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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 17, 1956)
American Farmer No Longer Political Power Of Former Years in Presidential Election By LYLE C. WILSON Uniled Press Correspondent "Washington (U.R; The Amer ican farm and the American farmer are basic in the nation's economy and no one denies that. But the American far mer is not now the political power house he used to be in a presiden tial election. There aren't Lyie c viion enougn oi mm. The Commerce Department keeps tabs on farmers and oth ers. There were in 1930 about 10.160,000 persons 14 years old and over engaged in farm work in the United States. The number had dropped to about 6,840,000 in 1950. The 1930 farmers represented 21 per cent of the gainfully occupied Neuberger Defends Morse Vote Record Washington (U.R) Sen. Richard L. Neuberger (D-Ore.) today defended the voting per formance of his Democratic col league, Sen. Wayne Morse, whose record of support of the Eisenhower administration has come under frequent attack from Phil Hitchcock of Portland. Hitchcock, candidate for the Republican nomination for sen ator, has called Morse's record of support for the Eisenhower program one of the worst in Congress. Neuberger said today that, ac cording, to the Congressional Quarterly, Morse backed Eisen hower on issues 56 per cent of the time during the first session of the 84(h Congress. The Senator contrasted that record with the voting of Sens Malone of Nevada and Welker of Idaho who, he said, supported the President only 46 per cent of the time though both are Repub licans. Neuberger said both Malone and Welker spoke in Portland during the 1954 campaign with Hitchcock's blessing. The Port land Democrat added that his own record of support for the Eisenhower program was bet ter than that of any of Oregon's three Republican congressmen. Disaster Car Dance Tickets Available Tickets for the Jackson Coun ty Disaster Car anniversary dance Thursday at the Rogue Valley ballroom are still avail able from sponsoring Disabled American Veteran members of the Disaster Car organization. The dance is being held to raise funds for the purchase of needed Disaster Car equipment and to commemorate the first year of the organization in Jack son county. Proceeds will be used to pur chase such items as fire and rescue equipment, (first-aid sup plies, surgical equipment, ropes, tools and other emergency gear. The unit, when completely equipped and staffed, will op erate on a round-the-clock basis to aid in emergency work, the organization announced. Music for the dance will be by Bob Roberts' western swing band by courtesy of the Medford Musicians union. Use of the ball room is being donated by the owners, Buck and Sonny Smith. First Parent, Son FFA Banquet Slated Eagle Point The first annual parent and son banquet of the Eagle Point Future Farmers of America will be held at 8 p.m. Thursday in the high school gym. Nat R. Etzel is instructor of the four FFA classes of about 44 boys. Some 150 persons are ex pected at the banquet. Kenneth Bigham, Rogue-Ump-qua district vice-president, FFA, will speak on the value of FFA activities and Gale Friend, Eagle Point senior and president of the chapter, will preside. A movie on the 25th annual convention at Kansas City will be shown. Ron Hansen and Jim Bunker will report on -the state convention and several awards will be made, including naming of the chapter star farmer. Sev eral honorary degrees also will be conferred. Home economic students of Mrs. Esther Hopper will serve the dinner. Babs Hutton's Aide Denies Divorce Rumor Paris (U.R; Barbara Hutton's secretary said today there was 'absolutely nothing" to a report from Mexico saying the Ameri can heiress and her husband of five months, Baron Gottfried von Cramm, were getting a di vorce. "If only the newspapers would leave them alone, everything would be all risht," the secre tary said. national labor force. The 1950 farmers were only 11.6 per cent of that force. Total Declining Latest Commerce Department figures are for 1954 when 6,500, 000 persons 40 or over were working on farms. The number of Americans engaged in agri culture steadily has diminished since the government began to keep tabs more than 100 years ago. The young United States of 1920 had a population over 10 years old of about 6,487,000, of whom just more than 2,000,000 were agricultural workers. There are somewhat more than three times as many farm work ers now than in 1820, but popu lation has doubled and re doubled many times over. The civilian labor force alone was estimated in 1954 to be nearly 64,500,000. Farmers represented about 10 per cent of it. Ten per cent of the working population is a sound and lusty minority. But there are other number American farmers. The Commerce Department, for ex ample, estimates the U.S. Negro population at more than 15,000,000. Membership of the newly merged American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Or ganizations is estimated in the neighborhood of 16,000,000. The southern Baptist convention of the U. S. numbers nearly 8,000,000. The Methodist church counts ' somewhat more than that. The Roman Catholic church has nearly 31,500,000 members. Jewish congregations trail the farmers with an esti mated membership of 5,000,000. Four Major Conventions There are four major Baptist conventions in the United States. They add up to about 15,575,000. All of these are pressure groups or potential pressure groups. Baptists and Methodist applied much of the pressure which ob tained the 18th Amendment to the Constitution and the experi- minority groups which far out- ment of national prohibition. TMimnrimhMi It RON MALCOLM SHOW Color films, "This is Alaska" and "Tun dra Haven," will be shown at the Medford High school auditorium at 8 p.m. April 19-21. The show is being sponsored by the Medford Fire Fighters association. Ron Malcolm, Alaskan sportsman, will narrate the films. Malcolm spent six years in Alaska gathering the material for the films. Scenes of a bull moose fight, and kill ing wolves with a shotgun from a low-flying plane are included in the show. The pressure of Negro voters, transplanted in the past 40 years to industrial northern states, has been the biggest factor in obtain ing civil rights legislation and spreading integration of the races at all levels. Compared to some of the oth ers, the American farmer is a small minority, widely scattered but with large areas in which he has no representation at all. These minus areas are in the large, consuming cities and in dustrial areas. Walter P. Reu ther, however, and other top la bor leaders are moving aggres sively for a farmer-labor voting combination. That would be a real power house in United States politics. Plane Bombing Jury Selection Proceeds Denver (U.R) Selection of jurors resumed today in the murder trial of John Gilbert Graham at a pace which should allow the state to begin its case late this week against the ac cused killer of 44 persons in an airliner bomb plot. Proseculion and defense attor neys made surprisingly rapid progress in initial questioning of prospective jurors yesterday. It had been thought it would re quire up to 10. days to name a jury, but Friday should find a complete panel. Graham, 24 confessed to FBI agents on his arrest, Nov. 14, that he made and planted a dyna mite bomb in his mother's lug gage before she boarded a Unit ed Air Lines DC6B airplane at Denver. He is charged with the insurance murder of his mother, Mrs. Daisie King, 55, one of the 44 persons killed when the plane exploded in flight and crashed near Longmont, Colo., Nov. 1. Area of the Azores about 880 square miles. totals Great Eads Show in Prospect Thursday Prospect The Great Eads, magician, will present, his magic show at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 19 in the high school gym nasium. ' . Proceeds will go to the visual education department of the school. Flu, Measles Are Most Diseases Listed Influenza and measles were the most prevalent communica ble disease in Jackson county during the week ending April 14, according to a report by the county health department. Medford reported 24 influenza cases during the week, Phoenix four and Shady Cove three. Twenty-two cases of measles were reported in Medford and three in Phoenix. Other communicable diseases were scarlet fever, 1 Central Point; pneumonia, 1 Talent, 2 Medford; mumps, 3 Medford; trench mouth, 1 Gold Hill, 2 Ashland; pink eye, 3 Medford; chicken pox, 1 Ashland, 1 Med ford, 7 Rogue River and 1 Gold Hill; strep throat, 2 Ashland, 1 Rogue River and 2 Medford. Snake River Bridge Opened To Traffic Nyssa U.R Idaho and Ore gon highway crews last night re opened the Snake river bridge here which had been closed throughout the day to all but one-at-a-time passenger car traf fic. A temporary bridge section at the Idaho side of the river, built to replace a collapsed span, sag ged when two tension bars broke Sunday night. The work crews finished re pairs to the structure late yester day. A contract for a new steel bridge at the site has been let. The new span is to be completed within 18 months. Tuesday, April 17. 1956 MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE NINE Communists Dissolve Information Bureau Moscow (U.R) A top Sov iet leader tonight announced the dissolution of the Communist Information Bureau, known to the world as the Cominform. Dmitri Shepilov, editor of Pravda and an alternate mem ber of the Communist party Pres idium, told reporters that the nine-year-old Cominform was being dissolved. "Each Communist party can get along without the Comin form now," he said. NATHAN DOUTHIT Wins Two Awards Douthit Wins Two Firsts in Eugene Nathan Douthit, Crater High school student, took two first places last weekend at the 49th annual Oregon high school speech league's state tournament at the University of Oregon in Eugene.' Douthit placed first in per suasive and extemporaneous speaking. He was the only one of the tournament participants to win two first place awards. Joseph Burns of Medford plac ed first in after dinner speaking and Tim Keating, -Ashland high school, placed first in im promptu speaking. Pat Bickel of Crater high was a finalist in the humorous reading division. A total of 167 students from 43 Oregon high schools partici pated There were 25 winners of first, second or third place awards. VA Distributes $45 Million in State The Veterans Administration distributed $45,646,473 in cash and services to veterans and their families in Oregon during fiscal year 1955, according to Charles Langdon, manager of the Portland regional VA of fice. Disability compensation pay ments totaled $20,501,885; death compensation and- pension, $6,016,671; GI insurance and in demnity payments, $3,692,528; Korean veteran vocational reha bilitation, $363,040; World War II veteran training, $997,618 and miscellaneous veterans benefits, $9,458,085. 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