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About Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980 | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1950)
Capital AJournal An Independent Newspaper Established 1 888 GEORGE PUTNAM, Editor and Publisher ROBERT LETTS JONES, Assistant Publisher Published every afternoon except Sunday at 444 Che meketa St., Salem. Phones: Business, Newsroom, Want Ads, 2-2406; Society Editor, 2-2409. Full Leased Wire Service of the Associated Press and The United Press. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for publication of all news dispatches credited to it or otherwise credited in this paper and also news published therein. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Carrier: Weekly, 25c; Monthly, $1.00; One Year, $12.00. By Mall in Oregon: Monthly, 75c; 6 Mos., $4.00; One Year, $8.00. TJ. S. Outside Oregon: Monthly, $1.00; 6 Mos., $6.00; Year, $12. BY BECK Things to Worry About 4 Salem, Oregon, Friday, July 21, 1950 Reason for a Special Observance Within the next three weeks, the pouring of cement for the huge Detroit dam in the North Santiam canyon should start. Once the pouring gets under way, it will be on a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week basis. The first generator should be on the line by the fall of 1952, while KRISS-KROSS xne aam liseu snoum De completed By tne tollowing summer. vmL wouldn't have xmwjmmmv '-9 SOKE TO HER M - ' rjwi(1i WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND Oklahoma Voters Wise to Congressman Wickersham By DREW PEARSON Washington Down in Oklahoma they aren't letting the Korean war make them forget about the importance of clean politics. Not only have they got wise to the speculations of Senator Thomas, but the only Oklahoma congressman who failed of re election on July BY CARL ANDERSON Henry em-r7JO'J, whichlt,!,! P Drew remn Because of what the Detroit dam will mean to the North Santiam canyon and the Salem area, the actual pouring of the cement should be the occasion for more than the mechanical dumping of cement into position. The event should be one that would draw people from the canyon and Salem area. To so many people, the dam project is just a construc tion job that happens to be going on up in the canyon. As a construction job, there are a lot of men employed and the canyon floor and walls are being cleared of trees. The part the dam will play in the development of the area and the Willamette valley itself is being overlooked too often. The dam, as one of many in the valley, will do its part in an overall 85 percent control of yearly floods. There will be power from the North Santiam canyon, too. And there will be a lake 15 miles long resulting from the back ing up of water behind the Detroit dam. The Willamette valley is not thinking ahead as to the use it will make of these flood-control dam units, as they are finally fitted into the overall project which will bring benefits also in navigation, reclamation, industrial develop ment, domestic and municipal water supply, abatement of pollution, and recreation. Pouring of cement in the Detroit dam is only another incident, perhaps, in the construction progress of the dam itself and in the big Willamette basin project, but the cement pour amounts to the start of the actual dam which will have such unrealized meaning to the area. Because of the event's significance, the Willamette river basin commission and the Corps of Engineers should see that the event is recognized for its true importance. Salem, as one of the cities to benefit, could join with the other communities in noting the event in some kind of ob servance. It will take constant reminder of such occurrences as the cement pouring to bring thought toward the future and what the valley will do with it when the dam projects are completed and are bringing benefits to the people of the area. Fighting of Two Different Kinds There's a war going on in Korea, but an observer in the United States senate wouldn't have known it yesterday. The senate spent its time playing politics. A furious scrap went on in the supposedly grave, som ber chambers of the senate in Washington over, wheth er or not McCarthy's charges on communism in the state department were "a fraud and a hoax." Senators got so heated during the debate that two of them almost came to blows. Senator Tydings shouted that McCarthy's charges were "foul and vile" and "ought to make the blood of Ameri cans boil." McCarthy answered that Tydings had "tried to notify communists in government that they are safe in their positions." There was an attempt to play a phono graph record on which was recorded McCarthy's original claims that he had names of 205 communists in the state department. Later investigation failed to produce any. Meanwhile, over in Korea a completely outnumbered division of American soldiers was forced to retreat again and leave Taejon. The GIs, pushed back to new positions, were too tired to eat. And General Dean, division comman der, was still unreported after having been in the thick of fighting in Taejon. The contrast between republicans and democrats spend ing their time fighting along strictly party lines over McCarthy's charges, and tired, heroic young Americans fighting desperately for their lives, country and the United Nations is discouraging. President Truman called on congress to get mobiliza tion of manpower, resources and money under way. The very next day after the message, however, the senate spent its time jockeying for political position on the McCarthy report. Politics of that kind isn't going to win the war in Korea. 'Doll Lady' Haying Trouble Finding Girl Named Henrietta Bad Homburg, Germany, July 21 OT Mrs. Peggy Rolley Stumpf, the "doll lady" from America, is having a little trouble finding a girt named Henrietta who needs a doll. The SO-year-old daughter of Somerset, ((Pa.) newspaper pub lisher Henry Baker Retley is distributing 2100 dolls donated by Americans. She already has given some away In England and France nd plans to go to Vienna, Wursburg, Frankfurt and Berlin. The first girl she meets who's named Henrietta is going to get a fine doll. That's because on woman in America who donated a doll stipulated It go to a child named Henrietta. "And you have no Idea how hard It is to find a little Euro pean girl named Henrietta," Mrs. Stumpf declared. Peggy's doll distributing plan got Its start in 1047 at a Christ mas party in Welsbaden where Peggy was a Red Cross club director. Peggy watched a lot of little German girls who were sot lucky enough to get dolls. When she returned home, she talked to her father about It. They put an ad In his newspaper, the Somerset American. From then on, the dolls poured In. When Peggy returns to America, she hopes to bring along her new husband, German musician Hans Stumpf. She met him during her Red Cross days, corresponded with him afterwards nd married htm last Valentine's day. Pat Was Overpaid $900,000 Kansas City, Has., July 21 W Pat Ranlon, SI, received check for $900,650 In payment for a 5050 not he sold a bank. He called the bank and said he would return the check today. An official said the $900,000 mistake was due to fail tut of a oheok writing machine, Men, Too Are Worried Over Shortage of Nylon ByCHWSKOWITZ.Jr Now men have joined the fairer sex in worrying about a potential shortage of nylons . . . they're thinking of the fancy shirts, colorful shorts, sport socks, etc., that are made of nylon . . when the nylon shortage broke out at the start of World War II, men didn't have to worry . . . men's nylon clothing had not yet 1 over, etc., and when they'd see that the light was accidently left on, they'd signal the driver . . . but driver never got wise to all the honking horns, wav ing hands, etc. . . . he con tinued on down the highway, creating confusion for all concerned. come into pop-"" ularity ... as for me, I'm not worried now . . . if times get so bad that nylon is not available, it's going to be so bad that I'm not going to be around to buy any civilian curl. Kowiu, Jr. clothes anyhow. People who drive cars with 'mi 4 was Victor Wickersham of Mangum, who enjoyed some peculiar ar rang e m e n t a with his ployees had all marks same kickbacks that landed Con- gressman Parnell Thomas in jail. As a result of these salary arrangements, Oklahoma voters got suspicious of Congressman Wickersham, and the seven op ponents running against him got more votes than he did. Now he faces a run-off. The FBI has been investigat ing Wickersham, who, inciden tally, happens to be a democrat, while Parnell Thomas is a repub lican. I have also been probing Wickersham, and can report that one of the young men hired by the congressman under peculiar circumstances has now received a pay-off. He is Lloyd Matthews, who worked in the congressman's real estate office in Washing ton, though his salary was paid by the American people to han dle congressional matters. On the same day I first ex- In March and April of last year, he put two young con stituents, Steve Fisher and Phil Symcox of Cordell, Okla., on the federal payroll. However, they didn't report for work un til two months later June and July, 1949. Meanwhile, the con gressman had held their March and April paychecks for $250 each, which he paid them after they started work. He explained, however, that they were supposed to work for $165 a month so that the checks really covered a six-week peri od. This, of course, was not true, but Wickersham used it as an excuse to demand kick backs from both boys. For after they finished two months work and decided to go home, Wickersham explained that they had not put in a full six-week period for each $250 check and demanded a kick back of $127 from each. This was paid directly to him, whereas their original salary checks were paid them by U.S. Treasury. Thus the congress man was in a position to pocket the $254 or $127 from each. Fisher and Symcox, when reached by telephone, verified the above facts. They also said that immediately after this col umn first exposed Wickersham's payroll peculiarities last Decern- r MacKENZIE'S COLUMN Reason Why Russia Wants Red China Admitted to U. N. By DeWITT MacKENZIE W1 Fore 1 bo Affair Analyati Amorinn wants nparp in Korea but has no Intention of sac- podWicker?hm'sypayXad: feints for STlm f"ici"? PCipleS a"d ngaging ,ny hrSe"deal W"h HUSS'a A Sunday school teacher in a small church on the outskirts of Salem planned to exhibit to her class the evils of alcohol . . . teacher brought a worm into blinkine turning signals should the Sunday school room . . . be more careful in shutting the first she dropped the worm in lights off after a turn is com- a glass of water . . worm pleted . . . some of them shut off squirmed around, in obvious automatically . . . others must good health . . . then she re be turned off by the driver . . . moved the worm from the wa we've noticed dozens of cars ter, and dropped it into a glass driving down the streets with of whiskey (we don't know their turning signals blinking where she acquired the liquor) away, creating confusion for all . . . worm immediately curled other motorists ... we followed up and died . . . "Now, children, one car all the way from Mil- what does that little experiment waukie to Salem the other day prove? . . . One freckly-faced . . . its turning light was blink- boy promptly answered, "Drink ing all the way . . . other mo- whiskey and you won't have torists would slow down, pull worms." Six Months Left to See Los Angeles, July 21 W Doctors have Informed Gordon McCaw, Henderson, Nev., elementary school principal, that he will be blind in six months. So today he Is en route to his native Sydney, Australia, to see relatives and friends for the first time in 19 years. Ac companying him is his wife, Elsie. McCaw's eyesight has been failing rapidly. POOR MAN'S PHILOSOPHER Hal in Tokyo: Life and Death In the 'Commuters' War' By HAL BOYLE Tokyo W) The Korean war somehow seems almost as far away from Tokyo as it does from New York or Washington. This is odd, considering that a jet plane can fly from here to the warfront in about the lime it takes a man to smoke a 10-cent cigar. But an air of solid confidence has replaced the tbnsion that prevailed in the first weeks of fighting. There is probably less nervousness here than in the Pentagon. The turning point was the landing of a fresh American division on the eastern Korean coast above the vital port of Pusan. There is a feeling that the United Nn- lions forces can now not only; hold a bridge-; head they' may even shortly undertake offensive action of at least limited nature. And there even is a hope that the North Koreans faced by powerful ground troops and lashed by superior air and sea forces may figure they have lost initiative and begin a slow withdrawal back beyond the shelter of the 38th parallel. There is complete absence of hysteria or hurry around sup reme headquarters here. Every one goes calmly about his dut ies, including women in cleri cal posts whose husbands are fighting in Korea. "If you see my old man over there, tell him hello for mc--and that everything's all right," smiled one wife who typed out my accreditation papers. Many headquarters echelons are still taking Wednesday and Saturday afternoons off as well as Sundays just as they did before the emergency. But they seem to be getting done everything that can be done at their level. It is always the frontline troops that have to work a seven-day week. It is an odd and unreal war in many respects. It is quite possible tor soldier to be wounded in Korea before lunch and to eat dinner that same night in a first class army hos pital in Japan, assured of finest medical care. Some fliers call it "a com muters' war." They can return from mis sions over Korea in time to join their wives and friends in a game of canasta. But of course they don't all get back to that hospital or that canasta game. It is still a war. It has hit home particularly hard among sad-eyed American evacuees from Korea, who had to flee and leave behind all per sonal belongings except those they could carry. Many lost their passports and it has been a tremendous task for American state department officials to check their identity, issue new credentials and help arrange passage home. "The plight of some of these people is really desperate," said John Baldridge, ECA official and Iowa weekly newspaper publisher. "Some are stranded without funds. "A number of ECA employes have resigned posts because they no longer want to return to Ko rea after order is restored. And they have no job in the United States to go back to." Most rueful evacuee I met was one who said he had to abandon $7,000 worth of household goods In Seoul and that didn't in clude cost of his swimming pool. "That sounds like a lot of money," he said. "But did you ever figure out what it costs to clothe a family and furnish a house from safety pins to a refrigerator? What I want to know L how and when am I going to get that $7,000 back? "It took four years to settle most of the claims from the last wax." ding Dec. 12, 1949 young Matthews wrote a letter to his friend Aubrey Witt, another member of Wickersham's staff, in which he said: "Mr. Wickedsham finally reached me tonight after several efforts and undying persistence. "He told me," continued Mat thews, "to do exactly what I had planned to do anyway, keep my mouth shut. Amazing how a man's magnanimity increases in direct proportion to the duress under which he is subjected. "He, out of the clear blue sky, asked me how I would like to help with the census . . . his remark was plainly forced, but he said it . . . adding whip ped cream to the dessert, he continued: 'How would you like to go to West Point?' " PEARSON'S A LIAR Down in Oklahoma, the con- ' gressman has been answering salary kickback exposures with the routine answer given by most Washington bigwigs when caught in a tight corner name ly, "Pearson is a liar." However, if the facts I re ported had not been correct, the congressman could have tak en me to the legal cleaners; in stead of which he hastened to give the man he wanted to keep quiet a West Point pay-off. Wickersham gave Matthews the earliest possible appointment to West Point, and he entered this year's batch of plebes, July 5, 1950. It also appears that Matthews kept his part of the bargain "to keep my mouth shut." For he denied to the FBI that he paid any kickbacks to Wickersham, though his good friend, Aubrey Witt, formerly employed by Wickersham, told the FBI other wise. Furthermore, the salary ar rangement Matthews had with the congressman looked most peculiar. Matthews was a young ster just out of high school when on June 1, 1949, the congress man offered him a job at $200 a month. Instead of paying him $200, however, Matthews' sal ary check was for $460 a month. Now most people, even con gressmen, don't pay a youngster just out of high school at the rate of $460 a month, or $115 a week. And the real question is whether Matthews kicked back $260 a month to Wickersham's pocket. The money, of course, receipts ior ine l eacn wnicn, tn achievp it on the reverse side, stated that That, I take it, is the real significance of Washington's polite the money had been spent for DUt firm response to the efforts of Prime Minister Nehru of aaaressmg envelopes. Tn(jia to medi- In other words, six months after Fisher and Symcox kicked back to the congressman, and after part of his payroll activi ties had been exposed; Wicker sham hastily arranged for re ceipts which could serve as an alibi if he were charged with pocketing the kickback money. The great majority of con gressmen, in the opinion of this observer, do not indulge in pay roll irregularities. They use the office allotments given them by the government to run their offices efficiently and for the benefit of their constituents. However, one or two rotten apples in Oklahoma and Geor gia can spoil a whole barrel. (Copyright 19S0) ate the Korean crisis. Out of the window is the idea (approved by Premier Stalin) that communist Chi na's admission to the United Nations be made a prelim inary to nego tiating peace in Korea. There's only one acceptable qualification for peace negotia tions. That is for the aggressors to cease fire and withdraw with in their own borders. Then the issue isn't one be- DeWltt MRckenili Only Driver Got Kick Out of This Seattle, Wash., July 21 (U.ra James L. Keating was con victed of reckless driving yesterday despite his plea that his car was weaving down the highway because his dog 52-Minute Time-Loss for Sewerman Seattle, July 21 VP) "I dug it, I cribbed it, and I got buried in it, I suppose you might say I brought it on myself." Such was the way 21-year-old Leonard Moshier dismissed his 52-minute burial beneath 13 feet of sand yesterday. The brawny young sewer digger was trapped at the foot of a shaft as he bent over his shovel. He managed to shout muffled directions to his rescuers. When workers and firemen finally extricated him after nearly an hour, Mosier waved off ambulance attendants, grabbed a shovel and went back to work clearing out the shaft. TOPSY-TURVY WORLD Student Wears Upside-Down Crosswise Glasses in Trial Wichita, Kas., July 21 VP) He's looking at the world through topsy turvy glasses and it's making him a bit sick. But Fred J. Snyder, 25-year-old GI student at the Univer sity of Wichita, gets over his light spells of nausea quickly. Snyder is wearing glasses that turn what he sees upside down and cross-wise. It's part of an experiment attempting to prove that vision is something we learn just like we learn to walk or to eat. Snyder's psychology profes sor said he'd have several pe- he riods o nausea after putting the over. of trouble descending stairs at tween Russia and America, but between Russia and the U.N. In short; America is standing pat on her determination to meet communist aggression where ever it shows itself, and fight it to a finish. There is to be no compromise. - Ample backing for that sweep ing statement is to be found in President Truman's dramatic call on congress Wednesday for a $10,000,000,000 program to provide men and material for the Korean conflict and to guard against armed aggression any where else. That means business. And if you want an exclamation point for that sentence, you can find it in the fact that two fresh American divisions have been flung into the Korean theatre to buy more time for the mobiliza- V tion of strength to smash the communist invaders. As so often happens, Premier Stalin is wearing a halo of peace in his ostensible willingness to negotiate the Korean war if the U.N. will evict Nationalist China (one of the Big Five in the World War) and admit com munist China to membership. In view of this let's take a look at just what Red China's membership means to Russia: The main gain would be in prestige for the communist bloc. That would be very considerable in the peace organization and might be far reaching in Asia. We mustn't forget that while China now is a stricken nation, yet potentially she is one of the world's great powers. She has within her borders more than a fifth of the .globe's popula tion, and she has resources which in time can make her strong. The eviction of Nationalist China and the election of com munist China in the U.N. (which America doesn't approve and walking but has said sne wiu not veto if the University along tne nail. the majority want it) certainly 'It s funny they re putting would boost the stock of com- the lights on the floor now," he munlsm in many Asiatic eyes, jokingly commented. Countries like Burma and In- At lunch in an off-campus donesia, which already have restaurant where people stared powerful communist parties, aian i KnuuK unytmng would say: "If Red China is good enough from all the taxpayers and was learn to live "diagonally, strange glasses on, due largely "But he had trouble reaching so that the United Nations kicks to nervousness. , for things like the salt shaker, the Nationalists out and sub- ' and difficulty finding the food stitutes the communists thev In effect, Snyder will have to on his plate with his fork," a must be worthy folk and stand supplied to the congressman so he could efficiently run his con gressional office and help his constituents back in Oklahoma. Instead, he had Matthews work in his real estate office in Wash ington, paying him at the in flated rate of $460 a month, after offering him only $200 a month. So a lot of people are wonder ing why you pay a young man $460 a month when he is quite willing to work for $200 a month? NOTE Congressman Wicker sham also paid James W. Taylor $7,720 of the taxpayers' money supposedly to work in his of fice though actually Taylor spent his time traveling as a salesman for the Herd Equip ment Co. of Oklahoma City. A lot of voters would also like to know what the salary arrange ment was between Wickersham and Taylor. TWO KICKBACKS But, believe it or not, this wasn't all. Here are two en- co-worker chuckled. well. What is good enough for "It's a very strange world," the United Nations is good Snyder admitted. enough for us." " Snyder's brother Charlie 21 So if Russia could temporarily and a Wichita U. junior also in- abandon the Korean venture and tcrested in psychology will thereby gain International rec- We feel that Fred will adiust serve 88 his uide on the pus nitlon of China, it would be We leei inai rrea WIU aajUSI ...v,r.m. frlr," r. o onnrt .wan fnr Mncnu, Sha We are going to observe and record what happens to a per son when you disrupt his ha bitual way of looking at things," said Dr. H. N. Pronko, Wichita university psychology profes sor. to seeing things upside down after a few weeks. "That will help strengthen thesis that we learn to see just as we learn to reach; write or eat." The experiment, which began yesterday, will continue for 30 days. He'll practice with a peg board writing, reading, walk ing straight lines. When he sees a n upside down hand sticking out to ward him from upper left, he's going to have to learn to reach down and to the right to grasp it. Then the test over he's going to have to unlearn it all, when he takes off the spe cial glasses. tirely new salary arrangements .... the congressman had, definitely Involving kickbacks. When Snyder first put on the glasses yesterday he had a bit and on a "shopping trip" up a good swap for Moscow. She town today, always could return to the Ko- Snyder's going to see how a rean attack at an opportune mo drug store and a fashionable ment. men's clothing store look, up- However, the status of corn side down. munist China cannot be made If he doesn't get an inverted the premise of Korean negotin "greeting" from Uncle Sam, that tions. Uncle Sam stands on is. He's an army reservist. principles. Fireman, Save My Carrots Wakefield, Mass., July 21 VP) A meek voice asked Wake field firemen over the 'phone if they would do a woman a great favor. They indicated they might. "Well," asked Mrs. Arthur E. Goodwin, "Will you turn off the gas In my home and save the carrots?" Mrs. Goodwin explained that she was In Topsfield 20 miles away and had left the gas burning under a pan of carrots. The firemen saved the carrots and possibly the house from an explosion.
