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Horse sense
I
Bv
ERNEST V. JOINER
Being a Democrat can be hazardous to one's health. The
reason I argue this is because the record shows that only
Democrats get shot these days, not Republicans. It began
when assassins tried to gun down President Franklin D.
Roosevelt and wound up killing the Democrat Mayor of
Chicago. Huey P. Long, Democrat governor of Louisiana,
was shot to death in Baton Rouge, La. There was an attempt
to kill President Harry Truman, but it failed. President John
Kennedy was assassinated, as was his brother, presidential
candidate Bobby Kennedy. They got Martin Luther King,
Mrs. King and Medgar Evers. Gov. George Wallace was
gunned down in Laurel. Md. AH the victims were Democrats.
All the assassins or would-be assassins were either
Democrats, left-winger radicals, or both. This is a curious
circumstance, considering that so much hate and criticism is
usually reserved for Republicans. The more people don't like
Republicans the more thev shoot Democrats. Explain me
that!
Tuesday the voters will swarm to the polls in dribbles to
return to office the congressmen who have shown
themselves to be inept and incapable of doing anything about
inflation, unemployment, crime, consumer goods shortages.
Arab banditry, the wheeling and dealing of Henry Kissinger
or the monumental ego of Henry's mentor. Nelson
Rickefeller, who wants to be recognized as vice-president of
the country he already owns. Our national leaders, including
Mr. Ford, haven't the foggiest about how this country can be
turned away from the chaos into which it is rushing. Mr.
Ford's solution is for the people to elect him a Congress that
will spend all the money he asks them to spend. Mr. Caspar
Weinberger. Nixon's gift to the Department of Health.
Education and Welfare, proposes to solve all our problems by
giving S3. 600 in cash annually to all welfare families. The
U.S. Supreme Court is still hooked on the idea of peace and
prosperity for all by the forced busing of school children. All
the aimless and hysterical postulations along the Potomac as
Nov. 5 and economic Armageddon approaches puts me in
mind of a story told by Cong Manuel Lujan Jr., Rep., New
Mexico.
A senator, a congressman and a priest were shipwTecked
on a desert island. Starving, they found a can of beans
washed ashore from the wreck, but there was no can opener.
To handle the problem, the senator passed a bill making it
mandatory that all citizens carry a can opener at all times,
because he had been so successful in saving lives because he
voted to make everybody put on a seat belt while driving. But
the congressman objected because it would work a hardship
on the taxpayers "My bill." he thundered, "makes it
manda'ory for manufacturers to equip every can with a can
opener." the senator agreed in a joint house compromise,
provided an amendment was added that gave manufacturers
a tax deduction for the cost of adding the opener. Thus was
the bill passed. As they congratulated each other and gave
each other the pens with which they signed the new law. they
looked at the can and discovered it was still unopened and
that there was no can opener. So they called the legislature
back into emergency session.
, Then they conducted joint hearings and produced 2.759
pages of testimony. But there was still no can opener. They
subpoenaed witnesses, who did not appear. They initiated a
s'udy. submitted a program proposal, voted to fund it and to
conduct annual overseas hearings. They also cited the can
for contempt of Congress. Finally, they turned to the priest
and asked him to pray for a miracle to produce the can
Opener. "Do you mean." asked the priest, "that you have
discovered that there are some problems that can't be solved
by new laws' That's right. Father," they unisoned.
The priest smiled and said. "I'll pray, gentlemen, but not
for a can opener. I'll pray for the greater miracle that you
will be able to go back to Washington and convince your
Colleagues of this great truth. And in the meantime," he
added, "have some beans. While you are arguing. I bashed
the can open with a rock."
Have fun at the polls. But carry a rock with you.
0 Tuesday. I predict we're going to be busy a? the polls
lowering the voting age to 18. While we're about it. how about
lowering the age of puberty to 8. and really get this country
rolling !
Jack Anderson, Pulitzer prize winning investigative
reporter and a syndicated columnist, has a new book, "The
Anderson Papers." It tells how he broke the ITT
(International Telephone and Telegraph involvement with
the Republican Party, and how the corruption and deception
by ITT and the Nixon Administration are the same that led to
Watergate. It is a frightening book, and one which remains
uncontradicted by the principals in the ITT-Nixon
Administration scandals. With the genera! election upon us,
it is fitting to offer this quote from the epilogue of "The
Anderson Papers" (a book available from the Heppner
Library):
"Very consciously, Congress has let the real power slip
from its hands. Old, tired, and often corrupt men, from areas
so geographically remote or politically regimented that they
need not hear or reflect the desires of the people, hold their
seats for a lifetime and rise to positions of great authority
through the patently undemocratic process known as the
seniority system. The beneficiaries of this patriarchal
dictatorship prosper as they grow older, using their
committee chairmanships to carefully protect their special
interests. The new and vibrant voices, elected by citizens
eager for change, are relegated to the bottom of the
congressional heap and are politically impotent. Decades
can pass before they gain sufficient longevity to make an
impact on national policy.
"By abdicating its role as the most direct link between
the citizens and government, Congress has made it easy for
ambitious Presidents to enlarge their own roles and become
makers, rather than the executors, of the nation's will. The
opportunities are abundant to abuse power so closely held. As
we have detailed, the opportunities are exercised. The ability
and the obligation to correct the abuses rest with Congress,
which must reform itself before it can clean up the executive
branch. The areas for congressional action are clear."
It is not likely that congressmen will give up their
dictatorship based on longevity in the office; and it is human
nature to pursue personal power and then to use that power
for personal gain. This is why it is my policy to vote against
all incumbents in congress to help get rid of those who
remain there, year after year, acquiring more and more
power with which to subvert the will of the American people.
No person, I think, should serve more than two terms in
public office. There is no dearth of able, qualified people
eager to be of public service. The old and corrupt must be
turned out and these fresh new faces added. Nov. 5 is a good
time to start this purification rite.
9 I have learned from Walter T. Greaney, national
commander. Disabled American Veterans, that the Tax
Reform Act of 1974. now before the House Committee on
Ways and Means, would make veterans' service-connected
disability compensation and military retirement disability
pay subject to income taxes. These benefits have never been
considered for income taxes before. Cong. Al Ullman, a
ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, told the
Gazette-Times yesterday that Greaney is wrong. Ullman
said "pensions and disability payments from the Veterans
Administration have not and will not be taxed." He said the
legislation "is meant to close many loopholes in our tax laws,
but I certainly don't consider VA pensions a loophole and as
long as I'm on the committee I will make sure they are
treated equitably."
"'" ? ,. , J "' jjll. "LJ .
"
''zr i-Up) rJ.ki, f'V ,-..
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Heppner, Ore., Gazette-Times, Thursday, Oct. 31, 1974
crossroads Mayor of Hardman
REPORT
DEAR EDITOR
I see where the usual and
some more demands for
higher wages are being made
all over the country by citizens
pinched by somebody else
getting more money.
Which is normal and usually
reasonable; but my people
hiring neighbor says there is'
one item which seldom gets
mentioned by the pro-raise
teams in wage negotiating
contests.
He hasn't heard of any law
against it, but can't remember
any case where wage-raise
demaudors accompanied their
"bargaining" with promises
to be worth more.
D. E SCOTT,
Crossroads. U.S.A.
quoteunquote
"I am beginning to believe
that the most serious impedi
ment to my marriage is the
difficulty of supporting the
government and my family on
one income." Dilion (Colo.)
Summit Sentinel.
Oregon Country .
In a grave at the summit of the McKenzie Pass lie the
bones of a man who single-handedly connected wild Eastern
Oregon with the Willamette Valley.
It was late summer 1862. John Templeton Craig had spent
the last three months trying io herd 900 head of cattle from
the desert country near Bend to Eugene. It took 60 men for
the job but they finally discovered a high pass through the
Cascades.
Craig spent the next 13 years improving the trail through
the McKenzie Pass He chopped trees to clear the road and
laid the logs on the low muddy spots The trail wound up the
eastern Cascades from Sisters and skirted the lava fields on
the summit before it plunged into the deep valley of the forks
of the McKenzie.
Some said Craig w as crazy for spending all his time in the
mountains and some thought it odd that he often slept in the
hollow trunk of a cedar tree.
When they first asked for someone to run the mail route
from Camp Polk t three miles west of Sisters to Eugene, the
only one crazy enough to apply was John Templeton Craig.
For the next 12 years, until 1877. travelers fought the pass
only during good weather but Craig battled through in the
winter.
He snowshoed the lonely 75 miles over the Cascades
through snow thai was 10 feet deep.
At the summit of the pass, just west of the lava flows, he
built himself a rock cabin. The chimney extended 15 feet in
the air. well above the highest snow line. Often during winter
Craig was forced to wait out storms there.
the SOVEREIGN STATE of AFFAIRS
It was just before Christmas 1877 when John Templeton
Craig left Eugene with a cold blizzard nipping at his heels It
caught him halfway up the mountain but he (ought it to the
rock cabin.
There was kindling on the hearth and food in the
cupboards. Craig lit a fire and dropped off to sleep. As the
numbing cold wore off his body, the snow on his clothing
melted When he awoke, the matches were wet and the fire
was out . He wrapped a quilt around himself and lay down in
the ashes to stay warm.
Friends and relatives found-his frozen body in the spring.
They buried him and heaped lava rock boulders to mark Ins
grave A cross was fashioned from two sticks and stuck
between the stones To the east the cauldron of Black Crater
silhouettes the sky. And at his feet the sinister appearing
knife-edge of North Sister juts into the sky.
It's hard to imagine a spot more coldly desolate and
repellant than to be surrounded by Vulcan lava on the very
backbone of the Cascades.
BOYD and WOOD
; !S THc ECONOMY
Summit tWtREUct
, 0 YET
f;
1 T T-r- r .
T WHAT
r did they .
DtcioeTODo?.
("ncthikg)
WEIU IT'S k
New endangered species., the paper clip
First there was the energy
shortage, then the food short
age, and now the most serious
of all: the paper clip shortage.
Those bent bits of wire that
hold international banking
and commerce together are in
short supply. Manufacturers
find it more profitable today to
make high-grade steei than
low-grade wire.
Yet without the 20 billion or
more paper clips now being
consumed each year, the
world's business conceivably
might fall apart. To avert this
calamity, companies already
are experimenting with
plastic clips. But users say
they lack the firm grip of wire
ones.
Though the ubiquitous clips
in their present form are of
relatively recent origin, paper
clips of one type or another
have been in use for centuries,
the National Geographic
Society says.
Straight pins, made first of
bone and later of wood, were
used to hold documents to
gether in Roman times. Some
authorities believe the first
fasteners were thorns cut
from bushes.
Papers still are fastened
with metal straight pins in
some offices, where employ
es presumably are steeled
against pin pricks. Another
early form of paper fastener
that still survives is the seal
using w ax and ribbon, reserv
ed now for legal or ceremonial
documents.
Wire staples made their
first appearance in 1877, but
didn't catch on for another 50
years. Unlike paper clips,
however, they are not easily
removed for day-to-day paper
shuffling
Manufacturers of paper
clips report they are unable to
keep pace with soaring
demand Even though prices
of clips have more than
doubled in the last 12 months,
one company executive says,
"We've got customers offer
ing io pay for a year's supply
in advance, just so they can
get their hands on them."
What people do with paper
clips when they get their
hands on them varies widely.
Before the advent of panty
hose, the clips often held up
secretarial stockings.
Many are discarded after
being employed to scrape pipe
bowls, or unbent to clear
clogged pipe stems. Some are
fired from rubber-band cata
paults at targets of oppor
tunity. Others serve as toothpicks,
manicure tools, or chips in
office poker games. Still
others are wrapped with
cotton or tissue and used to
clean typewriter keys. Some
are simply twisted into odd
shapes in a form of mechani
cal doodling.
One manufacturer ruefully
concluded that probably not
more than one in four of its
paper clips is used to hold
sheets of paer together.
For whatever purpose,
enough paper clips are used
every year to form a chain
from here to the moon. And
with the new scarcity, many
firms now require employes to
recycle the clips by stripping
them from papers destined for
the wastebasket.
-"sj. Y' ! 9
DEAR MISTER EDITOR:
Never let it be said, Mister Editor, that the fellers that git
together at the country store are shy about taking on the big
decisions in life.
Saturday night, they discussed the World Food Conference
coming up in Rome in November. They studied the matter up
one side and down the other, and they announced that all the
.world has got to do is git the food where the mouths are.
For instant, Ed Gonty said he had saw by the papers where
up to a million people in India will starve between now and
March. In America, Ed allowed, you can't buy nothing with a
dime and not much with a dollar, but inflated folks is a more
dangerous problem than inflated economy. If we could git
some of our food to India, we might not have so many
wimmen wiring their mouths shut so they can't eat, allowed
Ed. and if some of them countries rich in oil and poor in food
would wake up, we could git the prices of our energy down so
we would git on with the business of raising more food.
And if it ain't bad enough that folks in India is starving, Bill
Wcatherford reported where he had read that they is five rats
for every person in India, and that the rats eat eight million
tons of grain over there ever year. And ever year, they kill 80
per cent of the rat population, but ever male and female rat
that 's left turns out 900 more. It looks like they jest can't be
enough food to go around fer the folks and the rats.
Bill said he had read that in Vitnam rats are caught and
eat, so India and Vitnam ought to work out a rice-rat swap at
the Rome food meeting.
Some things in this world git turned around fer the better,
broke in Zeke Gruhb. He had saw where this doctor sends out
notes with his bills, telling patients to reduce their pay
according to their income, and he suggests a 20 per cent cut
fer old folks on Social Security. If this idee was to catch on, (
declared Zeke, it might be possible in this country to practice
medicine and not git rich, but he sees the doctor's union
coining out strong for minimum fees like lawyers have done.
And another good turn was reported from Durham, North
Carolina, where. a doctor is holding a series of 12 sessions to
show folks how to treat theirselves. For $45 a person, he
shows them'what they can do to save his time. He figgers 10
cases of heartburn and 10 head colds a day treated at home
by the patient will give him a chanct to help folks who can't
help theirselves.
Contrary, it looks like the public-supported Amtrak train is
sidetracked. Bug Hookum had a clipping about how Amtrak
workers have sent $750,000 riding airplanes to places the
Amtrak trams run. That 's as bad as word that we got to quit
using deodorant soap that kills germs, cause germs that
make us smell bad are replaced by germs that make us sick.
Yours truly,
MAYOR ROY.
Which-Countries-Shall-We-Condemn?'
Bv LESTER KINSOLVING
NEW YORK A carefully selected committee of the
National Council of Churches (NCC) spent an envigorating
Friday afternoon. Oct. 10. here playing the game of
W C.S" W C '"Which countries shall we condemn?").
Quite predictably, the governments of the four nations that
were condemned South ibut not North ) Korea, the
Philippines. Brazil and Chileare all right wing. One
observer at tins committee meeting was the Rev. Blahoslav
Hruby. the Presbyterian minister who publishes the
magazine Religion in Communist Dominated Countries. The
Rev. Mr Hruby pleaded for some balance in this resolution.
He asked for some inclusion of a concern about the massive
Soviet oppression, or the murderous (black i tyranny of
Uganda's dictator. Major General Idi Amin ("Big Daddy")
Da da.
But the Rev. Mr. Hruby didn't stand a chance. His appeal
was nea'lv categorized along with such patent oddballs as
Aral) press agent Frank Maria, of the Antiochian
(irlmdox Archdiocese of New York, and his perennial
demand that Israel be condemed. which was backed by the
Rev. Rotiert Marshall, president of the Lutheran Church in
America, and ( B an Armenian Orthodox (not to be confused
with Antiochian Orthodox) priest who pleaded that Turkey
should be included in the council's condemned list, not for its
current action in Cyprus so much as for Turkey's suppression
of the Armenians in 1915.
Tins straight-out of-Alice's Wonderland committee was
presided over by the Rev. Eugene Stockwell. Methodist, who
recently achieved the impressive goal of politicizing the
NCC's famed S25 million feed-the-hungry program called
Church World Service iCWSi. For it was Stockwell who fired
CWS director James MacCracken. because this Presbyterian
layman believes that the hungry should be fed wherever
possible regardless of the local political climate.
iSnK-kweil: "We must also be engaged in a sophisticated
political analysis of the roots of poverty and oppression.")
Siockwell's abrupt ouster of MacCracken caused such a
furor that the NCC began issuing press releases and
explanatory newsletters commending MacCracken for his
"Distinguished leadership and unquestioned integrity and
confidence" as well as assuring the public that "His policies
are unchanged . . we are not in the business of promoting
violent revolution."
The fact that despite these statements MacCracken is still
fired prompted the Rev. Osborne Scott toobserve: "Isn't that
stupid? Ttiis is a Watergate!. . . A power struggle,
manipulation, a hidden agenda and questionable integrity."
Scott, an ordained clergyman of both the Presbyterian and
African Methodist Episcopal Churches, is also Professor of
Black Studies at City University of New York. Hence, it is
impossible to dispose of him with the familiar smear of
"white racism." So, NCC president Sterling Cary quickly
brushed off Scott's charges by nervously insisting to a press
conference that Dr. Scott is "totally uninformed."
Dr. Scott is a member of the Church World Service's
advisory board.
The Rev. Dr. Cary was then asked to comment on the
statement of Disciples of Christ delegate Irwin Chapman, of
Fullerton, Ca ;
"It seems to me that it approaches the realm of hypocrisy
when we criticize our government for interference with the
governments of other countries allegedly in Chile and
then use church funds in similar efforts in countries where
some of our groups believe changes should be made."
Cary: "I'll have to leave that as a question mark."
This was wise of president Cary. For the real power in NCC
today is the Rev. Lucius Walker, who set up the Detroit
Conference which produced the notorious Black Manifesto.
Dr. Walker (American Baptist) has been a leading supplier
of U.S. church funds to African terrorist groups, and was
naturally anxious to get control of a $25 million food program
as well.
TMC
GAZETTE-TIMES
MORROW COUNTY'S NEWSPAPER
Bx 337, Heppner, Ore. 97836 ::
Subscription rate: $6 per year in ?
: Oregon, $7 elsewhere ;j:
g Ernest V. Joiner, Publisher
g Publishes every Thursday, and entered as a second-class 8
g: matter at the post office at Heppner. Oregon, under th f S
March 3, 1879. Second-class postage paid at Heppner,
v. -O""-
IS