In Virginia the new death penalty law was enacted just before the legislature adjourned March 5. The legislation, which has been requested by Gov. Mills Godwin, passed with only two dissenting votes in the state senate--one of which was cast by the only Black member.

In the house of delegates, laughter greeted the remarks of delegate Ray Garland, who told his colleagues that he found the execution of Gary Gilmore "exalting." He added: "What's so bad about death really? We all face it."

Equally callous was delegate Eva Scott, who noted that some innocent people might be executed but said she wasn't worried because, "I don't believe it is going to happen very often."

In Maryland, late in the second day of a one-man filibuster by State Sen. Clarence Mitchell, the state senate finally shut off debate March 1. The legislators proceeded to approve reinstitution of the death penalty.

"There are those who suggest that the death penalty is not an issue along racial lines," Mitchell said during his filibuster. He went on to cite figures showing that racism was precisely the issue. Of the seventy-nine persons executed by the state of Maryland between 1923 and 1961, sixty-two, or 79 percent of the total, were Black. Blacks comprise only 18 percent of the state's population.

April 14, 1952
An outright majority of 51 percent in the latest nation-wide poll of the American Institute of Public Opinion have again replied "Yes, a mistake," to the question: "Do you think the United States made a mistake going into the war in Korea, or not?" A distinct minority of 35 percent replied, "No."

"The belief that the war was a mistake has persisted for more than a year," states the institute's director George Gallup. In March 1951, exactly half those polled said the war was a mistake, while 39 percent then said it was not. As a matter of fact, the shift in public opinion dates from the time in November 1950 when Gen. MacArthur hit the Yalu River border of the Chinese Manchuria and provoked the entry of China into the Korea war. "From that date on," says Gallup, "surveys have found the war unpopular."

Thus, the White House, State Department, Pentagon and Congress for almost a year and a half have flouted the unwavering opinion of the majority of the American people that it was wrong for the U.S. ever to have intervened with armed forces in the Korea civil war. Of course, Truman never consulted the people when he committed the country to undeclared war.

What many American people, especially workers, think about the Korea war, is expressed in a biting resolution adopted at the recent District 3 convention of the CIO United Packinghouse Workers, as reported in the UPWA's The Packinghouse Worker for March. The resolution pointed out that the "corporations were attempting to use this crisis to smash unions," says the UPWA paper.  
 
 
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