"MORALITY HAS BECOME LEGALITY"

Arkansas' William Fulbright has as impressive an academic background as any U.S. Senator. A Rhodes scholar, he became president of the University of Arkansas at 34. He won a seat in Congress in 1942, quickly established a reputation as an independent Democrat. In 1943 he fathered the Fulbright resolution, which first formally committed the U.S. firmly to internationalism after World War II. In 1944 he became a Senator. Two years later, when the Republicans captured Congress, he proposed that Harry Truman resign in favor of a Republican. Ever since, the President has called the junior Senator from Arkansas "that overeducated Oxford blank-blank." A legislator with a moral sense, Fulbright was offended as he dug deeper & deeper into the activities of the RFC. One day last week he rose in the Senate to discuss his feelings about the current standards of U.S. morality:

"Much of the evil of the world is beyond the reach of the law . . . As our study of the RFC progressed, we were confronted more & more with problems of ethical conduct ... How do we deal with those who, under the guise of friendship, accept favors which offend the spirit of the law, but do not violate its letter? "What of the men outside Government who suborn those inside it? They are careful to see that they do not do anything that can be construed as illegal. They operate through lawyers-- men who are known as clever lawyers a cleverness which is like the instinct of the rat that knows how to get the bait without getting caught. Many businessmen, ostensibly reputable business men, employ these knavish lawyers to circumvent the law and enrich then selves at Government expense."

Learning from Their Elders. "Who is more at fault, the bribed or the bribers? The bribed have been false to their oaths and betrayers of their trust. But they are often relatively simple men [who] weaken before the temptations held out to them by the unscrupulous. Who are the bribers? They are often men who walk the earth, lordly and secure, members of good families respected figures ... Is it too much to ask of them that they behave with simple honesty-- with that honesty which looks, not to the letter of the law, but to its spirit? .

"The essence of what we have been studying in our committee is but a reflection of what may be seen in many other phases of our national life. Government and its activities are, in a very real sense, a mirror of our national life . . . our colleges, under extreme pressure from the alumni, have become so intent upon winning football and basketball games that they use any means to gain their ends. They hire players who are not bona fide students . . . They corrupt not only the hired players but also the entire student body, who learn from their elders the cynical, immoral doctrine that one must win at all costs.

A byproduct of this doctrine led naturally to betting and to the shocking episode of the widespread bribery of basketball players in New York . . . [see SPORT].

Within the Letter "The vast majority of great civilizations have been destroyed, not as a result of external aggression, but as a consequence of domestic corruption . . . Democracy is more likely to be destroyed by the perversion of or abandonment of, its true moral principles than by armed attack from Russia. The evil and insidious materialism of the Communists is a greater danger to us than their guns. .

"One of the most disturbing aspects of this problem of moral conduct is the revelation that among so many influential people morality has become identical with legality. We are certainly in a tragic plight if the accepted standard by which we measure the integrity of a man in public life is that he keep with the letter of the law ...

"What seems to be new about these scandals is the moral blindness or callousness which allows those in responsible positions to accept the practices which the facts reveal. It is bad enough for us to have corruption in our midst but it is worse if it is to be condoned.

"Too many people in our nation do not believe anything with conviction. They question the concepts of God or of man, indiscriminately. The values of life which were clear to the Pilgrims and the Founding Fathers have become dim and fuzzy in outline."

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