'Well So Far, So GooH . . ,
David Lawrence
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
ALTON F. BAKER, Publisher, 1927-1961
ALTON F. BAKER JR.
Editor and Publisher
EDWIN M. BAKER
General Manager
RICHARD A. BAKER
Managing Editor
ROBERT B. FRAZIER
Associate Editor
A. H. CURREY
Associate Editor
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 helpful in the development of construc
tive community policy. A newspaper is a
CITIZEN OF ITS COMMUNITY.
Published every evening and Sunday morning '
by the Guard Publishing Co.
10A
EUGENE, OREGON, THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1962
America Is Really Not That Bad
Billy Graham, the evangelist, is get
ting a lot of mileage out of his Chicago
appearances. Last weekend he told 116,
000 people that America is going to pot
for five reasons:
1. A sex binge without parallel in
history.
2. Lust for physical and sensual
pleasures.
3. An attempt to save ourselves by
building armaments.
4. A decay of religion.
5. A preoccupation with materi
alism. This dismal assessment of the nation
was irritating to the editors of the Salem
Capital Journal, which is a rather pi
ously edited newspaper itself. A CJ edi
torial accused Graham of "overstating
his case." In the Register-Guard's view,
he did worse than that. He got into an
area that is foreign to him. He ought to
stick to evangelizing. As a social critic,
he's a flop, largely because he lacks that
essential that a good social critic must
have: perspective. Let's take the Rev.
Billy's jeremiad, point by point:
1. The sex business. Probably not
true. We talk about it more than our an
cestors did. We admit things they didn't
admit. We don't wear as many clothes.
But there is precious little relationship
between the amount of clothes people
wear and where their minds are. Fur
thermore, early day America was a
pretty gamy part of the world. It wasn't
as lusty as Chaucer's England or Vol
taire's France, but it was enough to give
Billy Graham the shakes. If America
ever hit a moral bottom, it' was right
after the Civil War, not now. What docs
Mr. Graham think was one of the prin
cipal industries of Washington, D.C., in
the gilded age? And what does he think
went on out here on the frontier?
2. Lust and such. Roughly the same
comment as above. There is an important
difference, however, in an earlier
America and this one. The "pleasures"
of which he speaks are more varied and
more available now. We have more time
for having a good time than our ances
tors had. And since when are "physical
and sensual pleasures" necessarily bad?
It depends upon what those pleasures
are. Playing golf, as Mr. Graham has
been known to do, brings physical pleas
ure. Listening to music can bring sen
sual as well as intellectual pleasure,
what?
So
3. Armaments. Here he really loses
himself. He's toured Europe, spreading
"his word. Does he think he could have
done it if America had not kept strong
and had not thus kept communism at
bay? What would he have us do? Indeed,
what has been the Christian way? Has
he not read of the Crusades or the Thirty
Years War? Was there not a high Chris
tian purpose in the minds of many
Americans who fought brothers and
cousins a century ago?
4. Decay of religion. Maybe so. Cer
tainly, Mr. Graham is in a position to
know about this. However, it is only fair
to recall that in the America Mr. Gra
ham thinks he would have preferred, the
church, more than now, was a social
center. It still serves that function, but
not to such a degree. Has religion "de
cayed" because those who attend church
now go less for social reasons and more
for personal, religious ones?
5. Materialism. This is baloney. We
are less preoccupied than ever with ma
terialism. When else have a people gone
to such ends to see that starvation, real
starvation, is all but eliminated? When
else have the insane and the mentally
deficient besm so kindly and solicitously
treated? When else has the average boy
or girl stood such a good chance to be
educated to the full extent of his ability?
More people have heard Beethoven sym
phonies in 1962 than heard them in all
the 19th century. We do more looking at
good art, read more good books, partici
pate more in our governments, act more
as our brothers' keepers than any peo
ple since the ancient Athenians and
maybe since before that.
We're not so bad. True, we have a
long way to go. But a fair look at our cul
ture shows we are going in the right di
rection, partly, be it said, because peo
ple of Mr. Graham's profession have
urged us in that direction for many cen
turies. Nothing is served by telling us,
and the world, that we're worse than we
are. More would be accomplished if peo
ple like Mr. Graham would either stick
to evangelizing and stay out of the main
stream of American culture, or, better,
if they would urge us to use the great
capacities we have demonstrated we
possess for ends that they find prefera
ble. And then let's hear what those ends
ft ft ft ft ft ft
'Specially Trained'
The Gills' State girls, of all people,
are getting some static because of a
resolution passed at their convention in
Salem last week. The convention called
for the teaching of communism, by spe
cially trained teachers, in high school.
Oh, my, say some, we can't have com
munism taught by teachers who have
boon "specially trained," if "specially
trained" means trained in Moscow.
Oh, my, say others, that's not what
the girls meant at all. They meant that
communism should be "taught about,"
not "taught." And the "specially
trained" teachers should bo teachers
trained not to believe in it.
All this is rather silly. A good teach
er, like a good student, is one who is
not readily brainwashed. They look at
any subject, and this includes sin and
communism, as coolly and as dispassion
ately as they can. The facts then fall into
place. Indeed, to ask that teachers be
specially brainwashed is to ask that
their students be given an inferior
view of a subject, and to ask that they
be "trained" in a way that will not per
mit them to hold their own in a real
argument.
Quarter-Mile Hazards
This is no gripe about the State Po
lice failing to do their duty. But it might
help them prevent one or a scries of
serious accidents on the new freeway
between Eugene and Mcdford.
The freeway is wonderful. It's no
four-lane raceway all the way, however.
There are quite a few two-lane stretches
where, with all the vacation travel and
the world's fair going, cars tend to
bunch up in bunipcr-to-bumpcr strings.
Where side roads enter, the main route
broadens to four lanes for a quarter of
a mile or so. Designing engineers in
tended these broader spots for the sep
aration of through traffic and cars eith
er going off or coming onto the freeway.
A lot of drivers, however, ignore "no
passing" signs and use these as places
to demonstrate their disregard of the
law and their light regard for their
own and others' safety.
State troopers should hover around
some of these short four-lane sections of
the freeway and nab hare-brained driv
ers who use them as drag strips. In their
impatience to pass at least one or two
cars, these foolhardy freeway users
weave in and out of traffic in the two
lanes so briefly available to them. They
run a gantlet at high speed where they
should be speeding least. And then, as
they approach the end of stretch, they
jockey desperately for any place they
can find in the procession of cars fun
neling back, single-file, onto the narrow
er freeway ahead. Brakes squeal. Tem
pers flare. Other drivers, who have been
obeying every rule of safe motoring,
suddenly find themselves being pinched
in the neck of the funnel along with the
transgressors.
As we said, the freeway is wonderful.
But, experience on a Sunday afternoon
will teach any user that it's strangely
safer to travel some of its narrower sec
tions than those misused wide spots.
Look Who's Talking
Krishna Mcnnn got sore at some re
porters in New York the other day. He
said he was being bullied.
Tl
2.
Sylvia Porter
How The Floor Handles Your Orders
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is
the second in a series of three
columns on the Floor of the
New York Stock Exchange.
Porter
In the weeks since the his
toric stock crash of late May,
pictures of the floor of the New
York Stock Exchange have ap
peared all over the world. On
this floor
two-thirds the
size of a foot
hall field in a
hall five stories
high an awe
some total of
more than 24
million shares
of stock changed
hands on the
two chaotic
days of May
28 and 29, On this floor,
the buy and sell orders of mil
lions of Americans are being
executed and fortunes have
been lost (and made too) in re
cent days. To this floor, accom
panied by Keith Funston, presi
dent of the NYSE and a group
of NYSE vice presidents, I went
last week to watch exactly what
happens when you place an or
der to buy or sell stock through
a member firm of the NYSE.
Let's say you, Mr. Jones, want
to buy 100 shares of ZYX stock
today and you, Mr. Smith, want
to sell the 100 shares of ZYX
you own. For every buyer, there
is a seller in this open auction
marketplace and vice versa.
Now here goes.
You, Jones, have phoned your
broker, told him to buy ZYX
and you. Smith have phoned
your broker telling him to sell.
Both of you want your trans
action done "at the market,"
which is the way most orders
arc handled and which means
you're trading at the best price
you can get today.
Upon hearing from you, each
of your brokers immediately
transmits your orders to your
firm's order room. From there,
the message is flashed to your
firm's telephone clerk stationed
on the floor. The telephone
clerks then send signals via two
huge annunciator boards on the
walls of the exchange hall to
the members representing your
firms on the floor that there are
messages for them. Each mem
ber goes to his clerk, one gets
Jones' order to buy ZYX, the
other gets Smith's order to sell.
Jones' broker hurries to the
wooden, U-shaped post at which
ZYX is traded (the rule is "you
gotta walk, not run") and
Smith's broker does the same.
Around ZYX's trading post and
17 others are clustered most of
the 2,200 men on the floor of
the NYSE on a typical day now.
"How's ZYX?" asks Jones'
broker.
"55 to l4," says the specialist
who handles ZYX stock and is
responsible for keeping an or
derly market in ZYX. That an
cient idiom of the auction mar
ket means $55 is the highest
price at which anyone is willing
VEMHER OK
THE ASSOCIATED PKKSS
Th Associated Press is entitled
exclusively to the use for republi
cation of all the local news printed
In thli newspaper.
MEMBER OF THE At tMT HI REAL'
OK l-IIUTLATIONS
Servlcet Vnlted Press International
Wtl.l.lAM WASM ANN. Ne Editor
PONN L. BON HAM City Editor
ROSS i JOHNSON,
Advertising Ptreclor
Jnt. r'l'OI.E t'lrculallon Manager
ROBERT K. RKRTSCH rromntlon
W. B. JOHNSTON JR, Auditor
ARNE STROMMER Production
to buy ZYX and $55.25 is the
lowest price at which anyone is
willing to sell the stock.
"I'll give an eighth for 100,"
says Jones' broker, meaning he
is willing to pay up to 55V
lor 100 shares.
"Sold," says Smith's broker,
meaning he's willing to take
one-eighth less because it's the
best deal he can make.
It is done. Each member then
jots on a little piece of paper
the badge number of the man
with whom he has just traded
ZYX, the name of the other's
firm, the total of stock traded,
the price.
Each member then reports
back to his telephone clerk
what has occurred, the tele
phone clerk relays the message
to your broker's order room,
the message goes to the broker
with whom you originally talk
ed, then you are informed
about the transaction on a con
firmation slip sent by mail and
in between you may get a phone
call.
Meanwhile, an employe of
the NYSE called a "reporter"
and stationed at ZYX's trading
post also has jotted down on a
third piece of paper the ticker
symbol of ZYX, the volume
traded (100 shares), the price
at which the deal was made
(55).
This third piece of paper is
placed in a plastic cartridge,
which is inserted in a pneu
matic tube and shot up to a
ticker operator sitting five
stories above the floor. When
the slip on ZYX arrives at this
ticker plant, it is removed from
the carrier tube, time-stamped
and carried on a short belt con
veyor to a ticker operator al
ways a woman who is seated
at a ticker machine that looks
like a typewriter. She records
the sale on the keyboard ZYX
55V thereby perforating a six
channel punch tape.
Under normal circumstances,
in a couple of minutes or so,
that transaction ZYX 55'
appears on the 3,800 familiar
ticker tapes in 675 cities in the
U.S. and Canada and this is how
anyone interested in ZYX (or
other listed stocks) knows what
is going on. Jones and Smith, of
course, find out individually
what has occurred and the two
little pieces of paper confirm
ing the verbal agreement be
tween the two brokers become
part of the records of the firms
involved.
Next: The Floor an anti
quated, automated paradox.
In the Editor's Mailbag
McKenzie Highway
EUGENE (To the Editor)
In the Forest Service's "Impact
Report" on the possible new
alignment of the McKenzie High
way (June 10 issue. Register
Guard) between Blue River and
McKenzie Bridge, the statement
that a "south bank" road would
cost less to maintain overlooks
the fact that this would cause
two highways to be maintained,
and the cost would actually be
almost double. The "north
bank" road not only would re
main, but must be improved to
take care of the population in
the area, the many school buses,
and 40 to 50 per cent of the log
ging trucks that must use the
north side road even though a
south side road is built.
A south bank road, due to
limited access as planned,
would open up little new area
but would take some 125 to 150
acres out of the recreation
lands, depending on right-of-way
width.
t.et us keep the new McKen
zie Highway alignment on the
north bank, where it better
serves the local comunity, is
more scenic (or the tourist, is
cheaper to build and cheaper to
maintain, and keeps faith with
the upper McKenzie people,
who have worked so hard to got
an all-year highway.
S. K. PATTERSON
2111 Lincoln St.
In Appreciation
EUGENE (To the Editor)
Just before Memorial Day this
year, a number of citizens of
this community, becoming
aware of the condition of the
Masonic Cemetery at Univer
sity St. and 25th Ave , organized
and took part in a clean up pro
gram.
this cemetery was started in
1857 by local Masons for the
use of all the people of the area,
and many of the mrn and wom
c. who had a groat deal to do
with the founding and growth
of this area and the state at
large, have (ound their final
resting place there. No funds
were set aside for the upkeep
of the cemetery and the prob
lem of maintenance has been
a difficult one.
On behalf of the Masons, as
well as all others who have an
interest in the cemetery, and
those pioneers who arc resting
there, but who cannot speak
for themselves: we express ap
preciation to all of those who
helped in caring for the ceme
tery, especially the city admin
istration, the Committee on
Neighborhood and Community
Affairs and the many indivi
duals who cooperated in the
program. '
GEORGE H. FRANCE
Trustee
Masonic Temple
Carmichael
i r
for The 'tfORLp'e
surest 6MfFz",
LOC MeCK
'Sophisticated? Maybe,
But Certainly Not New'
Lawrence
WASHINGTON President
Kennedy may not have realized
it, but some of the "new" and
"sophisticated" ideas he ex
pounded in his address last
week at Yale
University are
throwbacks t o
proposals made
and rejected in
the 1930s.
The President
perhaps decided
anyway to ad-;
v o c a t e the
changes in the
system of audit
ing the govern
ment's expense and income
which President Franklin D.
Roosevelt and his "Brain Trust"
sponsored. The scheme is to
list only a part of the govern
ment's annual outlay as "ex
penses" and to set up a lot of
inventories and properties as
"investments" or capital assets.
The purpose, of course, is to
show less of a deficit, if not a
surplus, in the principal state
ment of finances that gets pub
lic attention. Such a change, it
is argued, would be more like
the methods of private busi
ness. Daniel W. Bell, who was di
rector of the Budget for several
years, beginning in 1935, and
who now is head of the Ameri
can Security & Trust Co. here,
fought vigorously against the
idea as unsound, and Congress
didn't warm up to it either.
Again, in the early days of
the Eisenhower administration,
the plan received a big boost
from Bcardsley Ruml, who was
finance chairman of Adlai
Stevenson's presidential cam
paign in 1952 and who had
gained fame in championing the
present "pay-as-you-go" system
of paying income taxes. But
even Ruml didn't claim that the
"capital budget" idea was ori
ginal. He said to the House
Ways and Means Committee on
Aug. 12, 1953:
"This change has been rec
ommended for years by stu
dents, organizations, and gov
ernment agencies."
'Great Enemy of Truth'
President Kennedy in his
speech at Yale denounced the
present method of presenting
the annual budget to the coun
try as a "myth." He said:
"For the great enemy of the
truth is very often not the lie
deliberate, contrived and dis
honestbut the myth persis
tent, persuasive and unrealis
tic." Turning to what he called
"fiscal myths," Kennedy said:
"We persist in measuring our
federal fiscal integrity today by
the conventional, or adminis
trative, budget with results
which would be regarded as
absurd in any business firm, in
any country of Europe, or in
any careful assessment of the
reality of our national finances.
"The administrative budget
has sound administrative uses.
But for wider purposes it is
less helpful. It omits our spe
cial trust funds and the effect
they have on our economy. It
neglects changes in assets or
inventories. It cannot tell a
loan from a straight expendi
ture. And worst of all it cannot
distinguish between operating
expenditures and long-term in
vestments." The President may not be
aware of it, but those very
points were made in the 1930s.
He said in his Yale speech that
some of the things he had been
hearing recently around the
country "sound like old records,
long-playing, left over from the
middle Thirties" and that these
"took place in a different world
with different needs and dif
ferent tasks."
Senator Byrd Consulted
But President Kennedy may
not know that the objective of
the "capital budget" plan in the
1930s was exactly the same as
he has in mind today to get
rid of the bad word "deficits"
and to make a better political
impression. Sometimes the
"capital assets" on the books
prove to be a myth. Thus, the
true deficit of the Reconstruc
tion Finance Corporation an
independent agency founded in
1932 was not generally known
for many years, but finally S2.8
billion had to be added to the
public debt.
This writer the other day
asked Sen. Harry Byrd. Demo
crat of Virginia, chairman of
the Senate Finance Committee,
what he thought of the "capi
tal budget" scheme. Senator
Byrd said:
"I am opposed to it. I think
it's fantastic to try to take all
the capital outlay and outright
investments by the government
in buildings and construction
and appropriations for defense
equipment and not charge them
to regular expenditures. You
would never know where you
stood. It's just a ay to cover
up real deficits. We must not
try to fool the people."
'Hack Door' Temptations
It would he hard, for in
stance, the senator added, to
classify a rolarisheanng sub
marine or a missile base as an
"investment" and to figure out
what the 'depreciation'' would
he. especially since the gov
ernment spends so much on a
big military machine that isn't
comparable to the jlant and
equipment of private business
which yields an annual earning.
Also, the Treasury has a host
of contingent liabilities and
"guarantees" running into the
billions. Trust funds would be
subjected constantly to the
temptations of "back door" bor
rowing and spending for unre
lated purposes.
The President and three high
administration officials never
theless delivered last week a
total of four public speeches de
signed to prepare the country
to accept the theory of a "capi
tal budget." All this brings 16
mind the quip that Prime Min
ister Harold Macmillan, head
of the Conservative Party in
Great Britain, made in 1959
during his campaign against the
Socialist Labor Party. He said:
"The opposition has some
sound and original ideas, but
the trouble is that some of the
original ideas are not sound and
some of the sound ideas are
not original."
The idea of "capital budget"
is not original with Kennedy,
and it has been proved unsound
every time it has been publicly
debated from the days of FDR
through the years of the Eisen
hower administration.
Copyright, 19S2, New York Herald
Tribune Inc.
Don's Fleeson
Economics
And Politics
WASHINGTON Wall Street
seems to feel that there will be
no war and no more inflation.
Instead of praising President
Kennedy for containing these
ogres, it has
mounted a high
ly personal at
tack on him as
the cause of its
aches and pains.
A similar
scare line is be
ing pushed by
major Republi
can spokesmen.
The latest Re
publican Con- Fleeson
gressional Newsletter is even
warning housewives that they
may soon be doing their own
washing again.
At the moment the President
is in little danger politically
from these tactics. The answer
to the question of how many
precincts Wall Street has ii
that it has none. The President
continues to be extremely popu
lar, especially with younger
voters. He is at arm's length
from the fall election, and even
if he were not, the omens are
favorable for his party.
It may be true, as some Dem
ocrats believe, that Wall Street
has opened Gov. Nelson Rock
efeller's push for the presidency
in 1964. Certainly it appears
that the New York governor
will Jiave negligible opposition
for re-election in November
and will be correspondingly en
couraged to make a real fight
of the 1964 contest.
'The Dismal Science'
But in such ups and downs
of politics, the President still
holds the advantage. His prob
lem is embedded in the econ
omy itself and its complicated
operations. In this area he must
explain, explain, explain and
then explain some more how it
arises and what he proposes to
do.
It is not for nothing that
economics has been called the
dismal science, a distinction
singled out for it by Thomas
Carlyle, who was notably un
cheerful about many subjects.
Politicians avoid it like the
plague; there is only one pro
fessional economist in the Sen
ate, Paul Douglas of Illinois.
Douglas has achieved mem
bership on the Finance Com
mittee, but he is made to feel
much alone there by the su
preme self-confidence of such
senior colleagues as Sen. Harry
F. Byrd, an apple grower; Sen.
Robert S. Kerr, an oil and gas
millionaire, and Sen. John J.
Williams, who is in the grain
business in Millsboro, Del. Doug
las is probably uniquely quali
fied to understand what Ken
nedy is up against.
Entry in Lists Declined
For no politician would dis
pute that the author of "Pro
files in Courage" is displaying
an extremely courageous one in
demanding an economic dia
logue as a preface to political
action. Even the businessmen
who are so patently unhappy
have declined to enter the lists
with him on the subject of the
sluggish economy, especially
r.ow that the fever of inflation
seems to have subsided.
His fellow Democrats, Ken
being one of the most vocal, pre
fer action in the form of tax
cuts now to more thought and
debate. Kerr has been accused
of wanting tax cuts now for fear
the President next year will
link them to the closing of tax
loopholes and a slash in the oil
and gas depletion tax allowance.
This may he so, but he is also
behaving like a politician in
seeking to soothe the public
with the most direct and simple
economic remedies available.
"op right. 1M2. hv United
icaluxa Sjndicaie, Inc.)