Page 2
j- .MT i inurannv. nanrcn zi.
Heppner, vre., uuiwr-
ii U 4w msm M 4 t
Horse sense
ESVESTV.JOINTJt
a
I
TVt's a k of speculation around the county '"what
to do" with the 56.&-cre bombing ranee the Navy may
quit. Just about everybody has expressed an oomioo on the
disposition of the land, including congressmen and the
giwaina. strikes roe that the firs people to consult an the
futireof Has land m NortbeasJ Morrow County is the Boeing
Corporation.
Boemg has a -year lease or. exactly 9S.C5.1S acres
adjacent to the SC.WP acres the Navy uses as a bombing
ranee That lease specifies that should ary land adjacent te
Boeing's leased land become available. Boesng has the option
to lease any and all such lands at same price it pays for fee
land e leases at the present time, which is P cents an acre. I;
doesn't make any difference whether the ownership of the
land reverts to the state or to the Bureau of Land
aSanaeement. Boemg s option to leas it must be honored
Therefore, what happens s the bombing ranee land is up to
Boemg. JCaybe somebody had better go ask em.
Back m TXS who? the bottom fell out of the aircraft
industrr. Boemg tried to break its lease on all is land in
Marrow County. The state .refused to iet Boeing out of thai
lease. The szate reminded Boemg that the lease k valid and
ironclad. 5 e lszl likely that Oregon, new that it sniffs some
profit ns wrat was once desert wasteland car. break the same
lease it ruled valid and ironclad back m 13
Jack L. McF adder., VK-president and assistant genera!
manager of Boemg Afri-todsstrial Company at Boardman,
Toid the Gaiette-Tnnes last week that a proposal to make
farms for Vietnam veterans out of the Navy bombmg range
wouid probaary be considered favorably by his firm. "But if
that land s going to be opened up for Development by
corporate farming and ranching interests. Boeing wants to
do iC he said.
MeFaddes ouoted Harold Kerr, agricultural county
eiceTSior agent, as estimating the improvement of She
bombmg range land at JSMP per acre. Let us assume.
MeFaddes said, that veterans were abk- to finance purchase
of -arre family farms or. bombmg range land. Where
would be ge? the SSIiS it would cost to develop it into a
productive family farm" Just putimg it the necessary roads
through f acre tracts would cost betweer. STSO.W and $1
million, and who would L:ke to pay for that? Obviously, the
land m question will have to be developed by corporate
mterests Few individuals have that kind of money, and few
of them would want to invest that much in a farm gamble
Boemg is. and always has been, a good citaec of Morrow
County It spends every dollar it can with Morrow County
merchants It is one of the best customers Morrow County
Grain Growers has. 1 has done a remarkable job of turning
worthless land into productive land. It ss a big taxpayer.
Last year Boemg paid 135 .ft in taxes to Morrow County on
that leased land and its improvements, and wiB pay about
SE5.(X- for 2ST3 taxes That's about 2 per cent of the toial
county tax bite. Not s bad record for a firm that took desert
land 10 years ago. invested hundreds of thousands of dollars
and a lot of agrtculura genius in k. and made i: productive
to the point wnere just about everybody wants a share of the
pe. Where were they when it was worthless, and when the
county was getting peanuts off it m taxes'
Unless Boemg voluntarily surrenders its huge invest
ment (which wouldn't be good business for ii the only way
Oregoc is going to get Boemg off that land is fay instituting
condemnatwr. proceedings. 1: that is done, somebody ss going
to have to pay Boeing for all its improvements, plus
damages.
w I suggest the Chamber of Commerce invite MeFadaen to
speak at one of us doge meetings oc the subject of Boeings"
positKK oc the future of its fe. . holdings in the county. He
could correct some misunderstandings that are becoming
accepted as fact-one of whk is that the repartmeiit of
Veterans Affairs pays the taxes oc the land Boemg leases It
doesn't.
Ser.. Mart Hatfield a going it Thailand. India, Egypt and
Turkey u see bow mucr of our money those people wil agree
it accept m aid programs. A k of people wish he'd stay here
and mate good or. fcs promises to g funding for Willow
Creek Dam. The Corps of Engineers has awarded a
Richland. We, contractor miEiaE to improve picnic
"scmiies akirf the Columns River A lot of people wish the
Corps would buiic Willow Greet lam and let tne hot dog and
potato saiad people wait a while longer.
Ilus 2S red
Vwwei is hiue.
Viuiet is a streaker m Abasia
We wm recaE the cays wnet goi"iSt swalkiwmg. panty
rains, jamming tsw pmoe booths and pusmz beds across
the continent representee trie tugnest ideals of trie American
college system weicume tne Streaking Movement as a return
te noraairy . Streatmg . far those wtk have bees out of touch
wim tne warid. is a cultural- relevant form of
commumcatna that involves snuckmg one's clotting and
darting s:a-t naked through heavy concentrations of people,
tne ocjec: being u stun, dismay, anger and confuse masses
of peope without bemx apprerjenoed. Tins, of course, is what
Americar. colleges have beei leaching ttteer students for
years
Goaty s Snoe Store.
Oregat Heaaqiiarters.
"Sneakers for Streamers "
Streakmg by coLege stuarats mates more sense tnan
carryTEg placards for Cesar Chaves and lyrng oowx a front
of Army trucks. And it s z wonoerful way tc leE the beys
from tne girls, vtxt we La vert beet able tc dt for a decaae
But bow come pnoiograpners never get ac-coming pictures of
streakers at wore AE of them are rear view pictures. If I
bad assigned a pootacrapher to cover a parade and he cam
back with a picture of it tLsappearmg m the (Lstance I d fire
him. Newsweek rat a picture of a oaser streamers last week,
taken from the rear, of course t kmtec more Lxe s patter of
Parker House rolls Fraemner w&er t kii m eoliege had a
EA. it was only a collage degree? Ah, Spring' '
GAZETTE-TIMES
III in km IX- i ii turn m. .lza
Tt riimin iKimi-i Tn mi T imm lawnat v
IHM I I 0" Cl Ml 'i "tt MWI - II I I I J;
suwsatiTio ares g rrL''.' mmm. at p
- n t ii
Think!"
Story of early-day The mail pouch
logging reviewed
A good look at logging practices m the north Oregac Coast
Range is giver, by Sam ChurchiU m hs book about his
parents, "Big Sam " Lucy Peterson, an Astoria native but
long-time resident of Morrow County, reviewed "Big Sam"
at a jomt meeting of the Bookworms and the Topic Club oc
March 12 at the Weatherford borne. Delia McCurdy, an
original member of the Topic Club, was a special guest.
Mrs Peterson brought additional pictures of the Astoria
area which she circulated and she added several persona
recollections which enhanced her review.
The book s author g7ves details about life near Astoria
during the years that his father. Big Sam. worked as a logger
and tne family lived in nearby caisps. Young Sam attended
the University of Oregon for three years before he. too,
became a logger. He is now farm editor of the Yakima
Morning Herald and has had articles printed in Readers
Digest and other magazines.
"Long before you could conjugate a verb you knew how to
roll a choker so as to swing a long free of an obstruction. You
could read the whistle signals before you could read and
write You were proud of your father Y'ou lived a part of his
life each day. And you yearned for the day when you. too.
would lace on a pair of calk shoes and leave your own special
imprint alongside the footsteps of your father in the woods."
The story of the author s mother. Caroline Snow Churchill,
and her marriage to Big Sam and her adjustment to life in a
lugging camp, which differed so much from her Boston
background, is interesting.
Loggers in the early ! were rated as hot-tempered,
rough talking, and capable of blowing a month's pay or.
whiskey and women oc a Saturday night ."" The book includes
an eight-page picture sectioc that grves a look at the
er.vironment that Caroline and Sam knew in the early years
of their marriage
The edition from which Mrs. Peterson reviewed was
printed by Baiiantine Books. Inc., 373. S1J5. The book had
beer published earlier by Doubieday t. Co., Inc.
Margaret Morgan is Topic Club president and Inez Erwm
is Bo.worm president. Tne Bookworms will meet at Mrs
Erwm's home oc March 26. The dubs will meet together
again on Wed. afternoon. April 3. at the home of Katnryt)
Lmristrom in lone
TkttaiCW-Ti
Water
There s a 54iorsepower
motor being used as a booster
pump used tc pump water to
the area. He suggested a
larger booster pump to satisfy
the hour -by -hour demand of
the hospital, to replenish the
water suppiy to the hospital as
it is used
Anderson agreed with Low
that the cry eouid not go in
and tap the existing sut-inch
ane ieadrng from the reservoir
and use the water for domestic
purposes.
"We hope that when we get
througn up there, if the
development goes through, we
can put m a large enough
pump to satisfy the hour by
hour domestic needs of the
homes, so we wouldn't be
cutting down on the fire
capacity to the hospital The
pressure is to be maintained
a: aE times." be said
The storage capacity is
already tnere A boaster pump
is needed ic maintain the
capacity of the reservoir
At the present time tne
hospital dues cot have the
necessary fire protect,
Proposed plans call for take
over of the county reservoir to
utilae water now used by the
crjurthouse . and use the wer at
the courthouse to water the
courthouse lawn The present
reservoir would then be sup
plied with water from a larger
booster pump. AH water for
the hospital iE come directjy
from the reservoir, and eeo-
from Page I
tuaily the hospital will be tied
into aD the city's reservoirs.
Bids are to be submitted to
contractors for the proposed
wort or. Weil No. 3 Bios will
be opened and read at the
April 15 council meeting with
the work to start May l
Completion of the work is
expecied to be July l The
wort involves replacement of
exssting pump and motor,
instaliatioc of a pump control
valve, and miscellaneous
piping and valves.
The council meets again
April 1 By that time it is
expecied lo learn from the
Corps o? Engineer whether ii
will commit itself to pay its
part of the relocation of
transmission lines and reser
voirs If do such commitment
is received by that date, the
council will probably "go it
alone" and begin renovauoo
of its water system with bond
money already voted for that
purpose
The council referred a
variance request by Hubert C.
Wusog lo the planning com
mjssoG after tt w as learned
that he plans to put a moDile
home oc bis lot at 4(1
Riverside. According to
measurements submitted to
the council. Wilson's lot was
one i'jot short of the 75 fee!
Deeded for fcxs trailer.
Sweriey appointed Ernest
Y Joiner and Anne Dojerr to
the City Planning Comius-
SJJL
EDITOR:
Since your resurrection of the cute little Dot Charlie
weekly we kavt wavered weekly between hate, admiration,
frustration, empathy, pique and a few ether emotional
facets.
At first though: Mark Twain had come to town. Good old
SamU get us all straightened out As earlier -than-you
arrivals ibj two years from the Bay Area we affined with
your early editorials anent the differences twixt there and
here Why , do you know, we ha vent been hassled for change
or 35 cents to make up the price of a fifth of muscatel for
three years now Hell, we aust sees no Blacks or Orientals
either Now that's culture shock, coming from Telegraph Hill
to our isolated ISO in the mountains north of Spray where
we re either mudded or snowed-in 45 months of the year.
Then, you got a little crary, Ernie Y ou started taking off
or, the environment and the environmentalists and welfare
bums and as environmentalists (we think) and ex -welfare
bums iJoanie once took about $580 from the staie of
California during a period of unemployment after 15 or so
years of gainful employment we took a bit of umbrage On
occasion k
However, you usually managed to balance ou! our
differences with the beautifully high quality of your
editorials when you got off of subjects which created
remarks around here like "that bigoted sonovabitcfa" and, as
that broad who once ran a fag -dyke bar m NY.. Spivey.once
sang. "I brought culture to Buffalo in the Nineties." felt that
vtu were bringing "culture to Heppner ns the 7& " We d read
and remark (in our smug elitist manners, "I wonder
bowmany people around here ever, know who Macauiay
was...
However, with your editorial of March T. all is forgiven ;
well, almost all You can be as rotten as you want lo Lois
Winchesier. It s not that we dislike animals We have
passeJ of them. But we can't stand leaiots. or CPAs
We w ant to shake your hand the next time ns town. U you're
there, we will We got Jim Eason in common, amt we?
MIKE WELLS,
Spray.
PS I m not signing for Joanie She is to follow with a
!5-word letter or. the environment which she'll defy you to
print verbatim.
No I m not I'm afraid you'd have the guts to print it
exactly as written and without editorial comment. And one
Lois Winchester s enough Bui since I count among my idols
both Altiert Schweitzer and Mark Twain, your columns leave
me seethingiy schaophrenic, yet always, dammit, admirmg
of their style 1 readily admit I prefer most deer tc most of the
burners I ve come across, and have even been known to
rescuea hapless fly mid-sw at
When our bigotries coincide, your wisdom enthralls roe
When they clash, I wonder bow you can sleep Meanwhile.
The G-T has riser,, since your rescue, to the top of our reading
pile Though we couldn 't care less which local jocks scorched
whom, or what cookies the Kmzo Koffee Katct created, it s
nice to have a maddening, literate gaily for ac editor of the
only rag in town
mayor ui nmuuiuu
DEAR EDITOR:
Two recent items In the pa pen has got me worried more
man ever about the future of farming.
One reported where peanuts is a real good source of cheap
protein and that this country is pushing peanut butter u parts
of the hungry world that ain't never beard of peanut.
The other said American farmers raised a record peanut
crop last year, and that the Guvernment is buying nearly a y
fourth of it because the Department of Agriculture's support
price is two tenths of a cent more than the market price.
Mister Editor, this is bad news from ever angle. It's bad
enuff that the farmer can't sell his peanuts at a prom, it's
worse that the USDA is gitting the Guvernment in the peanut
business in a big way, and it's downright terrible that we're
trying to peddle peanuts to help out other countries. This
combination is bound to mean trouble, and it don't take much
memory to know who fer.
If our peanut bargining toilers our pattern, we D probable
be eating Russian peanut butter in a couple of years. One
thing fer shore, if the folks in Russia take to peanut butter
sandwiches, thev won't want fer bread, and we'll fix it so they
can have all the peanut butter they want. Back in 1972. we
sold wheat to U.e Reds fer $1.65 a bushel. Now we're running
short, and we're thinking of buying some of our wheat back
from the Russians at the current price of $5 a bushel And
well probable buv back the 30 million bushels the Russians
bought that is still in this country. That way. we save the
shipping cost while the sellers turn a $100 million profit.
With perdictions of bread going to $1 a loaf, it's natural that
the price of peanut butter will have to go up fer the sake of
fair trade or somepun. I! wouldn't look right to ha ve a peanut
butter sandwich made out of a quarter 's worth of bread and
only a nickel's worth of peanuts.
And Guvernment learned a long time afore the gas
shortage that the way to make shore prices keep going up is
to keep everything scarce.
Actual. Mater Editor, we might do better dealing our
peanuts to the Arabs The more oil they wont sell us, the
more peanuts we sell em That's what we're doing on wheat
and other grains I see by the papers where we're selling
twict the grains now the Arabs than we were a year ago afore
they shut off the oil spigot.
Course. I reckon everbody in them Arab countries is gitting
plenty of protein cause they got so much money they can
import our beef that we can't afford to eat unless we mix it
half and half with soybean mush If the USD A starts buying
up our soybean crop there won't be nothing left to eat we can
buy
Farthermore. if it air.'t enuff fer us to teach the world how
to deal in farm products, 1 see the US. Army is helping
private landowners in Germany build golf courses. That'll
show the Germans how to run short of everthing jest like we
did fore we plowed up the golf cot-ses to plant wheat to sell
the Russians
Y ours truly,
MAYOR ROY.
JOANIE WELLS
EDITOR:
k your editorial column of Feb. U you state. "The Oregon
Grape. Oregon's state flower, comes from California ." And
then you say. "I am now ns deep trouble ""
No. not deep trouble, you simply illustrated the saying. ' A
little know ledge is a dangerous thing " Now I will do the
same.
Oregon Grape Manama aquifoiium is native from British
Columbia to Northern California, so it did not "come from""
anywhere else, it a a native of Oregon And of Washington.
British Columbia and Northern California
HELEN M McClXLOUGH.
Cottonwood. Ca.
COW POKES
By Ace Reid
L
i Nixon's
Jesuit
tumrtnnn
r vv caput i
7.
LESTER KIVSOLVING
"Jake, now trie bargain on this place, buy it by
tf section, then find somebody who wlE
tale it by the pound!"
ASKLNGTON - The Rev. John McLaughlin. S.J. - who is
President Nixon's $25,0W-a -year Jesuit assistant - is no
longer a speechwriter. according to the White House press
office
"He ss invoked in international humanitarian projects,
sue as the Southeast Asian refugees," explained Press
Secretary Ron Zeigler s staff assistant. Tom DeCair.
This column has tried repeatedly to obtain an interview
with Fattier McLaughlin, but his secretary has disclosed that
he has been either on extended lecture tours in such distant
places as California, or else has been encumbered with a
heavy schedule of TV, radio and local lecturing
DeCair was asked, therefore, if it is not true that while
Father McLaughlin is no longer a Nixon speechwriter, he is
quite definitely a Ntxon speechmaker.
Replied DeCair: "Yes. like many others in government,
Dr McLaughlin is a spokesman for this administration "
This is to wallow in understatement For the likes of Father
McLaughlin have not been seen since the oratorical heyday
of ex Vice President Spiro Agnew .
For example, there is Father McLaughlin's having
engaged his Jesuit seminary classmate. Father Robert
Dnnan, S.J .. in what might be described as "The Jesuit
Battle of Pennsylvania Avenue."
Father Dnnan (D -Mass is the first Catholic priest ever
elected to Congress (although by no means the first
clergy Congressman, for there have been 95 Protestants. On
Jan 3D of this year, Cong Dnnan described the Nixon
administration as "the most corrupt administration in the
history of the republic."
President Nixon had no need to respond to this charge, not
when his Jesuit assistant promptly counterattacked - by
comparing Cong Dnnan to the Sanhedrin.
Fattier McLaughlin went on to charge Father Dnnan w ith
rape of justice for not having disqualified himself from the
House Judiciary Committee's impeachment inquiries,
considering a Dnnan impeachment bill.
F ather Dnnan had already brushed off a less erotic GOP
suggestion to this effect by replying coaly that no
Congressman who introduces a consumer protection bill is
expecied to disqualify himself from the voting.
But the usually doughty and intrepid Massachusetts
Congressman amaungly, and promptly, backed away from
McLaughlin 's comparison of Drinan to the Sanhednn i which
put Jesus Christ on trial . For he replied with an
uricharactenstically limp rejoinder, "My intuition tells me lo
decline all comment."
This left the distinct impression that President Nixon has
quite cleverly discovered that the way to neutralise one
pesky Jesuit is to use another.
Meanwhile Father McLaughlin, as Nixon speechmaker,
has announced around the nation:
- "I think Nixon will be viewed historically, ard in his own
time, as a great moral leader."
- "The churches have their o n histories of irregulanties.
disorders and scandals "
- -My feeling is that senior officials in the finite House are
no better, no worse, no more sinful, or less sinful, no more
sullied or unsullied morally, ethically, or spiritually than',
people in all other occupations - ineludum the clergy,'
This column has by no means been reluctant to expose
eccksiasucal venality. Rut we know of no dtMiominational
headquarters tor even pseudo-denominations) which have
currently amassed so many criminal indictments charging
the bugging of rivals and the burgUntiitjs of psychiatrists.
On the other hand, there is the apparently apocryphal
remark which has been attributed to the Ute Al Capooe, as he
was boarding the boat for Alcairai; "Well nobody's
perfect"