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4 Th Newi-Review, Roteburg, Ore. Fri., July 8, 1955 Published Daily Except Sunday by tho News-Review Company, Inc. Enlertd Moend cUit in tier My 1, 1030, at tfas pt ttftce tt Rotaburft Orefttn, tdcr act tf Mrcn t, 1118. CHARLES V. STANTON, Editor and Mangr 1 Msmber of th Associated Prass, Oragon Newspaper Pu6)Eshars Association, the Audit Bureau of Circulations Repraieoted bj WEST HOI.LIDA Y CO., INC.. offices In Nw Vork. Cblcai. ' 8ta Franclics, Los AngeUi, Seattle, Portland, Denver ;UUtiCltIPT10N RATES In Oregon By Mall Per x"r, 112. 00! all montha, 6.&0 three montha, 13.24. Ootilde Oreion Bf Mall Par Vtr, 180O alt montha, 7.00; three montha, SS.ftO. Br Newa-Revlew Carrier Par Tear, 118.00 tin advance), Icaa Iban one ver, par month, 91,35. GOODBY, NICHTCRAWLER Charles V. Stanton The "Friendly" Southern Pacific announces it will dis continue its lamed Nighterawler Aug. 1. It is a shame that this unique train is not to be pre served as a museum piece. It is the ideal exhibit of how not to conduct a business. The Southern Pacific has been weeping for many years because of the financial losses incurred in operating this transportation monstrosity. Faced by increasing deficits, it has decided to remove this final remnant of passenger service so called from Southern Oregon. I am not inclined to object to discontinuance of this al leged service. It has been made so next to useless that it is of no great value to the area. We won't miss it, except in rare instance. The only people who ride it are those forced into it by extreme necessity. It is used chiefly to "deadhead" railroad personnel from one point to another. Paying passengers are few and far between. The Southern Pacific, "Friendly," reports averages of only 18 to 20 passengers per day. Certainly a passenger train can't be profitably operated on such revenue. Train Deliberately Killed The Southern "Friendly" Pacific says it has made ef forts to attract patronage by improving service. But that statement undoubtedly was made with tongue in cheek. The poor old Nightcrawler obviously is the victim of premeditated murder. Passenger service is a headache to nearly all railroads today. Kailroads make their profit from handling freight. Few passenger trains can show a profit margin. But is is' possible for a railroad to reduce operating deficits on pas senger trains by giving better service. Even' the , 'Friendly" Southern Pacific is doing that on other parts of its system. Most railroads also recognize a public service responsi bility. They maintain a passenger service, even though it operates at a loss, in areas from which they draw their freight business. Southern Oregon is one of the brightest revenue-producing sections on the entire Southern Pacific, "Friendly," system, but for years the company has been subjecting its passenger potential to slow starvation until the Nightcrawler is ready to give up the ghost. Had, the Southern Pacific provided this area with pas senger service at decent hours and with adequate accomo dations, ,it would have less complaint about competition from private cars, buses and planes. But the "Friendly" Southern Pacific, always with the eye for the dollar, aiid never an eye for public service responsibility, didn't want passenger; service, doesn't want passenger service, and will get out of the passenger business entirely, if given the op portunity. . t Service Could Be Compelled It is my understanding that the Southern Pacific Com pany could be compelled to maintain passenger service on this line. When Oregon and California land grants were made, one of the provisions was the maintenance of passenger service on the lines financed by the grant. Congressman Harris Ellsworth once filed a complaint on that basis, but, because of wartime conditions, the action was dropped. Possibly the communities along the line, if they were so minded, could re institute proceedings and force continuance of passenger service. Such action, however, would be val ueless unless it included provisions for adequate service, which I doubt would ever be supplied unless constantly su pervised by a federal authority. So We can bid goodby to the unique old Nightcrawler. Insofar as its value to the community is concerned, it will be no great loss. The "Friendly" Southern Pacific will be freed of even the semblance of a passenger service for its foremost bread-and-butter area. Federal Power Commission Opens Hells Canyon Dam Hearings In Washington By JOHN KAMPS WASHINGTON Ifl The Feder al Power Commission Heard argu ment Wednesday in the Hells Canyon case one of the nation's biggest private-public power fights. The argument is over whether the FPC should permit the Idaho Power Co. to construct three low dams in the Hells Canyon stretch of the Snake River between Idaho and Oregon. The private utility projects would flood the site of a proposed federal high dam. Attorneys for Idaho Power were given two hours to support their applications for dam construction licenses. Counsel for public power groups were allotted 90 minutes to urge that the FPC reject the ap plications and recommend congres sional authorization of the federal Hells Canyon dam. FPC staff law yers were given 45 minutes. The lawyers are R. P. Parry, fdaho Power. Evelyn Cooper and Lucien Hilmcr, National Hells Canvon Assn., and John C. Mason FPC staff counsel. The arguments marked an ap peal to the FPC from examiner William J. Costello s initial deci sion in the case. Costello recom mended, following a year-long hearing on Idaho Power's applica tions, that a license he- issued for only one company dam Brown- lee. He said failure of Congress to approve Hells Canyon legislation similar to bills pending would,, make it "useless" for the FPC to recommend a federal dam. Power from the company's proposed Ox bow and low Hells Canyon dams, he declaed, would be too costly to sell in Oregon and Washington. All attorneys in the case filed appeals with the FPC, taking ex ception to the examiner's decision. Parry urged the FPC to license Rrownlee, Oxbow and a low Hells Canyon dam. He said Idaho pow er's customers would need power from both Brownlee and Oxbow as soon as they could be built, and a market for energy from the third would develop. Parry said the company ob tained a preliminary permit eight years ago and filed a license ap plication for Oxbow Dam five years ago. But, he told the com mission, opponents of the company had blocked its efforts to keep ahead of power demand. "The altitude seems to be," he said, "that if you're foolish enough to live in an area served by a private power company, that's your fault. This is a strange twist in administrative procedure." Parry objected to Costello's con clusion that power from Oxbow MAKVSVILLE, Tcnn. UP) Davy Crockett, king of the frontier; Why, man. there are people here in Davy's old home stale who'll tell you he was nothing but a wet-eared boy in an oversize coonskin cap compared to Sam Houston. Davy died in the Alamo, bull" " ' Big Sam, who spent his youth he-re, om. third be paid in cash, was an oven greater soldier ami .-His pupils ranged in age from s alesman and led Jexas into hel (o 60 years, and so many came w.i.um, IV tt IIHI1I I'll .1 ll llll UK 1 1 II what Texas would be like if it hadn't been for Sam Houston (ami oil wells, of course). Young Sam might have been judged a juvenile, delinquent by modern standards, but he outgrew it. And to Mrs. Boyd McKcn.ie, one of a group trying to preserve as a historic shrine the old one room lug cabin in which Houston once taught school, Davy isn't in the same class with Sam as frontier hero. General Motors Stock Climbs With New Split NEW YORK (l General Mo tors Corp. common stock rose sharply Wednesday on the New York Slock exchange following Tuesday night's announcement of a thrcc-lor-one stock split. The first transaclion crossed the tape late in Ihe morning an 85,-000-share block at $128 a shane, an increase of $14.62 from Tuesday night's closing- price. 1 was probably Ihe biggest sin gle transaction, moneywise, in the exchange's history, officials said. The 85,000 share block involved $10,880,000. Multiplied by the numiber of GM shares outstanding, the $14. 62 ad vance represented an increase in market valuation of $1,303,000,000, Shares of DuPont, which owns 22,6 per cent nf GM's shares, opened at $249.50, up $6. An- in Ihe over-the-Counter market. Chris liana Securities Co. which owns 27 per cent of DuPont climbed sharply. GM shares closed Tuesday al $113.37 after a gain of $3.75 on the day. The split will be voted upon by stockholders at a special meetins Sept. 23. Stockholders of record Aug. 8 will be eligible to vote. GM now has the largest number of shares outstanding of any Amer ican corporation nearly 93 mil lion. Afler the split this will become about 279 million. The main rea son for splitting a stock is to bring the price down to a level more attractive to the general investor. Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson, former GM president, sold his 40,000 shares of GM two years ago to take his cabinet post. He received $65 a share for a total of around $2,600,000. Al Wednesday's opening price of $128. his former holdings would he worth $5,120,000. WASHINGTON Wl I N E A) Sweeping charges in the U. S. gov ernment's electric power, flood control, navigation, irrigation and reclamation policies are to be rec ommended soon by the Hoover Commission task force on water resources policy. It's headed by Adm. Ben Moreell, board chair man of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., of Pittsburgh. A hint of what is to come in this 270-page report was given in a se ries of five speeches made by Adm. Moreell and his four sub committee chairmen before Ihe American Society of Civil Engin eers at its recent St. Louis con vention. Without disclosing any of the spe cific recommendations to be made in the report when it is released in the near future, Adm. Moreell and his associates told the engin eers what they found and what they thought about things person ally. THE DEPARTMENTS of Inter ior, Agriculture, the Army Corps of Engineers and all their bureaus which administer water resources projects won t like what comes out Only the private power compan ies and various business groups which oppose federal government spending on these projejets are apt to be pleased. "Having in mind the rapidly mounting public debt, said Adm. Moreell. "it is evident that cirtica) examination is overdue." There is no clear-cut tcaerai water Dolicv. he charged. Amnne the abuses and the cor rective measure wnicn ne nimseu believes should be taken are these: In hvdro - electric development, the federal government has invad ed a field which should be reserved for private enterprise. No additional projects should be started and a beginning should bo made on disposing of existing pro jects to stale and local governments. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has used power arid water develop ments for indirect social and polit ical ends. Navigation improvement proj ects have been constructed solely lo bring pressure on railroads and truckers to reduce freight rates. The federal government has paid too large a share of the cost of waler resource development and required loo little repayment. In recent irrigation projects, re quired repayments have been be tween one-iourm and one-nr.ra t the capital cost. On flood control projects, the average local conlributions have been only one-eighth of total costs. An analysis of 212 Department of Agriculture upstream flood control projects showed the federal gov ernment bearing over 98 per cent of the cost. Many projects have been con- Miui-ieu wnnoui economic justifi cation of any kind, the Admiral de clared. THE TASK FORCE found 43 of ficers and bureaus of the federal government engaged in water re source development last year. "There is every indication," said Adm. Moreell, "that there is a lack Of Coordination whinh fnctara petition among these agencies wnicn causes controversy, confus ion, duplication and waste and en courages bureaucratic ambitions. "It is my firm intention to do all in my power to mobilize effec tive public support for those rec ommendations of the Hoover Com mission with which I agree." Knowing Adm. Moreell as one of the toughest seadpgs that ever hit Washington, the capital is pre paring for a simply lovely fight. Sec. Dulles Says Soviets Are Now 'Overextended' WASHINGTON Wl - Secretary of State Dulles says the Soviets are "overextended" and have adopted new policies in search for "some respite against strains" created by free world opposition. He told a House appropriations SUbCOmmitlPP , In fpcfimnnv en. leased Thursday the new Kremlin nnlifu i kn.n I J ui h xiuiii me.isuy anu not a change of heart. Testifying June 10 on the foreign aid budget, Dulles said: "Mv analysis of the whole wnrlrl - situation is- that the Soviets are overextended and now they ai-e seeking for new policies. . .which will grant Ihem some respite against strains which they have been under in tryin" to do all of ine rnincs wnicn they have felt thev needed to do in nrrlei- fn lrof up with the pace which has been sei oy uie iree woria. "Dulles was asked if this "ap parent change in the Soviet policy is due to necessity and not to a change of heart." "Yes, sir," Dulles replied. The secretary elaborated in off the-record testimony. and a low Hells Canyon dam would be too costly to sell in the Pa cific Northwest. He said Costel lo's conclusion was based on a 191 million dollar construction cost estimate for the three dams. Morrison-Knudsen Co., one of the world's biggest construction firms, has made an unqualified offer to build the three dams for 133 mil lion, Parry said. The offer was made by a company official at the hearing. Mrs. Cooper said the FPC should consider, in addition to power, "whether a limited plan of devel opment would destroy comprehen sive, ' multiple purpose develop ment" of the Snake River. . . . "whether permitting Idaho Power Co. to supply its customers would deprive all the people of the North west of the fullest development of river and land resources. . . their economic heritage. She objected to a remark by !n The Day's News (Continued from Page One) out, along with the peach crop of the entire South, by a bad freeze at the wrong time. On the Fourth of July which is an odd date for a communist big shot to be speaking up on such a subject Nikita Krus-chev made a crack in Moscow to the effect that nothing good can come from the Geneva conference unless the West treats the Soviet Union "as an equal." What's the matter? Is Kruschev suffering from an inferiority complex? President Eisenhower eomes right back at Kruschev. He tells his press conference in Washing ton that the United States will ne gotiate in good faith at the Big Four conference in Geneva this summer, "and the Russians can be sure of it." He adds that no member of the U.S. government has ever said that the Russians will be negotiat ing from weakness at the Geneva parley. If we could be as sure of good faith on the part of the Russians at Geneva this summer as the Rus sians can be of good faith on our part, it would be possible to wind up all the cold war troubles and set the world's feet on the path that ; leads to peace. . I There is bad trouble up at Walla Walla, where armed convicts have revolted and are in virtual control of the Washington state penitenti ary and its 1784 prisoners. I don't know what the real root of the trouble is, but I can't help believing that if the inmates of the prison had been kept CON STRUCTIVELY BUSY in the past the revolt wouldn't have happened. What is "constructively" busy It's doing REAL work, not "made" work. Everybody rebels instinctively at being compelled to do work lhat isn't getting anybody anywhere. As long as we keep convicts herded together in what amounts to idleness in our prisons we'll have prison troubles. Costello that It would be useless for the FPC to recommend tuat Congress authorize the federal dam because Congress has failed to do so in the past. But she approved his conclusion that the federal project would be superior to the three dam plan. . The arguments will be complet ed late Wednesday. Mason,. FPC staff counsel, will be heard Wed nesday afternoon on his recom mendation that Idaho Power be li censed to build three dams. HAPPY VALLEY IMP JULY 9th & 10th HAPPY VALLEY RANCH -6 BIG EVENTS - Saddle Bronc Riding Bareback Riding 'Bull Riding Calf Roping Cow Milking Bull Dogging It's All New! 1st Happy Valley Stampede SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS WILD BULL FIGHTING And CLOWN ACT Plus KARL DOERING And His EDUCATED BRAHMA. Show Starts 1 p.m. Each Day Cowboy Breakfast - Sun. 7-11 am. Rodeo Dance - Sat 9-1 am. Music By CHARLIE PARROT RODEO HEADQUARTERS , Happy Valley Ranch Ph. OR 2-2954 that lie had lo turn some away." Houston's teaching career was brief. He ran up more bills, as he himself later admitted, in "riout ous living." In March, 1H13, a re cruiting officer came lo town, beat on a drum and called aloud: "Hear ye; hear ye; if ye want lo join Gen. Jackson's army lo fililit tile savage Indian, come and lake a dollar from Ihe drumhead, and this will regularly enroll ye." Big young Sam, egged on by a friend, stepped up and took his Trustee Is Held Under $1,000 Bail DALLAS, Ore. Ifl The trusty who helped three prisoners escape is now held under $1,000 bail hen and those he helped are in jail at Euxene, held to the grand jury under $5,000 ball. James Eugene Smith, 19, who admitted he slipped hacksaw blades to the trio, had eight d:iv left on a 90-day scnlence for theft of gasoline. But now, said Dis'. Atty. Waller Foster afler Smith's arraignment Wednesday, he faces a possible five-year term. It was at Eugene, near which Ihe prisoners were captured Mon day, that they were held to the grand jury on a charge of armed robbery. The three are Raymond l,nwe, 22, Everett. Wash.; Burton Bryson. 20, Junction City; and Alfred Peterson. 4(1, Rockaway. Meanwhile, County .lude C. M. Barnhart headed an inspection tour of the jail here. Last week's escape was the third this year. Barnhart said no funds were budgeted for a night jailer, but emergency funds micht be used to hire one If (hat were decided to be necessary. "We'd never even heard much: dollar and became a soldier. of Davy Crockett unlil six months j His military and political rise 'initiated Life Insurers Begin Drive For New Members Members of the Uimxiua Basin Assn. of Life Underwrilers have membership countywide. Thev drive have ago," she said firmly. I after that was swift. He became a which Mrs. McKcnzie is the descendant ! K " 11 'ennessee; he later scheduled a fall and winter pro of a familv which owned land next ! W',""n,ll Army of Texas. : grain, featuring outside speakers, to the farm on which Sam llous- le" 1 R Republic of Texas, served j Association members met Thurs ton's widowed mother settled iiJJ U' S', S(,"'1(U' aml governor day at the Hotel Umpqua to plan Tennessee. She made the trek here! lexas afler It entered the un-the membership campaign. In from Virginia with her nine chil-'j.0"' "c ,vns demised "s governor j other business they voted to take dren. i because he opposed the entrance 'an advanced course in life under- v,n in,,, . ..;j .i of Texas into the Confederacy, and : wi-iline. startinc in Ootoher. ac- and averse to farm work. He used ' ri,i('cl, 18ta "' . "te 1f 'ilh i cording to spokesman Cent Lin- uii- imib ui utuiun.li uiuun siiu uu-icoin. settled. i Special guest was the Rev. Al- During his last veara someone j 'led Tyson, Hoseburg. President once asked him winch of all his I Rohcrt Blackwell presided. posts of authority had given him I the most pleasure. And ralher in tni . n.ir .f .n..i..ni i. to run away and live wilh Ihe Cherokee Indians who named him "The Haven." "His first mention here was for public drunkenness at the age of 18," said .Mrs. McKcnzie. "He walked up and down the streets beating a drum and was charged wilh disturbing the peace." During the next year he opened a school here to pay off debts of $100 a big amount in those days. He had run up the bill buying presents for his mother and some Indian maidens. the previous teachers hartinessee isn t about to sell it. (Or charged $6 a semester tuition, " about to fix it up properly cither, mid Mrs. McKenzic, "hut Sam judging from its present look of raised it to $8 and insisted thatl disrepair.) wisuuuy ine oia iroiuier hero said ; knocks with Sam Houston's name he remembered best the task of I sc-ratohed on them were found hid being a schoolteacher in the flood- (ien shnf lhe doorwav. Did voting time of his youth. Sam .force di,cipiine n his pu- The simple old schoolhouse, ! pils with lead knurks? Nobody weathered by the winds of Mil knows. years, still stands. Wealthy Tux-j "But it isn't likelv he needed ans have tried to buy it and move Ihem." said Mrs. McKenzie. 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