The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1961-10-20

l
$4,000 feet.
He had, he said, "been proud an
happy" to get the job with the CIl
when he was turned down by TIN
commercial lines.
| Powers defended himself by plead
ing political innocence and ignor
ance. 81 was just a pilot" he said
He did not know about the Summit
meeting in Paris; he was not aware
of the implications of his flight, which
the President of the United States
defense of this country"
So we see man turned 81 years
old who could fly plane but was un-
informed about all else in his life. He
had a nice wife. He was sitting pretty,
making 100000 a year. And when
that dream ended 1900 miles inside
Russia, he could say, with complete
honesty, and no awareness of self
contradiction, that he was sorry he
took the job he liked so we'll, that he
regretted having made the flight;
that he did not wish to do so, but was
afraid of being thought coward.
And, anyhow, someone else was re-
sponsible for it all. "Blame those who
sent me-" he said. gse
Francis Powers had relatively little
education He was, in sense. a drop
out. He learned to fly. But. he was
not prepared for a commercial pilots
job.
He represents, perhaps, what we
mean when we speak of "mass
audience"
There is but one state in this
Union, according to the latest figures
saw, which has an educational aver
age for its people as high as second
airy school graduate. The others range
down to as low as seventh grade. 1t
IS from these that we receive protests
about printing too much foreign
news; too much highbrow stuff. If |
you come right down to it, this is one
'eason why the Democracies have so |
time with foreign policies. |
The Congress must pay attention to
mass public opinion to be elected.
'GUNSMOKE" GETS THE NOD
And mass public opinion isn't in
crested in problems involving great |
decisions about international policy
ecause it hasn't read about them,
oes not have the background of edu-
alton and mental stimulation to care
bout becoming informed. 1t is mass
pinion which provides those who
ont want to watch the national con-
entions but wants Gunsmoke instead.
Now, our solution is not to destroy
r weaken the democratic, represent
tive system, but it surely is to do
lore about education. And those who
urn out the daily textbooks we call
ewspapers ought to be the most in
crested of ALL And certainly the
lany competent and intelligent news
on television and radio
lust also be keenly interested in help
lg with what is essary.
/ came from the South. There are
ates outside that region whose edu- !.
ational neds are as desperate as ours,
ut no region is so much in need.
We are paying, and will for some
time continue to pay, a heavy price
'or the folly of maintaining two
segregated systems of inferior
quality. The price to the nation as I
! whole will be heavy because of
he fact that generations of Negro f
'upils had the worst of the two
ystems and were, in addition, too "
ften deprived of the right to vote, o
nd to participate in the mechan- n
rs of local government. tt
This city (Philadelphia) has learned Il
as has every urban center in the
ton, of whatever region, what it W
cans to have uneducated and un- NJ
lied persons, white and colored, to CT
ok to their Industrial plants seek m
: jobs few were prepared to fill. We al
; learning the grim fact as automa- ~
n complexities the problem of a th
maying total of unemployed, that m
ny of the skills once reliable are m
'olete. M
We are learning, too, in these days on
a mobile population. that the poor