Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1974)
Heppner, Ore., Gazette-Times, Thursday, May I W4 Page 2 Jemstedl Mayor of Hardman Horse sense I ERNEST V. JOINER I 1 That busy 1973 legislature wasn't all bad. On June 1 some new regulations for public utility companies go into effect, and they should gladden the hearts of consumers. One, effective July 1, requires each utility to pay 6 per cent interest per year on deposits. The utility must refund customer deposits plus interest upon discontinuance of service, or after 12 consecutive billings without having more than two delinquent payments. This will eliminate the practice of a utility requiring cash deposits and holding them for years without paying interest on them, although they have the use of the customers' money. Another regulation sure to please telephone users is one setting standards of service the company must meet. As of July 1, a caller is entitled to receive a dial tone within three seconds if the called number is busy. Attempted calls to the toll operator or for directory assistance operators must be answered within 10 seconds. It would have been consistent and fair to taxpayers if the legislature had also required the state to pay interest on the income tax withheld from paychecks. The state has the use of this money, just as does the utility company that requires advance deposits for service, and is just as obligated to pay interest for the use of that money as is the utility company. What is sauce for the goose is not, in the legislative mind, sauce for the gander. Morrow County has always been represented on the Blue Mountain Community College Board of Education, but that may change at the May 7 election. There is a good possibility that Morrow County will lose its representation on the board. There are two candidates running for Position 2 now held by Bob Abrams. who is not seeking re-election-Dorothy Krebs of lone and Irvm Kauch of Lexington. Recently a third candidate filed, James Whitney of Pendleton. Whitney may be expected to carry the more populous Umatilla County; whereas Morrow County with comparatively few votes will have them split between Mrs. Krebs and Mr. Rauch. In this situation it is almost certain that Mr. Whitney will be elected. There are two ways to better insure Morrow County's presence on the board. The first is for Abrams to resign immediately and a Morrow County member appointed for his unexpired term. This would provide some sort of an edge, as the incumbent usually has an advantage. The second move would be for one of the two Morrow County candidates to withdraw in favor of the other, thus eliminating a split in the county vote. It would be unfortunate if, for the first time in the 12-year history of the college, its board had no member from Morrow County. Morrow County residents would be taxed to support the college, but would have no voice in its affairs. Dr. Rodney Briggs. president of Eastern Oregon State College, was in Heppner a couple of weeks ago to meet with high school seniors and their teachers. In an informal discussion Dr. Briggs said he was convinced the world is headed for a massive food shortage and that the world population faces starvation. This observation is based on his experiences in Africa. There, of course, food shortages and widespread starvation are not new. In Africa, as in most other parts of the earth, people have always starved -even when there were no conservationists to limit food production. During World War II the American farmer, left to his own devices, fed almost the entire world. And, left to his own devices, he could do it again. But he will net be left to his own devices. He is already a creature of the government, and his production will be regulated and manipulated toward less production at greater cost. The same government that is keeping the American farmer and rancher from feeding a starving world is the same government that brought on the oil shortage. In the oil case, government price controls, taxing policies and interference in management drove oil companies overseas and into the arms of the Arabs. Government regulation of oil inhibited exploration for new sources of oil. The result of government meddling in the oil business is well known. The same result is being sought in the field of agriculture, where government says it knows best how to farm. If there ever is a food shortage it w ill not be for a lack of tillable land and fertilizer or because of over -population. It will be because government regulated and controlled the producers with punitive taxes, price and. wage controls, allocations of supplies and market) and economically unrealistic regulation, and all other restrictive meddling to which all government is prone. U.S. Sen. William E. Brock of Tennessee recently said. "The government has so overregulated and stifled private initiative that what should be boom-time conditions look more like an era of oversupply. Taxes, management errors, inflation, restrictive pricing policies and poorly drawn environmental regulations all played a role in doing what the prospect of 25.000 feet of hard rock could not-they have caused the oil man to decide not to drill." The same government policies can (and will ) cause the farmer not to plant, the rancher not to breed livestock and the fisherman not to fish. But if the farmer, rancher and fisherman were left to their own devices there would be no shortages of foodstuffs. But they will not, so long as there is government, be left to their own devices. Which returns us to Dr. Briggs. The professor is right. But we should know the culprit responsible. 0 I should be over my 40-year shuddering jag about the state of the republic, but the more I read about the State Democratic Pre-Primary Convention held in Salem a couple of weeks ago . . . Well, about 300 delegates at the Willamette University conclave passed resolutions that would legalize marijuana, nationalize the oil industry, impeach President Nixon, continue the ban on DDT to control the tussock moth in Eastern Oregon forests, guarantee an annual income to replace the welfare system, allow 18-year-olds to serve in the legislature, support a law to permit taxpayers opposed to a war to designate that part of their taxes allotted for national defense to be spent on alternate programs. That isn't all, but it s enough. Fortunately, Democratic candidates are not bound by resolutions of this group, but they are generally regarded as guidelines in the formation of a party platform. This political horror story will have to do us, at least until the Republicans can hold a convention and try to top it for asininity. GAZETTE-TIMES MOftKOW COUNTY'S MWSK at. Hnnir, on. not. m. tumt Tl llipwr Qmm mm mUWijW Mft W, )tU Tmil rTi W- ! WW Ml. II ran. CMMMMHill Hit MtMHI: MM "Glad You're Home, Huh? So Are The Russians." (Continued from page 1 ) County, the senator stated. "It would play a vital role in wells that go dry in this area, and sooner or later people are going to have to vote on the water in the Columbia River. At present other states are interested in the supply of water that could be obtained from the Columbia. Oregon is far behind other states in planning for water resources and irrigation." Measure Five deals with the veterans fund. This bill ac cording to Jernstedt, would increase the capacity of veterans loans by $470 million to be used for veterans farm and home loans. While many feel that veterans loans are competing with private bank ing industries, veterans can obtain loans at a lesser rate of interest, through the Veterans Administration. Although monies are on hand to handle many loans, if this bill does not pass the Veterans Depart ment will be out of funds by the end of May. Measure Six, allows the legislature to call itself into special session. The governor is the only person allowed to call a special session of the legislaters at present. Should this bill pass a majority of both the house and senate would be required to call any special session; however, they could do so without the governor's consent. Judge Henry Kaye, Pen dleton, will speak to the Chamber of Commerce next Monday. The mail pouch EDITOR: My husband and I always enjoyed OPINION written by you in the Sebastopol Times and missed it when you left. We had no idea w here you had gone. Tuesday my husband, while getting a haircut, was discussing your articles with the barber and learned you are in Heppner. Coincidently, the GAZETTE-TIMES was given the barber by another patron. It is dated April 4, only three weeks old. It contained several articles of interest to my husband, especially page 4. "lone's Oldest Native ..." My husband and his three sisters were friends of Fred Buschke, his brothers and sisters. His sisters graduated from the high school there Moved to Heppner in 1903 and lived there until 1922. His father was Frank. They bought the Stalter and Headquarter ranches. His uncle, N.E. Winnard. was one of the doctors before the 1900 turn and on into 1919. We have the book, "Homesteads and Heritages." a history of Morrow County, which tells of the early days in Heppner as well as other areas in Morrow County . . . In reading your articles in the April 4 edition, we find them still interesting. Please send us the paper. We visited Heppner in 1971, and are planning another trip. MRS. WILLIS WINNARD, Sebastopol. Ca. EDITOR: Your article in Horse Sense (GT, April 18) about North Texas State University hiring an ex -con to inspire students was greatly appreciated by us here. It runs so close to our views of "O tempore! O mores!" I. too, blew by stack when I read in the Oakland Tribune of a proposal to offer a course in belly dancing in the nearby city's YMCA. "According to the teacher, Najia, the course will cover the dance of the veils, history of the dance and how to move sensuously," the article read. You might want to join me in promoting a class in Harlotry in our learning institutions, with the chance to "earn as you learn" and with degrees for graduate students. . . HARLAN D. BURBANK, Oakland. Ca. EDITOR: We have taken issue with you on some of your stands in the past but have not. until this time, felt compelled to write and voice our objection. However, after reading your comments in the April 25 "Horse Sense" column concerning the April 30 National Day of Humiliation. Fasting, and Prayer we felt it was time to enter a resounding protest. The National Day of Prayer, for the benefit of those people who would really liked to have known about it, was a congressional resolution very similar to the one passed over 100 years ago under Abraham Lincoln. In essence, the resolution was calling for the nation and its leaders "to humble ourselves before Almighty God, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." The power of genuine repentance and prayer in unmeasureable and yet you have seen fit to make light of what could have been a very moving experience for the Heppner area. Heppner has a number of people with a deep faith in the power of God. Faith in God is a positive force and yet many of your comments, along with most of Lester Kinsolving's are essentially negative in nature. Please don't mock our faith by using it for "splash" effect. Even though the National Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer was April 30 and will be over by the time this letter reaches your newspaper, it is not too late for each of us as individuals to take part in the resolutions set forth by our congress in our hearts and in our homes. JOHN AND RUTH MAATTA. West Linn, Ore. EDITOR: In all fairness methinks you might have published the Congressional Resolution which calls upon the people of our nation to "humble ourselves as we see fit, before our Creator to acknowledge our final dependence upon Him." This might have given your readers an opportunity to judge for themselves and make their own choice as they see fit. MRS. RAY BARNETT, lone. Bf.lCC directors Pendleton residents? By GLENN MORRISON Morrow County residents may be facing the possibility of not having representation on the board of directors for Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton. For the past 10 years Heppner Attorney Robert Abrams has served on the board, which he headed for 2 years. His position. No. 2, is "up for grabs" due to his retirement from the board this year. Three people are running for the position: Dorothy Krebs of lone, Irvin Rauch of Lexington and James Whitney of Pendleton. The election of Whitney would remove repre sentation from Morrow County. Since Morrow County property owners pay taxes for support of the college, it only stands to reason that they should be represented on the board that decides use of the monies. According to Abrams, the board has not zoned the district and the positions are currently "open" to anyone in the district. Thus, this year it will be possible for the entire board of directors to be residents of Pendleton, for a community school which ser vices a 100-mile area from Heppner to Milton-Freewater. If Morrow County loses its representation it could peti tion the board to zone the district. This would automati cally insure representation. Morrow County only has one chance to save their repre sentation this year. That is by showing strong support in the May 7 election for the Morrow County candidates. Abrams noted that Morrow County residents had been strong supporters of BMCC in the past, and always voted favorably for the college budgets. "With this much support for the college in the SOVEREIGN STATE of AFFAIRS Morrow County it would be a shame to lose its representa tion on the board," said Abrams. Although the county may lose its board position, it may have a resident as college president. Due to the retire ment of President Wallace McCrae the board has been seeking a new president. A committee has narrowed down the group of nearly 200 applicants to about 10. Appli cants from Morrow County include Bob Kelly, instructor at BMCC, and Ron Daniels, Morrow County Superinten dent of Schools. B0YO and WOOD tUMCBIFTlOM KATES: linrwOnpt M Sunn am, i St , mm mmm vary. He. mail tmmt, ' l taMtV.MNr.MMWar Tt liH Vmm mmm m riwniIWy w trrw Im wrtw MMi w iMMii fvprwf itttM cfecry " CMCfl mt cfcarys ttf Iht psr Itmttm II i fin i in Mat ft mrrm TM li mHi Tmm 1 tonM. J H0'S SU K J- WX- WfcU A SO- WE'RE NO.-WE'tt ) ( m E OH IN K ( & 6WIW& AID ;- I AfeAlfriT BOTH I ( fR BOTH "S C THE MI&DU EAST? ) ( TO BOTH THE ARA9S ) 7 SEfcS, Rim?) xl J w". CIV" S AND THE JEWS- -C-vr-' JTJM&EE. K Ii iwmLa tkmM Jftfe DEAR MISTER EDITOR: The fellers still had taxes on their mind Saturday night at the country store. dem Webster said April 15 come and went, and In spite of what taxpayers pcrdict ever year, the country kept right on rolling along. Clem said about the only thing that made this year unusual at income tax time was the bed of snakes they plowed up about President Nixon's back taxes. Clem said it looks like the domino idee of foreign policy is being put to work in the President's case. Ever time they open a file on him, It leads em to three or four more files. If he ain't being billed fer state income taxes in Florida and California where he claimed deductions on his houses as places of "primary residence," some congressional committee is trying to git him to pay fer hauling his dogs around on public-owned airplanes. , It's a sight in this world, allowed Clem, that we got WO.OOO-a-year congressmen with nothing better to do than figger how much it cost extry to cary a 25-pound dog from Washington to California on a airplane that can haul 275, people and 20 ton of freight. Clem said he is fer Nixon paying ever cent of income tax he owes, but it's got to where that 1,000-page report on his tax records that sells fer $6.50 is a bigger item than that picture show about the devil gitting into some little girl, Actual, said Zeke Grubb, people alius is fascinated by what they're afraid of, and fer striking fear deep in the hearts of Americans, you jest can't beat taxes and 01' Beelzebub. Zeke said fer what we pay our congressmen, he'd ruther see them working on ways to change the tax laws so the working man in the middle wouldn't be keeping up the rich on one end of the income scale and the pore on the other end. Zeke had saw where Senator Mondale said thousands of people with huge incomes pay the little end of nothing, and that 402 Americans that made $100,000 or more in 1972 paid no income tax at all that year, Ed Doolittie said where a column writer reported that the 16th Amendment that give the Federal Guvernment the right to tax income was only 31 words. That was in 1913, and since then laws covering collection of the taxes runs to more than a million words. And Ed said a good loophole lawyer can do more fer his client today with them million words than the 31 did fer the country. Back when that Amendment was wrote, Ed allowed, you could take yore gal to the county fair and buy her a pink lemonade. All the reward you got and all you expected was to , take her home, set in the front porch swing and squeeze yore lemonade. Nowadays, he said, you can charge the lemonade to operating expenses, git depreciation on the swing and come out ahead of the game. Yours truly, MAYOR ROY. Lutheran BY LESTER KINSfll VI W The whole story of Wounded Knee 1973" suggests the Rev. Lester Heins of Minneapolis, is "a graphic history of the free execise of religion." The Rev. Mr. Heins is public relations chief for the 2.5 million-member American Lutheran Church, which recently went to court and established what appears to be an amazing new confessional criteria. For when the Rev. Paul Boe, a Lutheran Social Service Department director, was asked in court who it was that he saw carrying guns during the occupation-looting of Wounded Knee, he refused to testify. The Rev. Mr. Boe claimed that his silence, in this regard, is part of the traditional confidentiality which courts allow for clergy-penitent, attorney-client and physician-patient rela tionships. A spokesman for the Department of Justice has told this column that Boe was not asked to disclose anything that had been told to him in confidence. He was simply asked to testify as to what he saw done by Indians (who were hardly penitent or confessional) while they allegedly wrecked the town of Wounded Knee, including the local Catholic church. , ' Since there are numerous unordained witnesses available who cannot claim Boe's clergy exemption, the Justice Department spokesman said that there are no plans at this time to appeal a court ruling which has upheld Boe. Moreover, the American Lutherans have joined, in a 38-page amci curiae brief advocating this widened standard of clergy privilege, by the National Council of Churches, the U.S. Catholic Conference, the Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the United Presby terian Church - plus top leaders or boards of the Episcopal Church. United Church of Christ, United Methodist and Disciples of Christ. This seems, at least for the time being, to have established the Rev. Mr. Boe's right to conceal what he saw these Indian gunman doing at Wounded Knee (at least one of whom was carrying a Soviet AK-47 assault gun). If this sould really be regarded as part of the traditional clergy -penitent relationship, no clergyman should ever again be subpoened to testify about anything that he sees happen within his parish boundaries (if anywhere) - whether an automobile accident, robbery or homicide. For he, like Boe at Wounded Knee, would be trying to relate to non-parishioners. The Lutherans, and their allied denominations, even go so far as to contend that clergy are more entitled to such privileges of confidentiality than are newsmen, with regard to protecting their sources: "The right directly protected by the free press clause (of the Constitution) is the right of publication and dissemination. News gathering is a means to that end and the confidentiality of sources is of some utility in the gathering of news." SOME utility? Any newsman who reveals his sources is finished as an investigative reporter - either in his exposing corruption in big government, or, for that matter, corruption in a big ecclesiastical government. The Founding Fathers, most of whom were church members, apparently felt that organized religion should be no more sacrosanct from the scrutiny of a free press than should the civil government. Hence, there is no distinction whatsoever between the First Amendment's guarantee of both free exercise of religion and freedom of the press. But the Lutherans, and their allies, contend that while courts may constitutionally force a reporter to "breach the confidence of his source," clergy confidences must be fully respected - even regarding armed bandits at work at Wounded Knee. This is clericalism hardly befitting the ecclesiastical dependents of Martin Luther. It amounts to a proposal that clergy should be trusted, but not newsmen. It is advocacy of a despicable double standard whereby those of us who are ordained, as well as professional journalists, should be tmsted in the confessional - but not in the news room. 4
