The Week

“No one has ever questioned his ability or his dynamic energy. But these very qualities … have in times of peace caused him to be considered dangerous, and a little uncomfortable to have around. Then, too, [he] has always represented the extreme viewpoint. He has never stood on middle ground— he went all out for anything he advocated.” The references are to Winston Churchill, the book Why England Slept, the author John F. Kennedy.

Last week Senator Goldwater clarified his famous statement on extremism, which is all right by us although the clarification was unnecessary. Two and one half months have meanwhile gone by since Adlai Stevenson remarked at Colby College “. . . even a jail sentence is no longer a dishonor but a proud achievement. Perhaps we are destined to see in this law-loving land people running for office not on their stainless records but on their prison records.” In private communications, Mr. Stevenson’s aide Clayton Fritchey has explained that Mr. Stevenson has always been a law-abiding man, that what he was talking about was “students and others who have been illegally arrested, illegally fined, and illegally jailed.” But there are gobs of students and others who have been legally arrested, legally fined, and legally jailed—for breaking laws. It is all right to break such laws, Dr. Martin Luther King said, because they are unjust laws. Adlai Stevenson, having by his incautious formulation suggested that he is aligned with the anarchistic Dr. King, should speak up on the subject. Perhaps some of the influential gentlemen who put so much pressure on Senator Goldwater to clarify his remarks will do as much for Ambassador Stevenson, who after all is America’s voice in an international organization that seeks to submit the entire world to the rule of law, even including Martin Luther King.

Featured Tags

Martin Luther King Jr

“No one has ever questioned his ability or his dynamic energy. But these very qualities … have in times of peace caused him to be considered dangerous, and a little uncomfortable to have around. Then, too, [he] has always represented the extreme viewpoint. He has never stood on middle ground— he went all out for anything he advocated.” The references are to Winston Churchill, the book Why England Slept, the author John F. Kennedy.

Last week Senator Goldwater clarified his famous statement on extremism, which is all right by us although the clarification was unnecessary. Two and one half months have meanwhile gone by since Adlai Stevenson remarked at Colby College “. . . even a jail sentence is no longer a dishonor but a proud achievement. Perhaps we are destined to see in this law-loving land people running for office not on their stainless records but on their prison records.” In private communications, Mr. Stevenson’s aide Clayton Fritchey has explained that Mr. Stevenson has always been a law-abiding man, that what he was talking about was “students and others who have been illegally arrested, illegally fined, and illegally jailed.” But there are gobs of students and others who have been legally arrested, legally fined, and legally jailed—for breaking laws. It is all right to break such laws, Dr. Martin Luther King said, because they are unjust laws. Adlai Stevenson, having by his incautious formulation suggested that he is aligned with the anarchistic Dr. King, should speak up on the subject. Perhaps some of the influential gentlemen who put so much pressure on Senator Goldwater to clarify his remarks will do as much for Ambassador Stevenson, who after all is America’s voice in an international organization that seeks to submit the entire world to the rule of law, even including Martin Luther King.