Page 2, THE GAZETTE-TIMES, Heppner, Ore., Thursday, Feb. 27, 1975
Horse sense
By
I
ERNEST V. JOINER
It's a marvelous thing to see our politicians scrambling
to do something about inflation. It is suppose to be our No. 1
concern, and is blamed for just about every ill that besets us.
Some want to rope and tie the corporations and squeeze their
profits out of them ; others have plans to soak the rich : all of
them have harsh words and punitive programs on the board
for all who jack up their prices and thus contribute to
inflation. But politicians never mention that they,
themselves, are the biggest contributors lo inflation. They
have no program to curb themselves. Taxes, not food and oil
prices, accounted for the greatest cost of living boasts in 1974
Food prices went up 13.5 per cent, but taxes rose 25 per cent.
For middle and upper income families, social security taxes
went up 21 percent; personal income taxes (federal state and
locali went up 26 per cent. As you might suspect, lower
income families saw their income taxes rise 31 per cent in
1974 The poor are always hardest hit by taxes, but it
becomes so much more immoral when they are taxed at a
higher rate than those with greater income. Nowhere in all
the political rhetoric has there been a suggestion that taxes
have risen tw ice as much as the cost of living. To do so would
suggest that w hatever government spending accounts for the
increase must be cut back, not expanded. President Ford,
noting thai the cost of living is pinching the people, offered a
$2no income tax rebate while at the same time taking $250 out
of the taxpayer's other pocket to pay the cost of his program
to stabilize the oil situation. This is the type of political
legerdemain that keeps government costs rising and people
working harder and longer to pay the taxes that fuel the
politician's plans for perpetuation in office. There may not be
much we can do about taxes rising 100 per cent more than the
cost of food, but al least we can see through the phoney
speeches designed to turn our attention away from wild
government spending that forces such jumps in taxes.
- The27th amendment to the U.S. constitution is very near
to becoming the law of the land. This one is ERA, the Equal
. Rights Amendment so dear to the hearts of women libbers
who somehow feel they are going to have their shackles
I struck from them in another Great Emancipation. Two
states that have rectified the amendment are having doubts,
and are attempting to rescind theiry hasty decision. Their
reasons stem from the experience of Maryland. According to
the Maryland Attorney General, there are 227 state laws that
will have to be repealed because of the passage of ERA. A
classic example of what women can look forward to is the
family support feature under ERA. Women are dismayed to
find that a w ife is liable for the support of her husband, and is
also responsible for his debts! Worse. Maryland women
. discovered that ERA automatically makes them part of the
Maryland State Militia! This is a little more "equality" than
the women bargained for. but in their mad dash for equal pay
and job opportunity, they failed to read all that fine print.
Here in Oregon a woman is suing to have her daughter
, admitted to the Boy Scouts. Another is getting her daughter
i into Little League .And all over the country there is a move to
have women on high school and college football teams. The
locker room is going to be a real fun place when all American
women are taken from their pedestals and lowered to the
level of their counterparts in the Soviet L'nion.
J Part of the annual Silly Season is Daylight Saving Time.
"This is when one stops turning on the lights at 5 p.m. so he can
turn them on an hour earlier in the morning to save
electricity.
The legislature, curiously enough, goes into session
during the Silly Season. As happened last year, 3.000 bills are
going to be introduced and ill-considered. As happened last
year, there are going to be at least a thousand things you can
do now that you can't do next year. One bill alone. HB 2442.
makes the Silly Season worthy of its name. This bill would
require employers to file w ith the slate labor commissioner
each year proof of financial ability to pay wages of his
employees for 60 days by posting bond or by cash deposit. !
can see such business giants as Portland General Electric
and Fred Meyer having to post 60 days wages in escrow to
keep their employees from wondering if their paychecks are
going to bounce! The state is one of the biggest employers. If
the law passes, should not each state agency post the same
wage bond' No. they will all be exempt. They are the good
guys. The bad guys are PGE. Fred Meyer and the rest of us!
P would be interesting to know how many employers beat
their employees out of wages each year. The figures, if any
exist, surely are not high enough to justify this law. But if it
should pass 'and Oregon does show the way in enlightened
legislation. I read every day I. there should be a companion
law to protect employers from employees. For example,
each employee should be required at the beginning of each
year to deposit w ith the Chamber of Commerce or some other
responsible business group a cash deposit or bond to
guarantee the employer that he will deliver a full day's work
for a full day's pay: that he will not malinger on the job; steal
from the cash register: and certify mat he has not
misrepresented his qualifications for the job. If the maxims
that "fair's fair" and "what's sauce for the goose, etc."
haven't been repealed. I commend this proposed rider to HB
2442 to the attention of Rep. Jack Sumner and Sen. Ken
Jernstedt.
& '
TWO ARRF.STKI):
MARIJUANA
Sheriff deputies on Feb. 12
cited Robert Lee Botefuhr and
Fred Richard Fox Jr., both of
Heppner, for criminal acti
vities in drugs, possession of
less than one ounce of mari
juana. They appeared Feb. 13 in
Justice Court before Justice of
(he Peace Charles O'Connor
and asked to be represented
by counsel.
Heppner City Police arrest
ed George Eldon Tucker, lone,
for driving while under the
influence of liquor early
Sunday morning. He is also
charged with operating a
vehicle with a blood alcohol
content of .15 or over, and is
scheduled to appear in Justice
Court. Bail has been set at $305
for each violation.
Carl Lee Bonner was ar
rested by City Police Sunday
night for driving while under
the influence of intoxicating
liquor. He appeared in Juslice
Court Tuesday and asked to
consult counsel before enter
ing a plea.
Willie E. Moddis appeared
in Justice Court Tuesday and
pleaded guilty to driving w hile
under the influence of intoxi
cating liquor. Justice of the
Peace Charles O'Connor fined
Moddis $305 and suspended his
drivers license for 30 davs.
The mail pouch
EDITOR:
When will people recognize the need for humane education
in our schools, aid make it a compulsory subject?
Every day news of crime and violence of the most sadist
kind npx'ars in our news media, in papers, the radio and on
TV.
Some people who get their kicks out of the pain and misery
of other creatures are supporting 500 dog fighting clubs with
over .",ixm members in this country. Low-down humans need
more th.in humane education they need to be civilized.
Proper training when young surely would help prevent the
sadistic thrill of watching pitted dogs tear each other to
pieces 'In one recent dog fight one dog was so thoroughly
chewed tip and damaged that it passed it's internal organs
and had to be killed).
A lessor crime prompted me lo write this letter.
How can civilized people dump a big black Laborador
mother ring and a very small helpless puppy on my end of
Main Street, in the snow and freezing weather, with no
pirn ision made for them to be fed or given a dry bed to sleep ,
in"
Such stupid people need to be reminded that this is a crime ,
and against the law . To be on the safe side they had better not .
Ie eaught in this neighborhood doing such a trick again.
Norman Kickerl-and Ernie Winchester "vow it won't be
healthy for such a low-down cad!" Why do these
irresMinsible people expect other people to assume their
problems with their unw anted litters? The price of a spay job
should be in the plans before anyone takes a female cat or
di(i to keep This would prevent much agony and misery that
thoughtless people cause by raising more homeless animals
to starve lo death or be destroyed.
To the idiots who think it's cute to raise puppies, and that
there will always be a home for the ones they allow to be
tiorn. I have news. There are not enough homes to go around
for puppies or kittens. An average of only 10 per cent of all
animals that are turned in to Humane Shelters are lucky
enough to get homes. The others must be killed.
It might interest people that in one shelter in Seattle alone
destroyed pets are hauled to a rendering plant by the tons to
make chicken and stock feed of their dead bodies.
Does anyone want lo offer a good permanent home to a
good black mother Laborador and an adorable black baby?
EDITOR:
We enjoy the Gazette-Times. It is like reliving our early
years lo read many of the articles. We came to the valley
during the War. 1942 after farming, teaching (1938 39) and
school busing. A diary I kept in 1941 noted we had been
finger-printed by Sheriff Bauman for civil defense.
Our eldest son. Eldon w as a baby that year and we took him
nut in his buggy in 14 below weather. Also we had lots of
powdery snow and drifts and silver thaw followed by mud in
Gooseberry area.
My husband and I drove two cars for buses south and back
into lone that year Our riders were Lola McCahe, Elmer
Praters. Tom Huston. Ted Margery and Herb Peterson.
Mildred and lxwis Carlson. Dave. Clarence. Helen Fay and
Bi tty Baker. Eunice. Don and Gerald Peterson, and Art
Stephani Jr,
Some of the high school boys will remember putting on
chains for a woman driver!
Great days. It's fun to remember.
ERI.ING AND (CATHERINE THOMPSON
McMinnville.
LOIS WINCHESTER
Heppner.
EDITOR:
It seems lo me that in order for a person to make the front
page of your paper they have to do something wrong. Week
after week you print a story on the front page about people
gct'ing Dl'IL situations. Yet two weeks ago, when Jerry
Gentry was chosen for the Shrine Team, you carried only a
brief filler, and buried it in the middle of the paper.
I am certain that the people in the community would be
much more interested in a local player being selected for the
Shrine Team than who received traffic citations during the
week. I certainly know that I would.
JOHN KILKENNY
EDITOR:
We enjoy your editorials very much and that is why we
sulscribc lo your newspaper.
I am on the verge of sending you a photocopy of the British
statute which effected the calendar change in 1752. The
statute was adopted by parliament in 1751. The Gregorian
calendar w as ahead of "sun time" and to correct this error 1 1
days were omitted from the calendar, thus Sept. 2, 1752 was
followed by Sept. 14. 1752. causing a loss of II full days. This
calendar change resulted in persons born before Sept. 2. 1752
lo appear 1 1 days older than (hey were and it was the custom
In rectify their dates of birth. Thus George Washington, who
was born Feb. II. corrected his date of birth and claimed he
was born on Feb. 22. (Many people did this). In the
Huntington Library in San Marino is Washington's original
ms. journal and in what purports to be his handwriting, he
staled he was born Feb. II (according to the old style
calendar or Feb. 22 according to the new style. I believe this
fact is also staled in most encyclopedias.
New Year's day was also changed (so that it was uniform )
instead of New Year's day being on March 25 (ecclesiastical )
it was changed to Jan. I (legal New Year's Day). This
previously caused some confusion: persons born between
Jan. 1 and March 25 and Washington was no exception his
date of birth has been recorded this way; 11 Feb. 1731-32.
According to the ecclesiastical year he was bom on 11 Feb.
1731. the legal year 11 Feb. 1732.
NOEL C.STEVENSON,
Los Angeles.
Canadians charge:
U. S. firms lying fo push uheafl prices down
The following news story appeared in the Feb. 3, 1975 issue
of the Calgary (Alberta, Canada) Herald. It has been
forwarded to the Gazette-Times so that wheat farmers may
be advised of some of the reasons for the current depressed
price of Oregon wheat.
VANCOUVER At a time when world grain supplies can
hardly match demand, the Canadian Wheat Board in the past
month has been forced to chop almost one dollar off the price
of the prime wheat.
What is going on?
A large part of the answer lies south of the border. Once
again the American and Canadians are confronting each
other over the price of wheat.
While Canadian officials believe that the price should still
be going up, the Americans have succeeded in forcing grain
values down with their modified form of export controls, plus
some perfectly legal maneuvering on the commodity
markets. The poker game has reached such porportions that
grain officials here believe some American companies are
deliberately floating false stories about canceled sales to
depress the market even further and help them make
financial gains on future trading.
A prime example of this was the so-called cancellation by
the Chinese of 22 million bushels of wheat from Cook
Industries, a Memphis based commercial trading firm.
William Barsdale, a vice-president of the firm, claims it was
China which canceled the deal. "One would have to assume
they had reasonably good crops and they don't need the
wheat, but they did not tell us that."
PEKING GIVES NO WARNING
They certainly didn't Indeed. Days after the American
Embassy in Peking confirmed the cancellation the Chinese
went out and contracted 36 million bushels of wheat from
Australia which knocks a great hole in Cook Industries
suggestion the Chinese didn't need the American grain.
What probably happened is that either American grain
contracted in advance to China was not there at delivery
deadline or Cook stood to take a financial beating on the sale
because the firm had guessed wrong in the future trading on
the commodity market. Any grain company is entitled to sell
in advance at a certain price, hoping that when it comes time
to deliver it will be able to buy the grain at a price well below
that originally contracted for, and thus making a healthy
profit.
Certainly, there is little evidence to support the argument
that China has too much wheat, as Cook Industries suggests.
The Australian sale confirms it and so does experience of the
Canadian Wheat Board.
Canada is currently 5 million bushels behind schedule in
delivering a large Chinese contract, but there have been no
suggestion Peking won't take the balance of 40 million. Then,
there is the Russians. Canada will be delivering 760,000 tons
in the spring, most of which goes straight to Cuba. Yet,
American trade sources are spreading stories that Moscow
has canceled some orders, as well, because "it was
overbought."
Canada's sales here held up well in the face of their
maneuvering. What this country has not been able to beat is
the effect that American export controls have had on the
Chicago, Minneapolis and Kansas City market.
Up until last week no American grain company could sell
more than 50,000 tons of wheat and soybeans to a foreign
buyer without prior approval from the Department of
Agriculture. This restriction tended to depress U, S. grain
prices. In December, it was reported U. S. had turned down
sales amounting to 7 million tons and growers were
clamoring for the restriction to be lifted. The level has now
been raised to 100,000 tons and this could well strengthen the
market again. American wheat is priced at Minneapolis at
$4.28 a bushel on March delivery. If you add 25 cents a bushel
for delivery costs that still puts them 60 cents below the
Canadian price at Thunder Bay.
This shows that Canada, despite cutting the price of HRS
wheat by 98.75 cents a bushel since Jan. 6, is holding on well.
Last Tuesday, for example, the wheat board sold the
Japanese 195,000 tons in a three-month contract at the
Vancouver price of $5.32 a bushel, still more than a dollar
above the Minneapolis rating. .
In fact, the entire 1974 Canadian crop is just about
committed, and a lot of it at fixed advance prices.
Mayor of Hardin an
DEAR MISTER EDITOR;
While I sel here writing this piece, my old lady is back in
the kitchen baking a cake fer a sale the church wimmen is
EdDooliltle lold me the other day that his old lady has been
working fer the pasl two months on a patch quilt she will pul
up al the sale. Me and Ed know what is going to happen. I'll
bid high on the cake and he'll wind up buying the quill, and
the church will come out a few duller ahead and count the
sale n success,
Furthermore. Mister Editor, Ed will git louse the quill, but
my old ladv will take the cake I bought and give It lo the
Sunday church stipiter. That way I come out loser Iwict. and 1
won't git to taste the cake. Bui when I try lo explain to my old
ladv that we'd come out ahead eating the cuke and giving
what I paid fer it lo the church she quotes some Scripture and
savs her jov is In doing the work,
i don't argue with my old lady, cause I've learned that they
is two kind or people in I he world, them thai agree with her
mid the rest of the misguided souls.
When she gives me a piece of her mind and backs it up with
Scripture, I esl say I'll have anolher cup of coffee and does
she reckon Nationalist China is going lo lake over the
Mainland in our lifetimes. I figger the farther away I can
move the subject the least chattel I got gitting her mixed up
wiih the fads of the case at hand.
But actual, her idee of spending $3 on a cake I'll pay $2 fer
and never gil lo eat has been around ever since the first man
set around the Hi e at Hie mouth of his cave and said to his
buddv. "Hon 'I jest set there, do somepun."
I saw last month that President Ford called fer $100 in tax
relief fer the average working man, then he ask fer Increases
in nil prices that II take $95 out of the other pocket, and we're
supiosed to think we're gilling our problems worked out.
The fellers brought up this habit at the country store
Saturday night Clem Webster said he had saw where more
people now is eligible for unemployment benefits than ever
ImIoic in the history of the Employment Security
Commission, but that the federal Guvernment is having
trouble giving away money to local Guverinnents to hire
folks
Clem said a burnt child fears the fire, and local
Governments know that federal money cures can be worst
than the disease. They know if they lake the money they got
to take the guidelines, and it's more trouble louse the money
wi'h all the strings on it than to muddle along by Iheirself.
General shaking, there's somepun lo be said fer wives
liiiking cakes and Guvernnienls sending our money fer us.
:iwl that is when it comes lo solving problems they're both -like
i he feller that got excited. Jumped on his horse and rode
nil in all directions Am) ever mislortune that falls on us men,
mi can be! xnre lax rebates we blame it on one or the other.
Yours truly.
MAYOR ROY.
Soviets,
homosexuals-
and
Carl Mclntire n
By LESTER KINSOl.VIVG
CHICAGO - By comparison to tjie wild sixties, church
convent inns have recently grown so peuceful as lo lose their
secular news value as well as evoking expressed suspicions
of chloroform in the air conditioning, s ,. 1
What should he an explosive contrast to all this current
placidity is scheduled for March 5 when the Windy City hosts
the National Council of Churches iNCCl General Board
meeting. An exciting spectrum of guests Is expected (either
invited or uninvited):
i Invited i A delegation of Russian Orthodox clergymen
from the Soviet l'nion. headed by the Patriarch of Moscow.
i Not invited, but officially recognized t A "Gav Task
Force" representing some 20.000 homosexuals, whose 78
Metropolitan Community Churches are planning to apply for
membership in the NCC (The NCC has appointed a
Committee on Gay People In the Church I
(Not invited, nor officially recognized) The Rev. Carl
Mclntire famed Fundamentalist radio preacher, Victory in
Vietnam advocate and perennial critic of the NCC.
Dr, Mclntire. pastor of Collingswood, (New Jersey's Bible
Presbyterian Church) and president of the small but
vigorous International Council of Christian Churches, is
expected lo attract numerous midwestern supporters in what
the NCC expects as a protest demonstration
Few ecclesiastical conclaves since the Council of Nicaea
have attracted a more electrifying combination of clergy
than this exciting assemblage of Soviets, homosexuals and
"Cannonball Carl" Mclntire.
The Soviets are expected lo be too heavily guarded for
close order conflict, verbal or otherwise.
But the Gays, who have developed their own defense units '
in San Francisco, will be well prepared for combat, either
physical or verbal.
The Rev. Troy Perry of Ios Angeles is National Moderator
of the Metropolitan Community Churches. As the author of
"The Ixird is My Shepherd And He Knows I'm Gay," Perry
can drive Fundamentalists wild, by his rapid-fire quoting of
Scriptures which seem to Justify (or at least tolerate)
homosexuality.
Then as the latest among denominational homophile
caucuses, Dr. Louie Crew, of Ft. Valley, Georgia, has
founded "Integrity "-for Episcopal homosexuals. ("Dig
nity" is the organization for Catholic Gays.)
Dr, Crew, who lives with "my lover Ernest Clay," has
produced a "Gay Collect for Advent:"
"O God who engendered Christ without heteroscx in an
unmarried virgin, ... be essentially present with us In team
rooms, garrets, dormitories, baths, alleys, rectories, ships
hold, the trucks, buses, parks, in our holy marriages ... and
yours will be the glorious victorious witnessing to Him who
never experienced heteosexuality and was in all points as we
are, even Christ the Lord AMEN"
THE GAZETTE-TIMES
MORROW COUNTY'S NEWSPAPER
Box 337, Heppner, Ore. 97836
Subscription rate : $6 per year in
Oregon, $7 elsewhere
Ernest V. Joiner, Publisher
Published every Thursday and entered as a
second-class matter at the post office at
Heppner, Oregon, under the act of March 3, 1879.
Second-class postage paid at Heppner, Oregon.