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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 1955)
o o o O o O 0 FOUR MEDFORD (OREGON) MedfordSTrfbune "Everybody in Southern Oregon Heads The Mail Tribune' Published Dailv Except Saturday by MEDFORD PRINTING CO 27-29 North Fir St Phone 2-6141 ROBERT W BfHU Editor HERB GREY Advertising Manager E C FERGUSON ManasinR Editor ERIC ALLEN JR.. City Editor HARRY CHIPMAN. Telegraph Editor RICHARD JEWETT Sports Editor OLIVE STARCHER Society Editor JACK JACKSON Sundav Editor GERALD LATHAM. Circulation Met An Independent Newspaper Entered as second class matter at Medford Oreyon. under Act ot March 3. 1397 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Ey Mail In Advance: Per copy 10c. Dailv and Sunday One vear $12.00 Dailv and Sundav Six months 6 Daiiv and Sundav Three mos 3-a0 Sundav Onlv One vear S3 50 By Carrier In Advance Medford. Ashland. Central Point. Eagle Point Jacksonville. Gold Hill. Phoenix. Shadv Cove Rogue River. Talent, and on motor routes: . Dailv and Sunday One rear $15 00 Dailv and Sunday One month l.o Carrier and Dealers 5c per copy All Terms Cash in Advance Offiria Paper of Ihe City of Medford tifiicialPaperof Jackson County United Press Full LeasebJVire. MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION Advertising Representative: WEST-HOLLIDAY COMPANY INC. Offices in New York Chicago De troit San Francisco.- Los Angeles. SeatU Portland. St Louia Atlanta. Vancouver B.C. NATIONAL EDITORIAL ASSOdhATllON ! U U 3 O" NEWtMMI PUllMII i ASSOCIATION Flight o' Time Medford and Jackson County History from the files of The Mail Tribune 10, 20, 30 and iQ years ago. 10 YEARS AGO (August 4. 1945 (It was Saturday) Paul Hanlin, deputy U.S. mar (Jhal, opens and closes federal ourt on the same day. From A rthur Perry's Ye Smudge Pot column: An auto showed up in traffic yesterday, with the driver tooting a horn, worth more than the auto. 20 YEARS AGO August 4, 1935 (It was Sunday) Farnum Motor Freight given right to operate between Ash land, Medford and Grants Pass. (Scouts to assemble tomorrow morning for pre-jamboree train ing camp at Jackson Hot Springs. 30 YEARS AGO August 4, 1925 0 (It was Tuesday) Local people win' $4,500 suit against Talent Irrigation dis trict. From the Local and Personal column: Two hundred and six teen out-of-state cars were reg istered in this city on Sunday and up to 6 p.m. Monday at the local state traffic registration bureau in the , Chamber of Com merce building. ' . . 40 YEARS AGO " August 4. 1915 (It was Wednesday) Hit and run accident reported two ladies driving a buggy struck by a Stanley Steamer auto. City council bans fishing in Fish Lake as it is Medford's water supply. What's the Answer? Can You Get 4 of ihe 7? Copr. 1955, Editorial Research Report 1. Most of the 21 (now 18) "U.S. Korean war prisoners who tuck with the Reds came from broken-up homes; right or wrong? c . 2. Are there any states in (Which the sale of alcoholic bev erages is legal everywhere? 3. Total farm production is ex acted to be higher or lower his year than last year, or about the same? 4. The new Segni government (Of Italy i3 its 7th, 12th or 17th since Mussolini was overthrown? 5. A man named Pat McNam ara represents a New England S?ate in the U.S. Senate; right or wrong? . About 10, 25, 40, 55 or 70 Q (fio-hit games have been pitched in the major baseball leagues the last 35 years? 7. An ammeter measures wind velocity, altitude ci an airplane, blood pressure, humidity in air, (Sr an electric current? The answers: 1. Bight. 2. Yes, 12 of the 48. 3. Higher. 4. 17th. 5. Wrong; Sen. McNimara is from Michigan About 40. 7. El (ptric current. o up to eight weeks. More than 8,000 Maine fisher men annually catch a quarter billion pounds of seafood. The State's lobstermen alone may (Jake a yearly $8,000,000 worth of (Jlomarus americanus, clawed lobster out of the North Atlan tic. G : " .V " ' " The automobile industry uses ,eiout 65 per cent of all rubber products turned out in the Unit ed States. MAIL TRIBUNE The Talbott Case etc., etc... The ardor and unanimity of agreement among Re publican leaders that the Talbott case can't hurt their party politically, strikes this department as rather am using. It reminds one of the brave little boy taking a short cut home to get there in time for dinner, whistling a lively tune as he scurries through the grave-yard. . 70R few of the Republican leaders CAN doubt for a moment that this case of "misfeasance" in the President's cabinet, WILL hurt their party in next year's election. It can hardly do otherwise. Whether that hurt will be serious politically or not remains to be seen. Whether this case will become, along with similar examples of placing General Mo tors above the General Welfare, a major factor, in the campaign, also can't be forecast with any cer tainty, so much depends upon what happens in the next year and how quickly and competently the Dem ocratic party takes advantage of the situation. . DUT that here is an issue and an important one, 0 which MIGHT put the Republican party out of power, we would regard as certain as anything in politics can be. The alibis offered for the Talbott case, only strengthens this judgment. Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona express ed the GOP official point of view correctly, no doubt, when as chairman of the Republican campaign com mittee he said, quote : "The Talbott resignation can hardly be made into a pol itical issue because of the absence of criminal intent." Columnist Frank Kent, stalwart GOP partisan, added in his column in the Oregonian, quote : "The Dixon-Yates business has been so blown-up as to become a bore, and the Talbott affair while certainly un pleasant not to say malodorous . . . will in a years time, be forgotten." THERE is no doubt that Columnist Kent HOPES it will be forgotten and also hopes that the Dixon Yates contract has, to a majority of the voters at least, become a "bore" but how can he be so sure? In the past the American voters regardless of party, have refused to forget similar scandals in a year's time, or for many years in fact, that might prove to be the case in 1956. OOWEVER in this case as in so many others, only " 'time can tell.' But this much we believe is fairly certain. When the people of this country take enough interest in the Dixon-Yates deal, and the Talbott resignation to get ALL the facts concerning them, there will be a strong turn in the tide of popular feeling against the party responsible. Not that in either case there was anything "CRIM INAL." But a party does not have to be "criminal" to lose favor with the people of this country. "Misfeasance" in office in fact, is defined as "wrongful performance of a LAWFUL act." And by his own admission Secretary Talbott was guilty of just that. We can't believe the American people approve of misfeasance in public office, or wish to see such a policy continued. But because no crime was committed Chairman Goldwater says no votes will be lost. ' This cynical attitude may represent a majority of the Republican party. In other words "keep within the law" and if you can as a member of the govern ment, pull down $100,000 a year for yourself because of that membership, whether it comes from General Motors, U.S. Steel, or the "Mulligan Engineers" that's OK. Business is business, there is nothing crim inal in making a cute profit while serving your coun try if your company doesn't get it some other company will, so why beat the drums about a little thing like that? That is the GOP doctrine ... if the Arizona senator is right. IT IS to President Eisenhower's credit that he repud- iates this doctrine and instead of deploring the resignation of his Secretary of Air, approved it, al though we believe his best and closest friends wish he had demanded it. Well, why didn't he go all out and demand it? The President alone knows, but our guess. is be cause he wants peace and unity within his party, al most as earnestly as he wants peace and unity in the world. And if he. should have demanded this resignation, and the resignation of all party leaders in his cabinet and out, who believe not only business is business, but business comes FIRST, he would have, found his job a very lonely and trying one. As the President recently remarked, he has had "enough of war," he wants to live out the rest of his years in harmony and peace. LJOWEVER that may be, we feel sure that if the general apathy now prevailing in this country should be dispelled in another 12 months it may be and the people as a wrhole become aroused to what is, and has been, going on in Washington, of late, these two examples of misfeasance in office represent ed by the Talbott and the Dixon-Yates cases, might well become vital factors in next year's campaign. This would be not so much in themselves as in demon strating the fundamental difference in policy between our two major parties, their sharply conflicting con ceptions of what a government of the people by the people and for the people should be. R.W.R. Thuriday. August 4. I9S5 Today and By Walter THE OFFICIAL AND THE PARTNER The 'mystery of the Talbott case is how he managed to act so foolishly, and the best expla nation would seem to be that he has been two men, public of ficial and pri vate promoter, inhabiting the same body. The The Secretary of the Air Force and the waiter uppmann Mulligan part ner have lived and worked side by side in the Pentagon, each more or less uncontrolled by the other. The Secretary did not serve the partner corruptly. But neither did he rule the partner properly. There is no evidence, I be lieve, that Mr. Talbott used his power as Secretary of the Air Force to induce or compel de fense contractors to give profit able business to the Mulligan firm. There is no evidence, that is to say, that he meant to act corruptly. On the contrary, the evidence, including his own ad mission of his mistakes, shows that the Secretary was not really aware of what the Mulligan partner was doing. Had he real ized it, had he been acting con sciously and corruptly, he would have taken the trouble, as a competent villain would, to cov- his tracks. The last thing he would have done was what Tal bott actually did do, which was to promote his private business from his office in the Pentagon and with the help of Air Force personnel and on- Air Force stationery. THERE is no obvious explana tion nf s li i h pvtrflnrHinnrv v-v.- " J foolishness. There is no doubt that he has been proud and hap py to be Secretary of the Air Force, and that he was deeply attached to his high and hon orable office. There is no doubt that he is a rich man to whom $60,000 is not important money, and that it could buy him noth ing remotely so precious as his public office. There is no doubt, on the other hand, that his Mul ligan activities, once they were known, were obviously bound to ruin his public career. There is no doubt, moreover, that, his activities will hurt badly the Mulligan firm itself. ' The whole performance makes no sense except on the theory that Talbott was two men, and that when the Mulligan partner was in charge of his body, the Secretary of the Air Force was sleeping and unconscious. . For no Secretary of the Air Force who was functioning at all could have supposed that it was right to promote from his office in the Pentagon a profitable private business on the fringes of the national defense. In this case the Secretary did not veto the partner's activities. Neither did he hide' his activities. So I say that the public official must have been suppressed and asleep. THE question, then, is why the Secretary of the Air Force did not govern the promoter, why he did not enforce the stand ards of public behavior upon the private business man. There is here a great and persistent ethical question which has been discussed since the days of the Greek moralists. Can a man who knows what is right do wrong can he knowingly give in to his appetite, say for the Mulli gan profits? Socrates held that no one acts against what he knows to be right that men act wrongly from ignorance. But Aristotle disagreed with Socrates, pointing out that a man may do what is wrong if his convictions about what is right are confused and weak, not clear and strong. In this deplorable case we must, I believe, side with Aristotle and say that as compared with the avarice of the Mulligan partner the moral convictions of the Secretary were confused and weak. . IT HAS. been pointed out that the Talbott case poses the prob lem of the workability and the fairness of the old statute about "conflict of interests." There is, of course, such a problem, and it is a very difficult one. But the Talbott case bears only in directly, in my view, on that problem. For no matter how much the statutes were liberal ized, it could never be stretched to the point of tolerating the use of a public office to pro mote a private business that is closely related to the public business. The law might be re vised, for example, to permit a man to keep his old securities, and to receive the dividends. But nobody would suggest that it could be made lawful for him to use the facilities of public office to enhance the value of his securities. The essence of the problem of "conflict of interests" is that only the most elementary rules can be fixed in the law, that all the rest lies in what Lord Moulton once called "the domain of manners," which includes "all Tomorrow Lippnann the things that a man should impose upon himself from duty to good taste." It is possible to say in the law that an official must not make a private profit out of his public actions. But it is not possible to set down in the law just how he. must decide the more complicated is sues where his private interest, though it is involved, cannot be measured in dollars and cents. His moral duty is to decide every question on public grounds alone, regardless of whether this hurts or helps him, his family, his partners, his friends, or his political party. But here, not the law but only an instructed conscience can help him make the decision. In the case of a high and con spicuous public official, who must not only do his job but cannot help setting an example, the sovereign rule is never to give his private interests the benefit of any doubt. Talbott seems not to have understood that rule. THOUGH I think it has no bear- which is quite simple and en vious, the wider problems, of the conflict of interests need to be re-examined and reconsidered. They are a complicated cluster of problems. One of them, though only one, arises from the fact that for many business exe cutives the holding of a public office is not a new career but an interlude in their normal careers. The question is whether a temporary public servant can be expected, or should be re quired, to reorganize his private affairs as if he were a Federal judge or a foreign security of iicer or a civil servant in a life time career. Many men refuse the temporary public asisgnment because they are unwilling to make the big personal sacrifice which the existing rules now de mand. And,i on the other hand, insofar as the temporary of ficials are Intending to return to their old business, can it truly be said that there is not, in the intent of the . statute, a conflict of interests. We must, I think ask our selves whether, except in the emergency of war, it is good public policy to rely so much on temporary officials. For my self I do not think it is. For no matter how able the business executive, it will take him a long time to learn the public busi ness. ' The Pentagon has seen a continuing stream of civilian officials, coming in with no knowledge of the Pentagon and going out just about when they have acquired some knowledge. Does not the public business of national defense require civilian as well as military officers who make the national defense the work of their lives? Sometimes I wonder whether the President is not mistaken in thinking that a trained private executive and a trained public official are interchangeable. For instead of building up a corps of high career officials, he seems to be trying to get' along with men borrowed temporarily from the off iciaL hierarchy of the private corporations. Copyright, 1955. New York Herald Tribune, Inc. Communications Letters to the Editor must bear the name and address ot the writer although under certain circum stances the use of a pen name or initial for publication is Dermis fible. The Mail Tribune reserves the right to edit all letters with an eye to clarification and condensa tion Letters submitted for publica tion must not exceed 400 words. Thinks It Cruel and Inhuman To the Editor: I have sent a letter to the Judge Advocate General, United States Army, Pentagon Bldg., Washington, D.C., which reads as follows: "I read with interest an ar ticle a few days ago in my local newspaper of Pvt. Arthur Athans, who deserted from the Army Dec. 7, 1944 and has been sentenced to 25 years imprison ment.' "It strikes me as strange that a man in his circumstances should be made an example of. He has, according to the paper, become a successful business man and lived under honorable conditions. I think justice could be served much more readily by taking the judges who sentenced trvi. Ainans on a one way riae or sentence them to a similar term for cruel and inhuman punishment. "I am a man who will always take the side of the under dog. If the whole army were made up of the sort of characters who sentenced Pvt. Athans, who probably was a better character than the courts martial judges. "I sincerely hope that when the case comes before you for your consideration - you will make an honest attempt to rec tify this obvious error. 1 "Thanking you in advance for your attention to this matter." F.R.M. (Name on file). A year-round crew of weather men live on the highest point of the northeastern United States, New Hampshire's 6,288-foot Mount Washington. in the Day's News By FRANK JENKINS Secretary Dulles tells report ers in Washington the United States hopes eventually to ob tain from the Chinese Com munists a declaration .renoune ing the use of force. He says that would clear the way for extensive negotiations between the Chinese and other countries on major problems. IIHAT he means, I think, is that he hopes to convince the Chinese commies that talk ing is cheaper than shooting and if he's to do that he'll have to convince them that if they start shooting we'll shoot back HARDER AND STRAIGHTEK. AT ANY rate, he said flatly --that the status of Formosa and other islands held by the Chinese Nationalists is NOT subject to negotiation, and he added crisply that the United States will NOT abandon the Southeast Asia Treaty Organ ization in return for Chinese Communist declaration denounc ing force. That is to say: We aren't going to throw any of our friends to the Communist wolves. TULLES is a New Englander. " New Englanders have her editary talent for horse-trading. And Every successful horse trader knows that if you show signs of WEAKENING you'll get badly skinned in the deal. TODAY'S all-over Oregon note. Let's start it with Cabbage Hill, where the ox wagons of the Oregon Trail emigrants came out of the Blue Mountains and gazed down on what are now the rolling wheat (and pea) lands of the Pendleton-Walla Walla country. It is an amazing view now, and then it must have been an inspiring . view for on the far western horizon they could dis cern dimly the peaks of the Last Mountann Range beyond which lay the Promised Land. T SUPPOSE that when they prodded their oxen into mo tion again after the pause for the view they didn't realize that the road their " wagon wheels were tracing would, long dec ades later, provide an interest ing chapter in the history of Western highways and the cost thereof. rFHE ROAD their wheels were tracing cost them nothing but toil and sweat. The same might be said without too much exag geration. of the road that exist ed up and down Cabbage Hill for the next three-quarters of a century. Then In 1917 Came Oregon's awakening to the new era of good roads. Six years later, a MODERN HIGH WAY was completed up Cab bage Hill. It was located, by the way, by a young engineer named Sam Baldock. Its sur face was gravel, and it cost $6,000 a mile which was then a staggering price. A NEW road is now nearing completion there, after 30 years of relocation and im provement. It will cost $160,000 per mile. But Whereas the old road wound and twisted like a snake the new highway that is now nearly ready for use will have only three curves that will require no material slackening of speed and they can be taken safely at 55 mph. Such is modern progress. A ND- " Whereas it took the ox wag on emigrants MONTHS to get from Cabbage Hillto the Will amette valley the highway in spection trip in the course of which these notes were scribbled covered the distance between Portland and the foot of Cab bage Hill between breakfast and lunch. That, in terms of modern pro gress, offsets the fact that the new road up Cabbage Hill will cost 25 times as much per mile as the road that was built three decades ago. INCIDENTALLY, the old road that was finished in 1923 was dedicated by President Warren Harding, who was making a "swing around the circle" and died in San Francicso a few days later. Elderly Portlander Dies; Savings Found Portland U.R) The coroner's office said today that $1140 worth of postal savings stamps was found in the effects of an elderly man who died of natural causes. It was the second such case in two days here. The postal stamps were found in the effects of Edward Henry Byerley, 70, who died Tuesday. They were in an unlocked dresser, drawer at the hotel where he had been staying.. The bodv of Patrick Keehan, 81, was found in the Willamette river Tuesday and $2400 in bills was found on his person. Dead line Sunday Classified is at noon Saturday: 10 a.m. Monday for Monday; otner days 5:30 previous day. HE MADE IT! Italian-born New York cobbler Gino Prato, 55, gets a welcome glass of water from his happy wife, Caroline (left), and daughter, Lorraine, after, he suc cessfully answered a four-part question on opera to reach the $32,000 mark on the CBS-TV show, "The $64,000 Ques tion." He has a week, to decide whether or not he will try for the $64,000. Tito May Be Seeking To Establish Self as Balkan Satellite Head By CHARLES M. McCANN United Press Foreign Analyst PrpeidMit Tito of Yugoslavia may be trying to set himself up as the leader of the communisi- ruled countries of Southeast ern Europe. There never has been any doubt that Tito got the best of it when Nikita S. Khrushchev, the Russian Communist Party boss, and Premier i:harlp Mrl aim Nikolai A. JJui- ganin visited him two months ago. It was suggested then that, as the result of the humiliating pil grimage of the Kremlin's two top men, Russia's grip on its sa tellite countries would be weakened. Now there are indications that Tito feels the same way. Wolfson Files Suit Against Newspaper Washington (U.R) Louis E. Wolfson, board chairman of the strikebound Capital Transit Co., filed a , $30,000,000 libel suit against the Washington- Post and Times Herald yesterday. Wolfson, who lost a recent proxy fight to capture control of Montgomery Ward Co., ac cused the newspaper and two of its officials of libeling him in three editorials dealing with the 34-day-old public transportation strike. Officials accused along with the newspaper were Eugene Meyer, v board chairman, and Philip L. Graham, president and publisher. Graham said the paper is "not going to be intimidated by nuisance law suits" by Wolfson "or by any other person who we feel is acting contrary to the public interest." He said the Post and Times Herald's sole aim in criticizing Wolfson's Capital Transit Co. dealings has been to obtain bet ter streecar and bus service for the nation's capital. French Cabinet OKs Faure's Moscow Trip Paris U.R) The French Cab inet today approved the forth coming visit to Moscow of Pre; mier Edgar Faure and Foreign Minister Antoine Pmay. Formal approval of the proj ected visit was given during a three-hour Cabinet meeting called to discuss Russia's invita tion to the French leaders two days ago. ' The probable date for the visit is early October. That would put the French visit to the Soviet capital after the visit of West German Chan cellor Konrad Adenauer and shortly before the Big Four for eign ministers resume the East West talks at Geneva. Frank Morgan - o The idea is that he would like to make himself the No. 1 Com munist in the Balkans. He could do this only at Russia's expense. Bulgaria especially is men tioned as a possible target of the ambitious Yugoslav leader. It was in 1947 that Tito signed a sweeping agreement with the late Premier Georgi Dimitrov of Bulgaria. It called for a customs union and coordination of for eign policy, among other things. Josef Stalin at once recognized the danger of that accord. He compelledcDimitrov to cancel it. Tito Breaks With Joe A year later, Tito broke with Q the Kr.emlin because he would not submit to, Russian domina tion. Dimitrov died in a sanitarium on July 2, 1949. As is usual in such instances there were hints that his death might haveCfoeen officially arranged for him. But there seems no reason to doubt that, long ailing, he died a natural death. Tito has been doing pretty well for himself this year. It was a momentous occasion in the Communist world when Khrushchev and Bulgaain vis ited him o patch up relations. The Kremlin tried to blame its breach with Tits on executed Soviet secret police chief Lav renti P. Beria. q In what seemed o be a delib erate slap at Khrushchev and Bulganin, Tito said in a state ment made public Tuesday: Tito Blames Stalin "The,Soviet leaders admitted that there had been certain men who had done an injustice to Yugoslavia, and that Beria was the main one. I think that he Should be included, but that Stalin was the main manV Of course, that was true. Sta lin was a grim, vindictive man who never forgave an enemy, and never forgave insubordina tion. The men in the Kremlin started trying to patch up rela tions with Tito as sootvas Stalin died in March, 1953. It had taken them two years to do it, and some day they may feel that the price they paid was too high. Early in May, one month be fore the Khrushchev-Bulganic visit to Tito, a United Press Bel grade dispatch said it might eventually mean "the big break both Yugoslavs and westerners have been pointing for since 1948 the beginning of the de tachment of, the sattelites from the Soviet Union." Yreka Voters Turn Down Swimming Pool Proposal Yreka A proposal to issue $70,000 in bonds to construct a new city swimming pool here was "defeated this week by a margin of 13 votes. The vote was 467 yes, 253 no. just 13 votes short of the two thirds majority needed for ap proval of the bonds. Isachen weather station on El- lef Ringnes Island in the Can adian Arctic gets more snow in summer than in winter. Cold air doesn't hold as much moisture as warmer air. Harold Snodgrass FUNERAL DIRECTORS "The Chapel of Q Cherished Memoriis " CHAPEL MORTUARY Across from the Couriouse o o
