Eugene register-guard., April 21, 1963, Image 10

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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
ROBEBT B. FRAZIER
Associate Editor
A. H. CURREY
Associate Editor
The Register-Guard' I policy it the complete and
impartial publication in its newt paget 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, SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 1963
Canada's 93-Cent Dollar Must Be Met
It's being proved that Pacific North
west lumber manufacturers haven't
cried "wolf" when they have complained
about their precarious financial situa
tion. Whereas a few years ago it was the
small, inefficient mill that was being
squeezed out of the Northwest lumber
industry, now bigger mills are being
boarded up. And, it's obvious that as
long as Canadian lumber cutters hold the
multiple advantages of cheaper stump
age, tax concessions, devaluated dollars
and less expensive shipping of their out
put, the trend is not going to be re
versed. This community "lumber capital of
the world" has patent proof of the
disastrous, and growing, effects of un
fair Canadian competition. Announce
ment last week that Georgia-Pacific will
close its Springfield sawmill in a few
days came abruptly on the heels of the
Giustina Bros, sawmill shutdown in Eu
gene. True, plant obsolescence was part-
ly responsible for the loss of these two
long-established payroll sources. But had
there been reasonable prospects that
such efforts would pay out, certainly
both mills would have been retooled and ;
kept operating.
The blunt fact is that the profit pic
ture for Pacific Northwest lumber manu
facturers is a fading rainbow. Increas
ingly, they are finding it impossible to
compete with British Columbia mills
that undersell them and still rack up
profits which Canadian observers have
recently termed "almost embarrassingly .
high."
Recent changes in the control of
Canada's national government offer
some hope that U.S.-Canadian relations
.may be improved en toto, but they do
not indicate that Canada will turn away
;from the managed-dollar policy which
J greatly promotes the sale of that na
tion's products in the U.S. and abroad.
Nor are there any indications that Cana
da, troubled by more unemployment
than even the U.S., will graciously ac
cept Imposition of quota controls upon
sale of its lumber in this country.
Efforts are being mado to expand
overseas markets for U.S. lumber and
to improve lumber products manufac
tured in this country so that they will
be purchased in preference to Canadian
lumber and other building materials.
In the long run, such efforts may, in
deed, insure the future of the U.S. for
est products industry. For the immediate
moment, however, it should be apparent,
especially in Washington, D.C., that this
industry needs help in staying alive until
it can get a safe grip on its bootstraps.
Right now, Congress must be com
pelled to see that U.S. lumber manufac-
turers need not only continuation of the
capital gains tax treatment of their tim
ber sales profits if they are to stay in
business. Congress must be made to re
alize that the lumber industry can no
longer afford to subsidize the American
merchant marine, nor can it finance the
internal changes it must make so long
as it must compete on full-dollar terms
against Canadian lumber prices based on
a 93-cent dollar.
Repeal of the Jones Act, which re
quires U.S. mills to use high-cost Ameri
can ships while Canadian mills use ships
of any flag, would help coastal mills, es
pecially here in the Pacific Northwest.
But it would not help the bulk of this
region's lumber producers. If the inland
mills of this region are to have a chance
of continuing as important economic
mainstays of the communities in which r
they are located, they need federal gov
ernment action to offset the trade dollar
advantage which Canada's government
' has artificially given their competitors
to the north.
If the lumber imports control ap
' proach is doomed to rejection in the
name of overall U.S.-Canadian good re
lations, Congress must still recognize
that American lumber operators are get
ting the short end in the trade dollar
game and unfairly. Congress must act,
not to subsidize U.S. lumber producers
with payments from the Treasury, but
to give them tax advantages which are
comparable to those held by Canadian
operators and further calculated to off
set the effects of the discounted Cana
dian dollar.
Tip to Tales
Lots of trout under a foot long will
be caught this weekend and thereafter
until fall comes. But almost all are des
tined to go on growing in tho memories
of those who tell of the catches.
Save your pity for the poor guy who
really lands a lunkcr and makes a meal
of it instead of a mantel mounting.
Reverberations
Except when tho manufacturing of
law is in progress there, a state Capitol
is a place dignified by quietude. Visitors
are ushered through by hush-voiced
guides, and those working regularly in
the building do so with habitual atten
tion to preserving a calm atmosphere.
But all this changes overnight when
tho Legislature takes possession of the
Capitol. Visitors who enter the building
thereafter are immediately struck by the
air of contained excitement which pre
Vadcs it. At Salem now, for instance,
the Capitol lobby is filled with an almost
constant hum. Corridors no longer echo
mere footsteps, for they arc passageways
from aural hints of activity to places of
high-decibel proof of it.
Tho sounds of a legislature at work
are not all loud ones. They are in
triguingly varied from whispered con
versations to full-voiced oratory and the
pounding of gavels. Compounded, how
ever, they create an identifiable tone
which, like the ocean's roar, may rise
and fall in intensity but is always es
sentially tho same.
A tour of Oregon's Capitol at this
time causes anyone with sensitive cars
to wonder if marble Is the right material
for constructing law-making plants.
Even carpeting in the great caverns
where the House and Senate hold their
plenary sessions docs little to stifle the
Eric Sevareid
Our Allies Drift in Dark Waters
noise which accompanies the process of
remodeling and improving our state gov
ernment. As the great doors of Senate
and House swing to and fro, sounds
surge in and out in a manner sometimes
disconcerting even to legislators not
easily interrupted from their concentra
tion upon affairs of state. y
But sound can be stimulating as well
as disruptive. Efficiency experts, cer
tainly, would recommend that capitols
be better sound-proofed. Practical poli
ticians, on the other hand, might ques
tion whether church-like quiet would
be conducive to spirited and effectual
debate. Just as courts need silence to
promote deliberation, perhaps legisla
tures need some measure of hubbub to
keep them mindful that they must hear
many voices before they determine what
is best for the majority.
Not a Science
Ages and ages ago, back before there
was any television or any Fidel Castro,
the homcmakcr bragged about the choco
late cake she whipped up "from scratch."
Now she looks at television, worries
about Castro, and makes the cake from
a box.
This is an important thing to re
member as we read that vending ma
chine makers have come up with a
"cocktailmatic," a gadget which makes
"scientifically" proportioned martinis,
Manhattans and such.
The trouble with such weaponry is
that the martini and the Manhattan arc
not tho products of science. They are the
products of art, pure art. A machine
can do the job only when we find a
machine that can paint a Mona Lisa or
write a Beethoven's Ninth.
The machine, it it catches on at all,
will be popular only among the set that
keeps martinis in the icebox overnight
ROME In the realm of or
dinary life traveling, doing
business, sitting in the sun or
inspecting one another's lovely
vistas, museums and antiquities
Europe and
the Europeans
are thawing out.
The winter of
their physical
discon tent is
ended.
In the realm
of high politics,
the freeze is
still on. The
winter of allied
discontent, dat- Sevareid
ed for the history books by De
Gaulle's ' renunciation of tho
whole post-war Grand Design,
has become the spring of rest
less perplexity. With what
sometimes appears to be the
single exception of De Gaulle
himself, even responsible Euro
peans have no firm idea where
their countries, singly or col
lectively, go from here.
Within the safety zone made
possible by the American deter
rent and commitment, Europe
has surpassed its former pros
perity, itself made possible by
American capital infusions. Yet
today more and more of politi
cal Europe looks on the Ameri
can presence with a more and
more jaundiced eye. But emo
tional reactions of resentment
on our part would be childish.
Gratitude rarely plays a leading
or lasting role between nation
states; gratitude toward France
didn't govern the foreign policy
of the American Founders, once
the Revolution was won.
The Alliance is now blank
eted in dense fogs of dilemma
and paradox. For every Europe
an and they were numberless
who once criticized isolation
ist America for not being com
mitted to them, there is now at
least one who criticizes America
for being committed too deep
ly and dominantly to them. For
every one who fears American
bravado will bring war upon
them there is another who
fears that if war should come
upon them from other causes,
America will not have enough
bravado to defend them.
On tho general wish to re
main free, thcro is, of course,
universal agreement within tho
Alliance. But on no specific is
sue, whether Berlin, or Cuba
or Africa or east-west trade,
does pan-alliance agreement ex
ist; and it is out of such issues
as these, not out of the general
philosophical weather, that war
would come, if it comes at all.
On top of this, coincidcntally,
there remains that wonderfully
illogical psychological phenom
enon involving the inverse ratio
of fear to proximity when
war seemed possible over Ber
lin, the nearby Europeans were
calm and the far-off Americans
scared; when war seemed pos
sible over Cuba, the far-off
Europeans were scared and the
nearby Americans calm.
In diplomacy, European gov
ernments want lo be treated
with more equality by America,
but the cohesive "Europe" that
would make that not only pos
sible but inevitable docs not
yet exist. In the interim, Euro
pean governments disagree as
to whether (hey should even try
to provide themselves with the
military power that must under
lie diplomatic equality.
A fundamental, if obvious,
flaw in the Alliance is that the
majority power is held by one
nation, able quickly to make vi
tal policy decisions, while the
minority power is diffused
among several nations whose
individual decisions are, for the
most part, extremely limited in
efiect. Yet the conventional wis
dom more and more thinks and
speaks of the Alliance in terms
of America and "Europe." an
essentially 'alse apposition.
It can he i.rgued. Indeed, that
the very concept of "alliance."
as history has shaped the com
mon concept, is essentially false
in the era of nuclear power,
wbsch has basically altered nol
only the nature of war but the
nature of sovereignty. Until
our time, the final act of sov
ereignty was the declaration or
the acceptance of war with the
risk of defeat. Now, for the
crowded countries of industrial
ized Europe, if not necessarily
for our own spacious land, it is
the acceptance of suicide, of
non-existence. No European gov
ernment can voluntarily make
that choice for its people. None
is likely to make it, if America
should be hit and Europe left
alone.
Present speculative talk about
who would remain faithful to
the Alliance commitment and
who betray it, in case of war,
seems pointless. Atomic weap
ons have meaning only in their
deterrent capacity, as keepers
of the peace, not as winners
of a war. More specifically, it is
the credibility of the deterrent
that matters. We have estab
lished our nuclear credentials,
in the Issues of Berlin and Cuba,
sufficiently to make the Rus
sians give over. It is too hard
to believe that fractional nu
clear power, in any independent
Peter Edson
European hands, would be cred
ible to Moscow.
Short of universal disarma
ment or the over-arching de
tente with Russia that De
Gaulle envisages either one a
long way off there is no substi
tute for the American nuclear
presence. This seems true, even
though the question of "whose
finger on the trigger and the
safety catch" appears insoluble.
Better, perhaps, that the Euro
pean powers throw away their
atomic weapons than that they
continue the drive for indepen
dent arsenals and that could
happen in a post-Macmillan
Britain and a post-De Gaulle
France. Washington has no pow
er to bring this about. It is,
therefore, stalling and hedging
against proliferation of atomic
arsenals by its successive and
confusing schemes for "inter
allied" and "multi-national" nu
clear strike forces. Waters as
opaque as those in which the
Alliance now drifts can be mud
died even more, but not much
more.
Distributed. 1901, by
The Hall Syndicate, Inc.
Edson
Right Wingers Mounting
Drive on Disarm Moves
WASHINGTON (NEA) A drive against disarmament and
a nuclear test ban treaty with Soviet Russia has sprung up in
various parts of the country as the newest conservative cause.
This move is regarded in part as a counteraction to "Ban
the Bomb!" crusaders such as the "Women's Strike for Peace"
a group which has been pestering Congress
and picketing the White House.
But the principal right wing objective seems
to be repeal of tho 1961 act of Congress creat
ing the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament
Agency in the State Department.
Now under Director William C. Foster, this
agency was given a $6.5 million first-year ap
propriation to promote peace. It is asking $15
million for the coming year. About $10 million
of this would be for research on nuclear ex
plosion detection and verification of arms de
struction, if disarmament ever comes.
This request for more money has given op
ponents of disarmament a new line of attack, as an economy is
sue. But a group of Republicans headed by Rep. Craig Hosmer,
R-Calif., of the Joint Atomic Energy Committee is concentrat
ing on opposition to the proposed test ban treaty as a United
States national defense measure. And Rep. James B. Utt, R
Calif., has introduced a resolution to abolish the Disarmament
Agency, which right wing groups are increasingly in favor of
doing.
Misunderstanding and misrepresentation are major factors
in the rising campaign against disarmament efforts.
The most vicious attack has come from a Citizens Congres
sional Committee of Los Angeles. It is a Gerald L. K. Smith
Christian Nationalist Crusade offshoot run by Charles E. Wine
garner, who married Mrs. Smith's niece.
Its principal mailing piece, which has been showered down
on Congress, is a poster headed "Treason Treaty." It begins:
"The President of the United Slates has approved a proposed
treaty which would completely disarm the United States of
America. Arms would be transferred to the United Nations
and we would come under the authority, of a United Nations
dictatorship."
The broadside goes on to charge that disarmament would
mean that the Declaration of Independence would become
obsolete, the American flag would become a second-rate ban
ner. Congress would be reduced to the authority of. a state
legislature in a world government, and the World Court would
supersede the United States Supreme Court.
Other movements are scattered, but noisy and growing.
A "Republican Committee of 100, Inc.," of New York, calls
on President Kennedy and Congress to "dissolve this unconsti
tutional Arms Control and Disarmament Agency."
A Memphis "Committee for the Prevention of Disarma
ment" is circulating a statement from ex-Congressman John
Roussclot, R.Calif., charging that disarmament is all part of a
Communist conspiracy which he traces back to 1955. He de
clares that the RS 70 slowdown and Skybolt abandonment by
the Department of Defense are the latest acts in this conspiracy.
"Free Enterprise," a Chicago monthly tabloid for which
former Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson writes a
front page column, devotes a full page in its latest issue to
blasting State Department publications on disarmament.
Other right wing news letters are taking the same line of
attack.
Kent and Phoebe Courtney of New Orleans, publishers of
"Independent American." have put out two tax-fact leaflets
titled, "Exposing the Appea.-crs' Plans to Destroy the Army,
Navy and Air Force of the U.S.A." and "Save Our Skybolt
Have Plans Been Made to Surrender the U.S. to the Soviet
Union?"
Texas seems to me the real hotbed of opposition to dis
armament, however. Rep. Walter Rogers. D-Tcx., got so much
mail against disarmament that he prepared an answering state
ment which he headed: "This County is Not Going to Be Dis
armed." To quiet alarms and fears, he points out that any United
States disarmament must first be approved by congressional
majorities or, If submitted in the, form of I treaty, by two
thirds of the Senate.
In the
j Editor's
Mailbag
Viewpoint
SPRINGFIELD (To the Edi
tor) In his letter to the editor
April 16, Mr. Charles Horrell
questioned the morals and hon
esty of a non-smoker who will
sit idly by and hope to enjoy
some small benefit from a cig
arette tax.
Now let's talk about the non-property-owner
who pays no
taxes but year after year sends
his children to fine schools paid
for and maintained by other
people's tax- money. This same
group of non-taxpayers enjoy
the facilities of the many parks
paid for by this same group of
property owners. These same
non-taxpayers enjoy the priv
ilege of going to the polls each
election day and voting in more
taxes which they won't have to
pay, to buy more of these bene
fits for them to enjoy.
Where I think this is all
wrong, the system says that it
is right, and you can't fight the
system. Sir, Diogenes would only
laugh at you.
That's right, I'm a non-smoker.
After forty-three years of
smoking I quit, not because of
anything smoking had done to
my morals or my pocketbook
but because it had ruined my
health.
JAMES W. RIDDLE
1906 G St.
Rusk's 'Errors'
EUGENE (To the Editor)
Secretary of Slate Dean Rusk,
testifying recently before a
committee hearing, made a
statement to the effect that he
felt our huge sums of aid to
Yugoslavia had actually succeed
ed in weaning Yugoslavia away
from the Soviet Communist
camp.
Mr. Rusk makes two gross
errors which, compounded by
the hundreds of other errors of
the State Department, are lead
ing us rapidly into a fatally
compromised position.
Error No. 1 is a fundamental
one. Mr. Rusk believes there
are "different kinds" of com
munism a basic error indicat
ing he docs not at all under
stand the true nature of com
munism. Error No. 2 that the Yugo
slavian brand is "different" and
therefore to our (U.S.) advant
age the incorrectness of this
hypothesis has just been con
firmed by the most opposite
manifestation of democratic
procedures the adoption of a
new Yugoslavian constitution
making Josep (Tito) Broz presi
dent for life, and making the
official name of the country
"The Socialist Federal Repub
lic of Yugoslavia."
Such actions by people in po
sitions of high responsibility in
the U. S. A. make me wonder
who's been weaned, and off of
what? If the situation were not
so desperately pathetic as to
provoke tears, it would be
laughable.
What we need instead of an
investigation of the State Dept.
is a fumigation, and one strong
enough to kill off the termites
as well as the noisy, buzzing
pests with their peculiar but
poisoned forked tongues.
ROBERT W. DEMERS
52 Beverly St.
MEMBER OF
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press it entitled
exclusively to the use for republi
cation oi ail the local newt printed
In this newspaper.
MEMBER OF THE At'tltT BUREAU
Of CIRCULATIONS
Servlcea United Presj International
McGUl
WILLIAM WASVANN
DONN L. BO .N HAM
News Editor
City Editor
ROSS O JOHNSOV
Adverltstnl Director
JARL rUCU. Circulation Manacer
ROBERT K. RERTSCH Promotion
W. R. JOHNSTON JR. Auditor
ARNK STROMMIR Production
Ralph McGUl
Full Disarm
Cost Sheet
Had Effect
WASHINGTON, D.C. One of
the negotiating successes of the
United States delegation to the
Geneva conferences was the
presentation of a document in
reply to Khrush
chev's "total
and complete"
disarm a m e n t
program pre
sented before
the United Na
tions in Septem
ber 1959.
For almost
two years the
Soviet proposal,
though political
ly and practical
ly impossible,
was a barrier to any discussion
of rational and possible arma
ment reduction measures, both
at Geneva and in the United Na
tions. There also were rather
strong pressures from American
individuals and groups which
reached the desks of congress
men and the committee in Ge
neva. Most of the smaller na
tions, especially the eight rep
resented at the conference, per
sisted in asking of 'the Ameri
can delegation why it was not
possible to proceed with imple
mentation of Khrushchev's
propaganda call for the world
to lay down its arms.
The weight and persistence of
this insistent demand came as a
surprise, and yet it need not
have. There exists in this coun
try, as in the world, an earnest
desire for peace or, at least, to
escape war. This is equally true
in Russia. The Soviets, by mak
ing world peace the keystone of
their propaganda, have inevit
ably sold the idea to their own
people.
Possible in Theory
Appealing though the propo
sal of total disarmament is, real
ism suggests that nations can
not proceed to divest them
selves of all arms, Theoretically
it could be done, if all nations
were to agree on a plan for to
tal and simultaneous abolish
ment of all weapons, but for
any one or two countries to dis
arm leaves them prey to the
armed and the ambitious.
When the urgings continued,
particularly at Geneva, repre
sentatives of the United States
produced, after a year of work,
a published plan for total dis
armament. It was a three-stage
schedule to be put into opera
tion across a period of years. In i
the final stage, of course, no
nation would have an army or
navy, but the world would re
ly on a U.N. international force.
It cannot be said that the U.S.
delegation presented this in bad
faith. It was, however, first of
all, a printed outline of how
total disarmament could be at
tained, but, more important, it
was also a clear picture of what
such a step would entail. It was,
therefore, a cost sheet. In ef
iect, what the plan said was,
"All right, you propose total
disarmament. Here is what
would have to be done. Here
are all the necessary actions, in
cluding in the final stage the
surrender of some sovereignty.
This is the price. Are you will
ing to pay it?"
Profound Effect
This printed plan, or cost
sheet, was distributed at Gene
va. In that historical city of in
ternational conferences the ef
fect was profound. Within a few
days representatives of the
smaller nations, who had been
so insistent that the United
States accept the Soviet offer of
complete disarmament, were
saying they did not believe
either power could, or would,
pay the bill so meticulously
spelled out in the printed
words. Instead, they began to
work at what they thought
could be had an effective nu
clear test ban.
In this country, of course, the
lunatic fringe, which had not
read the whole plan and had
seen only newspaper paragraphs
lifted out of context and, there
fore, did not comprehend the
carefully detailed presentation
of it, made a compulsive outcry
of treason and sell-out-to-the-U.N.
Kncc Jerk Lunacy
It needs to be said that if
there is, as reactionary ofinion
has it, a type of knee-jerk liber
alism in this country, knee-jerk
lunacy is even more prevalent
and clamorous. At any rate,
there is no longer any propa
ganda momentum left in the
Khrushchev proposal for imme
diate and total disarmament.
Even Moscow withdrew in the
face of the price to be paid.
Meanwhile, with Egypt almost
surely testing small nuclear
rockets, and with other nations
moving toward that end, civili
zation seems to demand that
the major powers earnestly try
for an effective test ban. Such
an agreement would not, per re,
halt proliferation of weapons,
but it would be an act of moral
ity which might, in time, pre
vail. Certainly such a ban is
better than the dangerous vac
uum that exists.
'Dhtrlhulfd. IMS.
by The Hall Sycdlcaie, Ine.J