Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 10, 1993 TAG: 9301120376
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
`VIEW' COLUMN
OK, IT'S A cliche. But the passing of James J. Kilpatrick's syndicated column, "A Conservative View," does mark the end of an era of sorts.For nearly three decades, Jack Kilpatrick has been serving up his opinions to millions of newspaper readers. And for nearly three decades, readers of the Roanoke Times & World-News have been among them.
On today's Commentary page, Jack Kilpatrick bids farewell.
At age 72, Kilpatrick will continue to write - about the U.S. Supreme Court, and about the art of writing. But no longer is he writing the general-politics column that put him in more than 500 daily newspapers across the nation - and that, as recently as last year, led editorial-page editors to list him and George F. Will as the best conservative columnists in the country.
"A Conservative View" began in 1964. This newspaper came on board early. At the time, retired publisher Barton W. Morris Jr. was the editor in charge of buying opinion columns. He was aware of Kilpatrick's talent, Morris recalls, from their days together covering the Virginia General Assembly, Morris for the Roanoke papers and Kilpatrick for the News-Leader in Richmond.
In 1964, Kilpatrick was best known as - to quote from his farewell column - "a fire-eating Southern editor." Now, his views might best be described as Main Street conventional: clearly conservative, but not radically so.
The change reflects both an evolution in Kilpatrick's thinking and mood swings in the country at large.
The fire-eating reputation stemmed from his years in Richmond mounting legalistic defenses of the indefensible: racial segregation. It was a position Kilpatrick later renounced.
But though the nation moved to a "liberal" consensus in support of the principle (if not often enough the fact) of racial equality, America's overall drift during the column's years was to the right. Over time, this too made Kilpatrick's views seem less outre.
Moreover, new stripes of "conservatism" arose that stood in contrast to Kilpatrick's more traditional brand. Unlike the supply-siders of the early Reagan years, Kilpatrick continued to worry about budget deficits and the national debt. He was not an anti-abortion crusader. His issues continued to be such enduring principles as limited government, federalism, judicial restraint.
Kilpatrick continued to turn out three "A Conservative View" columns each week. In recent years, we selected one each week and published it on Sunday's Commentary page.
Ironically, conservatism's revival contributed perhaps to the declining frequency with which Kilpatrick's column appeared. To lend fuller play to the growing range of conservative opinion, space had to be found for such newcomers as Will and Cal Thomas.
Space also had to be found to satisfy our effort to give greater voice to local and state writers.
But Kilpatrick was too much an institution, and too clear a writer, not to feature him prominently on our pages. Agree with him or not, you didn't have to scratch your head wondering where he stood, or why.
In today's final dispatch he writes: "The republic will survive," and "old ideals are not dead." Kilpatrick's column has graced our pages through many eventful years. Its departure is in itself an event.