t
i , Uki munRi MOMS XIVIMHI
'' AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
ALTON F. BAKER, Publisher, 1927-1961
'Well, So Far, So Good
i -
12A
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 end
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..
EUGENE, OREGON, SUNDAY, JANUARY 13, 1963
As 90 Citizens Gather in Salem
Ninety men and women, the custodi
ans of everybody's problems, are con
verging on Salem. Monday they will con
vene as the 52nd Oregon Legislature.
Along in May, or maybe in June, they
will adjourn sine die. In some respects
Oregon will never be the same again.
If we're lucky, it will be a better place
to live because of the months these peo
ple spent in Salem.
The chances of this being a better
state will be stronger if the 00 men and
women try to see Oregon as a whole. It
will be smaller if they regard themselves
only as errand boys for their home com-'
munities. They will make laws not just
for Eugene and Enterprise and Elsie,
. but for all of Oregon. Yet, most of the
pressures upon them will be local pres
sures, pressures from the people with
the votes that, to them, count.
As human beings, legislators see
things through their own eyes, as all of
us do. For this the citizen cannot criti
cize them. They must be allowed to be
themselves. Yet, there will be times
these coming months when legislators
will have to strain to try to put them
selves in somebody else's shoes, to un
derstand somebody else's point of view.
This will be essential. But it will be dif
ficult, especially when economic consid
erations, often bearing upon the legisla
tor's own economic well-being, are in
question. :.
:' Their heart strings will be played
upon. Most of their legislation will deal
with persons and projects for whom and
which they can have only sympathy.
Their charges are the 600,000 Oregon
school children who deserve opportunity
and who, in this age, can get It only it
they have the kind of schooling that will
enable them to compete. Their charges
are the welfare cases, some of them poor
almost beyond belief. Their charges are
the mentally ill and the mentally re
tarded, many of whom can, if properly .
cared for, make a contribution to so
ciety, and all of them deserving of sym
pathy. Some of the problems these men and
women will face will be complicated in
the extreme. They will hear witnesses
who seem to speak a language they never
heard. Yet, it will be their task to sort
through what the witnesses said, or what
the members think they said, and to find
a solution that is fair and for the good
of Oregon.
Over all their problems will hover
the question of money. Where is the
money in Oregon? How much can in
justice be pried loose for public pur
poses? How should the money, and there
will never be enough, be distributed?
Will the legislators have the political
courage to apply a tax formula that' is
fair? Or will they fear to step on the
toes of their constituents?
The key principle in legislation is the
principle of compromise. Almost no pro- ,
posal is universally advocated. The legis-.
lative task is to steer toward a goal that
is workable and fair, that does the
needed job and that does not bring un
deserved hardship upon anybody. Poli
tics is the art of the possible. At its best
it is also the art of the glorious. Some
legislative battles will be lost this ses-.
sion, but in some cases the fight in itself
will have been worth-while.
These 90 men and women hold the
future of Oregon in their hands. Their
deliberations these coming months are
worthy ot the closest scrutiny by all
citizens. In their work they are deserv
ing of the understanding and sympathy,
if not always of the support, of the rest
,of us who must live, for at least two
years, under the set of rules they provide.
Brighter Boys
Soon it will be easier to see the paper
boy as he makes his appointed rounds.
And that is exactly the idea of the new
safety belts that all Register-Guard car
riers will be asked this month to wear.
The belts are orange and white and
made of a material that reflects light.
They resemble the military Sam Browne
belt. . ' .. . -
This weekend they will be distributed
to carriers in the areas immediately out
side Eugene. Here is where the need
seems greatest. There are fewer street
lights in those areas, and cars travel fast
er there. By the end of the month, as
the belts become available, all 495 of
the Register-Guard's junior dealers will
have them.
Something of this sort is important
on dark, rainy evenings, when boys on
foot and boys on bicycles are hard to see.
Bike lights help, but alone they often
are not enough.
There is a lesson here for anybody
who ventures out in trafficked areas on
dark, rainy nights. Wear something
light, preferably something that will re
flect light. It could be a life saver.
Zoning Is Protective
Down in Klamath County, where
land use regulations (zoning) are being
proposed and vociferously opposed
the Herald and News has found it neces
sary to explain the difference between
zoning and urban renewal.
It seems that some Klamath residents
hav had the erroneous notion that the
City of Springfield recently voted to
throw out its zoning ordinance. Others
have thought that zoning and urban re
newal are one and the same. And still
others have believed that zoning would
dictate even the types of building ma
terials which would have to be used in
local construction.
The Herald and News deserves
praise for attempting to explain, without
arousing needless new emotions, that
urban renewal is distinguished from zon
ing in the same way that preventative
TV
medicine is distinguished from radical
surgery. Good zoning laws 'cannot as
sure perfection in community growth
entirely by themselves. Sometimes, de
spite diligent zoning efforts, cancerous -areas
do develop and must then be re
moved by drastic means demolition
and rebuilding. But, where zoning is
instituted soon enough and employed
with proper concern for both private
and general public interests, the proba
ble need for either privately financed or
government-instituted urban renewal
can be considerably reduced.
This is essentially the point the
Register-Guard and other newspapers
have been trying to make in supporting
proposals for zoning coastal areas of
Lane, Douglas and Coos Counties. The
only real difference is that if these
coastal areas are allowed to become
blighted because land uses have not been
regulated within them, there can be no
effective renewing of their lost beauty,
their magnificent natural splendor.
Into the Jungle
Thirty-five young Americans, about
a third of them Negroes, begin training
this month for a domestic peace corps.
.They will be sent not to the swamplands
of Southeast Asia or the deserts of
Arabia, but to the concrete and asphalt
jungles of Harlem. Undoubtedly they
will perform a needed service in this
dangerous and diseased part of the
world. But somehow the very idea of it
seems to be a sad commentary on our
civilization.
If, That Is . . .
Oregonians, according to a publica
tion of Tax Foundation, Inc., bore less
than 1 per cent of the 1962 federal tax
burden. But, even so, our per capita
payments to Uncle Sam amounted to
$498. The aggregate of payments from
this state to the federal treasury was
$896 millions.
See how much even a 5 per cent re
duction in federal taxes would mean to
us? It would give us about $45 million
extra to use in solving some of our ow n
problems for ourselves.
Ralph McGill
Brazil Classic Picture of Chaotic Land
WASHINGTON NOTES:
There was a small news item in
the paper, two paragraphs long.
It read:
"Lima, Peru Five persons
died early Wed-
nesday in clash
es between po
lice 'and strik
ing peasants at
two sugar mills
in northern
Peru. -"The'
clashes
occurred after
strikers attacked
and "sought to
burn down the
PataDO and Pu-
cala mills, inflicting heavy dam
age." Here we have an example of
one of the things wrong with
news reporting in our time. It
met the requirements of who,
what, where, and when. But to
day it is important to know why
something happened. This par
ticular news item was in the
old-fashioned style. Some strik
ers had attacked sugar mills.
Police had beaten them back,
killing five of them. But this
did not give us a picture of what
conditions are in -Chiclayo in
knowledge of South American
conditions, we can assume, with
some confidence, that feudal
conditions remain in Chiclayo.
We may be rather certain that
low wages, long hours, and poor
working conditions prevail Ag
riculture in Latin America is
almost everywhere depressed.
Its workers live in poverty and
ant-farming areas have no ade
quate roads or rail transporta
tion to move what is grown to
the urban markets.
Brazil, therefore, offers the
classic picture. The country has
vast natural resources. A small,
excessively wealthy upper class
lives in luxury and enjoys a life
and a culture that is truly rich.
But a good two-thirds of the
McGill
un.ntr.ha1nace Thpir nnlltiral
status is prejudiced. Illiteracy population of Brazil is under-
. . .n.i.knil nn aril ma I A1 nnri im
is tne rule, ueaun conaiuuns
are primitive. The story is an
old one.
It is, however, no older than
the familiar one of police vs
strikers in an area where labor
has no bargaining rights.'
The two paragraphs out of
Chiclayo would, if amplified,
help us to understand why
President Kennedy's intelligent
nourished, uneducated, and is,
of course, increasingly disen
chanted with its lot.
, Desperate Effort
In the past two dtcades Bra
zil's population has doubled
while her farm production (not
all of it food) has increased by
about 40 per cent. This means
less food per person. The gov-
plan for assistance to Latin eminent has. made a sincere
America is inoperative. It de
pends, for a beginning, on re
form by land-holders and in
dustrialists in Latin America.
Killing hungry and desperate
men is hardly a reform. We can
be pretty sure that a Commun
ist or so has been bred by those
long-existing conditions. -There
are a number of poten
tially explosive areas in latin
northern Peru. One can look up ' America. Peru is one. But that
the town in a book. They tell us
that it Is an agricultural coastal
city -of about 40,000 population.
It is in a rice and sugar district.
Sugar is the more important ex
port. , -.Drawing
on our general
In the Editor's Mailbag
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.
UO Expansion
EUGENE (To the Editor)
Thanks for your good editorial
in the Dec. 6 issue of your
paper regarding the acquisition
of property east of the campus
by the university, for expan
sion. I wish to say that this ex
pansion program has left some,
and is leaving many more, with
a broken spirit over giving up 0 n 1 j
their homes, especially the KeCallS Incident
spent considerable time trying
to find a house for my brood
the next day. He called me at
fcur and apologized for failing.
At least Ed Cone is a Christian.
People that can't stand the
sight of poverty put me in mind
of the people that did pass up
the poor rich old fellow who
was helped by the Good Samari
tan. If I burn in Hell hereafter,
as people have suggested I do,
I hope I get into a different
section from these so-called
charitable people of Eugene.
Then, as now, they will smoke
and stink. It will smell as bad
as city hall politics in Eugene,
and that is bad.
EARL L. NEET
2595 McMillan St.
elderly, who find it hard to re
establish themselves again.
Death has taken three from
the group who were forced to
give up" their homes, and a
fourth lies critically , ill, and
still another, who was caring
' for an invalid sister, was ob
liged to find a new location and
move, which was very difficult
under the circumstances.
We hear rumblings of dis
satisfaction from several
sources over the methods em
ployed in acquiring some of the
homes.
The records show that there
Is a great disparity of prices
paid by the university for prop
erties even within the same
block and the disparity cannot
be accounted for in quality of
improvements.
After all, would it not be to
the advantage of the university,
in the end, for their agents to
use a little more consideration
to the home owners irj their
dealings?
One wonders, too, if it was
really necessary for the univer
sity to acquire these homes, and
disrupt the lives of so many
people, when it already has a
tract of land in this area oc
cupied by only temporary hous
ing, constructed during World
War II.
EDITH B. DAVIS
. 1159W Mill St.
Charity
EUGENE (To the Editor)
Mrs. Niven took three columns
to give reasons for tho action
of the Planning Commission.
I'll take less.
I ask Mrs. Niven, is a down
and out, cold, hungry man with
a smell of wine on his breath
any more dangerous to our chil
dren than the staid businessman
driving his Cadillac home from
the Elks Club or the Eugene
Country Club after an evening
with the boys during which,
without question, he had several
mixed drinks? I spent an eve
ning at the Country Club re
cently. It Is fresh in my mind that
on the evening of Thanksgiving
last, I put a man and his wife
and 11 children up at my own
expense, gladly, with no mental
or moral reservation, nor
thought of being paid back. All
this because we didn't have a
charitable organization in Eu
gene to care for them. They
were called, but failed in time
of need.
The next day I attempted to
interest a R-G reporter in the
family as a matter of human
interest. I attempted to talk to
seme at KVAL's studio, but it
was the night the Salvation
Army was kicking off their
drive, so the station had no
time for charity, or that's what
I was told. Ed Cone, our mayor,
made a three minulc appear
ance on the program with the
SA people. Afterward, he did
lend me a sympathetic ear in
the foyer of KVAL, and Ed
COBURG (To the Editor)
So many people are writing let
ters about the proposed mis
sion. It seems to me there is a
great lack of Christian spirit
revealed. I remember back in
the early nineteen hundreds
when my folks worked at the
Bethel Mission in Kansas City.
People did not complain about
living close to the mission. I
think if people taught their
children to go on about their
own business and not make fun
of the unfortunate, there would
be less children bothered.
My mother cooked good food
for the people. My father, who
was crippled at that time, but
could drive his team of horses,
used to gather up the clothing,
and I used to clean and repair
the garments. I only remember
one incident that was degrad
ing. My father had a wagon-box
full of clothes and shoes, and
when he got to the top of one
of Kansas City's steep hills he
stopped to rest his team. A
young fellow with a load of ma
nure drove up beside him and
stopped. He looked at all the
clothes and said to my father,
"Rag picker, old man." My
father said yes. The young man
said, "I have a load of manure.
It is of value to people to put
on their gardens." My father'
said, "I sec, you have two loads
of manure." The young fellow,
still sarcastic, said, "No, only
one." My father replied, "I see
two. One in the wagon box, one
on the wagon scat." He whipped
up his horses and ran them
down the hill.
Bethel Mission was painted
on the sido of the wagon-box.
That lad was like many of the
young fellows today, just have
to do something to be noticed.
They grow up without any
training or respect for other
people, so they make trouble
for others, and get in trouble
themselves.
ALBERTA HULSEBUS
Box 92
The Real Need
EUGENE (To the Editor)
Many citizens of our community
have registered shock at the
announcement of a federal grant
to study juvenile delinquency in
Eugene. It is cause for reflec
tion on the reason or need for
this grant.
In my estimation it would be
better for us to register our
shock and disapproval in direct,
constructive action. Eugene is a
city with a great many youth
programs: yet from the apparent
lack of interest exhibited by
citizens of the community, each
one of these programs is strug
gling for existence.
As a citizen and taxpayer,
which is the ultimate goal? To
spend money that we have paid
in taxes or to decrease taxes by
using our own abilities and cre
ative thinking to decrease the
expenditures of tax money?
Would it not be more satisfying
to know that the value of our
efforts is evident in tangible re
sults within the community? .
We have many organizations
that are concerned with the in
terests of youth not with ju
venile delinquency alone. Each
of these programs is suffering
from lack of financial support,
but more importantly, each is
suffering from the dearth of
adult endeavor.
It is so easy to say, "It is not
my child who is causing concern
in the community," and to close
our minds to the problem, but
how often it is the community
attitude that shapes the char
acter and personality of our
youth and gives him the courage
of his convictions at a time of
temptation.
If you feel the desire to take
part in this public concern, you
can contact the youth organiza
tion dearest to you. Who knows?
An hour or two of your time
may mean a lifetime of healthy,
productive existence to some
child.
STEWART D. PLACE
Advancement Chairman,
Toshnik District, B.S.A.
2940 Adams St.
Reply to Dudeck
EUGENE (To the Editor)
In regard to Mr. Dorvin Du
deck's letter to the editor of
Jan. 7, I noticed where he is op
posed to the teaching of gun
safety to young people. . Would
he rather have these same
young people be complete in
competents in the use of fire
arms? Those of us who teach
these hunter safety courses do
so with no pay and on our own
time. We do it because we know
that shooting can be a very en
joyable sport and we hope that
through our efforts we can do
something to help make it a
safe sport.
We do NOT teach the young
sters how to form a habit of
killing, and guns arc not only
for killing. There are many peo
ple who own guns, but do not
hunt. Plinking is a very enjoy
able pastime and target shoot
ing is becoming one of Ameri
ca's fastest growing sports.
Mr. Dudeck, you say "If there
had been no gun, there would
have been no shooting." This is
very true, but if the boy you
mention or anyone else wants
to kill someone, they would do
it, guns or no guns, whether
they used a knife, a rock or
what have you.
Certainly no amount of train
ing can force a person to be
careful if he doesn't want to be,
but he can be trained in the safe
methods of gun handling and we
can hope he will put them into
practice.
Since the hunter safety pro
gram has been started in the
state of Oregon over 50.000 stu
dents have been trained in the
safe use of firearms and none
have been involved in a fatal
firearms accident. We do not
know if this will always be the
situation, but we can hope it
will continue to be so.
Mr. Dudeck I invite you to
come to the YMCA building at
12 noon on Saturday, Jan. 12 or
19 to watch a hunter safety
course and become acquainted
with what our program does.
MICHAEL C. THOMPSON
Hunter Safety instructor,
185 Jefferson St.
So They Say-
As a country, as a place to
live and rear a family, the So
viet Union is pitiful by contrast
with the United States.
r-llx R. MrKnlnht, Dallas, Tel.,
newspaper editor.
There's only one way to com
pete successfully all-out. If be
lieving this makes you i greedy
capitalist lusting after bloated
profits, then I plead guilty.
Henry Ford U.
Brazil, largest of the Latin na
tions, should be "standing on
the brink" is an even more re
vealing story.
Cities Growing
Brazil occupies almost half
the continent of South America.
Its population in 1940 was 41
million persons.' Today there
are almost 80 million. By 1970
the number will be up to around
100 million. Their story is one
familiar to all the world. The
cities are growing.
But what really pushes Brazil
to the edge of grievous, chaotic
trouble is that only about 2 per
cent of all her vast land area is
under cultivation, and only a
third of that grows food. Fur
ther to complicate this desper
ate problem of food is the fact
that several of the larger peas-
Eric Sevareid
and desperate effort to expand
industry. There has neen a con
siderable success. But we in-this
country, with food, fiber, and
commodity surplus, cannot
quite comprehend that indus
trial progress without a corres
ponding expansion of food and
purchasing power, doesn't work
out. If the people can't buy the
new products, then the net re
sult is further liability.
Nor is this all. There is not
enough money to spend on pub
lic health, education, and the
basic services of civilization.
This is a seedbed for radical
measures. This is why Brazil's
slums have produced pro-Castro
movements. It is why, too,
there are some Communists at
work trying to win converts.
Brazil likes to call herself
"the land of the future." In a
very real sense she is. So is
much of Latin America. But we
urgently need news in depth
out of that continent to the
South of us. Why is there a
strike in Chiclayo's sugar mills?
And what are the conditions
that made at least five men will
ing to die trying to correct
them?
Distributed, 1963, by
The Hall Syndicate, Inc.
JFK's Decision to Be Bold
Justified - and a Relief
Sevareid
It would require a candle
larger than any realist dares
light in this naughty world to
produce a reflection from the
newly minted coin, Anno Dom
ini 1963, bright
enough to blind
the wicked, but
a dull glow of
hope is percep
tible just the
same.
Perhaps the
glow will never
truly sparkle as
long as the sev-
en-league stride
of this arma
ments race is
not broken, yet both sides of
the coin give off a new light.
On the one side are the new
problems of the Communist
camp, now so fragmentized and
quarrelsome that Moscow fairly
surely has been forced into an
extended period of reticence for
reconsideration of its strategies
of indirect aggression which
have failed in so many places.
The light of hope from the
other side of the coin our sido
is a reflection of new confi
dence in Washington, but also,
so it seems to me, new under
standing of how the major pow
er is historically obliged to
behave not only towards the
common enemy but towards the
commonality of friends and
allies.
At the risk of appearing of
fensively smug, I must say that
the thinly disguised "back
ground" comments by the Pres
ident in Florida, concerning his
decision to strike out more
boldly as the allied leader, come
as both relief and justification
for some of us who have long
been pleading for precisely this
posture.
Two Axioms
There are, after all, a few ax
ioms that can be firmly fixed
even to the shifting swamp of
international conduct. Two of
them would go about as follows:
1. It is not possible for any
alliance to follow a line of con
duct that is alien to the policy
of the major power within the
alliance, which policy must
necessarily serve the ultimate
security ends of the major pow
er. 2. In a peacetime alliance of
democratic governments, it is
impossible to achieve advance
agreements on actions that will
cause serious and immediate
pain to any of the members,
even though the distant goal
appears of overriding impor
tance. For these reasons the United
States was obliged to act
alone in the Caribbean; advance
agreement from our Latin
American allies would never
have come. For these reasons
the President now feels obliged
to put the screws to our Euro
pean allies in pressing for a
build-up of their conventional
forces, on which they have been
defaulting for domestic reasons,
and in discouraging ideas of in
dependent, national nuclear
arsenals.
This is not to say
United States will,
prove able to work
but the whole logic of the situ
ation obliges it to try. It is not
to say, either, that the areas in
which Washington can success
fully strike out on its own are
unlimited. Berlin carries a built
in limitation upon unilateral ac
tion. So docs the Congo, given
the present state of the U.N. in
volvement, possible as it may be
that we will become chief sup
plier of manpower and strate
gics as well as of money and
materials a prospect this ob
server contemplates with dread.
Pull From Front
I realize the size and influ
ence of the opposing school of
thought, those convinced that
unless an alliance moves all in
step it will break apart My own
answer would be that the true
test of an alliance is whether
it can act effectively in a true
crisis. I see little evidence that
any of our systems of alliance
can do this even with the push
from behind; what is inherent
ly required is the pull from in
front.
I believe these axioms can
and must be applied even in the
case of our ad hoc alliances
for economic uplift and stabil
ity, meaning particularly the Al
liance for Progress. I doubt very
much that even a country of
such good purpose as Brazil,
now half drowning in inflation,
will act to save itself unless we
act first, even though our action
is negative. We are obliged to
convince Brazilian leaders that
we really will cease our period
ic bailout unless they act to
overmaster their domestic ail
ment, excruciatingly painful
though the cure may be. In this
case and in others we are how
obliged to establish, so to speak,
the credibility of our economic
deterrent.
Popularity Contest '
In acting upon the foremen
tioned principles, we are going
to undergo an intellectual and
emotional crisis ourselves. The
prevailing pyschology of 20
years encrustation is not to be
changed without suffering; and
if we thin! we have an "un
popular image" now, it is noth
ing to what it will be, and in
places where we very much
want to be liked. But the Presi
dent has now finally and frank
ly stated what some of us have
long waited for we are with
drawing from the popularity
contest.
Morally responsible leader
ship comes to this sooner or
later, whether in a domestic
family or in a family of nations.
It must in the name of the
final good for the greater
number.
(Distributed 193 by The Hall
Syndicate, Inc.)
at-; Jfci2SSS23E
MEMBER OF
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press Is enUtlrd
exclusively to the use for republi
cation ot all the local newt printed
In this newspaper.
MEMBER Or THE AUDIT BUREAU
or CIRCULATIONS
Services United Presa International
WILLIAM WASMANN,
DO .N.N L. BO Mia M,
News Editor
City Editur
that the
in tact,
its will;
Ross r. JOHNSON,
Advertising Director
JARL FUGLE Circulation Manager
ROBERT K BERTSCH Promotion
W B JOHNSTON JR. Auditor
AR.NS STROMMCR Production