Atlanta Daily World

THE COMPANY A MAN KEEPS

The children of famous parents are at a great disadvantage from their youth on into maturity. So much is expected of them that they often fail to live up to the community's expectation. I well remember the son of a great man who is great on his own account. But there is always the doubt of this greatness because whenever the son is weighed in the balance his father is always there with him. This detracts from the virtues of the gifted and able son.

It has been said of old that preachers' children are the worst of children. Yet when a factual study was made of this matter it was found that not only are preachers' not the worst children, but they are best children, measured by worthy achievements. It was estimated that every two hundredth name in Who's Who would be that of a ministers' child; it was actually found that every twentieth name was that of a minister's child. Thus the ministers' children are 10 times as successful as other children. But because these children are thrown into an environment where they are ever on display, their vices are magnified and their virtues often minimized.

It follows that the influence of a Christian home is a most powerful factor in the determination of a child's destiny. This is more or less true of all and any environmental influence. Our childhood home life is reflected ever after in life out in the world. In fact the future of every child is determined before the child leaves home, for life in the world. The world and its opportunities or oppositions only bring to fruition the way of life given in the home.

It is true that we are not always a part of the people we meet and mingle with, but generally we are. Birds of a feather ordinarily flock together. The exceptions only prove the rule. For the past few days the nation has been overwhelmed with MacArthur and the glories thereof. Nobody would deny a hero a hero's welcome and laudation. MacArthur returns in triumph to his native land but it is difficult to tell where MacArthur's glory really ends and hatred for Truman begins.

There can be little doubt that a sector of American people are using MacArthur for political designs hidden from the casual observed. We were a little dubious when the mayor of Augusta, Georgia, proclaimed silence in that city out of deference to MacArthur's return. This was not a health sign from the interracial point of view. Later the press has it that MacArthur was closeted with Robert Taft and this about cooked the MacArthur goose so far as this writer is concerned. The nation knows Taft to be anti-labor and anti-Negro in his political affiliations. This same Taft sought to break the back of labor. This same Taft left the disgruntled Republicans into an unholy alliance with the dixiecrats of anti-Truman persuasion, which alliance stymied every attempt Truman made to further integrate Negroes into full fledged citizenship through civil rights legislation.

This same Taft has been an obstructionist and opportunist whenever advanced legislation was indicated and especially if such legislation promised ultimate good to the Negroes of this country. When MacArthur is closeted with Taft it is about time that progressive souls of this country take stock of MacArthur and what he is proposing. He has allowed himself to be maneuvered into a position of spear-heading the opposition against Truman and all he stands for. Moreover, Taft is a bad risk politically because of his antecedents. His father while president made an unsuccessful attempt to break the solid south by catering to southern sentiment even while the south spurned republicanism.

This writer remembers well when President Taft came to Columbia, S. C., to speak. He spoke and his speech was a sop to the then lynch-ridden south.