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About Eugene register-guard. (Eugene, Or.) 1930-1983 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 1963)
Ex$mt TSfpRt-guatft SF 11 C0URb HONS Hd9A9ft 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' i -policy is the complete and impartial publication in its newt 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. 8A EUGENE, OREGON, MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 1963 APT People in Local Government . Our local governments are already hard-pressed and in the decade ahead they will be even more hard-pressed to find APT men and women to perform key functions of public administration and service. This judgment has been rendered by the Municipal Manpower Commission, a group of leading U.S. businessmen and educators who have just completed a two-year study of the management prob lems of local governments. APT men and women are identified in the commission's report as the ad ministrators, professionals and techni cal workers "who must face the prob lems of local governments night and day, who in addition to providing high ly specialized services must search out the facts, list and evaluate alternative courses of action, advise local legislators, resolve many questions within prevail ing policy directives and laws, carry out policy decisions and then start the process all over again." APT men and women are not being paid enough in our local governments. Nor are they given enough public credit for their services. Accordingly, the Mu nicipal Manpower Commission says: - There are able, dedicated persons in key' positions in local governments but not nearly enough. And, as the national shortages of APT talents increase, the local governments will experience more acute shortages ol these talents. More than one-third of all municipal ex ecutives will retire within 10 years. By 1980, local governments will have to recruit more than 300,000 APT people. The overall quality of today's APT per sonnel is inadequate to cope with emerging "fr fr -fr Tailor the Limits Without a complete copy of the com mittee's report to analyze, it may be jumping the gun to offer dissenting views on what the Oregon Legislative Highway Interim Committee has pro posed in the way of new speed limits. . But, according to press reports from the state Capitol, the committee is rec ommending that, in addition to the basic driving rule, Oregon should adopt a 65 niph limit on open highways other than freeways and a 70 mph limit for freeway travel. The Register-Guard concurs with the committee in the idea that fixed speed limits should be added to the basic rule which makes it illegal for drivers to ex ceed speeds which would be prudent, taking into consideration traffic, high way conditions, dangers at intersections and other conditions which might affect safety weather, for example. But this newspaper isn't at all sure that the committee's plan would effec tively promote safer driving practices on highways where 65 niph speeds would bo normal maximums. Freeway travel at 70 mph seems reasonable, es pecially as it is further controlled by the basic rule. But, off the freeway there are highways, and, there are high ways. Some are wide and straight. Some arc crooked and narrow. If it is the com mittee's recommendation that 65 mph be the standard-speed limit on all these various highways, driving safety will not be improved as much as it should be improved. As every traffic officer knows, the prudence required by the basic rule is a variable test. One judge will interpret evidence presented in a basic rule case differently than another. And each and every driver has his own ideas about how much he should reduce his speed in bad weather or when approaching an intersection, a sharp curve, or a tricky grade. In our view, Oregon should continue to have the basic rule, plus fixed speeds tailored to individual highways and the various segments of these highways. Tops should be 65 anywhere off the freeway. And where highways are nar row, crooked, In need of repairs or oth erwise mean to drive, speed limits should be realistically calculated posted and enforced without question. metropolitan problems and the quality of "back up" strength is even more suspect. To day, division heads and their chief subordi nates are not well-trained in breadth or depth. Today, department heads are not trained to deal with ever-broader problems of public policy. - What can, what must be done, if our local governments are to be what we need them to be? The commission rec ommends, first, that public apathy to ward the problems of local administra tions be attacked with "a direct, massive effort." Then, as the public's understand ing and appreciation of APT people is improved, a number of steps should be taken to make public service at the lo cal government level a much more atr tractive career opportunity. None of these steps will be taken, however, the commission states, until the general public demands that they be taken. "No commission, study group, or national organization can prescribe all the ingredients to improve the man power in a single local government. No government can force a community to accept them. Therefore, any commit ment to better manpower and better local government must rest on the pub lic and its leaders." . That's plain enough warning. All that needs to be added is that rapid urbani zation of this nation makes it one which must be recognized immediately. For every APT man or woman we have now, we will need two tomorrow. If we wait until tomorrow to get riled up about this, we'll need many more API people to help unravel the troubles that have piled up simply be'eause of our procrastination. Insult That was sure a shame about Dick Powell and Jack Carson. Many are the nice things that obituary writers have said about them. No use trying to add more. But every red-blooded American be tween about 35 and 50 may take excep tion to a crack by a United Press Inter national writer who attempted to recall the career of Dick Powell. He wrote: But he was discovered by Warner Bros., singing in a theater, and brought to Hollywood where he gained stardom in a succession of second-rate musical comedies, generally play ing choirboy-type juveniles in such films as "42nd Street," "Gold Diggers of 1933," and "20 Million Sweethearts," usually opposite Ruby Kcclcr. Where does he get this "second rate" stuff? Those were great movies. They showed a generation of boys and girls, especially girls, what life was like in the exciting circle, where there wasn't any depression and where everybody was poised and self-assured. Shakespeare and Wagner combined never did a bet ter job of taking the audience along to the never-never land. High I.Q. Stuff The Oregon Journal expresses inter est in the makeup of the American team which will try to climb Mt. Everest next April. The 20 are educated people. Yet, this, far from being unusual, is to be expected. Mountain climbing, for some reason, seems to appeal strongly to the educated. Go on one of these Sierra Club expe ditions into the California mountains some summer. It will seem as if every other member of the group is a college professor. Once on a climb of Three Fingered Jack here in Oregon, nine of the 11 climbers were adults. Among the 9 were 16 college degrees, including an M.D., a Ph.D., and a law degree. And the first name in the original summit book on the Middle Sister was that of Dean John Straub of the University of Ore gon. Would Be Nicer These year-end sales seem to stir hordes of shoppers to demonstrate amaz ing physical endurance. But why don't they attract some who are also willing to demonstrate that good manners arc not incompatible with shopping zeal? Sylvia Porter Compromise Is Only Road To Tax Cuts In 1962 we asked ourselves one vitally right question about the U.S. economy: Is the op pressive income tax structure we created at a time of global war a key reason business has failed to grow fast enough in recent years to take up the slack in production and employment? In 1962, the answer "yes!" emerged with remarkable una nimity among fiscal "conserva tives" and "liberals," Republi cans and Democrats, business men and labor leaders. As a result of asking our selves that right question and coming to that answer in 1962 the odds are the brightest in years that in 1963 Congress will overhaul our restrictive tax sys tem, reduce tax rates across-the-board for both individuals and corporations. Congress is about to convene. After the usual formalities, it will hear the President's mes sages, get to work. Overshadow ing all other domestic legisla tion will be the call for tax reduction-reform. It is already abundantly ob vious that there will be major disagreements in Congress on the tax overhaul its form, tim ing, size, impact on consumer and business spending patterns. It is obvious too that getting tax reductions through this Congress will be no cinch in view of the facts that the new budget will be billions in the red for the third year in a row, the national debt is climbing to an all-time high and just the interest paid on this debt is now taking more than $10 bil lion of our tax money each year. Let's, therefore, put a few basic points in perspective. Just about every informed, objective observer recognizes the danger to our nation of budget deficits on top of budget deficits. Years of red ink in a nation's budget can undermine its credit and the buying power of its currency just as years of red ink in a family's budget can undermine its credit and buying power. When Senator Byrd, the Virginia Democrat who heads the powerful Senate Finance Committee, warns of the perils in budget deficits, no one scoffs. The perils exist. Just about every informed, objective observer now agrees that our high income lax rates are a drag on our economy, that they blunt recoveries, encour age recessions, weaken incen tives. The agreement on this is truly extraordinary. Just about every informed, objective observer realizes it is politically unrealistic to expect that federal spending will be cut as much as taxes are re duced which is Byrd's demand. The President has said it plain ly. Non-dcfcnsc spending will be held near current levels but spending for defense, space and debt interest is going up. Re gardless of how much you sym pathize with Byrd's view, this is fact. Just about every informed, objective observer admits that if our economy continues mov ing as sluggishly as it has been for years, it will not produce enough taxes to cover govern ment spending. We will pile new deficit on new deficit, our national debt will soar, our in terest burden will rise even more, our unemployment rale will stay stickily high, our de mands for goods will not be big enough to spur industry into hiking its spending for essential modernization -expansion pro grams. Just about every informed, objective observer emphasizes that the one stimulant ' wc haven't tried which has done the job in Europe and could do it here is significant tax reduc tion to expand consumer and business spending and give bus inessmen the incentives to go into ventures that will create jobs, paychecks, profits. Where do these five points load? They lead to COMPRO MISE. The President already is com promising in public and private. No longer is he aiming at Jan. 1, 1963, as the effective date for the reductions. He has pledged major efforts to con trol spending and to finance the budget deficit out of our sav ings the least inflationary way the government can borrow. He will submit tax-raising reforms along with his tax reduction proposals. Surely, Congress in turn will compromise, for let this be clear. If Congress insists on a balanced budget before voting tax reduction, it will be insist ing on the impossible and this will be equivalent to saddling us with our obsolete, punitive tax structure indefinitely. niMrlhulrd. 1WU. bv The Hall syndicate, Inc. MKMHKR OF THE ASSOCIATED PRLSS The Associated Pren Is entitled exclusively to the use for renuhll ration or all the local ne printed In thli newspaper. MEMBER OK THE Al PIT BLKEAU OK ClRClLAUUSS Services Catted Tress International WILLIAM WASM ANN, News K.dltnr rxiNN L. BOMIAM, city Editor Ross c;. Johnson, Ad ertlslnf Director JARt. KljCiLE Circulation Manaser ROBERT K. REHTSi II Promotion W. B. JOHNSTON JR. Auditor ARNE STROM.MER Production ' EDITOR'S NOTE: If the editors had the facilities, they'd present the following Decalogue of Freedom in a form suitable for framing. They do suggest that readers clip it out and put it next to their personal copies of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. Written by Leo Rosten, the social commentator who serves as editorial adviser to Look, it appeared in the Jan. 15 issue of the magazine. . A Companion Piece to the Bill of Rights no person or group or policy can be permitted to exist beyond scrunity, criticism, even ridicule. When dogma gains enough power to punish those who op pose it, it becomes fanaticism. When dogma is in vested with enough power to supress opposition, it becomes tryranny. And when men are afraid to say what they think however cockeyed or unpopular it may be freedom has been violated, for it has been corrupted by fear. 6. The only thing worse than a too powerful minority is a too powerful majority. Government must at all costs protect all minorities against any majority including the government itself. 7. Every man has a right to opportunity, to respect, to fair treatment under law. Justice is a right, not a favor. No man shall be penalized for his parentage or his pigmentation or his faith. 8. No man, however disagreeable or dangerous, shall be denied an open trial, on specific charges. No man shall be judged by the same people who ac cuse him. Every man has the right to confront those who accuse him and try to prove them liars. 9. It is up to the authorities to prove a man guilty; it is not up to a man to prove himself in nocent. 10. The true and final purpose of government is so to arrange life that each man can do what he damned pleases so long as it does not harm or menace others. Efcf 1. Political power is power over others, and power over others must always be watched, guarded, circumscribed. 2. No man, no group, no sect, no party ever has a monopoly on truth, virtue and competence. 3. This means that no man, no group, no party is wise enough AND good enough AND sane enough to be entrusted with too much power. For good men are often silly and competent men are often wicked, and even the combination of virtue and ability in no way guarantees judgment or reason or sanity. Good intentions do not necessarily lead to good results; purity of heart is not always linked to political skill or emotional balance. Human history is studded with tragedy precisely because too often have "sincere" and passionate men seized the power (or bamboozled others into letting them exercise it) to do what THEY happen to think best. 4. Those we like may be wrong; those we hate may be right. The only way to find out what is best, for whom, is to let the ideas and the theories, how ever disturbing, roll out in uninterrupted contest. The right to talk creates the duty to listen. 5. Freedom dies under dogma. In a free society, (Reprinted from a series of articles in the current issue of Look magazine. Copyright, 1963, Cowles Maga zines and Broadcasting, Inc.) James Marlow Soviet-Chinese Split Now Bleeding Sore I Viewpoint 1 Gerald W. Johnson m "American Heroes and Hero Worship:" Nothing changes more con- historic document but a blue- follow their tortured reasoning stantly than the past; for the print for anyone in the West where up is down, in is out, past that influences our lives who is apt to forget, in the and nothing is really as it is or does not consist of what actual. years ahead, what the Red Chi- was: , . . . . , . . ncse said their real intentions They insist the source of !y happened, but of what men are. modern war is Western "im- believe happened . . . Heroes Their racking dispute with perialism" and that the United are created by popular demand, Russia can be put another way: States "imperialist bloc" is sometimes out of the scantiest They blame the Soviets for menacing world peace. .,, . ,u. .,. looking upon the Marx-Lenin But it was the Red Chinese cr'a' ,.' s"th as tne teachings as being outmoded as who invaded India and gobbled lnat William letl never shot, demonstrated by their various up Tibet. And it was Khru- the ride that Paul Revere never accommodations with the West shchev who almost started war finished, the flag that Barbara and their suggestion that the over Cuba. Frietchie never waved." WASHINGTON Wt The Red day. This should show whether two sides can live peacefully Chinese are practicing ancestor the split will become a Com- together. worship in what may be the munist disaster. The Chinese put a rigid con graveyard of Soviet Chinese The editorial in the People's struction on Marxism-Leninism unity. The ancestors are Marx Daily will remain not only an but the mind spins in trying to and Lenin. The Russians and Red Chi nese have be come like two separate priest hoods, each claiming it alone knows the correct meaning of the dogma handed down by the two pa- Marlow triarchs of communism. This schism looks simple but it is instead profound: Can KfW-Muivmir-s fnmmliniem liirn in ha cum world with the West without war? The Russians say yes, the Chinese no. The Chinese in effect accuse 1 In the Editor's Mailbag the Russians, for thinking yes, of having betrayed the basic teachings of Marx and Lenin. In return Premier Khrushchev accuses his allies of "madness." Began With Chinese Critlcsm This is where their dispute stands at the moment. It has turned the growing split be tween them into a bleeding sore. It seems certain to get worse. All the West can do is hope it gets fatally worse. It began some time back with Red Chinese criticism of Khru shchev for suggesting peaceful coexistence with the West is possible. It became savage when the Chinese denounced him for backing down in the Cuban crisis. And now the Chinese have plastered him with a word which is unbearable in both the Communist and Western worlds. They have called his withdrawal from Cuba "ap peasement." No Time to Reply In a 10,000-word editorial Dec. 31 in their newspaper, the People's Daily, the Red Chinese have made their fiercest and most public attack on the Rus sians and Khrushchev. It was on Dec. 12 that Khru shchev, who said he pulled his missiles out of Cuba to avoid nuclear war, used the word "madness" to describe the Chi nese complaint that he should not have budged. There hasn't been time for him or the Russian Communist party to reply to the attack in the People's Daily last Mon- Carmichael Letters intended for the Editor's Mailbag must be signed with the correct name and address of the writer. No anonymous letters will be published. Letters of less than 300 words in length will be given preference, as will those in which the writer con fines his letter to one topic. 1-1 1 AP I'LL &ET ALL BOY, HE 1 Boys and Guns COTTAGE GROVE (To the Editor) I have just read in "News and World Report" how the' authorities are worried about the increase in crime, especially among the youth groups. And now I see where some group of sportsmen in Eu gene are going to give lessons to kids on how to handle a gun to boys from 11 years up. Will they also teach babies how to play with matches? When Eleanor Roosevelt be came the first lady (?) of the land she advised young girls to learn how much liquor they could safely drink and then "stick to it." About a year ago she said that she was shocked to see so many women who were alcoholics, according to press reports. Now if we teach the kids how to form the kill ing habit when they are young (that is what guns are made for) should wc be surprised if juvenile crimes are increasing? The boy that shot his daddy be cause he would not buy him a bicycle and the one who fired through a window "just for fun" only had the brains of babies or they would have re flected on the consequences. If they had no gun there would have been no shooting. Teach a boy how to drink liquor moder ately in the home, how to use a gun and play with fire and parents may have gray hairs long before their proper time. I have seen three fires where parents let their kids play with matches. So if we keep the guns away from kids there will be no shooting. For kids to form the killing habit will create a blood thirsty nature so that killing harmless wild life is often fol lowed by taking human life when they get older. And it seems that the sheriff knowing about the tragic killing going on with boys and guns would discourage such foolery with sportsmen. The law says that boys and girls are morally ir responsible until they are 18 or 21, but we want to trust them with guns when they have the brains o babies. It looks as if the game commission is back of this shooting craze be cause of the big money back of it all. Little do they care about destruction of livestock or bird life so long as they can get license money. And insects are an ever increasing prob lem, due to the destruction of bird life. The Audubon Society claims that our underground drinking water is being poi soned by spraying while mil lions of birds are killed by eat ing poisoned insects. Civilization has a price, but we can't have it all our way. DORVl.N Dl'DLCK Sign Proposed EUGENE (To the Editor) One important function of the city hall now nearing comple tion should be to serve as a symbol of the city itself and to reflect the hopes and aspira tions of the citizens. It is there fore desirable that the structure be suitably identified in a way that will emphasize its impor tance and purpose. The most practical means of obtaining this identification clearly and graphically is the placing of a sign on or near the building. Having considered the impor tance and function of this sign, I modestly make the following proposals: First, it must be large and impressive enough not to be overpowered by the vast and intricate building behind it. Its size and complexity should be symbolic of the importance of the institution it identifies. There are people who object to large, complicated signs, but if our city is to get ahead in the competition for new citizens, in dustry, and commercial enter prise, we must realize this is a competitive business, and where signs are concerned, business is business. Secondly, it must be inform ative. This feature would show that the proprietors of the sign are sympathetic to the need of an intelligent and well informed public to have accurate and up-to-the-minute reports on weath er, headlines, day of the year, and the like. Thirdly, it must make an out standing aesthetic contribution of some sort, like electric organ music or great paintings done in neon. This would remind everyone that the citizens of Eugene are not interested in business alone, but in a beauti ful environment as well. A sign like that might have quite an effect on our city. It's time to start thinking about it. A. ROBERT THOMAS 2271 Birch Ln. Municipal Cemeteries EUGENE (To the Editor) It was interesting reading Dick Strife's suggestion in his column that Eugene should have a mu nicipal golf course. Why not? A municipal golf course will pay its own way. We have many things that function very nice ly on a municipal basis. A great deal of money is spent on our municipal fire and police departments for the com mon good of all. Municipal parking lots are here and will pay their own way. Eugene has a municipal water and electric department that pays its own way and has done an excellent job for the people of this area. Money has been voted for the park department in order to im prove and expand its facilities for the use of park lovers. Why not municipal cemeteries, per haps under the parks depart ment? Let the park department include perpetual municipal cemeteries in its planned ex pansion of park areas. There are many beautiful municipal cemeteries and operated at no expense to the taxpayer. The so-called perpetual ceme teries started for private profit may someday become not so perpetual as we think. The tru ly perpetual cemeteries will only be those planned and owned by the municipalities. It would be a nice start, for really perpetual cemeteries, for the city to make arrangement to take over and maintain the old cemeteries in town, where Eugene's founder and many of the pioneers rest, and maintain them as beautiful park areas. These old pioneer cemeteries, as well as new municipal ones, will pay their own way from derived revenues. It would be a good public contribution if the Register Guard, with its resources for re search, would publish a series of articles on the functioning of municipal cemeteries. We all must face the grave sooner or later. Let's turn our cemeteries of weeds into beautiful perpetu al resting places. JESS HAYDEN Scribble Shack 2800 Spring Dr. Aid Needed EUGENE (To the Editor) At the other end of the Mediter ranean Sea, not far from Jeru salem where the first Christmas was celebrated, lies the Colin Peninsula. It is part of the new nation of Algeria, which has suf fered eight punishing years of bitter warfare. More than two million Algerians face a rigor ous and demoralizing winter without adequate food, medicine or shelter. American Friends Service Committee relief workers there have cabled that the people of the Collo Peninsula face an es pecially desperate situation. The children are in rags and without adequate food to sustain life. Few of the babies survive the first month of life. Their par ents, unemployed, must seek shelter in dwellings of brush, grass and leaves as 90 per cent of the villages were destroyed. Inside, on the bare earth, a typical family of six share a single ragged blanket during the freezing winter nights. Medi cal care and schooling are total ly inadequate or non-existent. Americans, having just ex perienced the biggest Christmas in history, may want to share in what could be, literally, a gift of life. For only S5.00 or two (2) books of green stamps the Quaker Relief Teams can provide these people with two new. warm blankets (the goal is 4.000 blankets): S10.00 pro vides a ton and a half of surplus food commodities to Algerians living on less than 1,500 calories a day. Contributions, w hether checks or trading stamps, should be sent to the American Friends Service Committee, 3959 loth Ave., N. E., Seattle 5, Wash. MONETTE H. THATCHER 1813 Villard SU
