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About La Grande observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1959-1968 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 1959)
Red Dragon Latest Model ST MiJi 111 EDITORIAL PAGE IXGRANDE OBSERVER Monday, August 31, . 959 "A Modern Newspaper With The Pioneer Spirit" DREW PEARSON SAYS i Tvrautnr.n bt thb UL ORAKDB FUBUSHINO CO MP ANT RILEY D. ALLEN Publisher GRADY PAN NELL Man. Editor GEORGE S. CHALLIS Adv. Director TOM HUMES Circulation Mgr. Congress And Union Support How many Congressmen does the AFL- $-100... CIO "own"? That is, how many feel so 'obligated to the unions that they dare not vote contrary to union wishes? r A compilation of votes on the con troversial Landrum-Griffin bill, which organized labor violently opposed, pro vided at least a partial answer to this question. It must be a disillusioning answer to those union leaders who work t on the legislative front because it turned out they don't own as many Congressmen as they thought At least one angry union leader notified those who voted for the bill that they would get what was, coming to them at the next election. Peter Edson, the columnist, made the ' compilation and reports that on the first ballot on Landrum-Griffin, 181 Demo crats and 17 Republicans voted against passage. COPE (labor's political funds dispensing agency) has made campaign contributions to 115 of these Democrats ' and two of the Republicans. The con tributions to this group totaled $205,431. All but $3,400 went to the Democrats. , One of the two Republicans was Thor Tollefson of Tacoma who had been given On the second ballot for final Dassatre. 59 of the 184 Democrats who had voted against ,. Landrum-Griffin the previous day-switched and voted for it. Of these 59 Democrats, 28 had received no cam paign i contribution from COPE. The othen SI voted in defiance of labor's edict despite having received contributions. None,of these rebels, however, was from the Pacific Northwest. Altogether there were 121 Democrats who voted against the bill on both ballots. Forty of these had received no money from COPE. The other 81 had received $115,311. They included Reps. Green, Ullman and Porter of Oregon and Mag nuson of Washington. The sums re ceived by these four from COPE were: Green, $2,500; Ullman, $500; Porter, $2,500; Magnuson, $1,750. It was the number of Democrats all or nearly all of whom had been at least endorsed by the unions if not given financial support who voted contrary to union wishes that gives the union po-, liticnl directors so much current cause for anguish. Capital Punishment Falls Short "1 believe that the state, by its re fusal to take the life of a human being, would be setting an example of proper morality which would serve its citizens in good stead." Ohio Gov. Michael V. DiSalle is the speaker. Despite a losing fight during the last session of the Ohio legislature, Gov. DiSalle continues his vigorous cam paign to abolish the death penalty. With the Ohio executive as our goad we would like to review where other goernment bodies stand on the ques tion. The most recent addition to the list , of states outlawing the death penalty is Delaware. The appropriate bill was sign ed in April 1958 As area residents re call, Oregon voters rejected a proposal to abolish capital punishment in a refer endum last November. Similar measures failed to be enacted this year in the legislatures Of Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. Of the states that have almlished the death penalty it is Interesting to note that the 49th and 50th states are in cluded. The states and territories which have eliminated or sharply restricted the use of capital punishment are: Maware, Hawaii, Alaska, Michigan, Main, Minne sota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Wis consin, the Virgin Island and Puerto Rico. Federal law provides the death penalty for treason, espionage, murder, rape, attempts on the life of the President and kidnaping If the person kidnaped has not been released unharmed and if the .jury recommends the death penalty. Despite thia list of crimes punishable by 4eathr the penalty is gradually falling into disuse in this country. The Federal Hureau of 'Prisons reports that only 48 persons were executed last year, the smallest number since 1930. Although an apparent trend toward fewer executions can be traced there are too few men like Gov. DiSalle advo cating the abolishment of the death penalty. There is considerable agitation in Great Britain for a complete bar to imposing the death penalty for the crime of murder. Queen Elizabeth has signed a Parliamentary act making life im prisonment the highest penalty for murder excepting in certain categories. It is' these exceptions that critics are now attacking. In, other countries the story is much the ' same. The Bonn Constitution alxilislies the death penalty in West Germany. A law providing the death penalty for first degree murder remains on tha statute books in France but is seldom invoked. Elswhere in Western Europe, Finland and Rumania capital punishment is not imposed for ordinary crimipal offenses. Even our leading competitor in world affairs, the Soviet Union, imposes the death penalty only for traitors, spies and saboteurs and those who perpetrate particularly horrible murders. The one exception to leniency In the" consideration of capital crimes is for treason in time of war. The war-time traitor is a separate case. He endangers the safety and welfare of a nation. The murderer, rapist and kidnaper commit personal crimes. Certainly they are not to be excused for their crimes, but send ing them to their deaths does not repair the injury or serve as a deterrent to future crimes. l U.S. Steel Got' Channel At Expense Of Taxpayers WASHINGTON A new chapter has just been revealed in the operation ot the giant U.S. Steel Corporation, which while netting a record quarter of a billion dollars profit in the first six months of the year, has refused to pay. propor tionate school taxes in Morris ville. Pa., and tried to oppose more taxes for school purposes In Alabama. The new chapter pertains to the manner in which U.S. .Steel got Uncle Sam to dredge the Dela ware river to a 40-foot depth up to the Fairless plant at Morris ville. Army engineers testified that one company only would bene fit by the deepened channel U.S. Steel. Various congressmen op posed this gift of $91,738,000 to U.S. Steel. Among the most vigorous of all its opponents was Congressman Mike Kirwan, Democrat of Ohio. He made speech after speech opposing the giveaway. Then suddenly Ben Fairless head of U.S. Steel and the man for whom the Fairless plant is named. Came to see Mike Kirwan Suddenly also Michael J. Kirwan Jr., was given a job with U.S Steel. After that Congressman Kirwan s opposition melted. He gave his blessing to the $91,738,000 for U.S. Steel. Significantly, when U.S. Steel wanted to dredge the Orinoco river in Venezuela in order to take ore boats upstream, it paid for the dredging itself. But when it came to dredging an American river. the Delaware, U.S. Steel got the Eisenhower administration with strong though related support from one key Democratic congressman to pay for it. Note: Young Mike. Kirwan Is still working for U.S. Steel and has had some nice raises. He says he plans to stay there all his life. The Congressman Orates Study of the congressional com mittee hearings regarding U.S. Steel shows that no congressman in years has reversed himself so quickly as Mike Kirwan, Sr., on : . tr: i : any prujtsji. itirwan 15 cnairman of the house appropriations sub committee dealing with public works. His support was all important. Here is how he battled against the U.S. Steel project on the house floor when the 1956 public works appropriation bill was under consideration. "It is a long) time since the Delaware- river, especially the up per part between Trenton and Philadelphia, has been before this house," said Kirwan. "I think the first mention of it was some 180 years ago when George Washing ton asked for some money to keep the Continental Army going. Now let us march on from there. This project that we are talking about never had a hearing before the committee. It was tack ed on as a rider last year. We gave that steel plant $450,000,000 in tax amoritization in order to, build the plant. One of their subsidiaries is building four steel boats in Japan with cheap labor. Each one of those boats will carry two train loads of ore, eliminating a great many laboring men. It will be flying under a foreign flag with cheap labor. "Now that is what we have (ot here." continued Congressman Kirwan. "Those very boats built overseas will be going down the Delaware river. For 20 or 30 years, the Delaware river had a depth of 25 feet and nobody used it. The river filled up to where they had only eight feet. Kirwan Revert "The army engineers testified that the only one company who will get 100 per cent benefit out of this is the United States Steel Corp. Up on the St. Lawrence river we are only paying $100,000, 000 to complete a seaway 105 miles long. They have 65 sea ports on the Great Lakes and they have 59.000.000 tons awaiting shipment. But on this waterway, they will only ship 30,000.000 tons and it is costing as much money to con struct that 30 to 40 miles of cban net as it is costing to build the St. Lawrence Seaway. "The only one that has made any commitment that they, will ship on this 40-foot channel it the United States Steel Corp. "I am only asking you to be true to our laboring men and to the men that crossed that river 180 years ago when they would not give any quarter, concluded Con gressman Kirwan. "They proved to. the Congress that they were worthy. So, let the Congress prove to the country that they are not going to give them that $100,000, 000 to do something that is not worth it. "I am thankful that you have given me this time. I hope that this amendment is voted down. The House of Representatives re sponded overwhelmingly to Kir wans appeal and voted down the giveaway to U.S. Steel. However, on June 1, 1957. young Mike Kirwan went to work for U.S. Steel. Before the end of June, U.S. Steel had received house ap proval for Its 40-foot channel, cost ing the taxpayers $91,738,000. Is Moscow Running Scared' In Keeping Bomb From China? . i K. C. THALER . OPI Staff Writer LONDON UPI High allied diplomats see behind Russia's stepped-up pressure for a nuclear test baa Moscow's growing, anxi ety to keep Red China out of the exclusive nuclear club. There Is good reason to believe that the Kremlin, despite its close alignment with the Peiping re gime has no desire to have China equipped with the atomb bomb. Red China, pushing determined ly for world power status, is al ready giving Moscow more of a headache than Soviet leaders care to admit. A nuclear test ban. until recent ly under negotiation in Geneva between the Soviet, the United States and Britain, would not au tomatically bind other nations. But, once such an accord were completed, it would in practice close the nuclear club. Significantly, Russia is already building up pressure on France to desist from har plan to explode her first atom bomb in the Sa hara. Red China, which has been vo ciferous in the past in endorsing Russia's call for a nuclear test ban, would find it difficult to go ahead once a test ban accord is reached. Since no new power would thus be able to test atomic weapons without encountering strong oppo- QUOTES FROM THE NEWS United Press ' International REMEMBER WHEN . . . When the annual La Grande Fall Flower Festival was spon sored by the Neighborhood Club at the La Grande Hotel, Aug. 31 25 years ago? Miss Blanche Clark served as chairman, assisted by Mesdames A. W. Burnett, J. J. Broughton. L. Denham, J. K. Wright, Robert Eakin, J. W. Knowlcs and Fred Kiddle. In sports, Portland was 7th in the Coast League; and Enterrpise High School was picked as early season powerhouse in the tough Eastern Oregon Conference. Teams included La Grande, Union, Pen dleton, Wallowa, Baker and Clarks- ton. . . . When the GAR closed its final encampment 15 years ago this date in Indianapolis? Six tired old men of the Union forces in the Civil War attended, with bickering taking place as to who would handle the gavel for the last time. (None of the Union veterans are alive today.) Mrs. W. B. Evans won the weekly news tip competition spon sored by the then Evening Observer. Funeral rites were held for Lester M. Neukirchner, longtime La Grande resident, at the local Lutheran church. Mrs. Mary F. Hutchinson of Union observed her 96th birth day. She was one of the pioneers of northeastern Oregon. The Union High School football team was tagged the eleven to beat In area school competition. Union was sparked by early work out horses, H. B. Larry Wilson at one of the halfback slots and big center Dick Trump. BERNSTEIN CONDUCTS LENINGRAD. USSR U'P1 -Leonard Bernstein, who got into a rhubarb with a Soviet music critic In Moscow, conducted the New York Philharmonic orches tra in Its first concert here Friday night, the Tass news agency re ported. ' Before leaving Moscow, Bernstein had objected to a crit ic's review which called the con- ucUr "cocky" for bis behavior at a concert Tuesday. : , (Reg. U.S. Pat. OH.) United Press International LOS ANGELES Vice Presi dent Richard M. Nixon, discuss ing the effects of President Ei senhower's tremendous welcome on his European tour: "When Ike sits down at the conference table with (Soviet Pre mier Nikita S.I Khrushchev, the premier will " know that he is dealing with a man who repre sents the attitudes of the free world." 1 ANN ARBOR, Mich. Chinese student Cheng Guan Lim. 28, de scribing his feelings during the three years and 10 months he spent hiding in a Methodist church steeple to avoid the shame of failing at the University of Michigan: "I was afraid spiritually. I was panicky for almost four years . . . I lived in panic. I call myself a Methodist but I'm a traitor to my church and my religion." RICHMOND, Va. Negro rock V roll-singer Charles "Chuck" Berry, revealing that he consid ered fleeing last week after he had hidden from an angry crowd in Meridian, Miss., that accused him of trying to date a white girl: "The border from Mississippi to Alabama was about 20 miles away and I was thinking about trying to run all the way. Those cats were real warm." CHAMPAIGN. lll.-Robert Ken nedy, chief counsel for the Sen ate Rackets Committee, attacking the House - passed Landrum Griffin labor reform bill as "weak in regard to racketeering and gangsterism:" "The problem is not that (for mer Teamster President Dave) Beck and (current Teamster President James R.) Hoffa wert allowed to continue in positions of authority but that no legislation preventing such things in the fu ture has been enacted." Set Investigation Of Roseburg Blast KUSEBUKG (UP1 An In vestigation of the Aug. 7 explo sion and fire which devastated a large section ot Roseburg is scheduled to begin Tuesday et at the high school here. The probe is being conducted by the Interstate Commerce Com mission. ' F. E. Landsburg. ICC regional manager in Portland, feaid some 17 persons will be asked to testily at the hearing. Landsburg explained that the hearing Is aimed, at developing "coxrectlve action that will pro tect communities and property owners all over the nation." Rfipert L. Murphy. ICC Corn miss ker . frera WasMrigtea, DC. will preside over the hearing. MISH-MASH Have you gone through a house hold moving process recently? Or do you plan to move? Well, don't dp it. To begin with, the town would miss you if you moved away. But that's not all. Packing up, bag and baggage, and treking off cross hundreds of miles isn't a weekend picnic. Maybe we can tell you of just a few headaches and heartaches in volved in such a move. You have a pet. and at the last minute old Fido or Tabby has to be left behind. Good, we'll give the dog or cat away. Comes the heart ache. No single one friend of the hundreds you thought you had wants the pesky animal. What are friends for. you ask yourself.- To heck with that two faced neighbor . . . he's all smiles on the side of his face next to your property, but the other end of the face . . '. it's like the dark side of the moon. Then you give up after hav ing exhausted your friends and the telephone exchange. But not quite. There's the Animal Pound. You don't dare tell the little guys and gals in your house of this possibility for fear they might pack up and hitch a ride out of town. . You mull over the dog, cat and the pound all day, not getting up steam- enough to call the boys at the humane society, for most the giveaways they receive end up in the gas chamber. So you drop a little hint In the column you write at the news paper, stating that such fine little animals may have to go to some under kingdom because you cannot give them away. This always gets next to the heart of some kind man, woman or child. Almost before the paper is on the street you get a telephone call and the pets are gone to new homes. Then comes the headaches. How are you going to get all that junk in the suitcases, pack ing crates, boxes, etc. You can't, and you start a side walk come-on, free-for-all sale; only you give the excess stuff away instead of peddling it. The sidewalk in front of what used to be your old homestead looks like the 5 and 10 on bargain basement day. Before the giving is over almost everything is gone except the car that must transport you, and it was a lucky thing that extra tire was wired down or it might have sneaked off. "' A large moving truck backs up; you get a sinking feeling in the stomach . . . you are actually ready to begin loading goods and in a couple of hours will drive out of the town you lived in and where a couple of little ones were born it seems like nearly an eternity ago. Comes the time of departure. One of the kindest neighbors has just fed you and your family, but the candles on their table give the motiff one of a wake rather than a gay departure. You're off and running, hand shakes end and there is a little session of" weeping by the frailer ones. One last look at the road map and you head out. The lights of the desert town must gleam like a million fireflies. but you don't look back. The fu ture lies up the road and that's where your eyes direct you. The heartach and headache is gone. . . . Grady Panned sition from world public opinion, no country could acquire them in future through its own efforts. China would remain permanent ly dependent for the use of nu clear weapons on Russia's good will, which is what the Kremlin appears to be aiming at. The subject has never been for mally mentioned, but it is held to be among the fundamental prob lems in sino-Kussian relations. Revealed By Announcements That Red China' wants the atom bomb has been revealed by a few scanty official announcements in the past. A year ago. Red Chinese For eign Minister Marshal Chen Yi announced in a press interview that Peiping intended to have the bomb. The announcement coincided with an ominous letting-up of Red Chinese propaganda for a nuclear test ban. Earlier this year. Ho Chi Minh, the president of Communist North Viet Nam, proclaimed seemingly out of the blue that the Chinese with have atom bombs "in the not distant future." Significantly, none of the refer, ences to atom weapons production has mentioned Russia's assist ance. Western intelligence 'be lieves that, apart from the supply by the Soviet of atomic reactors, the Chinese have been left to their own devices in this crucial field. Some suggestions have put for ward 1960 as the possible date for the first Red Chinese nuclear atom bomb explosion. Hence, the Western diplomats believe Rus si's pressure for a test ban this year is to beat the deadline. Grandma Hoofing It Up Mt. Hood On Mazama Trek TIMBERLINE LODGE UPI-Great-grandmother Emma Gate wood,' 71, of Gallipolis, Ohio, started a long hike up the side of Mt. Hood at 2 a.m. today with the Mazama climbing group. Mrs. Gatewood walked from In dependence, Mo., to Portland for the Centennial and has been ap pointed "Ambassador - at-Large" for Oregon by Gov. Mark Hat field. This morning, she started climbing the 11,245 foot high mountain dressed in a hooded park, boots and climbing gear. Time of the climb was not announced . earlier by Centennial officials, because Mrs. Gatewood said she didn't want crowds around. ' - costs money It takes money to keep our jet pilots up there patrolling the skies. ... Money to let our scientists continue their search for answers. . . . - ' . ' 1 .. Money to insure that our productive power will thrive and grow. ... Yrt, peace oosta money. Money for research and schools and military preparedness. Mon ey saved by individuals to keep our economy strong. Money saved by you. You and your family can be the strongest force of all for peace. Every Savings Bond you buy helps America keep peace in thia troubled world. Am you buying as many as you mightt. Money to help our children learn how to make peace lasting. Help Strengthen America's Peace Power uy U.S. Savings Bonds ft. V. S rymrmf An, W ,rnlU,. TV Trrmm PrfrtM4 LA GRANDE OBSERVER ,