Suppository Suppository Suppository
by C. W. MATHEWS
The latest rendition of the
Moratorium Carnival is now
over, but the frivolity of this
performance will serve as a
memorial to student radicalism
at the University of Nebraska
In the months to come. For
those of you that for one reason
or another were unable to at
tend the gala event, I will at
tempt to depict the show's
highlights.
Advertisement for the Agnew
demonstration began last week
with the distribution of a
vacuous "position paper"
which attempted to rationalize
"the Moratorium's objectives,
while soliciting for
participants. Judging from its
language, the promoters hoped
to attract anyone that found
student protest fashionable
regardless of the individual's
sincerity or conviction. As we
all know, it's the attendance
figure rather than the mentali
ty of the audience which is used
Color him Carswell
by FRANK MANKIEWICZ and TOM BRADEN
To charges that he used his position as U.S. district judge
and as United States attorney to deprive people of their rights
under the law and the Constitution, Judge Harrold Carswell
has now pleaded in effect no contest.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked him
to answer the charge that as a judge he arranged with a
local sheriff to rejail some civil rights workers a higher court
had ordered him to free. It asked him to answer the charge
that he advised a city attorney how to avoid having a civil
rights conviction reversed on appeal. He was asked to explain
the circumstances under which, when he was U.S. attorney,
he helped to form an organization whose sole purpose was
to take over a public golf course and turn It into a segregated
one.
His letter of reply answers none of the charges, although
he denies any racial overtones In his December speech to
the Georgia Bar Assn. He says the denial of such overtones
by some of his colleagues who attended the meeting "speaks
for itself." So does the joke he told about "a dark-skinned
person": "Are you from Indochina? No, suh Ah's from
outdo' Georgia."
Carswell's letter answers in no way the charges brought
by civil rights lawyers during testimony before the Judiciary
Committee. A sitting judge, he argues ought not to have to
defend judicial decisions.
But it is not his court decisions of which the witnesses
complained; it was, rather, extrajudicial conduct. When a judge
grants a writ of habeas corpus, requires the prisoners' attorney
to serve the writ on the sheriff at the jail and then notifies
the sheriff that he has returned the case to local jurisdiction
so that the prisoners can be rearrested before they leave
the jail, that is not a Judicial act or a judicial decision.
It Is an action in violation of the constitutional rights of a
citizen, and it Is forbidden by law.
When Judge Carswell, as the testimony alleged, was con
fronted with the legal necessity to overturn the conviction
of other civil rights workers, he advised the city attorney
that if he commuted the sentence to time already served
the matter would become moot. He was not thus rendering
a judicial decision. He was using in the language of the
law the ''color of his office" to see to it that the Illegal
practice before him could continue without legal precedent to
prevent it.
Finally, when U.S. Atty. Carswell, knowing of a pending
case in his jurisdiction to desegregate a public golf course
pursuant to a Supreme Court decision only a few months
old, joined with others to form a corporation to turn the
public course into a private segregated one, he was not perform
lng any judicial act. He was lending the color of his office
to a private act that at best was behavior unbecoming a
man sworn to uphold the law.
. So the committee and the Senate now have a complete
record on which to vote. There are the charges made by
lawyers in Judge Carswell's court, the record of the golf course
segregation and his role in 1956 as an incorporator and director
of a segregated fraternity house at a state-supported college.
Against those charges Judge Carswell has elected to stand
mute. Inadvertently, he did reply to the charge that his style
as a writer of decisions is hopelessly mediocre. The prose
of his letter to the Judiciary Committee confirms that. Civil
rights attorneys had told the committee that Judge Carswell
had lectured them in a hostile and discourteous manner. Here
is his reply:
"Lawyers from all parts of the nation have practiced before
me over the years without any suggestion of any act or word
of discourtesy or hostility on my part, notwithstanding assertions
to 'the contrary." In other words, there are no complaints,
except for the complaints.
to calculate success or failure.
One need only attend a "Big
Red" football extravaganza to
understand what I mean.
SOUVENIRS for this month's
production included not just
one, but three different types of
buttons, anti-war propaganda
and bumper stickers. The
Moratorium's concession stand
in the front of the Union was
doing a booming business, and
nearly every semi-liberal on
campus had increased his col
lection of peace-symbols. This
response by the student body
prompted the forecasters to
predict immediate success for
the coming performance.
Although never clearly
stated, it was generally
assumed that the Moratorium's
objective was to protest the
appearance of the golden
tongucd orator, Spiro Agnew,
at Nobby Tiemann's fund rais
ing dinner. What better op
portunity than the personal
appearance of the Vice Presi
dent would ever exist to
dramatize the hypocrisy of the
Nixon-Agnew administration.
Only a visionless unread reac
tionary could fail to see the
significance.
The Moratorium Committee
which prides itself on
bureaucratic entanglem e n t s
made the usual preparations.
Permission was secured from
the local police, who delight at
the chance to break the
monotony of their usual 8 to 5
routine by plotting security
measures. With this obstacle
hurdled, only the blessing of
the SS was needed in order to
finalize preparations.
AROUND six o'clock Monday
evening the demonstration got
under way in front of Pershing
Auditorium, well known for its
glamorous dog shows, big time
wrestling matches and archery
contests. The demonstrators
formed a human corridor along
the sidewalk and were outfitted
with a broad array of signs,
placards and banners with
which to greet the guests of
honor.
Lincoln police officers, who
identified themselves and their
nationality by wearing
American Flag emblems,
sauntered back and forth
through the corridor to
guarantee its accessibility. For
approximately 45 minutes,
faithful Republicans passed
through the corridor, bedecked
in their Sunday finery for the
Elephant Show inside. Imagine
or abridging the freedom of speech or the prcssf or the right of
the people peaceably to assemble . . .
the incredible social prestige of
dining in Pershing to the
lingering aromatic fragrances
of dog dung and human
perspiration.
To the cheers, jeers, shouts
and songs of the protestors
these burgeoise loyalists
marched through the corridor
mumbling under their breath
about the hippie communist
pinko subversives loitering
along the sidewalks. One man
who eyed his son among the
demonstrators stopped t o
reason with his offspring. After
a brief exchange, the two were
reconciled and both entered the
Auditorium.
DESPITE a chilly wind and
sagging temperatures, the tone
of the demonstration was able
to generate enough heat to
satisfy newspaper reporters
and television camera men.
The freaks performed well
under these conditions and
several radio announcers arm
ed with tape recorders ap
peared to be contented.
When the figure of Ivan the
Magnificent appeared in the
passage way a roar of en
thusiasm went up. Although
late, the students' defender had
arrived and took his rightful
place at the front door dofipite
the area's congestion.
As I stood admiring the
absurdity around me, I noticed
the conspicuous absence of two
groups.
Where were the plastic profs
who pontificate in the
classroom about the need for
student activism? Where were
these campus crusaders who
preach about morality, racism
and an unjust war?
They who encourage student
protests must have teen
somewhere, or were thev I
suspect eating dinner within
the warm securitv of their
homes while watching the tube.
Nevertheless, these guar
dians cf righteousness had no
doubt done their shrre.. But
what of the other group? Where
were the rhetorical!- revolu
tionary blacks who deplore the
racism ard hypocrisy cf
American society?
WHERE WERE they, the
adherents of S t k I v
Carmichael and H. Rap
Brown? Certainly it would
seem the presence of Sun
Cornelius and Pee Pe'ern
might have warranted their
participation.
Why should they bother to
mix with the honkies when the
debate is whether or not to date
them? I mean after -11 who
believed Eldrige Clever when
he said, "There is in America
today a generation of white
youth that is truly worth., uf a
black man's respect. . ."
As I stood there thinking. I
couldn't decide what degree of
absurdity was more absurd
the fools on the inside, we fools
on the outside, or those ftHs
who didn't come. Maybe it
would better to leave that
judgment to you!
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1 3, 1970
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
PAGE 5