to political criticism because it damages the reputation of a public official as a public official,
then no critical citizen can safely utter anything but faint praise about the government or its officials."
The standards set by the court yesterday must be applied also to lawsuits totaling $2.5 million brought by other Alabama officials against the Times and the four clergymen. All the actions are based on an advertisement published in the Times March 29, 1960, and dealing with the treatment of Negro student demonstrators in Montgomery and else-where.
The damage award in yesterday's case, brought by Montgomery Police Commissioner L. B. Sullivan, was thrown out on the grounds that:
thrown out
—No malice was shown even
though some of the statements were
not completely accurate.
There was no evidence that the statements in the advertisement referred specifically to him.
Cambodian Mission Seeks Red Weapons
HE TOLD A GROUP of royal dignitaries at a nationally-broadcast emergency conference yesterday that his efforts to win a negotiated neutral status for his kingdom have collapsed because of the hostility of the United States.
- From the Soviet Union -2 mig jet fighters, 12 field guns, 8 anti-aircraft guns, 15 mortars, 36 machine guns and 500 submachine guns.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—(UPI),
Neutralist Cambodia, which has
renounced American military aid
today sent a top-level mission to
Communist China and the Soviet
Union to negotiate arms purchases.
Lt. Gen. Lon Nol, Cambodian vice premier and commander-in-chief, headed the mission, which left Phnom Penh this morning for Peking via Vietiane, Laos.
The head of the military mission was honored last night at a dinner given by Then-Liang, Communist Chinese ambassador to Cambodia.
THE GENERAL and 12 highranking Cambodian officers are scheduled to spend 20 days in China and then fly to the Soviet Union. Government sources said the mission was authorized to negotiate weapons purchases.
The mission's departure followed a new verbal attack by Sihanouk on the United States.
Chief of state Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who renounced more than $10 million in annual military aid from the United States last year, disclosed last week that he hopes to obtain the following military equipment:
equipment
• From Communist China—200 troop transport trucks and a large number of light weapons.
(William P. Bundy, U.S. assistant secretary of state for far eastern affairs, headed for Bangkok, Thailand, today from Saigon, Viet Nam for talks believed aimed at persuading Thailand to participate in a four-power converence on Cambodian neutrality.)
He called U.S. counter-proposals "inacceptable and inadmissible" and said he has issued orders to his diplomatic representatives to reject them.
Sihanouk said U.S. opposition meant there was "no hope" of convening an international neutrality conference in Geneva or a limited four-power conference in Phnom Penh.
IN WASHINGTON, state department officials said they were puzzled by the report because the United States favors a four-power conference.
"Cambodia's frontiers have been clearly defined with Thailand in international treaties and the international court in The Hague, and with South Viet Nam by very favorable demarcation lines drawn by the then French governors of Cochinchina (now part of South Viet Nam)," Sihanouk said.
Sihanouk charged the United States "torpedoed" his suggestion that Cambodian borders be guaranteed by a conference including Cambodia, South Viet Nam, Thailand and the United States by proposing that mixed commissions outline the borders.
Weather
Increasing cloudiness has been predicted for tonight and tomorrow. A few scattered showers and colder temperatures are expected for tonight and tomorrow.
The low tonight will be in the upper 20s.
The high tomorrow will be in the 40s.
Oswald's Mother Barred from Trial As Court Witness
DALLAS—(UPI)—Mrs. Marguerite Oswald, arriving to watch the trial of her son's slayer, was stopped at the courtroom door today and subpoenaed as a prosecution witness. The move bars her from the court and from discussing the case.
Ruby looked on blankly as Mrs. Oswald appeared briefly to be sworn in.
"Mrs. Oswald, you will have to stay outside the courtroom until called as a witness," said Judge Joe B. Brown with a smile.
Mrs. Oswald had said she wanted to attend a session of the trial "not as a mother but as a person interested in justice."
DEPUTY Rosemary Allen removed Mrs. Oswald. She now could not discuss the case with anyone.
She said she wanted to "get a clue as to what happened last Nov. 24." when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald.
The defense began a parade of psychiatrists to back its contention that Ruby was insane and in a mental "blackout" when he shot Oswald.
IN A BLACK dress, gray hair pulled into a tight bun, the accused assassin's mother left the courtroom and sat silently on a wooden bench in the hallway outside.
If the jury believes that, as the law states, "A preponderance of the evidence" shows the nervous little defendant to have been insane when he killed President Kennedy's accused assassin Nov. 24, it must find him innocent of the charge of murder-with-malice.
THE TEST being applied here is the so-called McNaghten rule, established in England in 1843. It holds that to establish a defense of insanity it must be clearly proved the accused did not know the "nature and quality of his act," or if he did know it "that he did not know that he was doing what was wrong."
It was 12 minutes until 7 o'clock last night when court was adjourned with the excusing of the defense's opening witness in its attempt to bare Ruby's purported mental disease to the jury.
The witness was Roy Schafer, a Yale University psychologist who examined Ruby $ 9 \frac{1}{2} $ hours in December and saw him again in January. He told the state on cross examination that he had spent about 100 hours on this case, at $ 10 an hour, plus expenses. Before he got through, he had undergone some abrasive moments with Dist. Atty. Henry M. Wade, a drawing, sometimes roaring, former FBI man.
RIGHT OFF, Schafer said his psychological tests had convinced him Ruby had suffered "organic brain damage, and the most likely specific nature of it was psychomotor epilepsy." A couple of hours later, still under Belli's questioning, he was saying he felt Ruby had an abnormal mind and in all probability he was subject to "rage states" in which he did not know what he was doing.
ONE OF THE many tests he gave was the "story recall," in which he would tell Ruby a brief story and get him to tell back as much as he could remember. He said Ruby did "very poorly" on the following story and showed "several absurdities" in his re-telling.
The story: "The American liner New York struck a mine near Liverpool Monday evening. In spite of a blinding snowstorm and darkness, the 60 passengers, including 18 women, were all rescued though the boats were tossed about like corks in the heavy sea."
though the boats were tossed about this. Then he consulted his memory and came up with:
"The American liner struck a port in Liverpool, and in spite of the—what happened, 18 persons were rescued, including 16 women, by a British steamer. In spite of the storm the ships were bobbing up and down like corks. They were rescued by a British steamer."
Wade on cross examination immediately established through Schafer's testing that Ruby had an intelligence quotient of 109, which Schafer said "exceeds about 73 per cent of the American men of his age."
"You start at the top and come down 27 per cent and you'll find Jack Ruby," Wade said. "Isn't it unusual to get very high I.Q.'s in persons with organic brain damage?" Schafer said it was.