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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 1949)
..; !"t , til fi N ! i i.IJ -,v:-. .-. iiv i-;,vin,UivUM'vf: .- f-1 - "Jf Tfcror Swayi Ut, No fecr Shall Awe mm First IUUmu. March St. 1X11 THE STATESMAN PUBLISHINC COMPANY CH.Anr.RX A RPRAOtlE. Editor and Publisher gctered at the pesterflee at Saleaa, Oregea. as see ad cUm matter uder act ef euirta Uarek S. IS?, TaMlabe4 every leratng BesUeae attic SIS B. Commercial, Saieaa. Oregea, Teleabee S-S44X The WiUonville Cutoff Elsewhere on this page we reprint an editorial from the Bend Bulletin dealing with what we know locally as the Wilsonville cutoff. The imputation is that this was promoted by Portf land merchant interest seeking to pour more traffic to its trading center. It also asserts that commission records are silent as to "original favoring argument". The Bulletin also raises At . . ,.4 ; rV.4 Vi Ar thm rrtaH ' i c nrccflrv Lilt?1 UUcaklUll " HVillVi ... v aincV 89E has been made into a four -lane high way as far as Canby. The itatus of the cutoff will be reviewed by the commission on Sept ember 19." The usually accurate Bulletin is confused in certain particulars. The records of the com mission show that as early as March 3, 1927, a delegation from Wilsonville asked the com mission to consider ah alternate route for the Pacific highway through-Wilsonville. That was before money was spent on the widening at Oregon City. On October 27 of that year the late Milton Miller and a delegation from But teville appeared before the commission to urge the same project. Other entries in the minutes appear down through the years to Sept. 24, 1946 when a delegation from Salem and Woodburn appeared before the commission and urged that the big sum (around half a million dollars) which it proposed to spend for widening the road from Oregon City to Canby be diverted. Instead, for the completion of the Wilsonville cutoff. j - As to authorization of the route, the minutes show that on January 27. 1937 the commission adopted and designated as a state highway route a section known as the West Portland-Hubbard highway, No. 51. j During the period in question. Henry F. Cabell was chairman of the commission. Our information is that Mr. Cabell delayed approv ing the proposed route because he had property interests "which might be favorably affected and wanted to avoid any suspicion of using his office to advance his personal interests. Any one who knows Mr, Cabell will, we are sure, testify to his high standard of ethics. . . j What precipitated the first work on the route was the availability of federal funds for grade separation projects. One of those selected Was the underpass at Hubbard on this new route. Several miles of fine paving were built beyond and then a country road connection made with the road to Wilsonville ferry. The right-of-way department on authority of the commission acquired over the years the necessary right-of-way for a super-highway, with limited access. The coming of the war delayed further work on the read, until 1948 when a section was grad ed and paved from the West Portland end. What holds the work up now is lack of funds for the bridge at "Wilsonville. - . The route is not new. This writer recalls that nearly 20 years ago Roy E. Klein, then highway commissioner, pointed to the Oregon Electric line from Wilsonville to Salem and aid that the best location for a road between Portland and Salem. Had the OE abandoned Its line, as was once considered a possibility, the state undoubtedly would have acquired jits right-of-way. This remains the best route, and th Baldock plan for Salem shows that this - is in the highway department's hope, chest for the future. The link to Hubbard Is a useful connection but not the ultimate, best route f ronv Portland to Salem. The advantages of the cutoff are that it shortens by several miles and would reduce by perhaps 15 minutes the time required for Petty Vanity Br Joseph and Stewart Alaep In the, atmosphere of Washing ton today, one almost regrets the passing of the days when Big Sam Ward, king of the railroad lobbyists, fed his bought senat ors on beaver tails stewed In champagne. For at least things were done in a big way then. There is no thing big in what the five percenter i n vestigation has been unearth ing. There la only a small kind of nasti- ness. There has been no evidence of personal corruption. The mo tivation of almost everything that has been done has appar ently been not personal gain but mere petty vanity. And it has been on a niggling scale the hole - in - corner wire-pulling, the commercialized 'friend shipa,'' the little favors for little men. Even where the evidence of real corruption exists, as in the general accounting office's In vestigation of war contract set tlements, it has V-nJ-! been on a scale " ' ao petty as to ; -v make Sam V Ward blush f with shame. To W A Wa a4iiat "V . a a i lev ea. iut cases of fraud, which Compt roller General Lindsay War ren's investiga tors have un- v V " f . h 5ud fnd Stewart Ala? J sent to the jus- . tice department for action, is a depressing experience. It is de pressing to find that the service efficers and government officials who have sold themselves have been willing to sell themselves -4P cheap. ' Since charges have not yet travel between Portland and Salem. The fact that it will be a freeway should promote safer travel. Grades on this route will be much easier, which will be an advantage for heavy vehicles. Through the connections with Bar bour boulevard and Fourth avenue in Portland and with f Harbor Drive, vehicles can move quickly to "destinations in the center of the city. This route; will not replace or displace the ' route by Cabby and Oregon City to Portland. That has definite advantages for those wishing to get to many east side locations, to go through Portland north or via the Columbia river high way. In our opinion both roads will be needed, of four-lane 'capacity by the time the state can get them buflt. Which should get priority, com pleting the four-lane road from Canby to Salem or completing the cutoff, is a debatable question. And we are not presuming now to say when either job should be placed on the commission's time schedule other parts of the state have needs too The route via Wilsonville was not "born in sin". From an engineering standpoint it is a superior route. The cutoff is needed now to reduce congestion on 99E, and eventually a direct route: from Salem paralleling the OE to Wilsonville Will be needed. The Bulletin has long worked in behalf of the Warm Srings highway to give it a shorter and easier access to Portland. The Wilsonville route offers similar advantages, though on re duced scale as far as miles and minutes are concerned. But multiplying the time saving by the number'of vehicles using the route its econ omies probably will be greater thaif the Bul letin's favorite. When the commission has its hearing Septem ber 19 Salem should again urge that the cutoff be completed as soon as the commission can finance the project though Salem is interested also in making present 99E a four-lane facility. Getting Ready for College Mammas ; are busy these days getting their daughter! outfitted for college. If they are to be freshmen this is a serious chore, for a wrong choice of apparel may be fatal to a sorority bid. While parents take a great deal of interest in what their! children will wear when they go to college, and where they will live, they are often blissfully ignorant of what they will study or what they are prepared to study. An article in today's Statesman (Section 2, page 4) Mar guerite Wright points out the importance of proper preparation in high school. In short, college begins down in the ninth grade. Unless students take courses with some intellectual meat on the bones they ' will not be ready for the strong fare that comes when they plunge into college work. The, cafeteria plan of course offerings In high school accommodates a variety of tastes which is necessary if all youth are to be herded into high school. Really, to prepare for college means to select courses that will provide a good foundation ffor college levels. Parents of high school youngsters should think of this as well as outfitting the youth with becoming appareL Klamatlv Pomona grange rebelled against the state grange purge order of 22 legislators for support in g : a bill which the grange politicos disapproved of. And at the Bend convention the committee on taxation made bold to recom mend a sales tax (which the convention after much oratory turned down). Could it be that the tight hold that Grangemaster Tompkins and his predecessor Ray Gill held on the organiza tion is slipping? Movos 'SjPer Centers! been brought by the justice "de partment, names cannot be nam ed. But here is the sort Of thing which, according to Warren and his staff, has been going i on. Shortly fter a certain firm's representatives met two govern ment employes. It was awarded three handsome government contracts. At the same time. -liabilities to I these government; of ficials were entered on the firm's books, a measly S2.029 and a measlier $1,175. Another firm asked a govern ment official to increase its con tract price. The increase was granted. The firm paid the ioy emment official $500. a sum Sam Ward would not have stooped to offer a cloakroom attendant. Again, two army officers on ac-. tive duty were paid for "pisrt time services' by a firm with which they were dealing. Soon after the payment, the farm 'got a lush government contract. The officers collected a mere $2,000 in stock values for betraying their commissions. , Such raw palm - greasing was exceptional. Warren's investiga tors found. They more frequent ly discovered a subtler form of recompense for services I render ed. Repeatedly they: found that officials or officers, who had been responsible during their government service for awarding profitable contracts or : exceed ingly generous settlements, were subsequently employed at hand some salaries by the firms which had been, benefitted. No doubt in many cases this was mere co incidenceJ But no- doubt in ma ny cases It was not. i 'I ' I j i . Although almost all the cases 'of fraud : involving government officials or officers have, been on a petty scale, the total sums In volved are not petty. Warren has already announced that: his In vestigators have discovered fraud costing the unhappy taxpayer more than six and a quarter mil lion . etl r. Moreover. Warren's experts are bow combing a case which mav involve a fraud charge of nearly twenty million dollars against a single compa ny. And it is not generally real ized that the general accounting office is only equipped to spot check a small portion of the to tal number of contracts and set tlements involved. Thus it is like ly that the whole loss to the tax payer may run well Into nine figures, no small sum even by today's standards. It may be argued that the gen eral accounting office has an ax to grind. On the theory that re conversion would never get un der way if the usual ponderous GAO accounting methods were used, congress relieved the GAO from direct supervision of settle ments. Warren and his subordi nates have bitterly resented this, charging that it was an open in vitation to fraud and waste, and it is obviously in their interest to prove their point. It may also be argued that in view of the millions of people and the billions of dollars in volved, the government is on the whole honestly run. Certainly there is nothing to compare with the lush corruption of the days when every important financial interest had its private army of bought lackeys in the govern ment - Yet there are increasingly ris ible symptoms of a highly un pleasant disease. Such symptoms as have been uncovered by the five - percenter inquiry, by War ren's investigation, and by other probings do not Indicate that the disease is as yet deeply serious. The 'symptoms are like the itch ing and scratching of the akin people get when they do I not wash enough. Yet, as the govern ment and private business be come constantly more involved with each other, the disease could easily go more than skin deep. It is this which justifies all the hullabaloo about what would certainly seem to Sam Ward a verv nieglinc business. (Coprriat t, IMS. New York Herald Tribuna Inc.) ALL I KNUW lb 1 ww Mr & IftP 0QDDOO0 tod cue ( Continued from Page One) and to the paralyzing effect of cartels and price-fixing associa tions which by eliminating com petition destroy Incentives for economies. Of the multitude of proposals for a solution. Miss Ward scoffs at the contradictory Ideas: auto matic free trade and rigid gov 't ernment planning and controls. Under the former, demand for dollar goods would be so great that prices iin ternis of poundi, francs) would be so high no one would buy thm at all to the ruin of ma ny American export ers. Rigid controls serv e to main tain high production costs and so stifle trac The solution, according to Miss WardQs assurance from the United StateVthat annually for ten years some seven or eight billion dollars will flow into the world market. She suggests that this could be done without add ing to taxes by raising the price of gold and thus revaluing American gold stocks! To this proposal a writer in the Wall Street Journal inquires: "If seven or eight billion dol lars over the next ten years would exorcise the dollar short age why did not some $20 bil lion over the last five years exorcise it? The sum was much greater, the time much shorter. Yet the shortage is more acute today than ever." It seems to me that raising the price of gold would have disastrous effects domestically in encouraging further inflation, at a time when the greater need la for deflation. It is hard to aee where money-juggling (de valuing the British pound or the American dollar) would cure the disease, though Miss Ward says that America could demand as condition for the continued grants free currency exchange and free multilateral trade with in the sterling area. But all our pressures for this under the Mar shall plan have come to naught. The real cure is a dose of medicine which neither Britain nor the United States is willing to take: restoration of the free market. Britain's dollar short age becomes our product "long age", so we have a stake in the solution, too. France offers an example of the curative effect of freedom to trade. Ever since the first world war the French franc has been an unstable me dium. In February. IMS, against the advice of Britain and the United States, Trance opened a 1 LESS THAN USELESS i When it was started in 1955, the Wilsonville cutoff seemed to us a waste of highway funds. It was intended as a traffic span from the east branch to the west branch of the Pacific high- . way and, aside from the fact that IS mile project was to shorten the distance from .Salem to Portland by a matter of four miles, its only function was to siphon traffic from one branch and create an overload on the other branch. . Just why this was to be done no one knew unless it was intended to benefit Portland's west side commercial district 4 already unbearably cluttered up and, especially, to lend a help ing hand to the city's leading department store. The reason is quite as obscure today. Mem bers of the present day highway commission, going into the question after a delegation last month sought more work on the route,, have found no report In commission records show-' ing original favoring argument, nor. according to a news story published this week in the Ore gon Journal, have they found "surveys of it or other information'. Very properly the commis sion has now called on its engineers for a report WliAl I KtAU IIN free market where francs could be exchanged for gold. One writ er comments: "The result has been wonderful." The black mar ket in francs has disappeared, the value of the francs has stabi lized and French economy is now on quite a wholesome basis. Socialization of industry is not the immediate cause of Britain's plight But the socialist climate has been damaging to Britain's economy. The government : now takes 40 per cent of the Income in taxes; it strips the once well-to-do classes of funds which might go into cap tal Invest ment; it expands the civil estab lishment to administer govern ment programs which though they may be socially desirable are uneconomic now British effort should be concentrated on producing goods it can sell in world markets. The United States, on the oth er hand, maintains tariffs which limit imports and keeps prices for farm crops at levels where it must give the goods away to get rid of it. We haven't the nerve to get down to earth our selves. Thus, we are building up forces which may eventuate in a crash as disastrous as that of the 1930s. We can continue our grants for a term oT years and will do so. But when will Europe be weaned? When will the U. S admit more imports? Or will stresses accumulate which will lead to depression, revolution Literary By DeWitt Mackenzie ITS AN OLD STATE OF MAINE CUSTOM, by Edwin Valentine Mitchell (Vanguard Press; $3) It's always a treat to follow Edwin Valentine Mitchell on one of his adventures back into the colorful colonial days of New England. Few there are who know the history of that period so intimately as does this volum inous writer, whose dry humor and six feet three of stature ad vertise his own Yankee birth right This time Mitchell goes to Maine for the material from which to construct another of his series. The author takes full advantage of this broad title to deal with a great 'diversity Of subjects on which he exercises his knack for story-telling. The result is a happy medley of useful and. entertaining informa tion about the grand old state of Maine in its candle-light per iod. Mitchell starts with the fell ing of the trees and the hewing of the timber in the virgin for ests. From there he progresses naturally to the creation of the grand old houses, some of which still ' remain to testify to the Editorial Comment f 4 PAPERS IHC Survey Due of Airport Hazard Re-sureys to determine obst acles in the approach and turning areas of Salem's McNary field are under way by a group from the bureau of U. S. coast geodetic sur vey of the department of interior. The group, under the supervision of H. J. Bozzo, will spend approx imately three weeks in the area making the surveys. The surveys will be made avail able to the CAA, Donald Harper, district airport engineer, said Sat urday. It has been five years since a similar survey of the field has been made. TRIES SYNTHETIC RICE MAD RAS-P)-Th e Government of Madras Is experimenting with production of synthetic rice as a means of overcoming the rice shortage in the province. Synthet ic rice is a mixture of the flours of tapioca, sweet potato, dried ba nanas and de-oiled peanuts. Food officials say synthetic rice had three times the caloric value of natural rice. The Hambletonian has been won seven times by fillies and 15 times by colts. and war? The stakes are high in these days. Guidepost artistry of the colonial builders. Throughout the account he gives deft touches of humanization, as when he applies personification to ancient dwellings after this fashion: "People on the coast do a good deal of moving not just the contents of the houses, but the nouses themselves. A man will see a lonely old house some where and feeling sorry for it will buy it and move it to where the old thing can enjoy the company of other houses." This building of fine houses was associated with the creation of fine ships, for Maine built some of the world's most mag nificent sailing vessels, both merchantmen and men of war. Among them were the graceful and speedy privateers which swept the seas under bold com manders. So the book runs through i great variety of subjects, en compassing superstitions, colo . nial humor, the world-famous stone quarries, fishing, and the delights of lobster and blue berry pie. Taken together these diverse elements give a grauhic and interesting picture of col- nial Maine. It is history present ed in a most attractive form. on why the road was begun, what has held up construction (after 14 years much of it remains unpaved) and what is needed to open it to traf fic. One other question should be asked and an swered before anything is done and that is, regardless of whether the cutoff was necessary in the beginning, whether it is necessary now. Since the project was undertaken, the so-called super-highway (east side) from Portland to Oregon City has been built and has been ex tended, with extensive and tremendously cost ly rock work involved in widening the road where it skirts the bluff to the south of the Clackamas county seat Eventually, super highway type construction will be the rule on the east side route from the state's capital to its metropolis. The plan is to provide amply for a vast movement of north and south traffic. While making that provision or having made it, to resume a project for diverting that same traffic would be less than useles. The money which it would cost can be used elsewhere to much better effect If BEND BULLETIN Wife Given 3-Year Suspended Term for Aiding Dolores Todd, who admitted aiding her husband. Jack O'Neill Todd, In an unsuccessful escape attempt from the Marion county Jail June 6, Saturday received two suspended prison sentences totaling four and one-half years. ' In other Marion county circuit court action, three prisoners en tered pleas of innocent to various charges, one pleaded guilty to a cnarge oc larceny ana noiner was granted time to secure an attorney before entering a plea. : Teld te Leave State Circuit Judge George Duncan, ordered Mrs. Todd to return to her former Wisconsin home and not to return to Oregon without written permission of the state parole board. She received a three-year sen tenced for aiding in the escape attempt and 18 months for illegal possession of narcotics. Mrs. Todd, who lived at 2270 N. 4th st, in Salem, previously ad mitted she gave her husband hack saw blades he used to saw his way from jail in June when he dropped out a window into arms of wait ing deputies. Plead Innocent In other cases Earl Knothe. Sil verton. and Charles DeSully, Port land, both pleaded innocent to charges of contributing to the del inquency of a minor. .Their cases were continued for trial date. In two separate larceny charges. Your health Since 1892, when the first case was described, physicians have been familiar with a rather strange disease known as poly cythemia. In this disease, the red cells of the blood are enor mously increased. And so is the total amount of blood in the body. This increase is so great that those veins which can be seen through the skin look full and the skin itself has a deep red tinge. Usually, there is also some increase in the number of white cells in the blood. And the spleen, located in the upper , left part of the abdomen, is en larged, often to a great degree. The exact cause of this disease is not as yet known, but what we do know is that there is great over-activity of the blood-making part of the bone marrow. Though the outlook for complete cure does not seem too good, there are a number of forms of treatment which seem helpful. The new drug, known as phe nylhydrazine, has been used. Its action is to cause destruction of red blood cells because there is an excessive number. An exces sive dose may cause loss of ap petite, vomiting, diarrhea, itch ing, and other symptoms. One of the disadvantages of this form of treatment is that anemia or lack of red cells may result from an overdose. That is why it is so important that a doctor al ways supervises the treatment. Other forms of treatment seem more beneficial. For example, one of them is the withdrawal of blood from a vein on re peated occasions. While it may quickly relieve the symptoms when such treatment Is carried out It is necessary that blood counts be made at frequent in tervals In order tofbe sure that the blood level Is kept high enough. Another method of treatment BRINGS IL(Biniox (DDnnnnffli America's World Famous Pine China You May Purchase One Piece or a Complete Set BUDGET TERMS ARRANGED Tum.arinJ Livesley iuHcling 390 Our trained optometrists give for clear vision . . . styled to appearance. W Al Spectacle Specialists LA dU Dr. K. K Berbat j Optometrists at bo unci ornaL DIGNIFIED CKEDIT i m Ceert Escape Try Lester E. Johnson, Oregon City, pleaded innocent and was con tinued for trial date, while Roland F. Griswold, alias Jack Henry Dykes, Stockton, Calif.,, pleaded guilty and was continued for sen tencing to August 27. Glen Gerald Diggs, Stayton, charged with cashing a check on insufficient funds, requested time to secure an attorney. He was continued to August 23 for arraign ment. OPEtS DEATH NOTICE ALTOETTING, Germany -Frau Maier was notified by Ger man authorities recently that her husband, Johann Maier. had been killed in action with the German army in the last days of the war. Johann Maier opened the letter himself. He was captured by Al lied troops, released in summer 1945, and has been with his fam ily ever since. Writtea by Dr. Herman N. Bundensen, MJX which is widely used at the present time is what is known as spray radiation. This is X-ray treatment given to various parts of the body on succeeding days. Eventually, most of the parts are exposed to the X-ray. By this method, freedom from symptoms has been obtained for periods of over six months to more than two years. Some physicians have found that the patient may be kept symptom-free for as "long as five years at a time. What are known as nitrogen mustards have been used in a few cases and have produced freedom from symptoms and re duction in the blood cells for periods of over six months to two and a half years. Still another method employed is the giving of radiophosphorus. With this treatment symptoms also have been relieved for a period of over six months to more than five years. When pro perly given, no reactions are noted and there are relatively few complications. Until more is learned about this disease, the various forms of treatment described must be relied upon to control It. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS K. B.: When there is a bad ptosis condition present, involv ing all of the organs in the abdo men, do these organs return to their original position after pro longed wearing of a ptosis belt? Answer: The wearing of a supporting belt will not over come ptosis or dropping of the organs in the abdomen. Of course the wearing of such a belt will help to relieve the symptoms. Exercises for strengthening the muscles of the abdomen may be helpful. If the symptoms per sist some operation may be re quired. (Copyright. 1049, King reaturaa Syndicate, Inc.) TO SALEM A Small Down Payment and a UrHe Each Week or Month on Anything In the Store, including O Diamonds O Watches O Silverware O China, Glass O Jewelry - State St. Salem, Oregon you-the glasses you need give you an alert, interested :; Dr.; Dogbee I-S5S
