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I Horse sense (k j
: nxnrrv. joiner 1
There was an interesting court case here last week. It
involved John Weller, 20, of Lafayette, Ca., who was arrested
in May at Irrigon for possession of marijuana and
amphetamines, the latter classified as a dangerous drug.
Freed on $150 bond and indicted by a Morrow County grand
jury, he was to have been arraigned July 17 and enter a plea.
However, without a formal hearing, Weller, a junior at OSU
and 8 business administration major, was smart enough to
circumvent prosecution by suddenly entering a plea of guilty.
Judge Henry Kay promptly fined him $50 on the marijuana
charge and $250 on the amphetamines one. The interesting
point is that the maximum fine for marijuana is $100 and the
maximum for amphetamines is 10 years in prison and-or
$2500 fine. This appears a very lenient approach to putting
drug abusers out of business. All Weller had invested in this
case was a $150 bond. He didn't even Jiave an attorney's fee to
pay. If a hearing had been held, and it had been determined
that the man's character and circumstances warranted such
lenient punishment, there could be no criticism. But as it is
we have no way of knowing that Weller was entitled to special
consideration. All of which is a very poor way of discouraging
people from involving themselves in drugs. The fines
assessed cannot even cover expenses involved Ln the young
man's apprehension, which involves time and work by the
State Police; cost of assembling the grand jury, the mountain
of paper work and the district attorney's salary- So we lose
money on the deal and we also lose another round in ending
the drug business.
I don't know why a couple of items in the Gazette-Times
should kick up a storm in Texas, but it has. My old banker
friend Charles Spear of Sherman, Tex., has taken off his fair
share of my hide for stating in this column that the poor
people in the United States are the richest poor people in the
world. "You ignore." he writes, "that S per cent of the
families control 95 per cent of the wealth producing
resources: that 75 per cent of the people are the great silent
majority; and that 20 per cent of the individuals live on 5 per
cent of individual income." And then he really warms up,
"There are 25 million old and poor, sick and disabled living in
families that have to spend 50 per cent of income on food, and
half the cat and dog food sold for human consumption" All of
which may be true, and none of which I ignore. But granting
the truth of his statement, poor Americans are still the
richest poor people in the world. The poor are much worse off
in any other land, which makes my thesis sound. Yes, 5 per
cent of U.S. families control 95 per cent of the wealth, but
more of that wealth dribbles down to the poor than in the
other nations of the world. Is there another country where 5
per cent of the people do not control 95 per cent of the wealth?
This doesn't make the US. situation right by any means, but
it makes us better by comparison.
Then Charles shouts at me for not supporting gun control
legislation, asking: "Most big city police chiefs want gun
control why in the hell don't you?" That's simple. I don't
support gun control because gun control is impossible. Come
up with a formula for abolishing guns and I'll vote for it. Find
a way to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, and I'll
support that. But don't anybody kid me that "passing a law"
is going to do anything but disarm honest men and make
honest men better prey for the criminal. If Jaws stopped
criminals, there wouldn't De any criminals would there? So
don't give us another law to play with like the ill-fated
Volstead Act. As long as guns can be smuggled into this
country and bootlegged, and as long as guns can be made
w ith a piece of lead pipe in a home workshop, there will be
guns and they will be always found in the wrong hands.
One might as well pass a law against poverty as passing one
against gun ownership. One makes as much sense as the
others.
A couple of years ago I was in the Vatican's gift shop in
Rome to buy a ceramic painting, and the salesgirl told me
that for an added $5 1 could get the art object blessed by the
Pope. It seems strange to me. I told the girl, that everything
offered for sale in the church's gift shop hadn't already been
blessed by the Pope. If this shop, and everything in it, is
operating without the blessing of the Pope (I said, warming
up to my subject ) then I don't see why I or anyone else should
bother to patronize the place. After all, all the Pope would
have to do is to stroll through the place one time and bless
everything in it "in perpetuity" and have an end of the
business. Then the merchandise could be advertised as
having been pre-blessed. and whatever the cost of the
blessing could be included in the retail purchase price of the
goods. By this time the salesgirl was confused and
embarrassed and quite willing to wrap my picture and be rid
of me. But the "pre-blessing" idea kept nagging at me. It still
does.
I think the idea for pre-blessed food began with some
salty Texas newspaper editor who had spent half a lifetime
standing with bowed head and pinched stomach at public
banquets while some personage offered rambling and
interminable paeans ot tnanttsgiving lor the tood that was
getting cold on the table. The task of directing divine
approval to food usually goes to some frustrated thespian
with a fine vocabulary and stentorian delivery. By the time
this fellow has called down blessings on everybody from the
farmer who grew it, the volunteers who served it and the
purposes to which it is to be put, we ace apt to forget why we
were there in the first place. Time, you have heard, is
valuable. It is, in the final analysis, just about all we have.
Therefore, its conservation is just as necessary to us as is the ,
conservation of our forests, streams and air.
Who will be the first processor to package pre-blessed
foods? Fortunes have been made in putting pre-cooked foods
in attractive packages because it saves time and trouble. So
would pre-blessed food. By buying pre-blessed food at the
supermarkets the sacrament of asking the blessing at meal
time could be ended without endangering our salvation. It
would cut drastically the time spent at banquets and public
gatherings. It would also eliminate the possibility of getting a
shoddy, immature or inadequate blessing at the table,
because these pre-blessings would be prepared and given by
the best blessers in the land, who would be present during the
manufacturing process -at the factories like those
inspectors trom trie rooa Division ortne UJ. Department of
Agriculture. As a nation of time-savers, people are always
coming up with new ways to save time at their jobs in order
to extend their leisure hours. Just think, by eliminating
tedious dedications of food to a host of high purposes, perhaps
a full year of a man's life could be rescued for investment in
more fruitful pursuits, like having more time to spend in the
bars, on the golf links, or just listening to exhortations of our
political saviors. Of course, pre-blessed food will cost a little
more. But you don't expect to be blessed for nothing, do you?
You can get your brains knocked out for yelling
"Hey.boy!" at a colored fellow these days. But it's okay to
yell, "Hey, man." Which goes to prove that we're growing
up.
Sailing vessels on the
Wind and schooner-rigged
barges once moved all of
Eastern Oregon's freight up
the Columbia River. The birth
of the steamship was to signal
the end of the reliance on the
Gorge winds but the river
refused to give in easily.
The Venture was the first
steamship and she was built at
Cascade in im by R.R.
Thompson and Lav-rence W.
Coe. They intended to drag her
over the Dalles-Celilo Portage
with the use of timbers as
rollers. Sure enough , they
somehow pulled her, joy er the
portage and into the water on
the other side but for some
unexplained reason the crew
cast-off her lines before she
had up a full head of steam.
The current caught the strug
Rural America rediscovered
Americans are on the move
again, a determined current
running against the long-time
flood from farm to city.
They may be only a steady
trickle so far, but they are.
changing their ways for two
kinds of reasons, bom of
experience.
One-time rural Americans,
now that they've seen the big:
cities and perhaps lived there
for some years, are heading
back to where they came
from.
Ex-city folks, now that
they've learned a bit about life
down on the farm, are heading
off to where they think they
want to be.
In small towns, farms, and
ranches across the country
they were located and inter
viewed by writers of the
National Geographip Society's
latest book, "Life in Rural
America." The book's words
and photographs portray a
world longingly remembered,
or forgotten, or never known
at all.
It's a world that survives
rich and wholesome despite a
century of being drained of its
population.
In 1880, most Americans
lived on farms and only 28.2
percent in cities with more
than 2,500 population. At the
close of the century President
Woodrow Wilson had his own
way of describing America's
past:
"The history of a nation," he
said, "is only the history of its
villages written large."
the SOVEREIGN STATE
llrtDC-TAUfS TlliT
( TURKEY H INCREASING (
ITS OPIUM CP0P -A
(THIS YEAR, SENATOR. Ill (
-y- SrrS -.Cf CRIME IN THIS r
gling craft and sent her
crashing back over the falls.
Not to be discouraged by one
failure. Thompson and Coe
immediately began building,
at the mouth of the Deschutes
River, a 110-foot steamer, the.
Colonel Wright.
Launched Oct. 24, 1858 the
Colonel Wright became the
first steamship to navigate the
Columbia above the Dalles.
Captain Len White signed on
as commander for the stag
gering sum of $500 per month.
Captain White had also been
the first to navigate", the
Willamette from Albany to
Harrisburg and finally all the
way to Eugene.
There was a fortune to be
made in those years. Tons of
freight were shipped at the
However, since then the
migration away from rural
America has continued apace.
In 1960, 15.6 million still lived
on farms 'and small towns.
Only 10 years later, there were
9.7 million.
On the other hand, a
small-town banker in Min
nesota may have been speak
ing for many rural Americans
when he told a writer that the
flight from the farms has
leveled off.
In only the last decade,
Vermont has acquired a
shadow population of part
time residents almost equal to
its permanent population.
Quote after quote in the book
praises rural America:
"Here a person is some
body." "Here we don't have to
put up with crowds." "Every
body here is as good as
everybody else." "It's a great
place to raise kids." "I like to
bve in a town where I'm called
by my first name." "Here I
can leave a footprint."
me
GAZETTE
MORROW COUNTY'S NEWSPAPER
Box 337, Heppner, Ore. 97836
Subscription rate: $5 per year in
Oregon, $6 elsewhere.
Ernest V. Joiner, Publisher
of AFFAIRS
VfRY DON'T we STOP VI
THEM AlP J
CR SOMETHING? THAT 3
Columbia River
going rate of $80 per ton. One
storekeeper figured that by
the time a miner's shovel got
as far as Idaho the freight
charges amounted to over a
dollar each.
Passengers stood in line to
board the three weekly trips.
From 1861 to 1864 more than
100.000 passengers paid the $60
fare for the 30-hour trip from
Portland to Lewiston, Idaho.
And if they wanted a bed or a
meal they paid a dollar extra.
Captain White resigned as
commander after his salary
was reduced and the fearless
Thomas Stump took over. For
the next 20 years Captain
Stump made the run from
Celilo up the Columbia.
Having tamed the Columbia
the Colonel Wright and Cap
Many new rural Americans
came as greenhorns. A college
graduate turned down a pro
mising bank job to become a
fledgling and then highly
successful pig farmer. A
picture editor of a city
newspaper moved his family
to a New England village and
a new life of repairing cars.
Rural living still has chronic
problems. 'The trouble is
there's nothing to hold the
young people," says a prairie
farmer's wife. "There are no
jobs, no opportunities...."
There is more than one side
to small town life. "People
still take an interest in one
another," says one man.
Others complain about busy
bodies. And a man living on a
former dairy farm had this
view: "Having a piece of land
affects a man. He watches
every little change in the
weather, in the seasons. And
he learns to be himself."
- TIMES
QH-. Wfc uJULVNl DO HAT!
V.
- iHe 1MK Act OUR rl
FRlEWW. OU& AID TO)
.THEM t AM WQE&m
iTHEIK FRIENDSHIP.
-1
Heppner,
crossroads'
REPORT
DEAR EDITOR:
A news story tells about an
18 year -old hood breaking into
an old couple's home to rob
them and, while he was
mauling the old man, the olu
lady went and got their home
pistol and killed the
marauder.
Which sensible, Christian
act undoubtedly saved the
lives of many good people the
young thug would have en
countered in a long career.
And her constructive act
alos reduced by one the
number of plundering people
who favor the anti-gun cru
sade because it would disarm
their prey and let them enjoy
safer working conditions.
DE. SCOTT,
Crossroads, U.S.A.
quoteunquote
"Writing is like defecation:
you do it to get rid of some
thing." Daniel J. Voorstin,
Author Director, National
Museum of History and Tech
nology. tain Stump were sent on a
similar mission up the Snake
River. After struggling up
stream through the Snake
River Canyon for eight days
the steamer, caught in a
dangerous eddy, was thrown
against the rock wall. Eight
feet of her bow, keel and sides
clear to the deck were torn
away. Captain Stump beached
her and the crew made repairs
as best they could. Then they
started down the raging
Snake. In less than five hours
they covered the 100 miles it
had taken eight days of
battling to gain.
In 1865, her job completed,
the Colonel Wright was
brought down the Columbia
and dismantled.
Bank's
earnings
are up
First National Bank of
Oregon reported a 'strong
increase in earnings for the
first half of 1974, according to
Robert F. Wallace, president
of the statewide banking
system.
The bank's deposfts origin
ating in Oregon were off
slightly to $2,077,432,000 on
June 30 compared with
$2,106,062,000 recorded at the
end of the second quarter of
1973. Firt National's loans
generated by 136 statewide
branch offices moved up to
$1,384,016,000 from the
$1,381,557,000 listed on the
same date in 1973.
The Heppner Branch re
ported deposits of $9,086,248
and loans of $9,457,443 as of
June 30.
For the second quarter,"
income was $5,136,000, up 16.7
per cent from $4,402,000 in
1973. This amounts to 97 cents
per share compared to 83
cents last year.
Word has bees received
here taat Lester Ashvaugh, 58,
has died of a heart ailment in
Hogansville, Ca. Mr. Ash
vangh grew up in Hardman.
No other details were avail
able at press time.
BOYD and WOOD
OMR THAN A
5 CI6AKi WAT THIS
C0OKTRY NEEDS ARE A
rEiN mi CHOSCN
ENEMIES..
i rew mi. chovcn
-i ENEMIES..
JJ MCtTfTiiv ,
Ore., (kattte-Tlmn. Thursday, My IS. W4
Mayor of Hardmon
DEAR MISTER EDITOR:
Ever now and then some outfit figgers out how long it takes
folks to do this or the other Usual its' how long a working
man has to work to pay his taxes and buy his groceries.
Most of these surveys that I've seen compares the average
American with the average Russian, cause fer a long time
that was who we was suposed to be busting our gut to stay
ahead of in everything.
Well, Mister Editor, Saturday night at the country store
Zeke Grubb come in with a clipping that compared
Americans with Americans. This survey give a report on
where a average worker's day went 10 year ago and today.
Zeke said he was suprised at some of the things the Tax
Foundation come up with, and passed along some of em fer
general enlistment of the group,
ln 1964, reported Zeke, a feller had to work two hours and 35
minutes to pay taxes on all levels. Ten year later, he works
two hours and 38 minutes of ever eight hour day to pay his
taxes. Housing in 1564 cost him a hour and 22 minutes of labor
ever day, and this year he spends a hour and 24 minutes
keeping a roof over his head. Today, he works 61 minutes to
by food fer his family, and 10 year ago he had to work a hour
and 37 minutes to keep somepun on the table.
Zeke said probable what the figgers prove is that you can
prove anything w ith fifigers. It looks like, though, declared
Zeke, that the working man then and now is about in the same
bout, and no matter how hard he rows he stays in about the
same spot up the creek. He's working five hours and three
minutes now to pervide food and shelter and pay his taxes,
where these hard facts of life cost his five hours and 34
minutes 10 year ago Course, some time in the middle of the
afternoon, said Zeke, he's going to have to look out fer
somepun to wear and he's going to have to dut some aside fer
gasoline to git back and forth to work.
Actual, broke in Ed Doolittlc, they ain't no way to account
fer all the surveys. Ed said he recalled everbody was crying
about high prices back in 14, but back then the federal
Guverment talked about debts of strength and debts of
weakness, and we w as operat ing on a dollar based on the 1939
value. Ever now and then, Ed said, we raise the year we base
the dollar on so can say the dollar is worth 53 cents of the 1956
dollar stead of the 37 cents of the 1939 dollar. Then we turn
right around, said Ed. and declare that the copper cent costs
more 1974 copper to make than it's worth any year.
Gereral speaking, the fellers was agreed with Ed that what
the average working man needs in this country is 1974 wages
and 1939 prices Aside from that arrangement, they said, we
might as well keep being compared with the Russians fer all
the good it'll do the feller that spent ever cent he could rake
and scrape then, jest like he does now.
Your truly,
Mayor Roy
'
"Only persons of genuine Christian experience and
character, whose character is above reproach and who are
free from harmful practices that could mar their influence or
compromise their witness can receive the approval of the
United Methodist Church as ministers of the word,
sacraments and order. .A bishop, minister or lay member
of an annual conference shall be liable to accusation and trial
upon any one of more of the following charges: immorality,
crime, or other imprudent, unchristian, or unministerial
conduct." - Sections 306 and 1521, United Methodist Book of
Discipline, 1972
UNITED Methodist " Book of WHAT? DISCIPLINE?
Ho. Ho.
Anyone still lalxiring under the delusion that there is any
discipline left in the national structure of the nation's third
largest (10 million) denomination, need only to visit San
Francisco
Over on Ellis Street near the Tenderloin section of this
beautiful city is the Glide .Memorial Methodist Church, a
large structure whose builder, the late Lizzie Glide, was an
evangelist and widow of an oil man. Mrs. Glide built the
church and left it healthily endowed in order that it be "a
center for Christian evangelism."
What.Glade has become should be of note to anyone who is
inclined to expect that the Methodist Church is a trustworthy
beneficiary of memorial gifts, despite its Book of Discipline
and its system of powerful bishops who can assign or remove
all clergy.
Glide has for some years been in the hands of the Rev. A.
Cecil Williams, a generally screeching, pseudo-sacerdotal
clown with an absolutely insatiable lust for publicity,
together with an uncanny ability to sniff the self -promotional
possibilities in new and more spectacular outrages.
Having gotten his beaming and hirsute face on national TV
repeatedly (among otier reasons in acting as middleman for
the Symbionese Liberation Army and before that as one of
Communist Angela Davis' two 2) Christian chaplains) the
Rev. A. Cecil has now outdone himself, by using his
Methodist Church to host a convention of whores. ,.,
Moreover, the floozies organization was given $5,000 in
Glide money to assist in their campaign to reform vice laws.
The Rev. A. Cecil has not (as yet) announced any plans to
turn Mrs. Glide's Memorial Church into the nation's first
Methodist Brothel, which may impress his guest trollops as
somewhat square.
Not only that but the passing up of a glorious financial
bonanza, which might replace some of the Glide funds so
massively expended - on such worthy and deserving projects
as a pornography museum. After all, there are those who
mention the alleged prostitution of Mary Magdalene (which
Biblical scholars question ) as well as the willingness of Jesus
Christ to talk with harlots (although to tell them "Go and tin,
no more ")
Perhaps, however, the real reason that the Rev. A. Cecil
has not already attracted new national headlines - as the
Methodist Church's very first ordained pimp - is because M
right next door to Glide Church is the office of Methodist ,
Bishop R. Marvin Stuart.
Shortly after Bishop Stuart first arrived in San Francisco
three years ago there was a discreet inquiry about all those
illustrations of fornication which covered the walls of a good
portion of the Glide crypt - along with piles of soiled
bedsheets each weekend, which indicated what might be
termed an impressive amount of erotic endeavor.
Bishop Stuart inspected the premises, discovered the
evidence, gave orders - and subsequently accepted the
SX G'ide Foundati0"'8 Sector, the RevfLewis
JSlKV" Cu,il,',however' is something else again. For
So i. J I1''3"18 is not white but miUtont black
who is ready at all times to cry "racism" at any critic. This
SESf Pay?ff- E 88 f ne Week after Methodist
Whores Convention, Methodist Bishop Stuart was still silent.
Church
hosts
whores
By LESTER KINSOLVING