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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1956)
o rOtntTEEN MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE Tuesday, March 13, 1958 Racial Desegregation Issues Churchgoers Into Rival Camps Splitting Atlantic UP Chief Finds Integration Ideas Rouse Anger fEditor'f Vote: The Atlanta bureau hief of United Pres is tourinit the Deep South, writing a series of close up dispatches on the bis issues in the desegregation controversy.) Br AL KUETTNER United Preti Correspondent New Orleans U.R) The racial desegregation issue is splitting white churchgoers into bitter rival camps in the Deep South. It is turning church members against each other, pitting clergymen against their congre gations, rousing community anger at ministers who side with She Negro on any aspect of inte gration. ; There are those who feel that if true racial equality is ever to come in the South it must certainly . come early in the houses of Christianity. There are others who are de termined to keep the churches racially separate. They say the Negroes themselves definitely prefer to worship in their own churches, with their own race and in their own deep-rooted rit uals. This group is in the vast majority. The plain fact is that, right or wrong, there has been no real attempt byProtestant relig ious groups to attempt integra tion.'.; Fever-Pitch Fight The Roman Catholic church is another matter and the fiercest religious fight over the prob lem is now at fever pitch here in New Orleans, a city with large Catholic population and influence. A ..pronouncement has come out from Archbishop Joseph L. Rummel,' highest Catholic auth ority : in this area, that segrega tion; is a : mortal sin and that parochial schools under his jur isdiction will be desegregated. Earlier he closed a rural parish which refused to accept a Negro priest His stand has brought flat, un precedented v resistance from many Catholic laymen and un rest among a segment of the priesthood. Actual tests of integrating the 8,000 Negro and 39,000 white parochial students probably will not come before next Septem ber,' but the fight already is on. O E. A. Wagner, staunch Cath olic member of the Orleans Par ish School Board and father of five children in parochial schools is among lay leaders op enly opposing Archbishop Rum mel. Caused Serious Division "The situation is causing the most-;serious division within the Catholic church in this area in my memory and has shaken the faith of those not too strong," Wagner says. "I feel it has reached the point where Pope Pius should take a position for or against desegregation. I believe it is of sufficient worldwide import ance for his ' holiness to make a pronouncement to set at rest the confused condition of intel lectually sincere Catholics." Most Catholic authorities feel it is most unlikely the Pope will intervene. The Catholic situation is, however, only a small segment of the overall church picture in the. .overwhelmingly Protestant South. Moist Protestant churches have ; treaded gingerly around the: issue or acted as though it were not there. A number of church boards have met quietly, pondered the problem and de cided privately to stay segregat ed and say nothing. Some denominational groups, notably the Southern Presbyterian As sembly, have declared them selves against segregation in principle: Merger Defeated It is important to note that Negro church groups them selves are bringing little real pressure for integration. Mem phis Negroes voted down a pro posed merger of white and Ne gro ministerial associations on grounds that already "racial an imosity has become so intense that at times it has been ex plosive." The flareups have come in cases where individual white ministers aligned themselves on the side of the Negroes. In most places where 'clergymen have taken a positive stand for inte gration, reaction has been swift. The pastor of the Batesburg, S.C., Baptist church, where Gov. George Bell Timmerman form erly attended, was dismissed for -.stating privately he thought seg regation was wrong. A' Metho dist minister in that state was quickly transferred after he cri.icized the White Citizen's Council. In Montgomery. Ala-, a white Lutheran minister, the Rev. Robert Graetz, has become the subject of hot controversy for his open assistance to Negroes who have boycotted buses since Billy Graham Sees Christianity On the March in Asiatic Areas Kditor's note: American evangelist Billy Graham Is returning home after an eight-week tour of Asia in which he- visited seven countries. In the fol lowing dispatch written for Cnited Press he tells of the rapid growth of Christianity among Asiatic peoples.) By -BILLY GRAHAM Written for United Press Honolulu ;U.R) Christianity is on the march in Asia. I have come to this firm con clusion after talking to hun dreds of missionaries and na tional church leaders in seven Asiatic countries. I also learned the reaction of scores of active non-Christians. Deep in the jungles of Travan core, in the south of India, I sat in the home of a bishop of the Church of South India. Christianity has made great stride there, and it is estimated more than 50 per cent of the people in the bishop's city pro fess Christianity. The bishop told me of the no table increase in activity on the part of the Hindu leaders, and then added quietly, "They are worried because they know that Christianity is going to win." Hope For Future The importance of the growth of the Christian faith is not felt by church leaders alone. After a long discussion of India's over whelming problems with a pro fessor of economics at one of India's great universities, I asked him if he saw any hope for the future. After a moment of serious re flection, he said, "India's only hope is that she become Christian." I saw positive evidence of the surge of Christianity almost everywhere I looked in " India. Out of the Travanchore jungles 100,000 persons walked to our meeting one night half of that number walking more than 10 miles. There are other Asiatic coun tries such as Korea, Formosa and the Philippines which may now be spoken of as Christian nations. By that I do not mean that all, or even most, of the people profess Christianity. But Christianity has definitely be come the dominating religion. Influence Felt In Japan, Christianitys is making its influence felt and is having an unprecedented ac- Jei Explodes Pilot, Residents Uninjured Victoria, Tex. (U.R) A jet fighter plane that caught fire at 12,000 feet yesterday crashed near a house with such force it blew a man out of his kitchen and his wife out of her shoes. The pilot, Capt. John E. Gib son, 29, Wilmington, Del., bail ed out when his F100 Super Sabre jet caught fire. He drift ed about six miles before land ing unhurt in Memory Garden cemetery near the edge of town. His plane hit the ground with such impact that it drove itself out of sight. The jet crashed 20 feet from the back porch of the five-room frame house of M-Sgt. Ted Por ter, 35, stationed at nearby Fos ter Air Base. He and his wife were blown away from their lunch table by the concussion. Porter was blown through the kitchen door into the back yard. His wife was blown out of her shoes and into the bath room. Neither was hurt except for shock. Plywood Firm Buys Roseburg Company Roseburg (U.R) The giant IT. S. Plywood Corp. Monday an nounced purchase of the Youngs Bay Lumber Co. The acquisition was announced by the New York president of U. S. Plywood, S. W. Antoville. , It is a straight stock transfer subject to approval at a meeting of Youngs Bay stockholders next Monday. The arrangement ap parently provides for an ex change of 275,000 shares of U. S. Plywood stock for an estimated one-half billion board feet of timber, land and the Youngs Bay mill in Roseburg. The stock exchange lists U. S. Plvwood at S45 a share. That makes an estimated S12,375,000 Marshall Leeper, local mana ger of the association division of U. S. Plywood of Eugene, and Roy Cummmgs of Roseburg, a major stockholder in Youngs Bay, said that Roseburg would become a production center for U. S. Plywood and would have a yearly production of 75,000,000 board feet. They also said there are plans for establishing a hard board plant in Roseburg. Grants, Gifts Are Accepted by State Portland (U.R) The State Board of Higher Education to day accepted $244,404 in gifts and grants to its eight camp uses. A gift of $50,000 from the Doernbecher. Hospital Guild, Portland, will be used for equip ment at the new medical school hospital. Grants from the Na tional Science Foundation to Oregon and Oregon State for basic research total S44.980. The board approved 42 per sonnel changes, including desig nation of Dr. F. J. Reithel, as sociate professor of chemisty, as acting head of the department of chemistry at the University of Oregon while Dr. A. H. Kunz is on leave of absence. . Dec. 5 in a dispute over seating arrangements. The "passive resistance" dem onstration there was organized and is being kept at almost 100 per cent effectiveness by Negro ministers led by a young Bap tist pastor, Dr. M. L. King Jr. Churchmen Sympathetic A protest leader in South Car olina who asked that his name not be mentioned said most leading churchmen appear "sympathetic toward desegrega tion in principle, but like most moderates they feel they are in a no-man's-land, being shot at by both sides." . . . The Rev. Thomas O. Paris, head of the White ' Ministerial association in Memphis, puts it this "vay: "Desegregation will not come in church life immed iately, but will be a slow and gradual procedure. Whether that is as it should be is a dif ferent question. We must be re alistic." A quiet-spoken Jewish rabbi here in New Orleans sits on the sidelines, counseling that both sides agree to a "cooling off per iod to give reason a chance to prevail over emotions." Asked his own views on the stand churches should take, Dr, Julian B. Feibelman said he pos- sessed a discussion on the sub ject that pre-dated the Supreme Court's civil rights decisions' by almost 3,000 years. He reached for a Bible, turned to the book of Amos and there, in the ninth chapter, seventh verse, he read: "Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopian to me, O children of Israel?1 ceptance by the populace. Jap an's prime minister told me that when the burdens of state be come most trying he finds com fort in singing some of the fa miliar old hymns of the church. Throughout the Orient I learned of new schools and, col leges being organized, any of them frankly bearing the name "Christian" and all of them re ceiving far more applications from students than they can ac cept with their present facilities. I approached this journey with some apprehension, won dering just what was the mes sage for the "Indian mind," the "Japanese mind," the "Chinese mind." I found no difference whatsoever. 1 The same gospel message which was effective in America, in Canada, in Great Britain and across Europe was equally ef fective throughout the Asiatic world. This leads me to believe firmly that human nature is the same everywhere, and that Christ has an answer for the yearning, questing soul who is searching for peace and secur ity in our troubled world. I Five Youths Released From Theft Charges Five Central Point youths, ages 16, 17 and 18, were appre hended over the week end for using three cars on February 29 without permission of the own ers, Oran Chastain, Central Point police chief reported today. The police chief said the five used cars belonging to William McGee, 312 Maple st., John C. Cimful, 162 North Second st. and William D. Rhea Jr., 120 North Third st., all Central Point. T wo of the autos were report ed to have been damaged. District Attorney Walter Nun ley said that the 16-year-old was turned over to juvenile authori ties and the 17-year-old had joined the Air Force before his apprehension. The other three, all age 18, were released by au thorities in order to join the Marine Corps. Nunley said that the youths will make full resti tution for the damage to the cars, which has not as yet been fully determined, and will be given no further penalty. Red Poland President Dies of Heart Attack Moscow (U.R) Boleslaw Bierut, the veteran Polish Com munist who rose from newsboy to president of Communist Po land, died in Moscow last night following a heart attack. He was 63. Bierut held the post of first secretary of the United Polish Workers Communist party at the time of his death. He had served Poland both as Premier and President in the days after World War II. Bierut was the second top foreign Communist to die in Moscow in the past few years. Czech President Klement Gott wald died here in 1953 from pneumonia .after attending the funeral of Josef Stalin. Bierut was in Moscow as head of the Polish delegation to the recent 20th Congress of the So viet Communist party. HONOR PATTERSON Sacramento, Calif. '(U.R) The California assembly rules com mittee yesterday approved a resolution memorializing the late Gov. Paul L. Patterson of Oregon. ;. Registered Hereford Show Starts Tomorrow Forty-two registered Heref ords will be in the Cal-Oregon Here ford sale show ring at 1 p.m. Wednesday and will be auction ed at 11 ajn. Thursday at the Jackson county fairgrounds. Consignors include Apple- gate Farm, Jacksonville: Dale E. Bigham, Eagle Point; Bernice Bigham, Eagle Point; John and Edyth Bohnert, Central Point; Marilyn Bohnert, Central Point Mr. and Mrs. Howell H. Cook, Ashland: Ralph L. Cook, Med- ford; Robert H. and Nettie Field, Central Point; Merle Goode, Macdoel, Calif.; Walter House, Grants Pass; Otto N. and Treva G. Jones, Gold Hill; Earle and Eleanor Jossy, Eagle Point; E. N. Lippert and Sons, Williams and Donald K.' Nichols, Ashland. Auctioneer will be Ellis White, Ontario. County Court Inspects Flood Damaged Roads Members of the county court and County Engineer Paul Ryn- ning are making a tour of in spection today of damaged coun ty roads, according to County Commissioner L. G. Morthland. " County roads received dam age estimated m the thousands of dollars during local floods in February. Margaret Truman's Long Wait for the Right Man Not Unusual to Her Parents By ROBERT ZIMMERMAN United Press Correspondent New York U,R) Margaret Truman waited a long time for the right man to come along. When he came he was a gray haired foreign correspondent more than 10 years her senior, and as handsome and polished a gentleman as a girl could want. There were those who were worried about Margaret. She had stayed single a long time, to the point in most families where the aunts and uncles would be shaking their heads and wondering. But for the Trumans it wasn't at all unusual. Harry Truman, patient and persistent, courted Bess Wallace through his high school days and well into manhood before he got her to the altar of the Trinity Episcopal Church at In dependence, Mo., in 1919. They were both 35. Helped and Hindered By then they must have known what they wanted, and there is reason . to believe that Margaret, their only child, born in 1924, has known all along what she wanted and has been out to get it. The turn of events that made her father a senator, then vice president, and finally president of the United States both help ed and hindered the accomplish ment of Margaret's dreams. She was 21, the age when most girls are thinking about getting mar ried, when she spent her first night in the White House At Washington dances the men used to cut in before she could take two steps with her original partner. "It would have been nice," she wrote recently, "to think that my face or my smile or my manners or my ball gown or the way I danced had drawn them to my side, but I have never been able to fool my self . . . they wanted to tell some body the next morning they had danced with the President's daughter. The maturing Margaret had a twinkling charm, a keen sense of humor and a flare for glamor and excitement. She was attrac tive but not beautiful, -and even the most well-intentioned pho tographer could not do justice to her appearance, Had Dates Galore There were dates galore in Washington but no real romance. , A beau taking a girl home to a front porch lit by floodlights i maintained a fierce loyalty to and watched by Secret Service men is not encouraged to linger. "There is not much you can do except shake hands," Margaret wrote, "and that's no way to get engaged." But there were other things. As a little girl growing up in a small town in Missouri Mar garet had dreame'd of being a concert singer. This she accom plished and, though she was not the world's best she knew the thrill of taking bows in Carnegie Hall. She later wanted to try act ing, ana made a successful de but in summer stock. Shu be came a comedienne, too, and did turns before television cameras with such veterans as -Jimmy Durante. Throughout this career she Daily Veather Report Sunset tonight 6:15 p.m. Sunrise tomorrow 625 a.m. FORECASTS Mpdford and vicinity: Mostly cloudy with light scattered showers this eve ning. Decreasing cloudiness Wednes day morning, becoming partly cloudy Wednesday afternoon and evening. Low tonieht 38. High Wednesday 58. Western Oregon: raruy ciouay iu night and partly sunny and warm Wednesday. Low tonight 32-40. High Wednesday 50-58. Northern California: Light rain likely Eureka northward and occal- sional snow over mountains man Oregon border. Mostly fair elsewhere tonight. Wednesday mostly fair and cooler north portion. LOCAL, DATA TEMPERATUHE: Mean yesterday 44: below normal 3. Record high this date 81 m I92t. RniriT-H low this rial 24 in 1954. PRECIPITATION: 24 hours to mid night, none. Midnight to 10 a.m.. trace. Total this month 1.29 inches, .59 inrh.- above normal. ' Total since Sept. 1. 27.76 inches. 14.10 inches above normal. HUMIDITY: Lowest yesterday 15 hiphpst this a.m. 81. CITY High Low Prec. Brookings 61 41 Crater Lake 43 11 - .02 Grants Pass 62 33 Klamath Falls 43 26 MFTVirrmn 60 37 Portland 50 40 T Seattle 40 34 T Sookane .. 35 25 .10 Yakima 43 26 Eureka Red Bluff . Sacramento .... San Francisco 62 Los Angeles 66 57 68 65 39 39 36 39 45 Phoenix 65 34 Denver 27 7 Chicago 30 19 Miami J 78 73 New York 45 31 Washington. D.C 47 33 .01 .07 .33 her father in his ups and downs of popular favor. He recipro cated, leading to such incidents as his letter of rebuff to a music critic who didn't like the way Margaret sang. Margaret recently disclosed that she vowed in 1945 not to get married while her father was president. After 1952 this self-imposed bar had been lifted but she continued to lead gossip columnists down blind alleys with her changing escorts who failed to become anything but good friends. Just Good Friends" 1 As a confirmed New Yorker she began to be seen regularly last year with songwriter Harold Arlen. "Just good friends," she insisted. Through mutual friends in November she met a seasoned, successful foreign correspondent just back from Moscow. Cliff Daniel became more than an escort, and by January, when Mr. and Mrs. Truman came to New York on a political mission. Margaret had someone special- to introduce to them. "They were delighted," Mar garet revealed at her press con ference with Daniel Monday. Back in Independence, Mr. Truman,, who had a press con ference too, showed his delight with one of his broadest grins. No one doubted that Harry Tru man thought his little girl Mary Margaret had done all right. She knew what she was after and she got it. Births HARRIS To Mr. and Mrs. Robert, route 1, box 453, Ash land, March 11, boy, 7 pounds, Sacred Heart hospital. FIVE-DAY FORECAST fThrouirh March 18) Western . Washington and Western Oregon Temperatures near or slight lv below normal. Highs western Washington mostly 45-55, western Oregon 50-65. Lows 35-45. Light rain about Thursday. Northern California No precipita tion except light rain likely on coast near Oregon border tonight. Temper atures below normal. WALKER To Mr. and Mrs. Bob, 343 Bridge st., Ashland, March 12. girl, 6'4 pounds, Sa cred Heart hospital. POLESKI Mr. and Mrs. Ed ward, 148 Wiriema way, March 12, girl, 8 pounds, Sacred Heart hospital. RANDALL-To Mr. and Mrs. H. G., Box 203, Camp White, March 12, boy, 9 pounds, Sacred Heart hospital, PHILLIPS To Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth, 805 Cedar st., March 12, 1956, a girl, ,6 pounds, at Community hospital. ; If you decide at the last minute to call friends about an evening of bridge, your phone is right there on the job. tQs t P Ml WT-y 'v "Ui- When the unexpected happens at night such as troable with your TV set - your phone will quickly put you in touch with a repairman. - mtt You can rest assured, at bedtime, that your telephone is still awake. It's just as ready to serve you after dark as during daylight hours. The call that bronght Betty good news. It was almost midnight. The newscasts had been reporting wet roads in the moun tains. And Betty's husband still wasn't back from his trip. Then the phone rang. It was Pete! He had had motor trouble but would be home soon. Betty sighed in relief. She wouldn't have traded that call for anything. And haven't you had similar experiences when phone calls brought you news equally welcome? Think of the en gagements, weddings, and births in the family, the homecomings and reunions you've "gotten word of by telephone. No matter what the hour, your phone is ready to keep you in touch with those you most want to hear from. Or to help you get things done faster and easier. Your telephone service never rests. - Pacific Telephone. ; The telephone ' men and w omen of Medford work to make your telephone more useful everyday VbiiMffie;l N.8artlH S Id. 2-6101
