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Friday, April 10, 1959
EDITORIAL PAGE
La Grande Observer
"A Modern Newspaper With The Pioneer Spirit"
I'ubli.hfd by RILEY D. AJJ.KN Publisher
tbe La Grande Publishing Compniiy GEORGE S. CIIALLIS Adv. Director
Robert w. Chandler, Prc.laViit B- '"-BY Managing Editor
J. M. McClolland. Jr., Vice I'rcaldeut TOM HUMES Circulation Mgr.
Lung Cancer, Too, Is Essential
The office mail yesterday contained a
publication of the tobacco industry which
was headlined in big, black type "TO
BACCO ESSENTIAL TO ECONOMY OF
NATION." .
Tobacco, the smoking kind, is responsi
ble for the income of 17,000,000 Ameri
cans, or one in every ten, the publication
said.
We submit that lung: cancer, caused,
by tobacco smoking", is a bigger industry
even than tobacco itself. This is a figure
the tobacco hucksters have left out of
their calculations, for obvious reasons.
But if those who owe their income in
whole or in part to lung cancer were add
ed to the spurious 17,000,000 of the to
bacco boys, it is obvious that tobacco and
its side-effect would be responsible for
the livings of most of us.
(This business of figuring out how
many people live off you is becoming a
favorite of industry. Each one tries to
outdo the other in pointing out how im
portant it is. And as the competition
gets tougher, the figures get phonier.)
But, back to tobacco and lung cancer.
First we start with the 17,000,000
figures of the tobacco industry. Then
we add 2,000,000 cancer quacks. Em
ployes and families of these phonies total
another 9,000,000. There are 1,000,000
doctors. Add the 11,000,000 members of
their families and employes.
A total of 3,000,000 people work in hos
pitals. They have 12.000,000 relatives.
Add the ones who sell groceries, raise
the produce, generate the electricity and
mine the coal, etc., etc., and the members
of their families and you have another
31,000,000, all just hoping a few more
lung cancers will develop.
Evert without getting into thn real
lefinements of the statistical method in
these cases, it is easy to see that tobacco
and th6 'resulting lung cancer are re
sponsible for the jobs and livelihoods of
some 106,000,000 Americans, or about
six out. of ten.
This is really impressive, much more
so than the picayunish figures worked
up by the tobacco hucksters.
Help yourselves to the idea boys, it's
not patented.
Did The Billboard Lobby Goof?
Oregon's powerful billboard lobby, aid
ed and abetted by some members of the
state legislature, has been successful in
burying in legislative committees the pro
posal to control billboards along such
interstate routes as highways 00 and 30.
First the lobby worked on the interim
committee which studied the problem
prior to the opening of this legislative
session.' As a result the committee came
up with a report which said the problem
needed "more study."
It's been studied for years, and it was
obvious that more study was solely for
the purjwsc of killing any control
measure.
Then the legislature went into session.
Into the hopper went a measure designed
to provide minimum controls, under fed
eral standards, of the billboards along
scenic routes.
A Senate committeo killed the measure
the other day. Only Sens. Yturri of On
tario aud Boivin of Klamath Falls voted
against the big billboard industry. The
rest of the members of the committee
fell quietly into line.
Organizations favoring control repre
sented many thousands of Oregonians.
Those opposing it were not nearly so
strong, excepting financially.
As a result an initiative proposal is
being readied. An attempt almost sure
to be successful will be made to place
it on the 19G0 ballot. And the initiative
will not be nearly so palatable to the
billboard industry and its friends as was
the bill before the legislature this year.
Before the whole thing is finished the
billboard lobby will probably realize it
goofed.
Billboards would have been much bet
ter off with the bill before the legislature
than they will with the one which will
we predict be passed by the voters 18
months from now.
Heaven Help Us
One church was jumping in Connecti
cut Inst Sunday when jazzed up religious
music was tried out as an experiment.
The intent was to make church services
more appealing and to show young peo
ple that religion is not "fuddy duddy"
or out of date.
t We asked some La Grande high
school students the other day what they
thought of jazzing up church services in
this way. They didn't think much of it.
A few thought the innovation had some
merits, but if given a choice they would
not prefer it.
Certainly most people would have the
the same feeling. Hymns have been
"swung" before by evangelists looking
for ways to bring in crowds. The shout
ing and the contortions that cl.tiracterize
certain kinds of tent show revivals aren't
inspired by quiet organ music but by the
stimulating kind of music that makesv
people want to stomp their feet and clap
their hands. A steady diet of this is
offered on the airways. Heaven help us
if we couldn't get away from it in church.
Iraq Oil
Is The Big
Question
American Business
Being Frozen Out
By PHIL NEWSOM
As Communism tightens its grip
on Iraq, one of the most pressing
world questions is, what happens
now to Iraq's oil?
It is an important question be
cause Iraq sits in the middle of
the great Middle Eastern oil pool
and. by itself, is the world's sixth
largest oil producing country.
This correspondent, on a recent
visit to Baghdad, put that ques
tion directly to Dr. Hashim Jaw
ad, Iraq's urbane and sophisticat
ed foreign minister. His reply
was:
"Iraq's ties are with the West.
Most of our income comes from
oil and our oil goes entirely to
the West. Our pipelines arc di
rected toward the West."
At this moment, no one can pre
dict the future course of the Iraq
government.
American news correspondents
and American business alike are
being frozen out of Iraq and West
ern prospects there now appear
dim indeed.
But, so far as oil is concerned,
there are three elements which
today force Iraq to maintain its
ties with the Western nations.
One is the oil pipelines. The
pipelines handling Iraqi oil run
from Iraq to Syria and thence to
Mediterranean outlets in Syria
and Lebanon. There is no connec
tion with Itussia or any of its sat
ellites except via Basra and the
Persian Gulf.
A scond, and impelling one, is
the fact that Kussia at this mo
ment has no particular use for the
Iraqi oil. Russia is itself an oil
exporting nation and has im
mense and still untapped oil re
serves of its own.
And a third is that presently it
would be almost impossible for
Iraq to nationalize its oil and seek
its own oil markets. ,
A sad example is Iraq's oil-rich
neighbor, Iran.
In 1951, under lhcn-P r e m i e r
Mohammed Mossadegh, Iran na
tionalized its oil and repudiated
its contract with the Anglo-Irani
an Oil Company of Britain. Iran
soon found it had neither the
technicians to draw out the oil
nor the facilities to market it.
By 19f4, and with U.S. aid. the
dispute finally was settled. But by
that time, Iran practically was
bankrupt and the world had man
aged splendidly without the oil on
which Iran's economy depended.
Under its 50-50 deal with Brit
ish, American and other oil com
panies, Iran today lakes in well
over ZOO million dollars annually
in oil revenues. By law, 70 per
cent of these revenues must be
diverted to national development
projects. As a result, income
taxes in Iraq arc almost non-existent.
The pipelines through Syria pro
vide an interesting sidelight to
the Iraq oil question.
So long as relations between
rraq and the United Arab Repub
lic remain in their strained state,
Iraq must always have the nag
ging worry that the Syrians might
some day cut the lines. They did
that during the Suez crisis and
the cost to Iraq ran to about
$700,000 per day.
If this should happen again, it
will be to the West and not to
Russia that Iraq looks for aid. In
PEPPERY CRITIC GIVES VIEWS
American
Are Living
Schools
n Past
By LOUIS CASSELS
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (UPD
The trouble with America's
schools, according to a distin
guished British observer, is that
they are living in the past.
This critique may surprise
Americans who are accustomed to
blaming "progressive" modern
methods for all of the ills of U.S.
education. It is, however, the con
sidered view of Prof. Denis W.
Brogan of Cambridge University,
a peppery and perceptive critic of
American life who is sometimes
called "the foreigner who knows
America best."
Brogan is on his 31st or 32nd
visit to America (he has lost
count of the exact number). He
is delivering a series of lectures
at Rutgers University here on
"The American Crisis."
Part of that education crisis, he
believes, lies in the failure of
U.S. schools to respond to the new
challenge that now confronts
them.
From here on it will be Brogan
talking:
In the past, the primary job of
American schools was producing
good, loyal American citizens,
and equipping them to earn a
good living.
This dedication to the school
system to social and economic
goals was not a new idea cooked
up by modern advocates of "life
adjustment education.' It was the
dominant philosophy of American
education from the time live first
colonial schools were established.
These early schools "aimed at
producing a bible-reading society,
a society with common ethical
standards, with a common attach
ment to American political
institutions."
The "democratizing" function of
American schools became ever
more important as waves of im
migrants poured into the country.
The schools deserve great credit
for the outstandingly successful
job they did in "making Amerl
cans out of millions of the chil
dren of immigrants who had
come to the golden shore with
inadequate preparation for a way
of life so different from what they
had known in Europe.
What is unfortunate is that
American schools today are still
concentrating on their original
function, and have failed so far
to rise to an urgent new challenge
that confronts them.
"The United States is now rich
enough, unified enough and ma
turc enough to ask its schools to
lay less stress on making good
Americans and more on making
critical, technically competent
citizens.
"The United States is liv
ing in a new, dangerous, unpleas
ant world, and its educational
system is involved in a compcti-
fact, Jawad grimly told this cor
respondent :
"We should regard such an
event as serious indeed. But, in
this case, it would not be Iraq
and the U.A.R. alone. The big
powers would be involved."
There seems ample reason to
believe that Iraq even now may
be attempting to increase cither
its income or its oil output at the
expense of the Western compan
ies. But, for now, it seems cer
tain Iraqi oil will continue to flow
to the West.
A possibility for the distant fu
ture is that some day it might
be useful to Red China. Ia that
case, the flow might be reversed.
. ,u- .i i "ilicrc is such a thing as
tended to hide the results of his that . supt.rj0rity ia men
attitude. Few Americans realize '""" P
"how comparatively Utile the 'a.Jple simply have more
United States has contributed to SofefF, rs, Md a natjon
the basic scientific ideas of the braJi ii to gun..ve jn thjs
world." . tt0rld had better be
Brogan concludes that Amen- cornpet.me exccpUonal peo.
can schools, in order to do the preparco i b ducationaI treat.
new kind of job that now confronts pie except on
them, must overcome a distinctive ment. i
': :. r. -nn;-Mno the mOSt Of It.
American avtrisiuu wi
tion that ultimately has Iife-or-death
significance for the nation.
If the present school system is
not producing an adequate supply
of first rate scientists and tech-,
nicians, it is by that fact con
demned. This may be a new job
for tbe schools, but it is assuredly
one that must be tackled soon if
the United States is to survive."
The most conspicuous short
coming of U. S. education is that
'the boy and girl - at the nign
school stage is not stretched
enough.' Even if all of the cur
riculum reforms proposed by Dr.
James B. Conant in his recent re
port on high schools were put into
effect tomorrow, "the pupil in the
American high school is not going
to be overworked."
Reallv bright boys and girls are
the principal victims of a school
system that subjects all students
alike to "the loekstep of promo
tion by age and the temptation
of snap courses.'.' For their bene
fit and for the future of the i
nation, high schools must begin
to bear in mind that "hard work
and great effort are not un-
American.
'To be brief and frank, much
of higher education in America is
designed to soothe envy, to grati
fy social ambition, to train man
ipulators of not very difficult
techniques."
There has been a notable indif
ference in American education to
the achievement of "true excel
lence, as contrasted with mere
competence." National pride has
SATURDAY SPECIALS
at your La Grande
PrieTclTH) SATURDAY, 1
On Day Only " I
Quotes
From The
.News ,
United Press International
WASHINGTON A National
Aeronautics and Space Adminis
tration official, on why only mar
ried men were chosen for the
first jaunt into space:
"Medical statistics prove that
married men live longer than
bachelors.'
LAS VEGAS Singer Eddie
Fisher, on fiancee Elizabeth Tay
lor's plans to enter a hospital
next week for treatment of a
chronic throat infection:
"I don't want the slightest thing
to happen to my baby."
NEW YORK The National
Mother in law Day CSmmittcc.
Mother-in-law Day Committee
pointin gout one of the purposes
next April 19:
of National Mothcr-in-law Day
combating the use of mothers-in-"It
is also a day dedicated to
law as targets for sarcastic hu
mor." .
HOLLYWOOD Eva Gabor. ex
pressing sorrow at the reported
suicide of model Vcnita Radcliffe
allegedly because her boyfriend
visited Miss Gabor in Madrid re
cently:
'I am not tbe kind of a woman
who would ever take away anoth
er woman s love."
Cnurrf Ve' IC ITt
Frank Wright's Body Going To Wisconsin
PHOENIX. Arir. (UPI) The I Wright, the storm-center mull A few friends and memlx
body of Frank Lloyd Wright will
be returned Saturday to the Wis
consin hilly farm country where
the world ; famed architect was
bora 89 years ago.
guiding light of modern architec
ture, died in the prc-duwn hours
Thursday at St. Joseph's Hospital
where he had undergone abdom
inal surgery Monday.
A few friends and members of
the family joined with the fumed
architect's widow, Olgivnnna, his
third wife, Thursday night to pny
lust respects at Tallesin West pn
the1' outskirts of Thocnix
PUT IT TO THE TEST!
Come in for a demonstration and discover
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Tune-In MAVERICK Sunday Eveninflt 7:30 PM.
OREGON TRACTOR CO., 9 Depot Street
3i.
ii
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Prices in this advertisement are effec
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I
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Sales and Service
Union County Grange Supply
ISLAND CITY
WO 3-3411