Eugene register-guard. (Eugene, Or.) 1930-1983, June 13, 1954, Image 8

Historic Oregon Newspapers

Eugene register-guard., June 13, 1954, Image 8

Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR

About Eugene register-guard. (Eugene, Or.) 1930-1983 | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1954)

Prev Page of 40 Next Prev Issue Next Text PDF JP2 (2.4 MB) Clip/Print Image

Return to Top

Prev Page of 40 Next Prev Issue Next

Newspaper Page TextAN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER Alton F. Baker EDITOR William M. Tugman MANAGING EDITOR Allon F. Baker Jr. SERVICES Full Associated Press, United Press, Audit Bureau of Circulations. The Register-Guard's policy is the complete and impartial publication in its news pages of all news and statements on news. On this page the editors of the Register Guard offer their opinions on events of the day and matters, of importance to the community, endeavoring to be candid but fair and he.pful in the development of con tractive community policy. A newspaper is A CITIZEN OF ITS COMMUNITY. Entered at the Post Office at Eugene, Oregon, as second-class matter. A New Constitution Maybe Someday One of these years and we mustn't expect too much too soon Oregon voters may have a chance to vote on a new state constitution. That the state needs a new document is the majority conclusion of a legislative interim com mittee which has made that recommen dation to the 1955 session of the legis lature. The committee, composed partly of legislators and partly of lay citizens from all parts of the state, issued, two reports a majority report favoring a new basic legal document, and a minor ity report recommending that the pres ent constitution be patched up. The leg islature will have access to both reports, and it could follow either or neither. Two members of the committee Mrs. Olga Freeman and Bert Wcngcrt are from Eu gene. Chairman is Sen. John Hounsell of Hood River. Even the minority members of the committee have been critical of the pjes ent state constitution. Some of them have explained that the reason they favor amendments instead of a complete new document is that they doubt if Ore gon voters would ever vote to adopt a complete new document. They point out that Oregon voters are hard enough to convince of the need for single laws. Criticisms of the old document, which was written in 1857 and which has served as the state's constitution since Oregon was admitted to the union Feb. 14, 1859, fall generally into three cate gories: that the constitution is archaic, that it is too long and that it is cluttered ' up with stuff that should not be in a constitution. Fifteen states were admitted to. the union after the admission of Oregon, and 35 of them have adopted new con stitutions since that time. There are quaint provisions in the present docu ment, requiring, for example, that no candidate for public office shall have engaged in a duel. The governor's sal ary is fixed by constitution at $1,500 a year, although Gov. Paul Patterson an nually, and unconstitutionally, draws 10 times that. Boundaries of the state, as described in the constitution, would give Oregon claim to four counties of southeastern Washington Walla Walla, Asotin, Columbia and Garfield. And then there's the matter of length. The federal constitution contains 7,500 words. Oregon's contains 19,000. And Oregon, for what it's worth, shares with 43 other states the dubious honor of having a state constitution longer than the federal document. One reason it is so long is that it is so cluttered with amendments. It's easy to amend it just as easy, via initiative petition, as it is to pass an ordinary law. And groups which want their legislation to sticTi are likely to submit it as a con stitutional amendment so that the legis lature can't repeal it or change it. Truckers Doing Better Every week (his newspaper receives from the secretary of state in Salem a little progress report on the highway accident situation. It's pretty grim read ing most of the time, and about the last place a person would look if he wanted to find some encouraging news. The most recent bulletin Is an exception. Commenting only upon accidents in which trucks were involved, the report says that truckers operating on Oregon streets and highways In 1953 turned In a record that was much improved over the 1952 accident record for that group. There was a 32 per cent reduction in the death toll resulting from these acci dents, and the number of accidents and Injury accidents was also cut considerably. It is hard to say how many times the constitution has been amended. But 113 times seems to be the guess of many students of the documents. Most let it go by saying simply "more than 110 times." Oregon, however, wins no blue ribbons with that number of amend ments. California with 312 amendments leads, followed by Louisiana with 287 and South Carolina with 192. Many of the constitutional provisions and amendments are what lawyers speak of as "substantive law," stuff that should be provided for in statutes in the regular law books. The constitution, they say, should remain only a basic document which sefs the direction for statutes, but it should not be inter changeable with statute. The fixing of salaries of state officers is an example of this sort of thing. Other examples are legislation on daylight time, liquor sales, bonding specifica tions, and the location of state insti tutions. The idea of constitutional revision is not new. Dick Neuberger, the Portland Democratic senator, has been arguing for it for a long time. In his address to the 1953 legislature Gov. Patterson rec ommended that the legislature consider it. So that body set up the interim com mittee whose report was turned in re cently. Conceivably the next legislature could work out plans for a constitutional convention to draw a new document. Then the voters would have to approve the idea of the convention. That they could do as early as the general election of 1956. Then the convention could meet and write a constitution which the voters could approve or disapprove in 1958 or 1960. There is much in the present consti tution that is excellent. And in criticiz ing it we must remember it was written in 1857 when Oregon was a frontier re gion a thousand miles from the nearest state to the east. The men who wrote it wrote a document for their own time. Few would change the Oregon bill of rights, which is excellent. But there are critics who say the constitution is too easy to amend and who would put some limitations upon the initiative and refer endum process. Others say the legisla ture should be able to slap an emer gency clause on a tax bill (although any attempt to tamper with this feature of the constitution will certainly be re garded by many as an attempt to put through a sales tax). There will be agitation for a careful study of the Nebraska system which provides for a one-house legislature. However, since no other state has fol lowed Nebraska's example, there is not much chance that Oregon will either. The prospect of a constitutional con vention assures that there will be excit ing times ahead. The men who write a new document will have to be men of iron. The pressures upon them will be terrific. (R.B.F.) The comparative figures show that truck accidents dropped from 10,341 to 8,872 during the year; thaf injuries were reduced from 1,679 to 1,486; and that deaths in truck accidents were cut from 88 to 60. Most truck accidents, the report showed, happened in the cities, but most deaths from truck accidents happened on the highways. Friday was the most dangerous day for truck accidents last year, with Monday right behind it. The most dangerous time of day was mid afternoon between 3 and 4 p.m. It is good to note that the accident loll, which has seemed to increase each year, is suffering a reverse here and there. It's one statistic we don't want to see get any bigger. ' (R.B.F.) A Bright Spot in the Week's News There's Utile enough, heaven knows, In cheer about these days as we read Hie newspapers. Indochina, Geneva, McCar thy, bigger and bigger bombs. All leave considerable doubt that the species will survive, or thai if it docs survive, that ft can stay free. And it is the nature of the news busi ness that the gloomy stuff usually over shadows the cheerful. Sometimes to find the best news you have to turn many pages and search back in the recesses of the paper where the news items are short and the headlines are small. Thus it was (his week when the inter view with Thornton V. Burgess was un covered far back among the fine print. Rurooce Ihe author nf -mini i tnrin fnr children, is now 80 years old. And after 42 years of turning out his laics of Peter Rabbit and Reddy Fox, Burgess isn't even lircd. He plans lo go right on writ ing. He told the AP in St. John, N. B., where he is vacationing, that he figured 100 was a good round number and that is the age at which he plans to retire. It's good news, of course, that Burgess is not ready to quit. But it's even belter news to know that he has looked into his future and decided he will never never, never let Reddy Fox catch up with Peter Rabbit. For lite next 20 years, as he has in the past 42, Peter will al ways keep one jump ahead of his crafty, hungry pursuer. (R.B.F.) Ready to Shoot the Old Scene Again vols knowyou pp&T -JUST JUMP IM -AMb START YLUN3-.FOfc HELP TH&K He oS IM AKb SAVES , n . t 1 S I ' ' Marquis Childs Hnnni'c Frpnrh Pnm.l,. races iien men rnu F0J WASHINGTON me Amen- II IS Officials in thj i can policy-makers who have been believe the em,.,." most active in promoting "united committed to intP,,. Indochina if the military silu.r aies toward a drtd ' thousands of SJ Hanoi and elsp? threatened with ma.?. Adm. Arthur v S man of the Jnlnt '.7?ti is genera II action" to try to save from Communist conquest just now taking a cautious line. They say that no final commitment has been made to the government of Premier Lan iel in Paris lo in tervene directly should the Com- munist bloc at Geneva continue lo stall on the Child! irallv Dulles' chief nXr B "United Action" arrived in P.,i. ffiW los, on the eve " (T Peter Edson Chemical Maker Advances Atom Pool Plan WASHINGTON (NEA) A new idea for an "International Atomic Energy Bank" is now being put forward by William C. Foster, president of the U.S. Manufacturing Chemists' Assn. The Foster plan calls for the loan of atomic energy materials, reactors and k n 0 w-h 0 w to countries that do not have ade quate power rel sources o theirB own. It would be an extension of Edson President Eisenhower's original proposal to the United Nations for a world pool of atomic en ergy, to include Soviet Russia. The present status of Presi dent Eisenhower's proposal is not entirely clear. Russia turned down the plan at Geneva. HOPE FOR LIFE But United Nations confer ences on disarmament and atomic weapons control, now go ing on in London, are supposed to have under active considera tion the possible diversion of atomic energy materials to peace ful uses. So the Eisenhower plan may not be completely dead. Foster believes his plan could be put forward without Russian participation. As he visualizes it, this international bank of atomic energy materials would operate something like the Marshall Plan. It would function as a cold war instrument to help the non-Communist countries remain free by raising their standard of living. The atomic energy materials lent to other countries would be subjected to a rental fee which would cover the interest on the capital investme.it. This would be similar to the leasing arrange ment under which it is now pro posed that U.S. private industry be given atomic energy materials for the development of electric power. Foster, a former New Jersey manufacturer, was once admin istrator of the Marshall Plan. He has also served as Undersec retary of Commerce and Under secretary of Defense. He gave up his Pentagon job in 1953 to be come head of the Manufacturing Chemists Association and its Washington representative. IMPORTANT ROLE For anyone who may wonder what the chemical manufacturers are doing in atomic energy mat ters, it must be recognized that chemistry plays a big part in the separation and purification of atomic energy materials. DuPont, Monsanto, Carbide & Chemical and other big indus trial firms in this field have of course played a major part from the start in building and operat ing the $11 billion worth of U.S. Atomic Energy Commission plants. Several recent developments in the atomic energy field have made possible the plan Foster now advocates. The hydrogen bomb, through its greater explosive force, will release for peaceful uses more of the uranium that formerly went into the original atomic bombs. No peacetime application of the energy released in a hydro gen bomb has yet been found. But Foster says there is no rea son why research cannot develop such use. PACKAGE REACTOR The practical development of electric power from atomic en ergy is closer than many people realize. Fourteen months ago the Atomic Energy Commission initi ated its program of industrial power "development by private industry. The original goal was to get this development within 10 years. One year later Duquesne Pow er and Light Co. of Pittsburgh announced it would invest over $15 million to build an atomic electric plant. AEC now has over 60 power research contracts. U.S. Army has now practically completed development of an atomic "package reactor" which would develop from 1000 to 2000 kilowatts of electrical energy. Contracts for production of these reactors may be let soon. Units like these are what Foster believes would be useful for an international atomic en ergy bank. He believes they would revolutionize industriali zation of underdeveloped coun tries. He predicts commercial atomic power within five years. an llrpont uti terms nf an armistice acceptance Dien Men Ph to France and Britain. into the conferenr. iJ? I Af hie nraLG r'drlfl't'PNCf (111 Catefu! SallllYla,, t m j I'1 " . "j m trip Tuesday Secretary of State Dul- of the American ambisw les was asked if there was any Pans. intention of dealing unilaterally On the following w with ihi indnehina situation. He went to London anrt nJTr'l .. , ... ... iJ . l pc ntni,i.n.) , replied mai mis wuuiu hul nay -..i..u mac n&hadn nen unless the whole nature of mended British turii.iJ1 aggression should change there, an air strike from airtnj Unilateral action might be taken "ers to save Dien Bienpiffl by the United States, Dulles sug- was on April 26, the fal . , Wn,rtrt nova rAnrnrnnn. gesiea, u inure waa. uyti. auutu . T opened aggression by China. Minister Churchill and tk. cabinet rejected thu ... CHARGES CERTAIN the British military S1) in me aays aim t jui ... 10 "ours after m ahead, with the threat to Hanoi air strike the demand to and the Kea mver neua as grave siuunu jorces would be ii as it is, tnere are aimosi cer- iuie. tain to be charges ot aireci uni- COMMENT nRr-inum nese intervention. The fact that b,j,j u . ,. " the Vietminh guerrillas have to- iara..nds aeclined to day the capacity to launch an "" "' fT"! .....1. ...:u' i.m wiicino ,-n. of W staff insist that h.1?, HLLHCK W1LI1 1-1KIIL uiYWliiioi j . .. cludinff one artillery division, will !" dav,s?r P . be taken by those anxious for '""lma"ue.r !.n.-c,,llef. 'iU American action, with or without ". "S I e mn. i allies, as being evidence of a m , th. a TI? 1 & radical change in the Chinese ? 8 " tn1,i Communist role in the war. p, fm a J Those close to Dulles complain, Congress in person bv Pi , . tkmr kmia In tha nact that tt: . ' " iMsennower lor authority because the British and the vene in Indochina It was French, too, wobble from one cd that Congress would side to another on the issue ot immediately and ttati j. point, iuilc.i ill auuuictiav no. a .,. is difficult to activate the pro posed alliance. Not only the French assembly but the govern- staff add that this was 1 ment, tne people ana uie rieiicn thetical plan to go into foreign office itself are deep- under certain conditions, ly UIV1UUU Ull I lie laauua .11 una critical phase of the nearly eight-year-old Indochinese conflict. Some are for ending the war at once on any terms the Commu nists will grant. The conspicuous political figure in this faction air strike around Dien Bin is Pierre Mcncles-r ranee, wno wouia Dring almost 1 may be the next premier if the direct intervention by Laniel government falls. At the troops and a greatly other extreme are those who in- Asian war. They refused tli sist that in spite of reverses, such ford request and, therefore, as the fall of Dien Bien Phu, was no action at that tribal France must fight on or risk the loss of all French overseas terri tories, including the North Afri can colonies which are vital to the French economy and where 3,000,000 French nationals have developed a highly protected agriculture and some industry. under the plan an air stria oe iauncnea on April 28. nut the membjrs of Ri mary condition being "unitela Hon' with other powers mil interests in the area. Mf dition, they say, is still 11 requisite to future steps. But the British believed toil ment. But another tm 1 critical phase is just a city of Hanoi in the Red I delta, with its thousuJi I French civilians, seems 1 become another Dien Bin (Distributed by United Mi Syndicate, Inc.) Hal Boyle Berlin a Blazing Beachheod For Struggle in Cold War In The Editor's Mail Bag DOG PAPERS EUGENE (To the Editor) A little over two years ago, dur ing March of 1952, we got a blue Doberman Pinscher pup from the Lane County Humane Society. This pup was approxi mately 9-months old at that time which makes his date of birth probably some time in the early summer of 1951. This pup was picked up because he was run ning at large, the owners being unable to watch out for him be cause of work and school. As far as we can tell, the owners may have been a working lady and her school-age son. The exact owner is still somewhat of a mystery. With two years of love, work, and training, this pup has grown into a magnificent dog and was recently a father of seven pups out of our red Doberman dam. This litter of pups includes an extremely rare fawn-colored Dob erman. The pup, now called "Lucky" is so intelligent and obedient that we use him in his own revue on our stage at the Country Inn. For two solid years we have been searching for the A.K.C. registration papers or the litter registration on Lucky. We feel that the papers are somewhere , in the City of Eugene or Spring field. We have had the help of Dr. Baronti and his staff in try ing to locale these papers. Now, Miss Dorthy Durec and her able staff at the Humane Society and the breeder. Mrs. H. K. Schmidt are following leads on the miss ing papers. We have driven miles and talked to many, but the elusive papers are still miss ing. We now wonder if any of your Mailbag readers may help us with this search. There is a reward for the location of these papers. We mav be reached at 5-7344. NEIL A. KOCH, .1IMM1E A. HARPER, 4100 County Farm Road. TRAFFIC QUESTIONS EUGENE (To the Editor) I should like for me and a few thousand others to have some questions answered by someone. When driving east on 11th Ave. in Eugene it is common knowl edge that one may, after stop ping, turn left on a red light at Olive and Oak. One may likewise turn right on a red light at Char nelton, Willamette and High and at Hilyard turn either left or right when driving eastward. My question concerns the junc tion of 11th and the highway. Can one proceed onto the highway from 11th on a red light (a right hand turn) or is this considered no turn? I would like also a sensible reason for the prohibition of right hand turns onto the highway after stopping from Hilyard, Agate and Onyx. Also, why should the sign at Agate stating "enter only on flashing amber" be 15 feet away from said flashing amber light. Also, when the flashing red light says you may turn from the highway onto Walnut St. why do so many people fail to notice the sign which says you must first stop? Could this sign be reworded so it would be more obvious? Nope, I'm not mad. I haven't received a traffic ticket in over a year. Thanks, Mr. Kics, for your recent newspaper item reminding us to trim trees at intersections. I. hadn't realized these new stop signs tower so high into the trees. Happy to trim mine and anyone else's who asks. I'll bring the saw. RICHARD E. CHAMBERS white collar worker." Second, ask my wife if she has any trouble getting me to wear a "white col lar." Third, I start my day at 8 a.m. but I like DST! The most recent letter listed tourists as one of Oregon's great incomes. I'll venture that 75 per cent of the tourists live under DST. Also that loggers start their day when the sun comes up so why worry about the clocks? Too, God has been mentioned as the originator of time. Yes, but time, as we know it, regulated by mechanics (gears, weights, springs and such) is man-created. If you will get out your encyclo pedia you will find that time, as we know it, was originated by the railroads. "The farmer works from day light to dark." So. what does he care what the clock says? The Grange is always men tioned in this controversy they don't wish to be regulated by the "city guys." Well some of us "city guys" don't wish to be regulated by the Grange either. So what's all the "fuss" about' FRED C. ARNOLD LIKES OST EUGENE (To The Editor) What's all the "fuss" over day light saving time about? Looks to me like some of these people just want to "cuss out" the "white collar worker." First let me say "I'm not I SILENT DEAD SPRINGFIELD (To the Editor) WITH THOSE WHO SLEEP We have been working today Among those who are aslo?p Cleaning out weeds and vines That all around them creep. Some have come so recently By the tombstones I have read, In this old neglected city, To join the silent dead. The recent ones have flowers rare Where still the grieving cry The old have been forgotten now As sunken grave belie. And as the fleeting days pass on Into the future years Remember we will turn to dust In spite of all their tears. DEAN J. BEALS BERLIN dPI "All Germans around one table." That was one of many slogans for unity chanted last week dur ing a three-day Communist-spon sored rally of 500,000 German boys and girls in the debris of East Berlin. Watching the slow torrent of youth through the rubble left by Ad olf Hitler, I had to suppress a wistful urge to seize a banner Boyle and start yelling an old battle cry of my own youth: "Up the alley. Down the street. Central High School can't be beat." It seemed to me that the pa radcrs might just as well enjoy chanting that slogan instead of "Down with Western imperial ism" or "From Berlin to Rome, Yank go home." It doesn't makfc much difference to the average leen-ager what he hollers just so he knows he is hollering the same' thing as the teen-ager next to him. BUGLE PRELUDE But the trouble with the slo gans the teen-ager of Eastern Germany is being taught is that they don't lead merely to the black eyes and bruised muscles of juvenile gang fights. They are a prelude to bugle blowing and another great big grown-up wttr. This was my first look behind the fringe of the Iron Curtain in five years. I had the depressing illusion I ,was looking at half a million dirty-necked children, wandering parentlcss through a ruined world, crying words they did not really understand them selves. But they were only puppets of a new power for murder. Some body had bought the big red ban ners that hung from almost every broken building. Someone had put up loudspeakers along the streets that rang with martial airs. Someone had taught them to wear a blue shirt initialed FDJ. Someone had taught them how to march in ordered rows. The someone who had done these things was wise in the ways of corrupting the young. He was using exactly the same tactics Hitler had. And, just like Hitler, he wasn't going to all that trou ble just lo beat Central High School. He even put on a tremendous night fireworks display to wind up the rally. I stood in ii mass nf tnese German doji girls near Marx Engels PM night, watching the great showers overhead, hearinl I crash of explosions, and 1 dered why anyone wno 1 throueh Berlin's many 1 lorrnr Hiirinir fhp last VV9 enjoy this display. AnduH ter of fact, there wasnu eheerinff. When the show was over, children of yesterday wenlf lv Wlr In Iheir bivoiuc f or paused to make love io tcred doorways. At a u sponsored youth rally 1 nennlp don't have to WC snappy old prying chipf They are encouraged ra flnnthpr. Werp in' Berlin this clave of youth in the eulw tor was taken oy mon another incident in 1 gn that has gone on unnu since Hitler's fall the c ., h.,Hl fnr lllA VOUni W mind, an endless tug-oW tween East and West. FOR GRANTED Nobody seems to feel mi body is quite ready yn -the buele. but it is WW" for granted that in WW hnelp will he blown. TheP nrnhlpm Is to win U" 1 mind to the future puiPJ But it must have BWa 'besides myself tremenwJS in the rust of a lost W J half a million boysanoi"". ing crimson banners m Ino- In cfpn Inst almost'1 .1' -K., nf m mal same iiuihw. , last conflict. Today it M'J already the great behW'l the cold war. So They Say Keep this in mind, JJI ,l. iiri.ii,, unnsp a rnm j lieves in constitutional We are not goins - t war witnoui ""; ., om.thimr m say atxw"- Chairman Hall. He (Phil Mmj?J?& that holds tne ""- 1 together, no matter bes.de mm.cevelllll Happy Mother's i WJfl have many mou . ft j could use "u" w University stuacm mother.