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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 1974)
Page 2 Horse sense Jjfe Bv ERNEST V. JOINER A! the general election Nov. 5 voters will be called upon m pass judgment on several ballot measures, most of which are constitutional amendments. They can drastically change the pattern of life in this state, and are far more important, I think, than the election of candidates to public office. Once one of these measures get public approval it is almost impossible to remove them. Consequently, they should be studied thoroughly by voters before marking the ballot. This is a personal assessment of the various measures. No. 1 Liquor licenses for public passenger carriers, the pui xseof which is to permit the sale of liquor by the drink on anv public passenger earner, rather than just on interstate railroad corporations as is the law at present. Liquor is already served on airlines and railroads. Why is it prohibited elsewhere'' Unwarranted intrusion of the law has served no useful purpose in the matter of alcoholic beverages. The law can't prohibit its manufacture, sale, distribution or consumption. In this respect we haven't learned much from Ute Prohibition Era. If a man's going to drink, he's going to drink, and he's going to drink when and where he pleases-legally or illegally. Passage of this measure would merely legalize what 's already going on. and will continue to go on. The federal government allows liquor by the drink on interstate conveyances w ilhout undue trouble. Oregon might as well face the facts and permit it . It might stop the carrying of flasks and bottles in coat pockets and luggage. I vote Yes. No. 2. Oieiisall legislative deliberations to the public. If approved by voters, there w ill be no more secret sessions of either house ol ihe legislature, and the change of an Oregon "Watetua'e" reduced. The legislature is acting for the people and I can think of no issue that requires the people's business be conducted without their knowledge. The deliberations ol all other state and local governmental auet.cies are by law open to the press, except that certain school boards and city councils haven't gotten the message vet and attempt to adjourn to such things as "personnel" or 'executive" sessions to hide their actions from the public. All governmental agencies should conduct their business openly, ai d the legislature is no exception. Yes on No. 2. No. 3. This would amend the state constitution to provide ilia' a grand jury indictment is not necessary for a felony prosecution if a person has been charged and a magistrate Imds at a preliminary hearing that there is probably cause to believe that the person has in fact committed a felony. The measure would not deny a jury trial, but only deals with the manner in which he is charged. Approval of this measure would e.edite the judicial process, since grand juries meet it frequently. One reason why the courts are clogged now is because of delays in securing grand jury action. Anything tha' will Seed up the judicial process without jeopardizing a leroi 's constitutional rights is to be desired. The U.S. Constitution guarantees any person a speedy trial, and there is no such thing in existence at this time because of long, drawn-out. tedious, time-consuming procedures that have nothing to do with either justice or a man's rights. Yes on 3. No. 4. Eliminates the governor vacancy successor age requirement. At present, a person must beat least 30 years of aue before he can succeed to the governorship in casewjf a vacancy in that office. If this measure is approved, we could wind up with a teen-age governor. Highly improbable, but with politicians anything can happen. In my opinion, nobody under 30 years of age is likely to be qualified to perform the du'ies of governor. I don't want to be ruled by any fuzzy -liped kids, and I don't care what his IQ is or how he fared in the 4-H program. I want a seasoned, experienced businessman who has fell the heavy hand of government in his pocket book and on his back. No on 4. No. 6 iNo. 5 has been eliminated on the ballot). This measure permits establishing qualifications for county assessors. Great idea, and one that is long over-due. Yes on 6. No. 7. This constitutional amendment provides that if lederal revenue sharing monies received by a city or county permits a levy less than the lawful maximum tax base for a givei year, the tax base shall not be reduced by the amount ol H ci ue sharing funds received. Why shouldn't the tax bae be reduced if revenue sharing funds permit? The revenue sharing funds are our taxes, too aren't they? And if we have to pay for the revenue sharing funds and cannot reduce our tax base locally, aren't we witnessing a big tax increase on us all'O I think revenue sharing money is to be used a' the discretion of Ihe city and county that receives it, and if that city or county wants to give its taxpayers a needed break it should do so. If taxes hurt you. vote NO on this one. ( More comment on amendments next week) I keep wondering if old "Silent Cal" Coolidge couldn't have solved our current inflationary problems, even though he is generally credited with doing absolutely nothing during his presidency. Reading his meager works (he didn't write much, either) I find a great deal of logic and intelligence in his makeup. "Work," he once said, "is not a curse, it is the prerogative of intelligence, the only means to manhood, and the measure of civilization. Savages do not work." Take a lookai the grow ing number of "savages" around the country and tell me if Calvin Coolidge didn't make a lot of sense! And he knew something about the American people, too. On one occasion he remarked: "I think the American public wants a solemn ass as a president and I think I'll go along with them." He did. and the voters did. "I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm," Coolidge pointed out. By contrast. President Ford is talking too much. He knows how to say nothing: he just doesn't know when to say nothing While Congress is gleefully prying into the finances of Nelson Rockefeller as a prelude to certain confirmation as vice-president, readers may be interested in a column I wrote on July 30. 1972. when I discovered that I had paid more income taxes that year than did the spendthrift governor of New York. Here is the comment, as valid today as it was then: "An interesting paradox is that Nelson Rockefeller, one of the country's richest men, admits to paying less than $1,000 in federal income taxes. He's the governor of New York, of course, but he's also a liberal. . .The only newspaper in the United States that has complained about Nelson Rockefeller's small income tax payment is Ernest Joiner's, and that 's because I pay more taxes than the rich governor of New York. However, I realize he is legally entitled to such tax treatment. He lives off tax-exempt foundations created by the Rockefeller fortune, which is legal. He puts his huge income into tax-exempt bonds, which enables him to live like a potentate on tax-exempt interest. If I had millions of dollars I would invest Ihem in a like manner. I don't have, so I have to pay more. But in my envy of Mr. Rockefeller's good fortune, I can't resist the wry thought that the tax laws offer an incentive for all of us to 'smarten up' and strive to become millionaires. People with huge incomes deserve to be rewarded. It will be a sad day for us all when poverty becomes comfortable and wealth intolerable." c sTf T &ifl :- v V I V-V W if "Can You Spare A Cup Of Sugar, Neighbor?" Heppner, CROSSROADS REPORT, DEAR EDITOR: I see where the House tax reform committee is working on a plan to eliminate deduc tions for health insurance and most medical and medicine expenses. Which shows that these noble people wardens are very shortsighted about tak ing care of their property and keeping it in condition to work and pay their wages, gravy, graft and other emoluments. It's (he same old story of untempered greed that we find m the fable about Ihe man killing his goose which had been laying gold eggs for him. D.E.SCOTT. Crossroads. U.S.A. quoteunquote "Only a country that is rich and safe can afford to be a democracy, for democracy is the most expensive and nefar ious kind of government ever heard of." Henry L. Menck en. American writer. "Nothing annoys a woman more than to have friends drop in unexpectedly and find the house looking as it usually does." Josh Billings. The mail pouch EDITOR: Hunting season is here again. With the cold snap of fall comes the mighty hunters, and there are all kinds of hunters. To one kind of hunter, the season means a weekend binge. To another ii is shooting everything in sight. Another type may kill a deer only to wonder what to do with the corpse. Instead of gut ling it. he straps it on his pickup and parades it for 500 miles and later finds Ihe meat isn't edible. If he doesn't bag a deer, he may bag somebody's husband or broiher. Pople are tested for driving, why not for hunting? Learner leniii!s could be issued to those who are inexperienced. Fewer lives, both human and animal, would be taken. People who do not know how to hunt should not be hunting, just as people who do not know how to drive should not be driving. We had belter start such a program before we have to try to explain to future gnerations what a deer looks like or a rabbit, squirrel or badger. The needless slaughter of small animals by inexperienced hunters should be stopped. People of Central and Eastern Oregon are being robbed by ihem every year. Game is getting more scarce and the hunter population is increasing. There is really no more room for anyone who doesn't know what he is doing in the hunting area. PA.M LARSON, Kinzua. EDITOR: I would like to point out what Ihe cowman is faced with and without, as well. A 500-pound calf at 25c a pound brings $125. After it has gone through two tons of hay at $100 a Ion, there is a gross prolit of $25 Then he must have pasture worth $5 a month, for nine months feeding, or $45. which leaves the cowman $20 short. Tins is before the cowman's time for riding, hauling, fence building: plus taxes, veterinary bills and incidental costs. This must be Phase 1234 started by Tricky Dick to gel a Beelgate staried to overtake the Watergate. PERCY CECIL, Heppner. EDITOR: In ihe past few issues of the pa per reference has been made to jackasses, to some of Ihe people in Ihe past who have ridden them, and the important part some of the riders have played in years gone bye. l! is a well-known fact that the jackass is sure-fooled, a good pack animal and an excellent beast of burden. But I wonder how many people have been led down the well-known primrose path by a jackass, not necessarily while riding one? JIM BARRAT, Heppner. Legal insurance comes to Oregon Prepaid Legal Insurance Inc., a non-profit corporation created and sponsored by the Oregon State Bar, has joined with Midwest Mutual Insur ance Company to formulate the nation's first stale-wide prepaid legal services plan which is both sponsored by the legal profession and under written by an insurance com pany. Charles A. Phipps, chair man of the bar-sponsored program, and Fred M Hagen, president of Midwest Mutual, made the announcement last week. "Right now people in the middle and lower middle income groups aren't getting lawyers' help when and to the extent they should." Phipps, a lawver from The Dalles, explained. "By joining forces with Midwest we will be able to offer not only a solution to that problem but also a plan which is uniquely valuable to Ihe consumers more advan tageous than either we or Midwest could have developed alone." The stale-wide, family legal protection plan will soon be available as group insurance, probably in December. The policies themselves will be underwritten by Midwest, A best's A rated insurance company headquartered in Iowa. but. Hagen emphasized, "all the administration of this program will he done right here in Oregon by Prepaid Legal Insurance Inc. This is truly an Oregon program." The policy will cover legal advice and simple document preparation. "We want people to see their lawyers, with their fees prepaid, before they get into trouble," a spokesman said. The policy will also cover defense of felonies and( mis demeanors, dissolution of marriage, defense of civil actions, and many other common legal problems. The services covered by the policy will be provided by Prepaid Legal's oen panel of Oregon lawyers. This panel will be made up of all members ol the Oregon Stale Bar who elect to participate in Ihe program and agree to abide by its rules. An insured will be free to select any one of those attorneys. UNLIKELY LETTERS Dit. 2ied0eq Quctfediit Amo 7 xJeaid btj tfte gtopeitne tltat qou inaCCq kl atfi. JiS o jfihum patient and Ik subject o one o tjoirt eat& catdiac foaHspflants. 3 just wanted to teCC tou tat 3 jceC that qou did a hdl-kanid job on IWG. -IJotits. xJeCdotan QJoitfceAs iigei? trainee g by Williams f ' s "I'm Gonna Let Rockefeller Worry About The Economy, After All, He Owns Most Of It..." THC GAZETTE-TIMES MORROW COUNTY'S NEWSPAPER Box 337, Heppner, Ore. 97836 Subscription rate: $6 per year in Oregon, $7 elsewhere Ernest V. Joiner, Publisher Publishes every Thursday, and entered as a seennH-r-lnec matter at the post office at Heppner, Oregon, under the act of twarcn 3, isn. second-class postage paid at Heppner, uregon. Ore., Gazette-Times, Thursday, Oct. 10, 1974 Mayor of H adman' DEAR MISTER EDITOR: The fellers at the country store studied this country's problems up one side and down the other Saturday night, and w nal agreed in a majority op-tot. spoke by Ed Gouty, ihe Tenor of Willow Crick, that, as usual, the only hope we l new DeJiSme of Agriculture plan, allowed Ed is ,he best idee to come down Ihe pike since the Army called a -shovel a manual operated excavating tool. ins Ed that had saw in one of his USDA pamflets where we are going to solve all our problems by jest reclassifying em The Ag folks in Washington is setting the example by Kitting more meat on the market. The cx.ry supply of meat will come bv changing the grades of meal. We can ' mtr choice grade git into the prime class. Ed told the fel ers. a (, that makes ...ore room in the choice class for some of he ems thai has been hard to move out of cold storage, like knuckles and shine bone meat. Actual went on Ed, what would be left after we set up a new choice class would be graded to lough to chew, but by the t,me vou git it ground up and mixed with soybeans and all then, other "extenders" we'll never know we're eat.ng closer m-the bone than under the old grading plan. Ed said it looked to him like the USDA meat grading idee is like raising the class of folks in the neighborhood by letting tt.oreofen. in the country club. You got the same people you jest got neckties on more of em. was Bill Weatherfords ' 0iilH who had hud a bad day at the wash house, said the meal grade plan reminded him of the feller that said he had f marred out a wav to keep the wolf from his door. He's going to call the wolf a dog. The USD A plan will work to git all the prime beef out of reach of the average working man, Bill said and it'll leave him with upgraded grissle that the wolf at Ins door would have a hard lime getting down. We might as well tell the feller with a flat to downgrade the pounds of air it takes to fill a tire and go on about his business. Furthermore, went on Bill, if the USDA plan spreads we II have to come out with new rules fer everything. Right now, Hill said, we got grades fer water and air that change ever time Government experts review em. He said he saw by the paper where towns that had sewage treatment plants that met the water standards were in a lather cause the streams the plants is on has been classified to a higher level. Practical shaking, broke in Zeke Grubb. he would like to see grades of crime changed in line with the USDA meat plan Zeke said he would move driving drunk up to side with murder and kidnap, and he would jump throwing beer cans along the road to a life sentence The real worst crimes now would be moved up to automatic hanging, and Zeke said that would cut off a heap of repeat business at the top grade. Personal. Mister Editor, I was in the minority on the USDA plan A sieak In any name is rare and welcome at my house. MAYOR ROY. Notre Dame conceals sex atrocity Hv LESTER KIN'SOLVING SOUTH BEND, IND.-When the details of Notre Dame's most sordid scandal finally leaked out of the local prosecuting attorney's office last July, they were buried on page 15 by the South Bend Tribune. Bui the ordinarily staid ls Angeles Times put it in banner headlines: NOTRE DAME SEX SCANDAL. For this was the very same University of Our Lady of the Lake whose world famed president, the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, had taken a local industry (20th Century Fox into court . Less than a decade ago. Father Hesburgh charged that exhibition of ihe film "John Goldfarb Please Come Home" i by William Peter Blatty author of "The Exorcist") would cause Noire Dame to suffer: "irreparable and immeasur able injury. . . (because:) Noire Dame players, under the influence of harem girls, are depicted as undisciplined glut ions and drunks," Today Noire Dame is losing again badly in its attempt to cover up last July's sexual alrocitv in room 303 of Stanford Hall. A July 2") University press release cited Ihe dismissal "for a period ol no less than one academic year" of a "small number of students" for "a serious violation of University rules" which was "not a criminal matter." No one has been convicted, or indicted or formally complained against. But St. Joseph County Police Record No. 89:5UK which Sheriff Dean Bolerjack conceded is public information, contains the following in officers investigatory reports: "Location: Third floor of Stanford Hall, Notre Dame." "Classification of incident :Rape." The four-page report details interrogation of an 18 year-old girl who admitted voluntarily dating and having relations with one Notre Dame football player. But . according to the girl, afterwards a second Notre Dame football player entered the room, threatening to throw her oui of the window and "smash your face and break your bones" unless she submitted to him which she did. " She then recalls that he held her while three more of these national champions (an aggregate total of more than one thousand pounds, according to "The 1974 Notre Dame Football Guide") forced themselves onto this terrified 155-pound blonde high school girl. (She has lost 20 pounds since July). The sheriff's report identifies six more Notre Dame football players as "witnesses" lo this spectacle regarding which one (if the five fornicators explained: "She was enjoying it." In three days on the Notre Dame campus, during interviews with top administrators and charming public relations men, this alleged "enjoyment" was repeatedly cited as grounds for temporary rather than permanent expulsion of Ihe athletes (Dean of Students John Macheco ruled for permanent expulsion but was overruled by Father Hesburgh.) "Why didn't she scream?" I was asked repeatedly. (Does a 155-pound girl dare to scream when a 227-pound end threatens to break her face?) "Why didn't she sign the formal complaint?" Was she still terrified during the two days before she was committed for more than three weeks to the psychiatric ward of a local hospital? Or was it the death threat made by phone to Ihe prosecuting attorney's office unless these athletes were reinstated? Her attorney, Patrick Brennan (Notre Dame '39), as past president of the Indiana Prosecutors Association, can recall no instances of any nymphomaniacs or prostitutes requiring psychiatric commitment after gang sex. As to the penalty prescribed by Hesburgh for these representatives of a Christian University, Brennan says: "One year's suspension is nothing."
