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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (June 22, 1952)
Rugged, Beautiful Norway Described;! Festival Footnotes Writer Tells of Labor-Capital Board MEDORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE HIKE (Editor's note, The following it an article by Leonard Car penter, Veritas orchards, Med ford, who, with Mrs. Carpen ter, has been touring Europe) BY LEONARD CARPENTER Oslo, Norway It has been a cold spring over here, and so we are enjoying the blossoms of Medlord at mid-April. Tulips, apples, lilacs, etc., in gorgeous bloom. In Oslo the lilacs are as tall as trees and supply purple bouquets 20 feet tall. The Nor wegians are like the Danes in their use of flowers, and it cer tainly makes the visitor happy to see so much beauty. We are now on our final round cf sightseeing, and during these eight days we will visit or have already visited the fjord country. Until relatively a few years ago the western half of Norway was cut off from the rest of the world by its mountain barriers and the fjords which penetrated the mountains very deeply. Now a railroad and a highway make overland travel possible, and of course, the plane has annihilated distance. Land Pressed Down I cannot get the picture my self, but a geologist told me that millions of years ago an ice cap covered all of Norway to such a great depth that its weight pressed down the land to below sea level. Then as the ice melted, the huge volume of water re leased, together with the action 'of the sea, carved the steep sided, almost perpendicular, rock slopes. Even today there is some indication that the rise of the land mass is still slowly going on. The result has been a country of hard, solid rock mountains on whose summits snow falls to a great depth only to be rapid ly melted by the hot sun of the long 20 to 24 hour days of these latitudes. On the north slopes, huge glaciers are still present. Ye Editor wants to know about labor-management relations. "I have always been interested in a Supreme Court to take care of these disputes and some one told m'e recently that Norway and Sweden had successfully achieved this goal." The Trade Union Federation of about half a million members and the Nor wegian Employers Federation are recognized as spokesmen for the two sides. Board Set Up Since a law. passed in 1945 a wage board has been set up with seven members, three from gov ernment and two each from la bor and capital. Strikes and lock outs are legal, but a decision from the wage board is binding on both parties with no appeal. There is the law, and the re sult has been very little indus trial strife. To carry the Investigation a little further, let me quote a financial man whose business is confined to selling bonds and stocks: "There is a permanent chairman of the wage board ap pointed by the government, and since 1946 he has been excellent, unbiased, and a first rate lawyer. Now ha is quitting to go back to his private practice. The other six members usually serve in one or two disputes only, and the two employer members are for their own federation natur ally, and the two labor members ditto. The two government mem bers as well as the chairman are appointed by the existing gov ernment which is now and for some time past has been labor socialist." I think Ye Editor has his answer. Drinking Hours Limited It is practically impossible to buy a drink stronger than sherry in Norway before 3 p.m. You can go to the government owned spirits store and buy all the bot tled goods you can afford in Oslo, and as far as I know in only two other cities, of which Bergen is now one. Even with meals, no cocktails and no highballs. Just why this is the law no one knows. But, oh boy, don't drunk drive in Norway! Three weeks in the city jail is the penalty with no alternative. "When I have taken this one glass of beer with you then I am through, because if I had two glasses and then in driving my car some one should run into me, or I should have an accident, I would have to go to the police station, and a little drop of blood would be taken from my ear, and the test would show I am drunk. No matter whose fault it was, I would go to jail for three weeks. "Careful Driver" "I have a good friend," con tinued my host, "who drove out along one of our steep, twisting country roads to make a visit. He had one glass of beer and he thought I will drive home verv carefully. And then he thought one more glass of beer would be good this warm eve- nine and I will drive home very carefully. And so after a while he said good-bye and he got in his car and he said, I will be a very careful driver so the police won't blow their breath in my face, and so he drove back up the steep, narrow, winding road vprv rarefullv. and when he reached Oslo there was a line of three hundred cars following him and the police wondered why there should be such a long line of cars. So they asked, and when thev found how careful mv friend had been, they took a drop of blood from his ear and put him in jail for three Housing problems are acute Wp. nnd Derhaps with more than in many other places. Never, during the five years of norman nccuDation. did tne Nor wegians cease their underground resistance to tne mvaaers, uiu they were met by ruthless mexn nrU nf simDresslon. Men, women. and children were killed or sent into exile. Whole towns were destroyed, warships sailed far nn the fiords shelling every hnllHins on both sides, churches, v, n m o s. hnsnitals. hotels and schools were knocked to pieces and dynamite was placed in tun nels on bridges and under public buildings, ready for a vast de struction. So many war prison ers were used on preparations for wholesale wrecking that when the time came to do the deed, the underground was so well informed that much of the destruction was avoided. New Transportation Until very recently the only method of visiting the fjords was by boats, but during the last five or six years old hotels have been modernized and means of transportation have been sup plied. A typical day's travel might find us leaving our hotel by bus at 7:15 a.m. to catch a 9 o'clock boat upon which we crossed a fjord in three hours, and then another short bus trip and a train for an hour or two. You can get some idea of the country if you can imagine each of our costal rivers like the Klamath, Rogue, Umpqua, Eel, etc., being arms of the ocean. Boats would then sail up to Med- ford. but to travel north and south ferries would be needed. There would be no through north and south roads, and very few east and west highways Sweden, Denmark and even east ern Norway do not have this problem, nor can they be com pared in sheer, ruggea Deauty with western Norway. Must Reduce Luggage In taking a trip such as this it is important to reduce baggage to the minimum and that means laundry work every evening, and the greatest gift to the pres ent day traveler is nylon. Cot ton and wool will not dry quick ly enough and when dry your shirt, must be ironed, but an Or ion shirt, having dried on a coat hanger, looks as fair and smooth as the best ironed shirts. Beds in Scandinavia are very hard and instead of sheets and blankets, a puffy comforter in serted into an envelope made of linen is supplied. These "puffies" are so short that it is impossible to tuck them in at the bottom, and so narrow that the , same is true at the sides. Every night before going to bed I have taken the comforter out of its case, and since I find it too warm to sleep under, I have used bath towels, bed spreads, and my coat. In rural Norway breakfasts and often lunch are smorgasbord. Hot coffee, boiled egg, usually hard, and oatmeal are the hot dishes. Half a dozen kinds of pickled fish, ham, beef, lamb and veal, four or five cheeses, eight or nine big bowls of marmalade and jams, a platter of mixed vegetables, six different kinds of bread and an- equal number of crackers, pitchers of milk, mounds of butter, and undoubt edly many more things which I have forgotten, but no fruit. That is the great lack. Teacher and Stone Mason The man who told me this story said that he knew the teacher. "This teacher and the stone mason live in the same apartment building on opposite sides of the hall, and they often have a glass of beer together. One evening the teacher said, "Tell me what you actually make a year." The stone mason an swered, " I have a seasonal job and so can only work about eight months each year, but I average about 24,000 kroner what do you maice?" - "By wonting in the evenings and giving some private lessons I make about 13,- 000 kroner," answered the teacher. "Do you really? I call that very good for a teacher," said the stone mason. I have yet to meet a Scandi navian who has been in the United States who does not wish and long to return there. From the contractor who says "Sure you have labor troubles, but when the dispute is settled the American man will do a far bet ter job than the majority of our labor in this socialistic country where everything is done for them." To the chauffeur who worked in a restaurant in New York and as a waiter on a cruise ship who says "Sure I get lots of security, but when I was in these other jobs I could save enough to have a six months holiday back in Sweden every two years, while I don't save a cent and I and my family can't afford a holiday except right near Stockholm. All aboard the clock is 7:30 p.m. Oslo time. At 8:30 tomor row morning I'll be in Old New York. With the beginning' of sum mer, rehearsals for the annual Oregon Shakespearean Festival have also begun in the Eliza bethan shell above Lithia park in Ashland. In addition to the sound of voices, a great deal of hammering and sawing may be heard as workmen labor to fin ish the benches, which will re place the metal chairs provided for festival audiences in . past summers. In order to speed construction of these benches, and to insure peace and quiet during rehears als, Bill Ball organized a work party of festival actors to aid the workmen one morning. Ac cording to Bill, the group com pleted approximately one-sixth of the benches Thursday morn ing before rehearsal. Rogue River This WMk Milyl . . , Selections blgswMwl A VARIETY FOR EVERY ROOM . NothN h,M M . . . EVERY FURNISHING STYLE iMorfr pHcW mi w-ki WAIIPAPFR lill? TOOL KIT I 1 2" smoothing brvnh 6" poits brush 1 Vi" easing wtw.l 1V4" som roH.r 2Yt" scroptr Strong, Sturdy SUPLAOOm Saian4 wood SdanthVelty brand Strong ihttf Various twfghtt $4.60 to $6.44 v 1$ LET US RECOMMEND A OOO0 PAINTINO CONTS.ACTO ill Sherwin-Williams Rogue River Mrs. Lois Jones, (nee Simer) who is mak ing her home with her parents on Foots creek while her hus band is in service, was in town Thursday trying to locate a for mer classmate, Barbara Brown, from Salmon, Idaho. Mrs. Jones had learned through her home town newspaper that Miss Brown is visiting her grand mother at Rogue River while her mother, Mrs. Mildred Brown attends college. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Ham ley from San Fernando Valley, Calif., are guests of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Nelson, who have taken them to Oregon Caves, Crater lake and other scenic points during the past few days. Herman Kurt, a prominent rancher at Hornbrook, Calif, visited Mr. and Mrs. Herman Holzhauser last week. Member of Live Oak Grange H.E.C. have begun collecting for a rummage sale which they plan to hold August 2. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Hutch ins, Santa Monica, Calif., spent the past week at the home of Mr. and Mrs. W. F. White on West Evans road. Mr. and Mrs. William Hub bard, Baker, Mont., were guests of Mr. and Mrs. Ferd Strietz of Highway 99 the past week end. Other guests at the Strietz home were their daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Lewis of Ashland. Lewis, a grad uate of S.O.C., was one of four honor students of the 1952 class. Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mack of Los Angeles stopped here Thurs- Instead of beginning immedi ately to block out the action of the plays, each director devotes one rehearsal to reading his play through to acquaint the actors with the content, and explains the areas of the large Elizabeth an stage to actors unfamiliar with it. Glimpses of Oregon's Shakespearean Festival who was unable to return be cause of the business responsi bilities he assumed on the death of his father; and Brad and Bar bara Curtis who are touring the nightclub circuit this summer. Another actor new to the fes tival, Tom Brennan of Ohio, had a strange experience as he hitch hiked his way to Ashland. Tom was given a ride by a man who informed him that he had travel ed 5,400 miles trying to escape a woman who was waiting for him in each town he passed through. St. Peter's Church To Honor Missions St. Peter's Lutheran church of Medford will celebrate its an nual Mission Sunday today, ac cording to the pastor, the Rev. Kenneth F. Korby. Two services will mark the celebration, one at 11 a.m. and the other at 3 p.m. At the after noon service, the Rev. Richard Graef, Zion Lutheran church, Klamath Falls, will speak. Special collections for foreign missions will be taken at both services and sent to the Luther an church Missouri synod. The synod has missionaries in 26 countries. Most recent missions include those in Cuba, Japan, New Guinea, the Philippine Islands, Hawaii and Central Am erica and to the Moslems In In dia. Some of the missions have be gun as a direct result of the Lutheran Hour radio program sponsored by the laymen of the synod, the pastor stated. Anyone not having a church connection is invited to attend both services today, he said. Tokyo (U.R) Japan plans to let its wartime pilots, grounded since the surrender seven years ago, take refresher courses, it was learned Friday, Among the new faces seen at the theater this week are those of Marjorle Lovberg, who will be seen as Hero in "Much Ado About Nothing"; Eleanor Pros- ser, who will play Beatrice in the same show; Patrick Hines, who has been cast as Leonato another character in "Much Ado"; and Rick Risso, who has the title role in "Henry V" and will be seen as Ferdinand in "The Tempest." Some of those returning are Jack Taylor, who appeared in festival productions two years ago; Bill Oyler, who will repeat as Pistol in "Henry" and will portray Brutus in "Julius Cae sar"; H. Paul Kliss, who will play Prospero in "The Temp est"; Bill Ball, who will play the contrasting parts of Ariel in "The Tempest" and Marcus An tonius in "Caesar"; and Clara Daniels, a long-time festival vet eran who will be seen as Mar garet in "Much Ado." Former festival actors who are not returning for the season are George and Ann Eckstein, who will spend the summer at Martha's Vineyard; Hal Burdick Jr., who will also spend the sum mer In the east; George Peppard, Something new has been add ed to the appearance of the cos tuming director, Doug Russell. Doug is now sporting a mous tache. At list the costume depart ment has been moved down to the theater, which means that actors no longer have to walk or drive the distance out to the college, the former costume headquarters, for fittings. The new costume room is the former girls' dressing room next to the prop room. One of the livelier cast mem bers, John Bethencourt of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has already pro vided the company with many laughs. One of these came before "Henry" rehearsal the other night when John remarked that his mother had admonished him when he left home two years ago to never become an ac tor. John's accent lends itself very well to the part of Harf leur "Henry," which he was as signed by director Philip Hanson. day, to visit Mrs, Mack's uncle and family, the Garfield Laws, They were enroute to Washing ton. Mrs. Joyce Casey arrived last week from Albuquerque, N.M., to make her home with Mr. and Mrs. U. U. Casey of East Evans road, while her husband, a mar ine, is in service. The night shift at the Carlson mill at Wime'r was taken off last Monday because of a shortage of logs. Don't Wait Until It's Too Late Store Your FURS NOW! Afttr SemiRtr Vocation k '' Our tended Ftr SUrogt Vavft J Keep yonf fur coat comfortable Sj' KlPfe and safe this summer ;;; welcome tr i . aVLl rSJ it home next fall after a rett in out yJJt igpfjr$LjPJ cool, modern fur storage vault, Jrj 6ft Jj We'll keep it SAFE from moths, WiS X A heat, fire, and theft. Call as, tfr Our bonded men eager wilJcallforjroarjrar- f vvv mem immediately. 'yH' r wMHMiiVHawavaHMMiBi CLEANING GLAZING REPAIRING POLARIZED CARE You'll mirvtl at tha way this com pitta larvica cleans accu mulated dirt and frime from both fining and fur. Wa will alto repair rants, teams and other damages and ejate your coat to give It iw lustroui highlights, PHONE 2-9169 for m bonded messenger m-ws, 1 1 A-n other bit of horseplay brought laughs before rehearsal Friday evening when Jack Tay lor, Paul Reinhardt and Pat Hines decided to substitute a production of Gilbert and Sulli van's "H.M.S. Pinafore" for "The Tempest," and began sing ing parts of the light opera to an audience of three other com pany members. 1? 14 VMrVA A large investment has been made in new equipment for lighting control, according to Bill Patton, lighting director, and the new switchboard has been installed. New effects were achieved the other night when lights with different colored gelatins were played on the trees around the theater. R.S. Just Arrived! Special Factory Remnants Embossed Pique Everglaie permanent finish guaranteed washable. 2 to 15 yd. lengths in pastel and high colors. Perfect for summer and early Fall tewing. , 69c value. Special 49 v Sixth and Central Medford's Bargain Center "Monday Bargains if am "Shorty Coats" Special factory purchase makes thii event possible . . . Fully lined Gab ardine Shorty Coats In beautiful pastel colors or smart checks . . . An ideal summer coat , . . Values to 10.95 . . . Now Only $3" t Mm "Dresses One Rack of Special Dresses . . . All were higher price graments . . . cot tons t sheers . . gabardines linens . . . Values 6.95 to 14.95 . . If you need an extra one or 2-plec dress Shop this rack . . the values are outstanding. $500 Leouns 1229 COURT STREET PHONE 2-2720 t Hn MEDF0RD At H. D. Christensen, Prop.
