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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 1955)
10 FOUR MEDCD (OMGO!) Everybody tn Southern Oregon Published Daily Except Saturday by DLEjUr jo.ij rtuii j-ini, J7-29 North Fir St. Phone 2-6141 PHRHIT w RTTHT. Eriitnr HERB GREY Advertising Manager E. C. FERGUSON Managing Editor rnir ai.i r to r.it-w RHitrr HARRY CHIPMAN. Telegraph Editor RICHARD JEWETT Sports Editor OLIVE STARCHER Society Editor vatjt. w AT1AM5 Snnriav Editor GERALD LATHAM, circulation jagr An Independent Newspaper Entered as second class matter at Medford Oregon, under Act of March 3. 1897 SUBSCRIPTION RATS T. i 1 1 C.mav TWl VPBT 12.00 a i J onu kiuiiuBj -- --- Daily and Sunday Six months 630 Dailv and Sunday inrefl mos. 4J CitnHav Onlv On S3.50. ... -. T tHmin Medford Ashland. Central Point. Eagle Point. ti .n- nilH Hill Phoenix. Shady Cove. Rogue River. Talent and on motor routes: Daily and Sunday One year $15 .00 Doilv and Sunday une monm i- Carrier and Dealers 5c per copy a 11 Tanni rQch In Advance Official Paper of the City of Medford (k) Official Paper or JafKson mum? United Press Full Leased Wire MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULAHUJt urrCT-Uni T TO A V rnTPAN7 INC Offices In New York. Chicago. De troit. San Francisco. Los Angeie Seattle. Portland. St. Louis Atlanta Vancouver B.C o NATIONAL EDITOtlAL ASOCyTilr umiiniaMini NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION Flight o' Time Medford and Jackson County History from the files of The Mail Tribune 10, 20. ZO and iO years ago. 3 10 YEARS &GO Dec 29, 1945 q (It was Saturday) United Nations organization interim site c om m i 1 1 e e an- nounces that permanent head quarters will be in either New York or Boston areas. From Arthur Perry's Ye Smudge Pot column: Dick Ap plegate is now a sports feature writer in the south. He started his scribbling career on this sheet, in those days he couldn't say "Shucks" in less than 20,000 words. 20 YEARS AGO Dec. 29. 1935 (It was Sunday 0.. Horner named worship ful master of Medford lodge 103, AF and AM. o Seven CCC camps in Medford area will disband in next two weeks, will be replaced by five from mid-west. 30 YEARS AGO Dec. 29, 1925 Fred Scheffel elected com mander of the Medford Amer ican Legion post. From Local and Personal col umn: Steelhead fish are running 19 some extent in Rogue River, said W. R. Coleman, state master of fish screens, today, and make fising quite interesting at this time of the year. 40 YEARS AGO Dec. 23. 1915 George A. Briscoe, principal of Ashland High school, elected vice president of new Oregon State Teachers association at meeting here. From Local and Personal col umn: The "face of nature" was white this morning with the first snow that has fallen so far this season and pretended to remain a spell to" delight the school chil dren, who don't see much of that kind of opportunity for merri ment in this valley. 513 m wo What's the Answer? Can You Gel 4 of the 7? Copr. 1955. Editorial Research Report 1. If you buy a fifth of cham pagne for New Year's Eve, $0.55, SI. 55 or $2.55 of what you pay goes for domestic federal excise tax? 2. Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn has come out for or against a big income tax cut next year, or says let's wait and see? 3. Total church membership in the U.S. recently has been steadily falling, steadily rising, or staying about the sime? . 4. Which of these states has most private motor cars: Calif ornia, Illinois, Michigan, New York or Texas? d. Th state of Israel is or isn't a member of the Unitsd Na tions? 6. Dentists in the U.S. have an average net income of about $5000, $8000, 511,000, 814,000 or $17,000 a year? 7. Which one prtsident of this century so far livsd to be over 80? The Answers: 1. 0.55. 2. Says let's wait and see. 3. Steadily rising. 4. Califorra. 5. Is. 6. About $11.000,, 7. Herbert .'. Hoover. Washington XU.R) The Na tional Coal Association has urged the Interstate Commerce q Commission to turn down an ap plication by the railroads for speedy approval of a 7 per cent hike inofreight rates. MAIL TRIBUNE Did FDR Start Jap War? The verdict of history is traditionally assumed to be accurate and just This is usually true, no doubt, although opinions of historians are not judgments from on Highland being human historians are just as subject to error as other humans. But all tdrians agree upon regarding events in periods of the past, endure and undoubtedly are generally ac cepted by literate mankind. THEREFORE probably circulated throughout too seriously, because of some of these judgments . For example : it has been brought to our attention that quite a sizeable school of thought in both the U.S. Army and Navy maintain that there was no negligence at Pearl Harbor on the part of the naval and military commanders there. The only negligence was in the White House, where President Franklin Roosevelt turned a deaf ear to all warnings of a Japanese attack, not because he thought there would be none, but because he wanted one, wanted war with Japan as the aggressor and thought that render ing Honolulu a "sitting" duck to his navy, would be the best, and safest way to get it! IT WOULD be difficult to think of anything more fantastically absurd, untrue and shamelessly libel lous than that, yet there are, we are informed, certain (Ip.-nprals and Admirals in the TT.S. forces, most of them, now retired who views and now and then TmatHnp. what the historical verdict would be re- o-arrHno- t.hp war with Janan and its eenesis. if these C5 " " X gentlemen were to exert otherwise, strong miluence upon tne Historians 01 the next generation!. THIS, , we grant, is an extreme case of the destruc tive effect of political bias, personal animus and hatred, upon the judgment of a man and events, by those who lived through them, took part in them, and should know better. "Mnrenver that siirh statements COULD be made by sane and responsible citizens, in the service of their rrmntrv or not. anvwhere or anvtime does eive one pause and arouse certain fears regarding the infiomp.nts of thp. American Deonle and the course they may take, when such a diabolical dis tortion of the facts is allowed to gam neaaway, ana there is apparently no outburst of an outraged and - i i mTTnn f T ITT T aroused public opinion against utiiw. it.vv.rv. How About Korea? Speaking of the verdict of history one wonders if that verdict will place the blame for the Korean war, not upon Soviet Russia but upon former Secre tary of State JDean Acheson? According to Republican orators in the last cam paignand it may be true in the coming one North "Km-pa would have never attacked South Korea if the then Secretary of State that the United States did not regard Korea as a vital point in its program of Far Eastern defense. The claim was made that this pronouncement added up to giving Russia the "green light," as far as the conquest of all Korea by the Communists was concerned, and had this statement NOT been made there would have been no attempt to take over all Korea and therefore no war, with the un avoidable sacrifices in blood and treasure. XE GRANT a case can be made against the Tru man administration and its Secretary of State on this basis, as far as contemporary politics is con cerned, but we are not so sure about the verdict of history. Taking that reference to Korea out of context might have led the Kremlin to believe that if an attack were ordered on South Korea the United States would not aid in the defense of that country by force. But it is hard to believe that the Kremlin, smart as it is, did not read the full statement. And if this was the case, then it would have been reasonably clear to Russia that under the circumstances existing at the time the pronouncement made was far from being a commitment of "hands off" in case of attack on Korea by the Communists. Secretary Acheson was merely stating the truth about U.S. policy not to invite war but to prevent it. He pointed particularly to the fact that the expressed fears of North Korea that the U.S.A. would aid South Korea to unite the country by force were utterly groundless, that as General Bradley remarke dlater to fight a war in Korea then would be to fight a war in the wrong place, at the wrong time and against the wrong enemy. IN OTHER words the point that Secretary Acheson stressed was that America had no aggressive inten tion regarding South Korea whatever, that Korea as a whole was not a vital factor in its area of U.S. de fense in the Far East, and the implication throughout was clear, that if Soviet Russia would withdraw from Korea and stay out, the United States would gladly do the same. Unless Soviet Russia believed the time had come to take over South Korea, and regarded American aid to South Korea by the U.S.A. in case of such an attack as a remote and calculated risk, it is difficult to believe that this one item taken out of context in the Acheson statement, would have changed her mind, and thus altered the Kremlin policy entirely and changed the course of history. R.W.R. i. Thursday, December 29, I95S in all what reputable his- statements, recently being the land should not be taken the fear history may accept as sound and reliable. seriouslv entertain such express them. O ' through their memoirs or had not declared officially Fear of 'Prussianization' of West German Army Expressed By CHARLES M. McCANN United Press Correspondent It looks as if it may prove pretty difficult to keep the new West Germany army from be coming an old f a shioned Prussian military machine. It has been only seven weeks since the first 101 men of the pro posed 500,000 man S t r e i t- kraefte fight- Charles Alri ano ing IOTCe took the oath of loyalty. But already a fight is brewing over the question of its control. The issue is whether the Streit kraef te shall remain, as planned, under the strictest civilian au thority. The alternative is to risk the development in West Germany of a militaristic, spirit like that which, under the Kaiser and the Nazis, caused two world wars. Top Man Suspect btrangeiy enough, the man who was regarded as the chief guarantee of a democratic army is now suspected of coming un der militaristic influence. He is Theodor Blank, Chancel lor Konrad Adenauer's defense minister. Blank is a former labor leader, with an excellent record as an anti-Nazi. He spent six years in Adolf Hitler's army and didn't like it. When it was decided to rearm Germany four years ago, Blank was named defense commission er. He was regarded as an abso lutely safe man from the demo cratic viewpoint. He became defense-minister last summer. The law under which the West German army is being formed provides that all candidates for commissions as colonel or gen eral shall be screened secretly by a 38-man committee. This committee can reject any appli cant without .even giving its reason. Four Rejected Now it has rejected four men whom Blank personally had se lected as among his closest asso ciates in the defense ministry. Two' of them are former general staff colonels. Blank got' angry. He disclosed the committee's action himself. McKay Tells Desire To Stop Traveling Salem (U.R) Secretary of In terior Douglas McKay says that when.his current term as secre tary of interior is over he wants to "stop traveling." McKay- addressing the Ki- wanis club here yesterday, said he had more than 70,000 miles of air travel in 1954 and that the total would be greater vthis year. McKay said with a grin that if he were in the Army again he would rather be a private than a commissioned officer. "When a man lets them start promoting him his troubles be gin," he said. Explorer of 1673 Figures in Utility Case Madison, Wis. U.R) Pere Jacques Marquette, the French explorer who toured the Mid west almost 300 years ago, was a central figure in a utilities case today. An attorney for the Wiscon sin Power and Light Co., argu ing before the Public Service Commission, cited Marquette's journal of 1673 as evidence that the Wisconsin river has been shifting for quite a long time. Father Marquette wrote: "The river on which we embarked is called 'Miskonsing.' It is very broad, with a sandy bottom forming many shallows, which render navigation difficult." Editorial Comment MERCY FLIGHTS The value of Mercy Flights has been demonstrated time and time again, but it is always brought home with - singular force when emergency condi tions prevail. Last week Gold Beach, on the coast, was isolated and an 11-day-old girl required immediate hospitalization. Mercy Flights in Medford was notified and dis patched one of its new twin engined Beechcraft ambulances. The landing strip at Gold Beach was soggy from pounding by rain and covered with silt. Pilot George Milligan reported that the trip was uneventful, ex cept that the plane skidded on the muddy strip and was brought to a stop just a hundred feet short of the runway. The take off was uneventful and less than an hour after she left Gold Beach, the sick infant was in a Eugene hospital to undergo emergency surgery. Mercy Flights, the non-profit air ambulance service started six years ago, has now made more than 430 flights and has been responsible, we are confi dent, for the saving of a num ber of lives. Ashland Daily Tidings It developed that there are two groups in the defense min istry. One of them is determined to fight against the possibility of Prussianization of the new army. The other is more concerned with raising an army that will be efficient. It takes the view, apparently, that an army is In The Day's By FRANK JENKINS As these words are written, the final grim total for the 1955 Christmas holiday week-end has just .come in. From 6 p.m. Fri day to midnight Monday, 599 persons died in agony on our highways. That is an all-time record, ex ceeding by 43 the previous tragic figure of 553 established in 1952. QEEKING to minimize the hor- ror of it, someone may ask: How does that compare with the normal, everday average of traffic deaths on our highways? I DON'T have at hand .the nor mal Svprafp vwr . arnnnH total. But we do have available an EVEN MORE interesting fig ure. December 1 of this year was set apart as SAFE DRIVING day. On that day, everyone in America was asked to exercise more than ordinary caution. The purpose was to see if by the exercise of more than ordin ary caution the total of traffic deaths could be cut down. Safe Driving Day covered a period of 24 hours. In that 24 hours 69 persons died in traffic crashes an average of 2.9 per sons per hour. rriHERE are CONDITIONS, .of course, that must be taken into consideration. In holiday periods, there are more cars on the road. The more cars on the road, the greater the hazard. It is a gruesome fact that each year more people die in traffic crashes on our highways than died the year before. But again we must take CONDITIONS into our thinking. Each year we have more miles of road. Each year there are more cars on the roads. The more cars, the greater the risk. TUT STILL This moral seems to be plain: The habits of caution that are necessary to cope with the grow ing congestion on our highways have not yet been developed. Our minds haven't become con ditioned to the new dangers that face us. fFiHAT leads to this conclusion On our modern highways, congested with fast-moving traf fic, eternal vigilance is the price of safety. , TT ISN'T a new situation. Our A pioneer forefathers faced it. Back in the early days on the frontier the Indians were an ever-present menace, calling for rigid techniques of caution. Those who learned these tech niques stayed, alive and kept their hair. Those who didn't learn lost their lives or their hair or both. The situation is getting just that grim on our highways. rpHE TRAGEDY of our high ways, of course, is that the reckless driver (who refuses to use the necessary degree of cau tion and skill in his driving) en dangers the GOOD drivers, as well as himself and his passen gers. But The sentry who went to sleep at his post in time of uprising on the frontier endangered the lives of everyone in the village. Vigilance on the part of all, then as now, was the price of reason able safety for all. WHAT of the long future? Well, there is HOPE. On my way to work, I pass a school. I'm continually impressed by the way mere tots pause at intersections and look both ways before starting across. The ex ceptions to this rule of caution are few indeed on the part of these little ones. They have been EBY'S BOOK & BIBLE HOUSE 230 South Central Christmas Cards Now Just SCRIPTURED DESK CALENDARS essentially a military organiza tion and doesn't need too much civilian control. That, of course, Is the Prussian viewpoint. The fact is that Blank is now being accused of siding with the "traditionalist" element, the mil itaristic element, - shows how strong the military appeal is to Germans. News well taught at home and at school. That is to say: TLfiir minds are being condi tioned adequately to the hazards of T: lodern life.' When they grow up and begin to drive cars, I think they may drive more carefully. 'Serious Reappraisal1 Of Foreign Aid Seen Washington ,(U.R) Sen. Walter F. George (D-Ga.), said today he thinks Congress must make a "serious reappraisal" of the foreign aid program next year. George is chairman of the Senate Foreign, Relations com mittee, which handles foreign aid legislation and would handle any such reappraisal insofar as the Senate is concerned. Sentiment Said Growing Returning to Washington for the 1956 session of Congress, George told reporters that "sen timent has been growing in Con gress that economic aid should be trimmed 'way down' ." The administration recently announced that foreign aid spending for the fiscal year be ginning next July 1 will increase by about $200,000,000 above the $4,200,000,000 estimated for Northern Plains Again Feel Sting Of ColdSnow By UNITED PRESS A new cold wave raced across the northern plains today, threatening near blizzards in Kansas and Nebraska. The storm blew out of Canada, routed shirtsleeve weather in Colorado, and caused two deaths on icy highways. Snow over spread the upper Great Lakes region today and temperatures dropped as much as 46 degrees. Bulletins Warn Special weather bulletins warned of falling temperatures and drifting and blinding snow creating near blizzard conditions in northern and western Nebras ka and northwest and north cen tral Kansas. The storm should reach its peak in the two states today and tonight, the forecasters said. Mo- torists elsewhere in the Midwest were warned : of .. treacherovty glazed highways." Meanhile, the new winter storm knifed into Colorado and Wyoming Wednesday and was blamed for traffic deaths in each of the states. Snow and Fog Wyoming got one to eight inches of snow and heavy fog temporarily stranded 300 cars. There was up to a foot of snow in the high mountain passes and one to four inches of snow in southwest Colorado. Minnesota measured up to three inches of snow and high way crews were called out to sand curves, hills, and inter sections. Cold in New England The cold .wave routed mild holiday temperatures, sending the temperature skidding from 41 degrees to five below at Mi- not, N.D. It was 11 below at Grand Forks, N.D., today and a scant one above at Pierre, S.D. New England also had plenty of cold weather, with the ther mometer hitting nine below at Rumf ord, Me. The sub-freezing weather stretched as far south as North Carolina, where the mercury registered 23 degrees at Greensboro early today. Phone 2-5850 i PRICE l.r !" Jury Eavesdropping Brings New To U.S. Trial System. By MARTIM PACKMAJT Washington, D. C. A promise of administration support, at the coming session of Congress, for legislation to outlaw eavesdrop ping on deliberations of trial juries has again directed public attention to the workings of the jury system. President Eisen hower's endorsement, last Oct. 2i, of a Justice Department plan to ' bar listening in on jury dis cussions climaxed the reaction to public disclosure that Uni versity of Chicago researchers, studying the jury system, had used tapping devices to make recordings of federal jury ses sions at Wichita, Kan. Attorney General BrowneU the current year. It also an nounced that Congress will be asked to appropriate $4,900,000, 000 in new foreign aid funds, most of which wiU be spent in future years. That compares with only $2,700,000,000 voted by Congress this year. Telephone Explanations George's first reaction last week to the proposed large in crease in appropriations was that he was convinced that Congress would not agree. He has since received telephoned explana tions of the administration pro gram from Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Budget Director Rowland R. Hughes. "I'm inclined to think that there will have to be a very serious reappraisal of the whole thing," George told reporters to day. . He said he did not want to amplify his statement until the administration has explained its program to Congress. North Carolina Girl Named Maid of Cotton ,Memphis, Term. (U.R) Pat ricia (Pat) Anne Cowden, s green-eyed brunette who serves as a private secretary to a Ral eigh, N.C., bank executive, was crowned last night as the 1956 Maid of Cotton. , The 21-year-old beauty could only "squeal" and - say "I'm thrilled to death" when the judges announced she had beat en out 22 other contestants from 13 cotton growing states for the title which she "always want ed." - Pat, who stands 5 feet, 7 inches and weighs 125 pounds, also will realize another long dream of travel in Europe. Revis Jordan, Lubbock, Tex., was named first alternate and Minta Curtis, Mission, Tex., was second alternate by the judges who based their selections on "beauty, personality, training and background" which involves a cotton family. Coast Highway May Be Open Today Salem (U.R) The Oregon coast highway was expected to be opened before noon today, the State Highway department said. But several other routes re mained closed, including the Elkton-Sutherlin route, the Cas cade highway at Park place, the Corvallis Eastside secondary road and the Umpqua highway was closed by slides. The Coos Bay-Roseburg high way was closed except to emer gency traffic and so was the Power secondary highway. Chains were required at Gov ernment camp and Timberl-ine where snow plows were operat ing. And chains were advised at Austin. No new snow was re ported over night. I If . . f Attention said the Justice DepartmenPwas "unequivocally opposed" to jury tapping "under any conditions regardless of th purpose." The Senate Internal Security sub committee, which held hearings in mid-October on the tapping episode, also denounced the re cording of jury deliberations. But several lawyers, judges, and legal scholars defended jury tapping as an aid to improving the administration of justice. Nfeed for Study lhe legal scholars said there was great neeff for careful study of how jurors function in com-, ing to a decision. The few sur veys so far made have under lined the need by indicating that jury members do not alwavs understand legal subtleties in a trial, frequently do not follow me judge's instructions, and sometimes do not carry out their auties as conscientiously as is popularly supposed. The sixth and seventh amend ments to the U. S. Constitution safeguard the right to trial bv jury in federal courts, and most ""-- -.vuijuvuuuus iniue similar provision with respect to trials in state courts. But the right to a jury trial may be waived, and such waivers have' become increasingly common in some states in civil cases. Many critics of the jury system contend that more extensive waiving of th right to a jury trial would make for more exact and more expedi tious justice. Criticisms Cited Criticism of the jury system usually centers on its alleged inefficiency and on the alleged shortcomings of the average juror. The critics assert that the system is wasteful of time, money, and human energy. They contend, moreover, at today's problems often are too complex to be judged by untrained per sons. "Jurors," Judge Jerome Frank has written, "are ama teurs, and adequate judging is a job for professionals." Defenders of the jury system, on the other hand, hail it as the essence of the democratic proc ess. A jury verdict, in their opinion, represents the "common sense" of the community. "In the long run," Judge Louis E. Goodman has said, "it is better to have truth determined not by experts but by juries made up of a cross-section of . . . citizens." Reform Proposals Proposals for reform of court trials range from outright aboli tion of the jury system to modi fication of various trial pro cedures and include steps to bet ter the calibers of jurors. Im proving the caliber of jurymen calls in turn for changes in the methods of selecting them. Many legal authorities have advised' wider use of paid jury commis sioners to select prospective jur ors by means of examinations and interviews. Restoration to judges of pow ers which they used to enjoy under the common law has been strongly recommended. It is as serted that constitutional and statutory limitations on judicial functions, which reflect distrust of royalist judges by the colon ists, are no longer justified. Al lowing the trial judge to com- , ment on the evidence has been urged especially; only one-fourth of the states now permit that practice. More extensive use of so-called special verdicts, in which the jury determines the facts by answering written ques tions submitted by the judge, also has been proposed. New Chamber Officers To Meet Tomorrow ' The newly-elected officers of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce will meet at 9 a.m. tomorrow in the chamber office to discuss and outline programs and policies for the coming year. Otto Ewaldsen, president elect, will be in charge of the meeting which will also be at tended by ' Vice-President-Elect , Bob Root and Treasurer-Elect Clarence Young. FUNERAL EXPENSE INSURANCE When th inevitable comet to you, someone probably someone near and dear is goingsjto be obligated for funeral and cemetery expenses. You can show your thoughtfulness and lovt by taking out an insurance policy of your own. Even a small policy of $500 or $1,000, taken out for funeral expenses, eliminates the burden of a need for immediate cash. Consult the insurance agent of your ohoictjg. now! CHAPEL MORTUARY Across from the Courthouse Frank Morgan Harold Snodgrass FUNERAL DIRECTORS O 1
