THE OVERSHADOWING ISSUE

Detroit's Twelfth Street was tranquil. Newark's Springfield Avenue was nearly deserted. While a ghetto battle raged in Cleveland (see following story), the anniversary of two of the worst riots in American history went virtually unnoticed. But if the ashes of Detroit and Newark have grown cold, the emotions they raised clearly have not. Law and order now looms as the No. 1 issue of 1968, even overshadowing a war that keeps more than 500,000 American servicemen in combat in Southeast Asia.

George Wallace has clambered up the public opinion polls by fulminating against "revolutionaries" and rioters. "We're not talking about race," he told an audience in Rhode Island last week. "We're talking about anarchy. One reason we're gonna be elected President is because we're the only one that's talked out against this sort of thing." Ronald Reagan gets his loudest applause when he refers to the issue of crime in the streets. "We talk of sending a man to the moon," he observed in Alabama, "but we can't even send a man safely across the park."

Utmost Concern. Richard Nixon last week enlisted a 20-man task force to explore the problems of law enforcement. The National Governors' Conference, meeting in Cincinnati, adopted a resolution "recognizing crime in the streets of America as a problem which demands the utmost concern and attention of all Americans." For all their concern and attention, however, the Governors refused to endorse gun-control legislation, which is favored by police chiefs around the country. "Gun control isn't going to solve the problem," said Georgia's Lester Maddox. "Punishment and apprehension is the answer."

Many private citizens agree. In a follow-up study for the President's riot commission, a new survey estimates that one-third of the white community looks to tougher police to solve riots, one-third favors eradication of slum problems, and one-third wavers from side to side, supporting repressive measures on the one hand and poverty programs on the other. Right now, the balancing third may very well be moving toward the get-tough sector. "The American people," said Texas Governor John Connally, "are tired of dissension and turmoil and crisis. Wallace is gaining strength because he appeals to the dissatisfaction and frustration of a great many people."

The Beginning. Even as the plotted attack on police in Cleveland was increasing white apprehension about law and order all over the country, it seemed to be inspiring black militants to a higher level of bombast. Said Eldridge Cleaver, a leader of Oakland's Black Panthers and author of Soul on Ice, a compendium of bitter autobiographical essays: "It shows that psychologically blacks are not only prepared to die but to kill." Added Stokely Carmichael: "We are only at the beginning of a revolution--the armed stage. We must create the maximum damage with a minimum loss of black people. And that is through guerrilla warfare."

Many other Negroes find the constant talk of "law and order" more than a little ironic. In the first 60 years of this century, notes John Hope Franklin, chairman of the history department at the University of Chicago, there were more than 50 major race riots in the U.S.--with whites always on the offensive. "It is interesting," says Franklin, a Negro, "that they never were followed with cries for law and order." Negro Comedian Dick Gregory adds that " 'law and order' is just the new way to yell 'Nigger!' "

Into November. Despite Cleveland, and a number of disturbances that flared in such places as Chicago, Akron, Erie Pa., and Grand Rapids, most cities have been relatively--and surprisingly--calm in the summer of 1968. This is partly the result of more effective riot-control measures, partly a matter of luck. It can certainly not be credited to the Federal Government, which has embittered many U.S. mayors by sharply cutting back their summer ghetto programs. In their anger, some officials even look upon the lull with mixed emotions, worrying that quiet in the slums will leave the white community indifferent to the Negro's just discontents and grievances.

Indeed, says Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr., there may be altogether "too much stress on keeping the summer of 1968 cool. The problem is not going to end in September." It will, in fact, continue into November and beyond, to the term of the new President.

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