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About La Grande observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1959-1968 | View Entire Issue (July 14, 1959)
Making a Tough Climb Tougher . if?:. ZfJ r : . m mmw - Ijiw . DREW PEARSON SAYS: EDITORIAL PAGE LA GRANDE OBSERVER Tuesday, July 14, 1959 rUBMBHED PT TUB A GRANDE l'UULIBillNG COMPANY "A Modern Newspaper With The Pioneer Spirit" RILEY D. ALLEN Publisher GEORGE S. CIIAIXIS Adv. Director TOM HUMES -Li Circulation Mgr. Salesmanship We Don't Need The phrase "munitions lobby" has propped up twice in recent presidential press conferences. It came into boinp; because of the ever more common prac tice of large industries specializing in defense contracts hiring ex-Pentagon officials, both civilian and military, as well as former members of Congress and other retired government executives. This week a sub-committee of the house armed-services committee started what is being called a "sweeping inquiry" into this practice. At his June 19 press conference Presi dent Eisenhower said: "I think it all right (for Congress) to look into these things (connections between former of ficers of the government and govern ment contracting officers) lecause we must be careful and I think that anyone acting in good faith would have nothing to fear of such an investigation." The committee possibly will call Ad miral Arthur W. Radford, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, and l-Yank Pace, former Secretary of the aiany, all of whom are now officials of large com panies doing business with the government. This matter is not new. Congress has attempted to enact controlling legislation before. On June the house narrowly defeated a rider to the defense appropria tion bill that would have bai ted for five years employment by defense contractors of retired generals and admirals. "'Thccharge that a powerful munitions lobby is active in the capital is refuted partly by the fact that only 1 of the 50 firms with the largest defense depart ment contracts had registered lobbyists in Washington during fiscal 1958. How ever Senator Douglas, one of those most critical of ex-military officers going to work for defense industries, reported on June 17 that 721 retired military of ficers were on the payrolls of 88 of the companies which receive three-quarters of tlie'nations' defense contracts. Certainly no-one can deny that, there is sufficient reason for the investigation. With approximately half of our huge na tional budget being spent for defense, we have a right to expect safe-guards against any of this money being spent for military items, not because they are needed, but because some ex-general or admiral is I'ble to do a successful selling job. Another Great Mass Russia lost 15 to 20 million men dur ing World War II, says a population expert, which is more than double the number the Soviet has ever admitted losing. As a result Russian women out number men two to one in the over 32 age bracket. Having suffered such a loss, the de sire for peace must be a consuming passion with the average Russian. That may account for the Communist regime continually harping on the peace theme trying to associate Communism with the desire for peace. It is able to justify the Deception huge expenditures for arms by con stantly presenting a picture of Russia surrounded by hostile nations eager to attack. It fools the peace loving Russian people into believing that they are the ones who are threatened and therefore must be prepared at any minute to fight. This constitutes probably the great est mass deception since the era when Japanese rulers were able to convince the Japanese people that all whites were evil beings not even to le permitted to set foot on their sacred soil. Clowning Of One Detracts From Other Newspapers of late have been full of the doings of Governor Karl Long of Louisiana, whose antics in recent weeks have been such as to draw considerable publicity. Unfortunately, Governor I king's doings have detracted from public notice of an other Southern governor. We refer, of course, to that paragon of segregationist virtues, Governor Kau bus of Arkansas. On the same day Iong was going into -or was it getting out of? one of his state's mental institutions, Governor Faubus commented on plans to re-open Little Rock schools next year on an inte grated basis. Faubus said it will require federal troops "with live ammunition" if Little Rock schools are to operate. Long could be completely off his rocker and not do his state or nation as much trouble as Faubus has and will. Still, attempts are made to lock up long, while Faubus becomes the darling of the lunatic fringe. Barbs There's a long, long trail a winding when your car stalls in the country be tween gas stations. I'.ig wheels in business don't get that way rolling around at night. liuying government securities tightens the bond between home and country. Railroads continue to eliminate passen ger trains. Maybe; some day, we won't be able to track one down. General Electric Employs 35 Retired Pentagon Men WASHINGTON. Sometimes if pays to look behind a congress man's votes or speeches to see ahat motivates them. When Congressman Samuel Stratum. New York Democrat, defended retired admirals and generals working for big corporations, however, you didn't have to look for the motive. He was ouitp ranx aooui u. stratum is former mayor of Schenectady, N.Y., and now represents that district In con liress. He testified quite franklv mat ine Diggest business in Sche nectady is General Electric and lie wanted retired officers work ing fur G.t. so as to keep defense contracts in New York, not let them go to other companies in laiuornia. This, of course, bears out the very point Congressmen Herbert of Louisiana and Santaneelo of New York, . together with Sen. Paul Douglas of Illinois are mak ingthat retired officers are hired to lobby. No. 1 It's the third largest on the list of defense contractors. It gets more orders out of the Pen tagon than any other company in tne u.b.A. except Boeing and General Dynamics. With nearly one billion dollars worth of ord ers during 1958 $952,400,000 to be exact General Electric now outranks Charlie Wilson's old company, General Motors. - No. 2. General Electric ranks fifth on the list of firms employ ing retired military officers. A total of 35 have been hired by General Electric after they left the Army, Navy, or Air Force. Ex-Personnel Chief The list includes such well- known military men as Adm. William M. Fechtelcr, who as former chief of naval personnel helped pass on the promotions of many officers now holding top jobs in the Navy department. Another top brass hat hired by General Electric is Gen. John B. Montgomery, who has an in teresting record of sliding in and out of the military service and private business. Montgomery left the Air Force as a temporary major general to take a lush salary with American Airlines, later was hired by Gen eral Electric. Congressman Stratton, Admir al Radford, and other defenders of brass hats drawing corpora tion salaries contend that they don't have any real influence with former colleagues. How ler, General Montgomery had enugh influence with the Air Force to have them tut up quite a battle with the v Senate for his promo tion as a reserve officer. When alert Sen. Margaret Chase Smith tf Maine found that the confir mation would mean a tax bon anza far Montgomery, the Sen ate refused to confirm mm. . These arc just two out of the G.E.'s small army of retired of ficers hired to help with G.h. s billion dollars worth of defense contracts. Note Ninety-five per cent of the defense contracts arc let on a negotiated basis, without com pctitives bids. This means that a retired officer can and some times does tip the contract scales one way or another. George Meany Moans A hot hassle took place behind the closed doors of the House la bor and education committee the other day in an effort "to get" Jimmy llotfa. It brought a moan of anguish, however, from Hoffa's No. 1 labor enemy, AFL- CIO President George Meany. Meany heard about the closed- door argument when Congress man Jimmy Roosevelt of Los Angeles telephoned him. "Is it true, Mr. Meany," Roose velt asked, "that you've agreed to include in the labor bill the Udall-Thompson amendment that no one shall hold a union office if convicted of an attempt to commit murder?" Roosevelt referred to a propo sal by Democrats Stewart Udall of Arizona and Frank Thompson of New Jersey aimed at knocking ex-convicts from high positions in the teamsters. They argued that the amendment would "get Hot fa." Roosevelt argued that it was a common practice of employers to send men to create a scuffle on a picket line, after which pickets were often convicted on broad charges, including intend to murder. "If this stays in the labor bill,' Roosevelt argued, "a large per centage of union officers could n't hold office." However, the amendment pass ed 14 to 12 on the assurance that Meany approved it. Phoning this news to Meany afterward, Roose velt asked: "Do you really mean that you're for this amendment? "My God!" exclaimed Meany, "is that in the bill?" "Yes. it is." replied Roosevelt. "Good God, I'll get on it right away AFL-CIO representative Andrew Biemiller, ex-congressman from Wisconsin, immediately contacted all members of the labor commit tee to urge that the amendment be clarified. QUOTES FRQM THE NEWS United Press International SPRING LAKE. N.J. Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.), call ing for the Senate to override Ei senhower's veto of the housing bill: "Urban blight is spreading fast er than our urban renewal pro grams can choke it. We have de layed, we have compromised, we have postponed, watered down and backed down and the final blow was the President's veto of last Tuesday." MIAMI Melvin Mininson, who is honeymooning as a stunt with his new bride in a six-by-14 foot bomb shelter: "We're hot bored. We get a few telephone calls, you know. In fact, we got too many last night." WASIIINGTON-Chairman John L. Mct'lellan of the Senate Rack ets Committee, after lawyer Ed ward Rennet Williams had denied a charge by lawyer Hartley C. Crum that he had offered Crum a big sum of money for a client if Crum would not appear before the committee: "Somebody certainly varied from the truth. When this comes from members of the bar, offi cers of the court, such conduct certainly should not be tolerated and should not go unattended to." WASHINGTON - Adm. Arleigh Hurke, chief of U.S. naval opera tions, discussing Communist methods of infiltration into free countries: "Military power is not the an swer to this type of tactics." WearyMarines March Through Scorching Heat DEATH VALLEY, Calif. (UPI) Two hundred and fifty weary weary Marines trudged into camp at Trail Canyon Spring early to day to end the first night " of marching through scorching tem peratures in Operation Lo-Hi. The marchers covered an esti mated 16 miles in 130-degree heat during the night. They made camp at Trail Canyon Spring and will resume their 14-day march to Mt. Whitney tonight at 9 p.m. The' Marines, members of tne 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the 1st Marine Division from Camp Pendleton, Calif., started the 14-day hike' at 9 p.m. Mon day in Devil's Golf Course, about 10 miles south of the Death val ley Monument. They passed from 252 feet be low sea level to an elevation of about 2.000 feet at Trail Canyqn Spring, but the heat remained stifling. The marchers will con tinue hiking at night to take ad vantage of lower temperatures for the next week. The Marine Corps said the un usual march route ranging from the below sea level elevation of Death Valley to the 14.496-foot peak of Mt. Whitney where tem peratures will be around freezing was undertaken as a training and toughening up mission. Clickety-Click Land Of -Modern Efficiency Is Dream Of Soviets . . n-U.. If lh u.tmnn'e .1 Bv ANTHONY AUSTIN United Prett International PARIS UPI The Soviet Union opened a wonderful exhibi tion in New York last week-of the country the Russians hope some day to have. According to all-accounts, Rus sia, as portrayed at the Soviet Fair, is a clickety-click land of modern efficiency, comfort and glitter, and this reporter would like to visit that Russia when it is there. It was not there, except for its first glimmerings, when he ended a seven-month stint in Moscow as UPI correspondent this spring. The lives of the average Rus sian seem drab and hard by American standards. From the Russian dun words, much of their industry and agriculture was stdl steeped in manpower wasting methods. This is not to say, however that the organizers of the Soviet exhibition in the Coliseum on Columbus Circle were out to hoodwink the American public If that were so, Russia would not welcome thousands of' Ameri can tourists every year and per mit them to travel over wide areas of the country. "What Is To Be" The disparity between some of the claims at the Coliseum and the reality on Gorky Street, Mos cow, may bo explained by a state qf mind which fuzzes up the borderline between what is ami what is to be. "Russia is the country of the bright tomorrow," said a Rus sian to this reporter. "We've all been living in the future since wc were children." He was mocking a .Russian trait, but with a touch of pride. The Russians acting as guides as their "Exhibition of Science, Technology and Culture" must get a sense of pride, too. rather than dissimulation though they know that many of the in.ooo items on view are less than representative. ' SULLIVAN IS STUDYING RUSSIAN FOR HIS TOUR 38 Homes Lost In Canyon Blaze HOLLYWOOD (UPI) The la test fire department report on los ses In the disastrous Laurel Can yon blaze listed today 38 homes destroyed, two houses with major damage and 300 acres blackened. Damage was estimated at two million dollars. Cause of the four-hour fire which roared through the area Friday still was undetermined. But fire men said there was no indication that it was deliberately set. Properties destroyed had an av erage value of $22,000, according to a Red Cross survey. They ranged in loss from $9,000 to $150, 000. Firemen, posted to keep a close watch over the smoldering em bers, were recalled from the area Sunday with only a few mountain By VERNON SCOTT UPI Stiff Writer LAS VEGAS (UPI) Ed Sulli van, who steps all over the Eng lish language on his TV show, is hard at work studying Russian' for his junket to the U.S.S.R. later this month to introduce his "real ly big show" to Muscovites. Sullivan will spend tnree weeKs behind the Iron Curtain, deter mined to spread American good will among the Reds. 'My whole attitude stems trom reading "The Ugly American, the Irish emcee explained. 'We were represented as a pretty sad people losing goodwill in the cold war because we haven't the brains to visit foreign countries and speak to the natives in their own language. Illiterate or Discourteous 'That puts us in the position of being either illiterate or extreme ly discourteous. Neither of which will gain us friends. "Europeans and Asiatics resent it. and I don't blame them. When foreigners come to this country on official business they usually know how to speak English, we expect it of them, bo wny shouldn't thev also expect us to put ourselves out a little?" Sullivan is knocking himself out five hours a day in this resort town working with Professor Alexander Malbin of the Army Language School at Monterey. Calif. He's taking the accelerated course with tape machines, spe cial records and alphabet books. Search Party Will Attempt To Find Bodies ANCHORAGE, Alaska (UPI) -A volunteer search party of nine men' from Elmendorf AFB left Monday for Petrof Glacier near Homer, where they will attempt to recover the bodies of three Air Force crew members killed in a C-124 Globemastcr crash Jan. 11. The party will attempt to reach the 4.800-foot level of the glacier by helicopter from Homer. The rescue party hopes to dig through the 10 to 15 feet of snow that cov ers the crash site. Recovery of the bodies was hoped for within 10 days, i The C-124 from Travis AFB, Calif., was flying over the Pacific Ocean en route to the Kodiak Naval Air Station when it devel oped engine trouble and headed for Homer. The huge craft dis appeared from the Air Force's radar sets and was found later 490 feet from the glacier. patrol units remaining. "We will watch it very carefully the next two or three days," said battalion chief Walter C. Runyan. "But we believe there is little I likelihood of a new outbreak." Trouble is, Old Stone Face doesn't sound any better in Rus sian than he does in English. But he's in there pitching. His Knowledge "I've already learned to say things like thank you, good morn ing, please, applause and good bye," he said . proudly. Then he gave it a whirl in Russian, and it just might bring on World War III. Ed is starring in his own revue at the plush Desert Inn Hotel which is very much like his own weekly CBS video show. He's more relaxed on stage than on the air and manages to score very well in a comedy sketch. "The troupe I'm taking to Rus sia includes Marge and Gowcr Champion and Dick Coniino," he went on. "We'll give eight shows a week in Moscow for two wec'ks, and then move to Leningrad for the third week. To Use Russian Acts "I have an agreement with their ministry of culture to choose six top Russian acts to integrate into our show and to tape them in action for my own program when we get back. "Russians aro particularly pleased when Americans speak their language. "The whole flavor of our meet ings with the ministry of culture changed when Bob I'recht 'a member of my staff ' was able to speak to them in Russian. They grinned and talked their heads off to him. Bob's talent heled clinch permission to go over there." wnai ii 11111 """'I'" a uresses and coats that New York fashion writers found fairly good are the pride of (i urn's shop windows in Moscow but are seldom seen being worn? What it the men's suits would cost the average Russian worker two or three months' wages, and Russians on the street look i0 Americans) as though they wire outlined at a chanty sale? The two lulled Volga automobile and the small Moskvitch shown at the exhibition still are luxur ies only to lie dreamed of by must Russians. The relatively few citizens who can afford cars have to wail a year or longer to buy them 'strictly for cash). One-Room Apartments The reasonably attractive model apartments, at the exhibit ion still are not much more than models in the Soviet Union. Most Russian city families have one room In live in. sharing the kitchen and bathroom with other families. Other similar comparisons could be made. But what is more im portant to the vast majority Vjf Russians is that a big housing construction program at last has begun and that a. plan to spread consumer goods and services is in the works. What is more important to them is that the sputniks and the Soviet artificial planets are there, for all the world to marvel at, and that Soviet industry at last has pro duced some industrial machinery that is ahead of America's. Livhg to the diumbeat of The Plan ("Outstrip America in 14 years," says Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev) the shabbiness and the queueing-up and the burdens of today become something transi tory and almost irrelevant some how less real. Seen in that spirit, the Soviet Fair in New York must be, as President Eisenhower said a "re ma:kable exhibit." Oregon Woman Dies In Crash LAYTONVILLE, Calif. (UI'D Florence Wilson, the wife of Em pire, Ore., Mayor Ira Wilson, and two other persons were killed in a head on crash on Highway 101 tour miles south of here Saturday. The oilier victims were Andrew Rogers, 79, and his wife, Geneva, 74, of Rough and Ready, Calif. Ira Wilson was injured along with the couple's two daughters and a granddaughter. The daugh ters are l.indn Lee Wilson and I'alrica Johnson. Mrs. Johnson's 20- month- old daughter, Deborah, was also injured. All the injured were lislcd as critical, but doctors said they were in no danger of dying. 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