California: Burning Advice

Earlier this year 34 University of California students, protesting the war in Viet Nam, burned their draft cards and sent the ashes to their local draft boards. Noting the rise of such episodes, Congress in August passed a law making it a federal offense (penalty: $10,000 fine or five years' imprisonment) to destroy a draft card. That seemed to dampen the flames, at least publicly.

Then along came Simon Casady, 56, president of the California Democratic Council, which represents some 75,000 of the farthest-left Democrats in the state. Recently Casady, a onetime newspaper editor, has been going about California condemning Lyndon Johnson and attacking the Vietnamese war as legally, morally and politically indefensible. Warming up to his theme, he told audiences: "It takes more guts to burn a draft card than to go to war. Some people have the guts to stand and say, 'We will not fight for what we don't believe.' "

California's Democrats are used to a certain amount of dissidence, but that was too much. Last week Governor Pat Brown fired off a sizzling letter condemning Casady's "appalling statement" and asking for his immediate resignation. State Controller Alan Cranston, a former president of the Democratic Council, called Casady's comments "destructive." Some of Casady's colleagues in the council jibed that he should have the guts to burn his membership card. But so far, no fire.