From Rhetoric to Arson

"By whatever means necessary" is the dictum of revolution. A growing number of radicals have come to believe that the necessity is fire and bomb blast. In some quarters the impression has spread that violence, as Rap Brown once said, is indeed "as American as cherry pie."

At Stanford, at the University of Kansas, at Penn State, at the University of California's Santa Barbara campus, some student radicals have abandoned rhetoric for arson. In East Lansing, Mich., last week, three banks near Michigan State University were damaged by explosions. Thus far, most of the incendiary passion has been directed against property instead of people.

One member of the Administration last week issued a warning that more violence could only lead to adverse reaction. Radicals, Postmaster General Winton Blount told a national convention of Omicron Delta Kappa fraternity, "offer destruction, but no solution. Perhaps the exalting of ignorance is excusable to a point. But finally the combination of ignorance and rebellion is too explosive to tolerate. Our history shows all too clearly in which direction the middle class moves when it is frightened, angry or threatened. It goes to the right, not to the left. The more frightened it becomes, the angrier it gets, the more extreme its action. And America has the largest middle class in the world. We must get away from the notion that the democratic process is designed to bring perfection. It is designed to permit improvement."

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