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About Eugene register-guard. (Eugene, Or.) 1930-1983 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1955)
Bubble Bath PETER EDSON AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER ALTON F. BAKER Publisher ALTON F. BAKER JR. Editor ROBERT B. FRAZIER Associate Editor SERVICES Full Associated Press, United Press, Audit Bureau of Circulations. The Register-Guard's policy is the complete and impartial publication in its new 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 helpful in the development of con itructive community policy. A newspaper is A CITIZEN OF ITS COMMUNITY. Entered at the Post Office at Eugene, Oregon, as second-class matter. 8A EUGENE, OREGON, THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1955 Why Did They Go Hear Oppenheimer? J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is per haps the world's greatest living physi cist, Tuesday night posed some problems for the psychologists. Why, we would ask the psychologists, did 2,500 people turn out to hear a high-brow lecture on one of the most complicated subjects known to man? Not one in 50 could really understand what he was talking about. So why did they stay? Why didn't more slip out when it became ap parent that the speaker was talking in a language most of us can't understand? And why, after the talk, were so many willing to admit they didn't understand? And why, along with these admissions, were so many so enthusiastic? "I didn't understand a word, but I sure enjoyed it," was the way most of his listeners seemed to feel about his talk on "The Sub-Nuclear Zoo; the Constitution of Matter." . Dr. Oppenheimer, one of the archi tects of the atomic age, was the "Condon lecturer." There have been Condon lec turers before, but they didn't draw 2,500 people. Why the difference? Why the big crowd to hear about the sub-nuclear zoo and only middle-sized crowds to hear about the rock formations in our own Three Sisters area? : Part of the answer must lie in cu riosity. Many just wanted to see what this guy looked like. They'd heard about him and read about him. It would be Interesting to know how many came be cause of his "trouble" a year ago and because of the criticisms leveled against the state system of higher education for bringing him here- They are the ones who wanted to see for themselves wheth er or not this guy has horns. They found none. : Others, who knew all along that he didn't have horns, probably went be cause they had a feeling that he'd been pushed around, that their presence at his lecture was a signal to somebody that people resent other people's being pushed around. So add sympathy to cu riosity. Now add respect. Many probably went because they recognized in him one of the greatest minds of our time. They could cheerfully grant that their own minds were inferior. At the same time they could admire the- man who could see this sub-nuclear zoo that remains in visible to most of us. Some of this group went because they want to tell their chil dren and grandchildren soinc day that & Need Safety Standards It has come to our attention that the House Rules Committee ot the Oregon Legislature has not yet seen fit to intro duce a bill that would allow the public utilities commissioner to establish safety standards for gas pipeline installations in Oregon. We all know that natural gas, a cheap fuel that will be a boon to industrial de velopment in the Northwest, will be available probably within the next two years. To date, no one has given serious consideration to safety regulations for pipeline installation and facilities. The Federal Power Commission and the In terstate Commerce Commission have been holding hearings to sco which com pany shall supply natural gas to the Northwest and whichever firm gets the opportunity will rush to make ils serv ices available to large sections of the state. Appearing before the rules commit tee, lobbyists for the gas companies con tend that the companies have their own standards of safety precautions, but com mon sense alone dictates that it would be a prejudiced viewpoint. The public welfare demands that some agency in the state should have power to regulate the installation of gas pipelines roth the states of Washington and Idaho have nasscd legislation that enables their counterpart of the public utilities com m'ssoner to establish safety standards. If our Legislature doesn't act now it may be too late. If a pipeline is buried in the protind there is not much that can be done about It. We want natural gas as cheaD as possible but not at the expense of the consumer's safety. The men on the rules committee, which incidentally lnd"dcs Lane County's L. L. Stewart, must realize the responsibility they shoulder in the matter. Presumably the public utilities commissioner would make a study of safety legislation in other states in order to set up standards for t)regon. Pipeline cxpldsions c:Sinot be fought, they must be prevented. they had heard J. Robert Oppenheimer. Why did they stay? Why were they so enthusiastic about things that were so far beyond them? Some of this an swer is found in the "respect" para graph above. More lies in the shy, ap pealing personality of the man himself. The 2,500 saw a man who obviously is uncomfortable in front of crowds. Some felt they were seeing a classic case of stage fright. They liked the way he scratched a spot behind his ear as he worked on complicated formulae on the blackboard. They liked the way he was concerned lest somebody in the back be unable to hear him. They were charmed by the almost apologetic way he' said, at the end of the lecture, "I would be very glad if it if it fits in to respond to questions; if you have anything that you, that you think I can clear up." The great nuclear physicist turned out to be a very appealing, human guy.' They also saw a man so obviously in love with his work. As he warmed up to his subject and talked about protons and neutrons and the other creatures of his sub-nuclear zoo, he became quite excit ed. The audience, not knowing what he was talking about, became excit ed, too. We were reminded of a West Point colonel we once knew. This man, a student of the campaigns of Marlbor ough, would talk excitedly about these campaigns, referring to this commander and that as if he had known them per sonally. People who didn't know, a thing about Marlborough were always willing to listen to the colonel talk. So it was with Dr. Oppenheimer. The audience, unschooled in nuclear physics, could share his enthusiasm for "A very beau tiful atom an old fashioned atom very like the hydrogen atom except it's about twice as big." It will be interesting now to see how big a turnout the great physicist has for his Thursday night lecture, the second of the series. Will the merely curious come back? Was one look enough for those who talked about how ,much they enjoyed it? . It was a professor of music Tuesday night who put the thing in a nutshell. He admitted he was lost after the first 90 seconds of the lecture. But, said he, "It's rather like listening to a fine con cert. Even if you can't understand the music, can't really understand what's happening up there, you can still sit ' back and enjoy it." ' Strange Real Title of Corsi Story Might Be 'Operation Pizza' 11 IN THE EDITOR'S MAILB AG People who still own radios will have a chance Sunday to hear a most in triguing excursion into the world of sound. For several years the New York Philharmonic has been experimenting with bird calls speeding them up, slow ing them down, changing key and pitch. Now these sounds have been put togeth er to create a most unusual "symphony." It will be played Sunday noon on the or chestra's regular program (KEUG). The hi-fi crowd, who look down their noses at the rough sounds coming out of the old-fashioned radio can get a hi-fi recording of "Strange to Your Ears." Record dealers advise us that such re cordings are now available in Eugene. These tltcy can take home and play as they marvel at what birds can do with sound. Sakakawea We are indebted to the Oregon Statesman (Salem) for pointing out that in North Dakota they are not only try ing to kidnap our Sacajawca, but are also mis-spelling her name. The Indian girl, wife of the Frenchman who was guide and interpreter for Lewis and Clark, is one of Oregon's best known historical figures. Because she helped pilot the Lewis and Clark party across many states 150 years ago, it is reasonable, perhaps, that other states might claim her, too. So we can't object too much to the sugges tion of Sen. Langer of Nfrth Dakota, when he wants to give her name "Sakakawea" to a pool of water behind Garrison Dam. But we do object to the spelling. Sen.. Langcr's Sakakawea is our Sacajawca. We spell her name right. It's just a pity that we in Oregon have not made greater use of the beautiful name. React Like Mouse EUGENE (To The Editor) Gerald Heard, the anthropologist, says that man, in similar circum stances, tends to react like the mouse when it is cornered by the cat. Hopelessly held in, the mouse will sit straight upright on its haunches and stroke its whiskers. With no possibility of a response which can save him, paralyzed by its helplessness, the mouse simply falls back on habit pat terns of the past. Men, now caught in the self woven web of atomic armaments are seemingly as helpless as the mouse. They know that they can not find a defense against their weapons, that to employ them in war will mean suicide for the race. So what course do they take? Do they follow Gen. Mac Arthur's inescapable logic when he said, "We arc in a new era. The old methods and solutions no longer suffice We must break out of the straight jacket of the past." He urges total, uni versal and simultaneous disarma ment, and says that we in the United States should take the lead in securing it. We can be profoundly thankful that President Eisenhower has appointed the able Harold Stasscn to take just that load on our be half. This is not the response of the mouse in the corner. But, at the same time the President is supporting the Pent agon legislation to fasten Univer sal military Training on the nation. The Congress is consider ing the matter right now, and observers in Washington report that unless the people rise up to block it, the legislation will this time pass, and will before long turn the United States into an armed camp. Here sits the mouse on his haunches, stroking his whiskers. Dropping the figure, is it not clear that two different and in compatible ways are being chart ed for us? Disarmament-is being made possible, and we are also being asked to put everything we have into the arms race, includ ing ton years of the life of our young men. Which way are we going to take? The choice is ours. If we allow ourselves to be pulled down the wrong road, will we not ourselves be to blame? Sincerely, ROSS W. ANDERSON Rt. 4, Box 319A. but "property" a man had as much right to cross a state line to get a run-away slave as to get his cattle. Quite logical, but Lin coln took the position that what was morally wrong could not be made legally right. If he had used words "should not" instead of "could not" he would have been more logical because in a Repub lic the majority votes make a thing legally right or wrong. Today, millions of people know that the sale of liquor is morally wrong but we have made it le gally right by our votes and are paying dearly for our folly. But Lincoln also knew that he could not legally free the slaves accord ing to the Constitution. But he could confiscate them as "con traband of war," like he might a load of munitions going South tnd so he did. The 14th Amendment made the Negro a "person" but not a su perior person. The "Declaration of Independence", while a beau tiful ideal, is not a legal docu ment for their is no "handle" to it. Some writers claim that Tom Paine formulated it, even though Jefferson did write it. Now Paine was a fine statesman for his day, the first to demand in dependence and to use the words "The United States of America," but he was quite a windy idealist as when he said "government like clothes is a badge of lost in nocence." That might have worked in the Garden of Eden, but today we know that a state without a government is simply a wild anarchy, while those who don't like clothes had better go to the tropics. Because "civiliza tion is a dress, change the dress and civilization changes; remove the dress and civilization disap pears." Nudists please take no tice. Civilization means restraint and decs not come naturally. (A premise is not a promise.) DORVIN DUDECK Rt. 5 farm days, folks. You see the farm wasn't a farm unless the laddie or lassie had a little chore to do, like taking care of a few bunnic rabbits, or pitching a little hay to the pulling power of the farm, the horse. City folks, per haps, do not have this opportunity because of sanitation reasons and the impracticability of having an imals in the city, but then again we did other htings, such as start ing th tomato plants or some flowers, etc. Now there is something our young folk could well take an in terest in at this time of the year seeds of vegetation. There's a wealth of happiness and educa tion in taking care of and watch ing something grow. Besides, all this helps the family budget, tak ing that spare space of ground that nobody is using (of course be sure you have the owner's per mission to use beford using) and growing some victuals for the family table. Maybe in a bigger way some person might even loan a reason able plot of land and consider able food stuff could even be grown for school lunches with a little volunteer help from some of the elders. How about it, kids. Let's grow a garden with a hope that God will furnish it with good things and Bless us all. Your laddie boy JOE GIMPL 742 W. 10th. WASHINGTON (NEA) The State Department story on Ed ward J. Corsi ousted by Secre tary of State John Foster Dulles as his special assistant on immi gration and refu gee problems is that hs turned out to be like a big prize bull re leased in the State Depart ment's rather. brittle chinaE shop. A lot of peo- nip Vinvp hppn bleeding over Edson Mr. Corsi's sudden demise as a bureaucrat including Mr. Corsi. Well-intentioned, warm-hearted, generous and likeable, Mr. Corsi thought everybody in the world was his friend, and wasn't far wrong. But Mr. Corsi was also impulsive and unpredictable. He .couldn't be bothered with red tape or regulations. And every once in a while State Department officers administering the Refugee Relief program would wake up with a start to discover that Mr. Corsi had gone way out on the end of a limb to commit them to some fantastic scheme that just could n't be done under the law. OPERATION 'PIZZA' There was, for instance, Mr. Corsi's big idea to bring over a thousand Italian. cooks and bakers in a sort of "Operation Pizza Pie." He got all enthused about that one. He was going' to bring them all over on one boat. He would have the boat arrive in New York Harbor on the Fourth of July. He would have the boat sail up the Hudson River, to some nice park he had in mind, where they would all debark and have a pic nic. Mr. Corsi would be on hand to welcome them and make a speech. He was always making speech es. Up in Philadelphia he made a speech about some poor refugee he had seen on his inspection trip in Europe. He painted a tearful word picture of this unfortunate man. A number of people in the audience came forward and want ed to sponsor his admission to the United States as a refugee immigrant. The trouble wasv Mr. Corsi couldn't remember the man's name or what camp he had seen him in. The State Department tried to find him, but after a lot of time-wasting in diligent search, they gave up. By that time all the Philadclphians who Spring? EUGENE (To the Editor) With the weather being so balmy and with spring in the air and love in my heart for the young folk. I've just thought up some thing constructive for my young friends. It all rather goes back to my S1DEGLANCES For Mrs. Hamper EUGENE (To the Editor) In answer to Mrs. Patrick Ham per's question of "Who can use old magazines?", I know that Fairview Home at Salem can use old magazines for the smaller children to look at, f for older ones to read and cut out pictures. The address is, Fairview Home, 2250 Strong Road, Salem, Oregon. We frequently go to Salem and wo would be glad to deliver them. Any old Christmas cards arc also welcome. Thank you. MRS. RALPH BATCHELOR 1551 May wood Member of Assn. for Help of Retarded Children. By Galbraith Repe rcussions EUGENE (To the Editor) The Supreme Court's recent de cision on segregation in southern schools has caused repercussions all over the nation and it is hijh time that we all took a realistic view of the situation. Senator Wayne Morse, in his speech, has shown where the Supreme Court has reversed itself four or five times in the past, usually because they have made logical deduc tions from false premises. The recent decision is based on the premise that "all men are created equal" which is false since not even twins are created equal. To say that all men are created un equal with the right to develop their talents would make better sense. Neither do we have "inalien able rights to liberty and the pur suit of happiness." For one man might find happiness in polyg amy, another in being drunk in a park, while another might find it in his neighbor's melon patch. With every step in liberty goes responsibility for the rights of others. The Supreme Court, while try ing to promote the happiness of Negroes by integration in schools, has forgotten tli.it white children also want happiness b. segrega tion. The Dred Scott decision was based on the premise that since a slave was- not a "person 7 V A v5, my i v 1 1 had wanted to sponsor this un fortunate man gave up In disgust. Early in March the State De partment gave Mr. Corsi a writ ten directive that he was to make no speeches and issue no state ments that had not been given prior clearance. That helped some. But by that time Mr. Corsi had upset the State Department's protocol-polished apple cart so of ten they decided they'd better let him go. PAY TOO LOW What really got Mr. Corsi In the end was his admission to a high State Department officer that he wanted to run for the U. S. Senate from New York in 1956. He had apparently thought he could use the refugee job to build up a big foreign-born vote following. Mr. Corsi was in hot water al most from the first day he hit Washington. He had been getting $20,000 a year as New York's Commissioner of Labor and Immi gration under Gov. Thomas E. Dewey. He wanted that much in Washington. But the most he could get under Civil Service was $13,000, a year. They finally stretched a point and made it $13,700, but it still wasn't enough to suit him. He didn't like the office space assigned him. He worked for a time in the back office of Scott McLeod, Security Administrator, who by law is given responsibility for the refugee program. That was the job Mr. Corsi wanted that and a free. hand. He wanted to open an office for himself in New York, but they stopped him on that one. His correspondence was volum inous. But more than half of it f was personal and social. In one exchange of letters he got all in volved in a big surplus butter deal, from which he had to be extricated .because that was the business of Secretary of - Agri culture Ezra Taft Benson. Mr. Corsi would accept an invi tation to .any meeting for a speech or to join anything That was what made his security clearance so difficult. He wasn't subversive in the least. But out of pure good fellowship he had attended and joined a lot of things more discreet people stayed out of. The State Department was go ing to reveal all this and a lot more. Then they decided to for get it. But as a lifelong Republi can, Mr. Corsi still can't under stand why he's getting the gate. He thinks he got a raw deal. FREDERICK C. OTHMAN Senator From Illinois Roasts West for Dams, Silver Prices "Don't start dinner yet. Mom! I want V ask Margf what time to meet her tonight-it oughto take aboirLhalf ... nhftA" WASHINGTON The eloquent gentlemen were considering grass, dinosaur bones, human pity, and allied subjects, including $1,500, 000,000 worth of dams on the Colorado River. They also mentioned logrolling, silverware, and all-wool suits. And I got the idea (correct me if I'm wrong, senators) that the only way to make all westerners happy is somehow to pour more water into their biggest river. There doesn't seem to be enough to go around in their thirsty country. Five giant new storage dams along the Colorado struck Sen. Paul Douglas (D ill) as being ab surd. It would take so much water to fill them, said he, that there'd be no water trickling out the other end of the river, which happens to be in Mexico. The Mexicans want their fair share of water, too. One of these big dams would be in Dinosaur National Monu ment, where numerous bones of giant animals nave been en tombed over the ages. Sen. Doug las said he didn't believe the dam there would flood the bones, as charged by some, simply because there wouldn't be enough water. But he did believe the water would fill the gorges and turn the wilderness into a placid lake. He said this was bad. HAVE PITY ' "Pity," cried Sen. Joseph C. O'Mahoney (DW'yo). "Have some human pity upon us. Let us keep -some of the rains that fall and are carried away from our land by this rushing river." "The senator from Wyoming is so superior to the senator from Illinois," said the Sen. from Illi nois, "that I cannot pity him. I can only look up to him." Sen. O'Mahoney said, anyhow, his folks wanted to keep some of their water behind the new dams and what did the senator want, to make a garden of the arid acres, or preserve a cemetery for old bones? Sen. Douglas said bones didn't matter, nor pity, either. He said the country already was paying dearly to water a lot of western grass. Sen. Clinton P. Anderson (D NM) said what was wrong with .grass? Sen. Douglas agreed it was pretty, but declared it was a poor crop to sprinkle with costly water. Sen. Anderson sjid it made fat cows. Sen. Douglas re torted that Illinois corn n"ae 'en? fatter. Fact is, he said, it might be a better idea to sprinkle a little extra water on the Illinois and In diana cornfields and quit trying to make the desert bloom. He also aid he'ddjnoticcd tjj.it the Mountain States' senators always were willing to vote for southern flood control, so long as the Southerners vote for w e s t e r n dams. TARIFF BARRIERS . Sen. Anderson, jumped up to say he'd never entered into such a deal in his life. Sen. Douglas said tacit understandings some times worked more efficiently"' than out-and-out trades. And an other thing, he shouted, dams weren't all the West had been git ting. He charged that if the govern ment weren't buying $30,000,000 worth of silver a year, the price of same would drop and a bride could get her knives and forks at a reasonable price. The gov- j ernmcnt held up the cost of sugar for the West's benefit and also the price of wool, he added. "It would be much cheaper if we got all our wool from Aus tralia," he said. He charged, furthermore, that the Bureau of Reclamation was trying to turn the nation's rugged rivers into placid ponds. "Dam up all these streams," he said, "and we'll reduce the entire coun try to a stale, tepid, uninteresting level, good only for weekend pic nics. We should keep some wild places." I do not believe the gentleman from Illinois made many friends from the West this day. He didn't even seem to care. (Distributed by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.) SO THEY SAY We are now in an atomic age, , and haven't fulfilled all the re- quirements of the automobile age. Gov. George Craig (R-Ind). Anywhere will do. My am bition is to make the Yankee team. --Elston Howard, sure shot to be the Yanks' first Negro. eVEMSFR or THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Associated Press 1 entitled e. cluslvel? to the use for republication of ell the local news printed In this newspaper. HERBERT BAKER, Managlns Editor W. D DTAN News Editor DAN H. SELLA0) City Editor EDwft M. BAKER, Business Manaser tC. PRESSMAN, Adrertlslnf Marnier ARSE sROMM( ...ProdirUon -J ROF$RT KgERTSCH . Proration " JARL FUGLE CtrculaUon Manager ,, B. JOHNSTON. JR Audit !V A la
