'Trying to EDITORIAL PAGE i; La Grande - Observer HXtl y Monday, My 25, 1959 i , "A Modern Newspaper With The Pioneer Spirit" ' rUBLTBHED BT THB ;LA OnANDE PUBLISHING COMPANY J Robr W. Chandler, President J. U. llcClelUnd, Jr Vic President i - ....... 'National Pastime1 Is Dying Fast Editors's Note: Bob Mullin is a Sen , lor at the University o( Oregon, major ing in Journalism. His home town is Oswego. This guest editorial was de- . ., veloped from his thesis entitled: ; "Baseball is Dying Fast." ,' By BOB MULLIN , University of Oregon 1 Two friends meeting on the street: , "Hey Fred, Let's go to the baseball game this afternoon." "Like to, Pete, but I want to watch the big league game on T.V. . . . Besides, the traffic", ; "Yeah, guess you've got a point there. Maybe we can have a game of golf one of these days. Just got a new set of clubs." And so two more Americans did not go to the ball park that day. . Organized baseball, still known as our "national pastime." is headed toward an inevitable death if the downward trend in game attendance throughout the nation continues. The major and minor baseball leagues, which broke all-time attendance marks ten years ago, now actually face the posi i bility of non-existance within the next decade. - The home-town slugger, the seventh-in-ing stretch and the barking umpire may be just a memory by 1969 if nothing is done to halt the game's decline. ' i The minor leagues topped 42 millions in total attendance in 1949. But today they draw less than one-third that many through the turnstiles. And even the major leagues, which have resorted to desperate franchise transfers ' since 1952, have fallen in annual attend i ance from 22 to 17 millions since 1948. These figures, shocking as they may seem, do not represent the end figure of 'the decline. Unless baseball men take a serious and objective look at the ever weakening cond , dition of organized baseball, there is rea- son to believe that this downward attend ance trend will continue until the game . finally goes bankrupt. , Thus far, little action has been taken to put an end to the decline. ! Baseball men must realize that the ; game's decline is caused for the most part .by their own selfish actions and their ; stubborn resistance to reform, r The actions of major league owners is ' the biggest reason for organized baseball's r current situation. In three ways these own icrs have, almost exclusively, caused the current plight of minor leagues. First, they have invaded minor league i territory with weekly telecasts of major - league games. : The result has been that fans in minor league towns sit at home watching top t flight major league baseball on television i while home town minor league clubs play . in almost-empty parks i Even worse, these fans are being "train ; ed" to stay at home and it may soon be , .too late to lure them back to local ball parks, whatever is done. Second, big league owners have hurt fan interest by constantly manipulating minor league talent through the farm sys tem and through the drafting of players. Break Me May RILEY D. ALLEN . GEORGE S. CHALLIS H. E. PHILBY TOM HUMES Often, a minor league team ends a season with a completely altered lineup from that with which it opened. ...... This not only disrupts the organization of a minor league club, it tends to dis courage fan loyalUy, with serious conseq uences to attendance. .. Third, five of the big league owners, in an effort to keep their own teams from losing money, have moved to former minor league cities. Such moves have forced large-scale shuf fels in the minors and thus have hurt atten dance figures for the smaller clubs. And there is talk of still more big league fran chise moves. In addition to major league actions that have hurt minor league attendance, all of organized baseball has suffered financially from changing cultural conditions in post war America. Along with population increase in most American cities, there has been a distinct rise in suburban living. And these increas es have gone hand in hand in discouraging attendance at baseball games. For the suburbanite, the ball park is too far away, for the city dweller, the ball park is too difficult to reach because of increas ed traffic and parking problems. Furthermore, a high post-war prosper ity has given the potential fan the opport unity to participate in a wider range of leisure time activities. Finally, many ball park neighborhoods have deteriorated to the point where fans feel it is "risky business" being near them. All these factors have contributed to baseball's present predicament and base ball men must recognize them in order to attack the problem of halting attendance declines. ,. They must keep In closer touch with the problems which constantly confront 'the game at its different levels. They must become more tightly knit. ' And they must give the commissioner of baseball more power so that individual and selfish interests do not have a chance to exploit the game. If these things are dono with the best interests of baseball as a whole always in mind, then organized baseball can and will contiue to entertain America as our "national pastime." Barbs - v Mom will bo taking1 the kids to a va cation resort this summer and keep right on being tired out. It's nil right to say that spring reigns, but more like it to spell it "rains," In a bargain sale a woman may take the chance of ruining one dress in order to buy another. Now comes the time when a wife will sweep the front room with a glance and then go out and have fun in the garden. In Indiana a boy chewed fifty sticks of gum at one time. He'll be forever blow ing bubbles. Be the Last . Publisher Adv. Director Managing Editor . Circulation Ugr. DREW PEARSON Three Textile Get Strauss Payoff WASHINGTON The dav be. tore tne Senate commerce com. mittee voted on his confirmation secretary oi commerce Lewis Strauss made a political pay-off. to three senators Pastore of Rhode Island, Thurmond of South Carolina,'' and : Cotton .of New Hampshire who helped salvage his one-vote victory. The pay-off had to do with stricter controls of foreign textiles, especially Jap anese. However, one pay-off backfired -o badly that it made John Pastore, the bouncing little Denv erat from Rhode Island, hit the ceiling and almost change his mind about voting for Strauss. What made Pastore mad was that Sen. Lcverett Saltonstall of Mass achusetts, Republican, not Pas tore, Democrat, was permitted to announce the creation of a new governmental textile agency. The whole inside story illustra tes the ruthlessncss with which Senate votes are sometimes bart ered in a tough confirmation bat tle, and how such a battle can un dermine an administration's for eign policy. Here are the unrevealcd high lights 1. Because U. S. military bases in Japan are so important, the Eisenhower administration has re used to put mandatory controls on Japanese textiles. Instead, Ja pan itself has imposed voluntary control. Such a policy has been urged by the state and defense departments in order to keep Ja pan an active free-world ally in the cold war against Red China 2. Because Admiral Strauss's confirmation as secretary of com merce is personally important to Mrauss and politically important to EisenhoWcr, the White House agreed to a special agency to in vestigate textile imports, with ex pected stricter controls on Jap anese products later. 3. Ex-Gov. Tom Dewey of New York, former GOP candidate for president, accepted a fee of $100, 000 a year to push Japanese tex tiles in the United States. Dewey is the man primarily responsible for nominating Eisenhower in 1952, and still has great influence at the White House. Dewey, in cidentally, accepted the fee one day after the White House an nounced formation ot tne special agency on tcxtillcs. Therefore. two. prominent Re- oublicans. Dewcv and Strauss, will be battling on opposite sides of the textile fence. BackttM Buttonnonna i Admiral - Strauss'rWcksrafflH buttonholing among textile sen ators began some time ago, It was aided by certain big textile firms, notably Burlington indus tries of North Carolina. In the middle of the Senate hearings ov er his confirmation, Strauss took a quick trip to Greensboro, N. C, QUOTES FROM THE NEWS WASHINGTON President El senhower, on the death of John Foster Dulles: 'From the example of John Foster Dulles, brave in living, brave in dying, let us each hold with all ' fervor to the verities which inspired him." , GENEVA Secretary of State Christian A. Hortcr, on Dulles' death: 'The death of John Foster Dul les will sadden-all peoples devoted to the cause of peace with justice Ho was a great statesman, firmly dedicated to high principles, who worked incessantly to promote' the national interests of the United States, and a community of law among nations. SAN MARCOS, Tex. Senate Democratic Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, proposing a "meeting of the many" of all non-Communist nations: "Where the Soviets have sought meeting of the few, let us init- ate a meeting of the many. Let us as a new dimension of our own foreign policy invite the many nations of the great non-Corn munist world to a meeting at the summit here in the new world." ST. LOUIS Douglas C. Draper whose son was torn apart by pack of wild dogs: I ve seen those dogs 100 times and wanted to shoot them but didn't want to get in trouble." NEW YORK-Iracli Tscretelli. 77, a. Social ..Democratic Party leader in Russia from 1906 to 1917 and opponent of Nikolai Lenin, died Friday of cancer. He left lhissin in J920 and lived In Paris until 1950; when he came to the United States. He had been writing a history of the Russian revolution. CHAPLIN, Conn. Dr. Ernest A Back. 78, noted entomologist who helped eradicate the citrus fruit fly, died Thursday. , LARC1IMONT. N Y. Hni-vov Manss.- 73. a former Dresiripni n'f the Bayer Co. Inc.. aspirin, mak ers, died Friday. Manss also was a director of Sterling Drug Inc., of which Bayer is a division. Ho was a native of Cincinnati. Ohin Solons to address a textile meeting where Spencer Love, chairman of Burlington industries, called the Senate hearings an unwarranted "political vendetta." Prior to that, Strauss dropped in on Senator Thurmond to talk textiles, told how he began his business career as a salesman in the Carolinas, how he had used his influence to set mondatory controls on oil imports 'into ' the United States. The implication' was that he would do the same for the textile industry. Senator Thurmond complained that the textile recession had hit South Carolina hard, said textile mills constituted 75 per cent of South Carolina's '- industry, that the defense department consider ed textiles second only to steel in terms of military essentiality. At about the same time, Strauss had promised ' the- three textile senators on the commerce com mittee that he would do his best to establish thoir proposed interagency board to consider the problem of textiles. This, however, was opposed by the state department and by Presi dent Eisenhower who feared such a board would be like waving a red flag at Japan. ' When a group of -New England governors called on Ike to urge such a board, the President turn ed thumbs down. Such a board, he told Gov. . Christopher Del Sestro Sf Rhode Island, would es tablish a wrong precedent . - Wrong Announcer - However, as the time approach ed for the commerce committee vote on Strauss's nomination, the president began to shift . The committee vote was due May 19. On May 18, Undersecre tary of Commerce Fred Mueller, right-hand man to Strauss, went to the White House.-, yhe votes of two textile senators, Pastore of Rhode Island and Thurmond of South Carolina, next were essen tial. Cotton of New Hampshire, a Republican, would vote for Strauss anyway. . But the two Democratic textile votes meant the difference between total de feat or partial victory.. So Mueller came back. with White House okay for lha politic al oav-off. Next morning, just' before the Senate committee voted, Sena tor Pastore read in the newspap ers, that the special textile com mittee was to be formed. This was what he had been working on-for a long time. 'But Pastore : jUot plcpscd. Quite the oppo- II irc-annost'lm Me ceiling, 'or who should make the an nouncement', but a Republican Senator - Saltonstall of Massa chtisctts The White House, knowing Salty is up for a tough rt'-clcction fight - next year, had given the announcement to him. The bouncing - little , senator from Rhode; Island finally curb ed his resentment ,and went into committee to vote for Strauss. If he's confirmed, the textile sena tors expect big things from Strauss in the way of textile con trols. But ipere H be quite a battle between Republican Strauss add Republican Tom Dewey be fore its all over. Earthquake Kills 8-Year-Old Girl MEXICO CITY (UPD A strong earthquake shook central Mexico Sunday, killing an 8-year-old girl and injuring eight persons. Some buildings were badly damaged. ,The Tacubaya Seismograph Sta tion 'at Mexico City reported that the tremor reached a, strength of five on the Mercalli scale. The epicenter could not be located Two church Steeples were top pled at Etla, Oaxaca. One of them crushed little Olivia Ferrat. At Actlan, in the state of Pue- bla, a brick shaken loose from a church struck a young girl on the head and knocked her out but she was not seriously injured. Ten old buildings at Oaxaca were severely damaged by the quake. 'First Aid Plant' Used By Indians LA JOLLA. Calif. (UPD-Baja California Indians have a "first aid plant" which they claim stops bleeding, cures sore throats and gets rid of warts. i Biologist Conrad Limbaught of Scripps Institute of Oceanography said he recently learned of- the plant while in Baja California when a young Indian cut his hand. The youth walked to the plant,, which looks like a geranium, broke its stem and squeezed its milky sap into his wound. The bleeding stopped immediately, Ltmbaugh said. ; He said the Indians call the plant "lomboy" and claim they have been using it since ancient times. He said its scientific name is Jatropha cincrcs. URGES DEFENSE EXPANSION JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (UPll The nation's civil defense mobil ization director said Thursday every community should enlarge local civil defense operations to prepare far a surprise nuclear bomb -attack. Virgil Couch said all first aid programs and com munications of local units should be expandedin preparation for such attacks. Eisenhower In Mourning For Dulles WASHINGTON (UPD Presi- dent Eisenhower took the illness and death of John Foster Dulles as one of the major emotional blows of his life. Out of personal sorrow as much as formal respect he put. aside most official engagements today and invited the country to join him in national mourning for the former secretary of state. The President showed his sad ness in other ways his dejected expression when he called at the Dulles home late Sunday; his hand written' public tribute to his old friend: his resentment at the in evitable publicity given Dulles in his last days of suffering life. " In a formal proclamation to the nation, the President said: "From the example of John Foster Dulles, brave in living, brave in dying, let us each' hold with all fervor to the verities which inspired him." Pencils Personal Feelings - Sunday morning, while the town folk of Gettysburg, Pa., streamed Unemployment Up Need For More Benef its WASHINGTON (UPD Labor Secretary James P. Mitchell said today a new study ot unemploy ment underlined the need for im proved jobless benefits and federal aid to distressed areas, Mitchell summed up the charts and statistics in a 40-page Labor Department booklet ' in these words: The economy in general is making a sustained and vigorous recovery, but there remains peo ple and places -which are not sharing that general prosperity." He sent copies' of the report, entitled "The Unemployed Spring 1959," to every member of Con. gress and all state governors to dramatize the need for legislation to attack problems created by long-term joblessness. Tnrinv's ronnrt followed dis closure by the Labor Department Thursday night that 14 major in. dustrial centers have been re moved from its list of areas of "substantial unemployment." The department said a brisk pickup in hiring in the last two months probably would continue through mid-summer in most of Little Rock Recall Vote LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (UPD record turnout expected today in a recall election for the six- member school board, split down (he middle between segregationist and racially moderate fractions. , The voters will re-elect or defeat the three members who fired 44 school teachers and three other members considered racially moderate. The election climaxed a bitter fight between a citizens' group formed in opposition to the firings of the teachers, called "Stop This Outrageous Purge and segrega tionist groups. .School board members have clashed over the racial question. Three of them are staunch segre gationists. The other three are "moderates" on the racial ques tion and oppose Gov. Orval Fau bus, who closed the city's four high schools last fall to block Supreme Court-ordered integra tion. ' The antl-Faubus group initiated the recall election following the May 5 school board meeting when board members Robert W. Laster Ed I. McKinley and Ben D. Row land purged the teachers whom they accused of being in "sym pathy with integration." The rest of the board, Everett Tucker Jr., Russell H. Matson Jr. and Ted L. Lamb, walked out of the meeting when the segrega tionists proposed the firings. The firings then proceeded. Shortly after the "Stop" group proposed the recall of Laster, McKinley and Rowland, the degre- gationist Mothers' League of Cen tral High gathered enough signa tures for a recall of Tucker, Mat son and Lamb. Tucker, Matson and Lamb were once branded "intcgrationists" by Faubus but he held off until Fri day, before actually taking sides Faubus went on television to warn that if the segregationists did not win the election, violence of the. type which accompanied integration, of Central High School in 1957 . might return. Of integration Faubus said, "I will resist with all my might and it will pass only' by trampling over 'my prostrate form." " Lumber Mill Damaged By Fire At Tillamook TILLAMOOK (UPD HtC caused about $125,000 damage to the huge Buchncr Lumber' Com pany mill here late Saturday burning two kilns, a planer mill, a large amount of lumber, four trucks, a boiler house, machine stop,' cooling shed and other equip ment. . The blaze's cause was undeter mined. Parts of the tire, control led in about an hour and a half by firemen, continued to smolder Sunday. .... . . . Leads toward their churches, the Presi dent sat alone on the sunporch of his farm home, scribbling in pen cil on a long .yellow pad a statement of his personal feelings at the passing of Dulles.' The PresMent 'jotted down that Dulles in his opiniop was "one of the truly great men ,of our time." "He was a foe only, to tyranny," Eisenhower wrote. '"Because he believed in the dignity of men and in their brotherhood" under God, he was an ardent supporter of their deepest hopes" and aspira tions. ' 1 - "From his life 'and his work, humanity will, in-(the years to come, gain renewed inspiration to work ever harder .for the attain ment of the goal. of' peace with justice. In the pursuit of that goal, he ignored every., personal cost and sacrifice, however great." The drugged, painful end of the man Eisenhower called "cham pion of freedom!'- colored the President's emotions' heavily for days before he received the death Study Points the nation. But only slight gains were foreseen in auto and steel plants. '( i 'Mitchell ordered n the special study on the unemployed to ob tain a detailed breakdown of the national unemployment figures an nounced monthly by the Labor and Commerce Departments. Here are highlights from the- report: "About 1,400,000 persons have been jobless for at least IS weeks and 700,000 of these have been job hunting for six months or more. This group of Jong term un employed is concentrated largely in the Northeast and- north cen tral states and includes a high percentage of Negroes, unskilled and 'older workers. . "This is the most serious aspect of the .current problem of unem ployment, Mitchell said. - Compensation Nef Adequate -One-third of tho 3,627,000 unem ployed in April were out of work for five weeks or Jess.. They were apparently changing, jobs or enter ing the labor force. ,' The existing unemployment compensation system -"is not ade quate" because too many workers have exhausted their rights to benefits and two-fifths of all job less persons,, )ax.t,,mQn1Jh wpxe,,npt covered. '"- Laborers 'and . semi-skilled workers accounUVor two out of every five unemployed workers while those in vtyitte collar jobs had a relatively low rate of job lessness. r-'i. The booklet shows that unem- ployment has dropped by 1,900,000 in the year since business re covery started -but 'has not yet fallen to pre-recession levels. Louis Plans Moscow Hoot' VIENNA (UPD-t-Louis "Satch mo" Armstrong's gonna toot his trumpet in Moscow even if cer tain folk are blown' hot and cold about the idea, v. "Those persons, are more inter ested in money than in good will and prestige," he said Friday be fore leaving for Munich. He hint ed that "those persons" were in nts nana. "They say we. won't be able to take rubles out of Russia if we play there," said Satchmo. "But I'm not interested in mon ey and I think that the good will my band will create 'In Poland and Russia will more than compensate what money we, would lose on the venture. - Satchmo was a sellout here. He said that he is determined to cut through "all this unnec essary red tape" to achieve the sane behind the ' Iron Curtain and "to prove to the world that Russia and Poland have the same soul for music ' as other coun tries." Playmate's. Rifle Takes Boy's Life PRINEVILLE (UPD An eight-year-old ttfyaa killed in- Mauuy oaiuroay .wren a gun neld by his playmate accidentally dis charged. , jr Killed was Mickey Green, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ncal Evans. Princville. , . A, Police said, thai Robin Smith, also 8, son of Mi. and Mrs. John Snow, was showW' his playmate a gun that his patients had giver him about two wecfe ago. The .22 caliberrlfle discharged when the child took jt from a gun cabinet. The buUcf'pcnetrated the boy's chest andA, came out , his back. v Kuchel Predicts Nixon lm.1960 LONG BEACH., Calif. (UPD- Sen. Thomas 'Koehel (R-Calif.) has predicted Vice President Rich ard M. Nixon will $p the Republi can choice in i960, without opposi tion from NewVi Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, j Addressing the'' annual spring conference of Sbfrhrn California Nation news by telephone early Sunday' at his Pennsylvania farm. The President had followed Dul les' battle with cancer on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis' as the doctors reported from Walter Reed .Army Hospital. .' Several ' times a week, the President went to the hospital to do what be could ' to cheer his friend. " Eisenhower did not '- want - his most valued adviser in govern ment to succumb to the idea that his usefulness" was. at - an end. Even when Dulles was numbed by pain-killing drugs, the President patiently outlined world events and asked the failing statesman his views. . s ' For at least the past 10 days, the President checked first thing in the morning to learn how Dul les had passed the night. Sunday, Eisenhower was up early at his farm preparing 1 to attend 8:30 a.m. services at the Gettysburg Presbyterian Church where he had prayed on other Sundays for Dulles' recovery. Doctor Telephones News Shortly before 8 o'clock, the telephone rang. It was Maj. Gen. ' Howard McC. Snyder, the Presi dent's physician, in Washington. Dulles was dead. Press Secretary James C. Hagerty called a mo ment later with the same sad tidings, and the President told him to come to Gettysburg, i The saddened President then reached Deputy Secretary of State C. Douglas Dillon and asked that he telephone the news at once to Secretary Christian A. Herter in Geneva. He also told the Secret Service to call the church and tell the pastor he was not coming to services. He looked out the win dow and asked that bis .flag be' lowered to half-staff.. - Then the pensive Eisenhower picked up a pencil and note pad and walked out on his porch where a late spring sun poured through the glass panels. . Hagerty reached the farm and the President turned over to him the penciled draft. Hagerty. typed it,- himself, then read the - state ment to White House reporters waiting in Gettysburg. The President told Hagerty that both he and Mrs, . Eisenhower would attend the funeral in the National Cathedral. The President, at least, will go on to the ceme tery for the interment. Wagon Train , Facing Test BRIDGEPORT, Neb (UPD One of the most rugged stretches of the original Oregon Trail lies just ahead, members of the Ore gon Centennial wagon train were told here Sunday night. Paul Henderson, local historian, briefed the fifty-niners on about 250 miles of eastern Wyoming wilderness that caused the real pioneers many hardships.' The stretch might result in IS days or so of isolation, Henderson said. "It's going to make Us or break us," one of the modern pioneers gasped. The wagon train set out today for Bayard, Neb. The only other scheduled stop in Nebraska is at Scotts Bluff. After that the wag ons head into Wyoming... Early Sunday the Bridgeport Chamber of Commerce and Lions Club took members of the train on a tour in antique cars of Courthouse " Rock and ' Jailhouse Rock, local spots of interest. Another highlight of Sunday's activity "was a present of a pair of rattlesnake earrings to each woman member of the train. The earrings were given by Mr. and Mrs. John Clausen of Dix, Neb., whose son Bruce lives in Beaver ton, Ore. . DARE PANTY RAID NASHVILLE, Tenn.' (UPD. Four freshmen coeds were sus pended Friday at Vanderbilt Uni versity for telephoning freshmen boys and daring them to stage a panty raid. United Press International , Edi tors Saturday night, the whip for the GOP in the upper house said:.- . . "Nixon is way out ' in front In popularity." ' , ; . Rockefeller, he pointed out, has said before he would not be a pres idential contender.' ' . SINGLE HANDLE FANCT NEW W 6A5T WAY TO SHOWER I one handle does the. Ui ft .1 I ' Plumbing Heating Sheet Metal 1607 AderrW Ave. Ph. WO 4-4731 '