Look Who's Protesting
T
V '
NEA Stmct, Inc.
EDITORIAL PAGE
La Grande Observer
Monday, June 1, 1959
"A Modern Newspaper With The Pioneer Spirit"
PUBLISHED BY THB
LA GRANDE PUBLISHING COMPANY
Robert W. Chandler. President
J. M. MeClelUnd, Jr., Vice President
RILEY D. ALLEN r. Publisher
GEORGE S. CHALLIS Adv. Director
H. E. PHILBY , Managing Editor
TOM HUMES u Circulation Mgr.
Time For Inflexible Resolution
As the horrors of nuclear war grow
more apparent to the civilian populations
of the West, there is danger an. attitude
Will gain wide acceptance that we should
acquiesce in Communist aggression or
appease Communist tyrannies rather
than stand up to the" dictators and
possibly invoke a death-dealing missile
barrage. '.,
U. S. Sen. Paul Douglas (D-Ill.), writ
ing in the current issue of the magazine
Western World, said there is danger
that this acquiescence and appeasement
"will grow in direct ratio to the fright
fulness of any alternative."
" In reviewing the events that led up
to World War II and the actions of the
West in post-war dealings with Com
munist nations, Sen. Douglas said the
record seems clear.
"Whenever the democracies have
chosen to resist the aggressive spread of
impearilism, they have been successful,"
he said. "Whenever they have yielded
or appeased, this has merely caused more
trouble later.!'
i The senator believes that a dictator
ship, whether Communist or. Fascist, is
expansionist by its very nature. To
justify its internal suppression of civil
liberties and political rights, he said, the
dictatorship must create external ten
sions and provoke international inci
dents; to compensate for its failure to
improve the material and spiritual con
ditions of its people it must seek to ab
sorb their interest in foreign adven
tures. Although these dictatorships may have
their beginnings as party or class affairs
they eventually become personal in na
ture. Because of the ultimate concen
tration of power in the personal dictator
ship this form of government is directed
to desperate end.
Sen. Douglas argues that Communist
aggression is far more likely to be check
ed by military, economic and . spiritual
resistance than by territorial acquiesc
ence. This does not mean, he adds, that
all non-Communist territory must be de
fended where such defenses would be
untenable.
One such "untenable" position he
would defend, however, is Berlin.
But who is to provide the checks to
Communist ambitions? "Today," he
stated, "the power of Soviet Russia and
Communist China plus that of their satel
lites is so great that only the united,
determined and prolonged resistance by
all of the free world will be sufficient to
check it, and we hope to set the whole
world itself ultimately free."
There is too much of a tendency
among the smaller nations nt present to
think and act as though the defense of
the free world is virtually the exclusive
responsibility of the big powers, Sen.
Douglas said.
Unless these countries and the big
powers can work in concert to check the
ambitions of the Communist world and
agree that the threat of fighting skir
mishes now is preferable to fighting wars
later, the forces of tyranny can snuff
out freedom. , t
Of all the evils that beset the world
. today, tyranny seems to be the worst.
Sen. Douglas said. He predicts an "ice
age" of tyranny will set in if the doc
trines of dictatorship are permitted to
prevail.
The prediction seems too real to be
ignored, too close to reality to idly'
hope that by making concessions to com
munism we will not have to face a more
difficult alternative. This is not a time
for inflexible diplomacy ; it is a time for
inflexible resolution.
Steel Industry Sets . The Pace
. Steel industry leaders have been try
ing to contend that it is false to assume
that steel sets the inflationary pace in
wage and price hikes. But now David
McDonald, head of the steel union, says -that
if the steelworkers are denied a,
wage boost, "the precedent of standing
still will be reflected in the pay en
velopes of virtually every major group
of wage and salary workers in the na- ;
tion."
That's pretty plain. As far as McDon
ald is concerned steel 1s the "bell cow." It
leads. Others follow.
What McDonald acknowledges to be
true of wage patterns is true also of
what steel industry leadens decline to
acknowledge is true of prices. Steel sets
the pace with a price increase following
its customary wage increase. This has
happened so often that the average steel
wage is now $3.13 an hour.- Then other
industries follow along. Then up goes
the prices of consumer goods. Up goes
the cost of living. And soon wiped out
are any gains that workers may have
realized with a wage increase.
Barbs '
The most popular endurance contests
are those on the telephone.
Doctors advise against scratching the
Bkin. Why worry? We're not up to
scratch these spring days, anyway.
The lighter the jockey the more
weight he carries with some of the
bettors.
The energetic man never knows When
he's licked, unless he's married.
When speeding across the country
there are two things to think about: the
scenery you miss and the things you
might hit.
Soon there'll be the old-fashioned skin
diving . at the ol' swimming hole.
DREW PEARSON
Sec. Brucker May Resign
Oyer The' Missile Feud
WASHINGTON Tension is so
taut around the Pentagon that
Secretary of the Army Wilbur
Brucker may get the ax. Reason
is the row over missiles.
Brucker, . an ex-governor of
Michigan and a potent power in
the Republican party, has become
so immersed in the Army feud
with the Air Force over missiles
that he authorized two "Nicker
son-type" Memos on the subject
of missiles and made 12 public
speeches between May 11 and
May 16. . . ?
This may be more than Secre
tary of Defense Neil McElroy can
take.
The issue is the same basic one
which caused Col. John Nicker
son to get court-martialed, name
ly the distribution of a memo
spelling out the Army's demand
that it share in building missiles
Nickerson fought the battle of
the Ajmy'S Jupiter, an interme
diate range ballistic missile,
against the Air Force's Thor
Brucker is now fighting for the
Army's Nike-Hercules, a short
runge defense missile, against the
Air Force's Bomarc.
One 12 page memo which
Brucker sent to Senators is al
ready well publicized . This memo
No. 1 which went to Senators who
were not members of the Armed
Services committee. It was also
given discreetly to the press. This
made Sen. Dick Russell of Geor-i
gia, cnairman 01 me cummmee,
sore as blazes. He considered it
an attempt to undercut his com
miltce which already had taken
a stand against the Army's Nike-
Hercules.
Memo No. 2 hag not yet leaked
out. but this column has secured
a copy. Dated May IB, it is ad
dressed to ' Secretary McElroy
from Secretary sof the Army
Hrucker, urging that McElroy
hold up production of the Air
Force Bomarc missile until the
entire United States air defense
effort for the 1960-1970 era" can
be reviewed.
Both the Army's Nike-Hercules
missile, and the Air Force's Bo
marc are1 aimed at protecting
American cities from enemy sup
ersonic bombers. The-Army pro
poses to shoot down bombers
over or near American cities. The
Air Force claims this is letting
enemy bombers get too close, and
has designed the Bomarc missile
to shoot down enemy bombers in
l given geographic area.
However, when the weapons
system evaluation group tested
both missiles, it found that 65 per
cont of the enemy's planes got
through the Army's Nike-Herculcs
as against only 15 per cent which
got through the Air Force's Bo
marc. This was what caused the
Senate Armed Services commit
tee to curtail Army production of
the Nike-Hercules. It also caus
ed Canada to choose the Bomarc.
Note Some critics, such as
Sen. Stuart Symington of Mis
souri, however, claim that both
systems are weak, that we must
strike at the enemy before his
planes even get near our cities.
.1 Memos Instead of Miuilet
With the Army seeing its en
tire air defense program going
down the drain, Secretary Bruck
er began launching not missiles
but memos. In memo No. 2, so
far secret, he aimed indirectly at
the curtailment voted by the Sen
ate Armed Services committee.
"The very nature of these ac
tions (by the Senate committee)
have seriously degraded the true
value of the Hercules system
while at the same time provid
ing a grossly distorted picture
of the Bomarc system.
'Thus it has become impera
tive," Bruckor added, "that the
Army set forth its grave reserva
tions concering the ability of
Bomarc to achieve operational ef
fectiveness during the time frame
under consideration.
"Up to the present moment, the
Army has carefully avoided cri
tical comment concerning Bomarc,
even while being subjected to
cross-examination as well as re
peated and unwarranted attacks
on the effectiveness of the pres
ently operational Nike-Hercules
air defense."
Brucker listed what he thought
was wrong wth the Air Force
missile, then concluded: "Con
sidering the changing nature 'of
the air-breathing threat and the
imminence of ballistic missiles, I
believe that a disproportionate
amount of money and effort is
being expended on a weapon for
defense against a relatively unso
phisticated segment of the air
breathing threat."
He asked McElroy to review
the rival defense systems.
"Pending this evaluation of the
ever-all defense effort," the Army
secretary wrote, "I recommend
tnat the Bomarc programs be re
duced to a deployment which
uses only equipment alrady fund
ed." ' So goes the civil war on the
Potomac.
'Old Lady' Getting Gussied Up
For Her 100th Birthday Party
VIRGINIA CITY, Nev. (UPD
They are giving an old lady a
birthday party on June 12, 13 and
14.
The old lady is 100 years old,
and her veins long since have
been drained of most of the fluid
which brought her international
fame. She is wizened now, and
much of the glamour she had in
her younger days has faded.
However, come June, she will
be all dressed up in her finery,
ragged and tattered as it is. She
will have one last whing-ding be
fore, she is whapped in the
shrouds of memory and deposited
in the limbo from which few re
turn. Yes, - they're giving Virginia
City, once known as the Silver
Queen, a big party because she
was born 100 years ago on June
11, 1859.
This Silver Queen was quite a
gal in her younger days. She be
came a roistering youngster about
the time the Civil War was being
fought. It was the strength of her
veins which supplied the largesse
needed by the Union to pay the
huge price which the conflict cost.
Had it not been for the Queen,
there might not have been a
United States. -
San Francisco Debt
Not only that, but the growth
of San Francisco might have been
delayed had it not been for the
Silver Queen. Nabobs such as
John Mackay, James Fair, James
Flood and their bartender partner
O'Brien, were given their sta-t by
draining the veins of the Queen
and giving the Bay Citv the trans
fusion it needed to become one of
the most thriving communities of
the gold rush days.
There might never nave been an
Atlantic Cable, either, had not
the wealth of the Silver Queen
found its way Into the hands of
Mackay.
The Queen also nurtured a band
of offspring who contributed much
to the literary wealth of America.
Such men as Mark Twain (Samuel
Clemens), Dan de Quille, Sam
Davis and others started their lit
erary careers when the Queen
was young and carried on their
writings to bring credit and praise
from the world.
There were" others of her
youngsters who won fame in oth
er endeavors. Adolph Sutro, for
RUSSIANS PUSH PRODUCTION
OF STEEL AT A RAPID RATE
NEW YORK (UPD The Soviet
Union in 1958 produced 60 million
tons of steel, about 40 per cent
of the present U.S. capacity.
A representative of the Soviet
Ministry predicts- the USSR will
produce 10 million tons of ingots
by 1960 and 125 million by 1975.
The seven-year plan calls for 95
million to 100 million tons of
capacity by 1965.
These are Soviet figures and no
one has any way of checking their
accuracy. However, the Russians
are making steel and expanding
their plants at a rapid j-ate,
according to American steel ex
perts who visited them last year.
This group headed by fcxlward 1.
Ryerson, director and former
chairman of the Board of Inland
Steel and Col. Merle R. Thompson,
secretary of the committee of
foreign relations, the American
Iron it Steel Institute, has just
published its findings in a book
entitled "steel in the Soviet
Union ". ' 4
The' book is meticulously put
together to include details of the
steel making processes from min
ing of iron ore to the rolling
mills. There are no marketing,
advertising, or public relations
problems in the Soviet Union to
worry about. The one customer
is the government. Also it owns
the plants.
Although the Soviet Union may
possibly have greater proven iron
ore reserves than any other coun
try, Its ores are generally lean
in iron content, the book points
out. Many of the ore deposits are
high in silica and some have an
objectionably high zinc content.
Others are contaminated with ar
senic.
The book adds that it will take
a great deal of experimentation,
planning and - capital investment
to bring the Soviet ore reserves
into production. t
Right now there is sufficient
ore being processed to run the
existing steel mills and more is
in prospect. The steel plants them
selves are said to be good ones
but the steel produced would not
be competitive with the higher
quality made in the United States.
"The general designs of the
rolling mills observed in the So
viet plants," the book says, "are
quite similar to the older type
American mills installed 20 to 30
years ago. Many of them are sub
stantially duplicates of U.S. mills
and produce about the same
ranges of product for any given
mill size.
Russian mill? operate continu
ously and there is no trouble
from strikes because the workers
are told they own the mills and
it would be folly to strike against
themselves. '
They have unions but nothing
like ours. The big function of the
unions in the Soviet steel industry
is to develop and promote .plans
for increasing steel production.
The Soviet steelworkers' union
is comprised of both workers and
management people up to and in
cluding plant directors.
The unions also function in edu
cational schemes and most of the
workers study in their spare time
to enable them to move higher
in the steel making scheme so
that they can collect higher bo-
Bud Abbott Says Tax Audit
Left Him Completely Broke
QUOTES FROM
THE NEWS
CHICAGO The National Safc
tv Council, on the record number
of Memorial holiday highway
deaths:
"It is no explanation to say
Memorial Day is the start of the
vacation season. It's the start of
the vacation season every year,
yet this 'year's mark is the
worst."
WASHINGTON United Mine
Workers President John L. Lewis.
charging that the government,
supported by the press, has tried
and failed to convict Teamsters
President James R. Hoffa of any
crime:
'The pack is after Hoffa and
hasn't got him and I'm not run
ning with the pack."
NEW ORLEANS A deputy
sheriff, after evacuating 12 elder
ly persons by paddy wagon from
a flooded home for the aged dur
ing tropical storm Arlenc:
They were glad to get out of
there In anything. They didn't
mind the paddy wagon."
WASHINGTON Dr. T. II.
Reed, Washington Zoo director, on
efforts to capture an elusive black
bear roaming the nation's capital:
The trouble is we don't know
where he is or where he's going
to be.''
HOLLYWOOD (UPD Bud Ab
bott, 'straight man of the Abbott
and Costello comedy team, said
today a government tax audit has
left him broke.
And all my so-called pals sud
denly don't know me any more
now that the booze has stopped
flowing," the 63-year-old star told
United Press International at nis
home, which is up for sale to
helo pay the taxes.
"The government took it all but
peanuts. The thing that toid it was
when they disallowed a half mil
lion dollars of deductions. Then
they put a lien on practically
everything."
Abbott, white-haired, shorn of
his mustache and heavier than in
the days of his great successes,
said In his rumpus room:
Cava Too Many Gifts
"One tax guy asked me, 'where
do you get off wearing $25 shoes?
I pay $9 for mine.' I answered,
'I make so much a week. How
much do you make?' So he said
"Zt T11 iw v,. hair HHand Costcllo made lot "o"-
well, III alow you half Hel m hn.,. Ho thinks
went down the line and picked
out half a million. He said I gave
too many gifts to friends friends,
ha! and that I spent too much
money by having a chauffeur.
"I'm at a terrible disadvantage
without the chauffeur. I don't
drive, and Mrs. Abbott don't
drive. I can't get off the proper
ty unless a friend comes, and the
friends don't come because the
booze don't flow.
"I was told people are like
that, but I didn't believe It. Some
times I laugh at myself when I
think of the $100 . bills I handed
out to guys who needed a touch."
Abbott said his former partner,
Lou Costello, who died last March
3, also lost a great deal in the
audit, which covered a seven
year period.
"But," "he said, "at least Lou
owned 52 TV shorts outright I
merely got a salary from him."
"They made me sell .three of
my four acres here," he said.
Sold Swimming Pool
"Do you see that swimming
pool on the other side of that
wire fence?" "That used to be
off both sides of my property. I
had a beautiful ranch up in Ojai
(Calif.) 200 acres and they
made me sell that.
"Now I'm trying to get $75,000
for my home and if I sell it,
they tax that too. It's the same
as if I try to work there's no
use to it. They don't split the sal
ary. They take it all, and you
gotta pay taxes on top of it.
Where am I gonna get the money
to pay the taxes on the dough I
can't keep?
"It's like Joe Louis. He'll never
get even if he makes a million
a week."
Abbott said he, his wife Betty
and their two adopted children-
Bud Jr., 20 and Vickie. 18 are
looking for "a small apartment or
home somewhere, after we see
what we get out of this."
May Try Producing
He's thinking of trying to be
come a producer. But meantime,
he is going to see if he can sell
17 or 18 film chapters that he
funct TV comedy hour. He thinks
his best market is Europe.
Would he think of going back
into show business with another
partner?
"It don't make sense," he said.
"It's too late in life to build a
new routine. It took us 23 years
to build the one we had. There'd
be too much to criticize. Besides,
it would be like building another
empire and how many empires
can you build on a lifetime?
"And I wouldn't try it alone.
Lou went on his own at the end
and laid a terrible egg, God rest
his soul. I took a lesson from
him."
FAVORS MISSILE PRODUCTION
TOKYO (UPD Defense
Agency Director Shigcjiro lno
said Tuesday that he favored pro
ducing the American Hawk
ground-to-air guided . missle in
Japan, but without nuclear war
heads. Reports that . the Hawk
would be manufactured in Japan
touched off a controversy here
whether such a move would make
the nation a target for nuclear
mine, until I was forced to sell attack.
nuses and get merit promotions.
Pay is low from 1,300 rubles or
$130 a month for an ordinary
worker up to 5000 rubles or $500
a month for the top man. The
workers pay union dues and In
come taxes with a maximum of 13
per cent. Their rent amounts to
4 per cent of their pay.
Soviet workers cannot own prop
erty other than personal items
such as clothing, furniture, jewel
ry, bicycles, household appliances,
and in some cases an automobile
or a house (but they get no title
to the land).
In the Soviet Union women
work along with the men, park
ing their children in nurseries
provided by the trade' union. Rec
reaction for all generally is in
mass groups. You don't buy a
hunk of cheese and a pail of beer
for a little shindig in your home.
You go to the social center the
house of culture.
Each steelworker carries his
little labor book containing his
record. As long as he applies him
self and increases his productivity
he's okay. But let him slip back
or be absent without good cause
and the union gets after him.
Among the " union functions in
workers is to get them to work
harder and harder. "Give more
rolled steel for our motherland."
It doesn't look as if we have
to worry much over Russian steel.
Our current capacity is 147,633.670
tons annually, and we push it up
each year. Our plants are effi
cient. We have the ore and other
requirements.
But some experts point out that
our workers lack the zeal of the
Russians the desire to increase
productivity, to study and improve
their abilities. It is just possible
that their steady application to
study and work could result in
our falling behind.
instance, whose Sutro Tunnel set
up a new era in engineering.
William Sharon, who became a
stock manipulator and later a
United States senator from Neva
da. William Ralston, whose
"ring" wrote a fabulous chapter
in the banking history of San
Francisco. '
. Famed Relics
There (s the old St. Mary's in
the Mountains Catholic . church
which was erected a'ter one of
the disastrous fires swept Virgin
ia City.- It is the church which
was built 1 with money which
flowed into the pockets of Mac
Kay and O'Brien, two of the big
four of the Comstoek Lode.
Then there are the famous sa
loons of the era " where the na
bobs and the peons gathered af
ter their shifts in the mines to
quench the big thirst brought on
by working in the hot holes like
the Savage, the Con Virginia, the
Chollar and the Hale and Nor
cross. Saloons, such as the Sarazac,
the Bucket of Blood and others
which nightly brought gruesome
entertainment which usually end
ed in gunfire and another corpse.
Available also for tourists' view
will be the famous Piper Opera
House, where such stalwarts of
the boards as Mazurka, Dickie
Jose, Edwin Booth, Jenny Lind,
the Swedish Nightingale, and a
hundred others performed as sil
ver dollars fell at their feet as
tokens of appreciation from the
"hot water plugs."
It will be an historic occasion
that the Nixons the Vice Presi
dent and his wife touch off, be
cause it will observe an event
which never will die as long as
the history of the West is written
and re-written.
Reserve Shipyards
Offered For Sale
WASHINGTON (UPD The
Maritime Administration has an
nounced that it is offering for sale
reserve shipyards located at Van
couver, wash., and Alameda
Calif.
A Maritime Administration
spokesman said Sunday that the
yards must be used for construc
tion, repair, conversion or scran-
ping of ships, or for other uses
which will retain the shipbuilding
characteristics of the yard.
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