Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989, July 22, 1956, Image 4

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Medford mail tribune., July 22, 1956, Image 4

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Newspaper Page TextFOUH MEDFCPD (ORGON) totf'fM8 ! Kea-;j I ne ..ij;, eriDur.e futlisned Dbiy Lxcept Saturday b MtDK)HU i-KJNTING CO 27J Norm rix St rTiong l-QHl ROBKRT W RUilL Lditor HKR1-. GKEV AGverti-s.i.i.' Manager I hRALD LATHAM 8u,!i Mar.agel F.HIC AlXh.S JR W4n.it:M KOitor F.AK1 H AIJAMS Cit L'liUir liAKPY CiKPMAN le.-arapn K-moi RICHARD JEWflT SporU Kflltor Ol.IV; SI ARCHKK Vicien Kcl.'.',r DALE E!:i(.Kb(N C i.-;rjr, ..'.fr An Incer-Ti'if nt ".i-a - .cr fc-vprci as sec'.nd c:i--s m.-eter at rci as Jio.-d er Act ot Mar' n SUFiSCi: :at;s r C'i: y ;fle ! E iirS.7 3 50 j Cmtr ii ta. I'o.m ii ver. 1 alenl L-rVf a.il'lll.'Tv'-r ''I?c,py j A.i !.:, -'-' .n 'v--'".' -. ..-1 OI? rial I'aper I r.i-e-i Pr.s Jackson ' - :i Leased W,re MEMbf'T? or Ai DI'I Bi'REAU ,f ii;ci la no.N Arl' --t:si-'J F?f p-''-fnT.iri'.e VVE.-.T-HOl.l.HJ AY COMPANY INC off: t" m 'i Tk Chicago Dc 1-ni' Sa-i f rn-o L." An5"- 5.-,Tt:r P-:rt i St l.nuLi At:anla rr-ni i vi r R C AIIONAL EDITORIAL I asTocItatlon . U yJ -4 NEWSPAPER 'l-f7, PUBLISH E R S -ASSOCIATION Flight 0' Time Viedford and Jackson County t'istorv from the files ot The Mail Tribune 10. 20. 30 and 1(1 vears ago. 10 YEARS AGO July 22. 1346 Hi JIUHU.1J1 D.ive Wilson of L'cntrai Point j fk-aec president of the Montana association at the annual meet- j ing in Ashland s Lithia pars. l-ro ni Arthur Perry's Ye Smudge Pot column: Farmers have sorted cutting the grain trop and their own hair. 20 YEARS AGO July 22. 1S36 (it wa Wcdnt sda ) The cily council orders paving nf Appie st. beiwtcn Third and Fifth sts. and of East Jackson be tv.i t n Crater Lake ave. and Ma rio st. Spray for control of moth lar- ;k .should he completed on all v::r ..tics of pears and apples by An ; 1. accoiciin to L. G. Gen-tnc.-. southern Oregon entomolo- 30 YEARS AGO July 22. 132S lit was Thursday) The Pomona Grange will meet with the Koxy Ann Grange at the Jackson county fairgrounds at 1U a.m. Sa.uroay. Siir.crest Orchards Inc., Llew- fruit .tkpiiraTX: ,..,.;l: , 40 YEARS AGO July 22. 1916 (It was Saturday) A. W. Walker opens new gar age and automobile salesroom at corner of Fir and Eighth sts. A musk' publishing company launched in Medford by Fred Alton Haight and Edwin Charles Root company, music publishers. Modford. Ore. What's the Answer? Can You Get 4 of the 7? Copr l'OS. I niiori.1I liesrarcn Rpp.trt 1. Interest rates on bank sav ings accounts in most areas have been going up or down lately or staying same'.' j. Are children of divorced ivren's more i;ki'i on uic wooic to get divorced, themselves, than i other children? n;. rents more likely on me wiioic owiujn David Eisenhower got j B S. degree m 191o from the. a 1 University of Texas, U.S. Mili larv academy, Columbia univer si;. Virginia Military Institute, or University of Kansas? 4. Niagara Falls is between Lake? Erie and Ontario; rieht or v'. Mils' .1. Throe U. S. Presidents were born west of the Mississippi: Tru rn?n. Hoover, and who? The average tractor is ex- to hive a useful life of it 4. 7. i ) or 13 years? r.vmin. Togliatti .s an lui-, : i.-ai leafier communist.. .-i i-. socialist, rightwing so- st. L . -istnn Democrat or iv''c!r?t" 1 sowers: 1. Going up. 2., c:;; M Ye:-. Pi 10 v U.S. Military Academy. j at. 5. Eisenhower. 6. About j " Communist. tractor driver -Ait'nP y''".'!!-! 'tractor operator 8her ?.ou:s. but not the best. The -vouncster climbed aboard his f-hrr s machine, started the E'.-.ie and put th.e tractor m gear. p rrK-ed across the farmyard. 1-- off a water hydrant, hit a truck and storprd. The boy's motr.er nssned up and snut oil the er.gir.e. MAIL TRIBUNE Is The SP Ready to Quit? If we were the board of directors of the "friendly S. P." too bad we aren't we would fire D. J. Russ ell, president of the billion dollar corporation, even though he is a highly-successful ex-Jacksonville boy. We would fire him for one good, and we believe, sufficient reason, namely: no man should direct the destiny of an important business who no longer be lieves in that business. DRESIDENT Russell doesn't believe in the railroad concerned. We quote: in .ju years i-unman Travel win De a ming oi tne past and thorp will be little if any ri.'anccs at least.'' Small wonder that a railroad directed by a person holding such views should have deprived all of South- ti n uregon oi passenger 1 all orders of the Public Utility Commissioner to re- store it. ' I70R this, according to the Russell philosophy, is just A "good business." When a department in any cor 1 poration starts to lose money, don't waste time trying I to improve it and make it DROP it. That is what U. S. Steel or any other billion dollar concern would j do, why shouldn't S.P.? So goes the-S.P. story. There is only one reason and the Russell school of i thought refuses to consider it. That reason is the i railroad business, unlike U. S. Steel, is a PUBLIC util ity. It enjoys a monopoly in southern Oregon and .'northern California. According to the terms of its :' original franchise, it agreed in return for tremendous gran's of valuable public lands and this monopoly privilege to provide a continuous service to the people of the areas involved, passenger AXD freight. B UT what is a franchise between a billion dollar cor poration and a hundred billion dollar government when there is no profit in it? Let the long-hairs and the egg-heads talk about the obligations of public ser vice, the rights of the "dear people," etc., etc. such obligations and rights end , - ... .- ,, (lay as tner uiu in me puonc ue uauineu utt s ui Commodore Vanderbilt, several generations ago. CORTUXATELY, however, all railroad presidents do not share President Russell's defeatism regard ing the passenger department of American railroads. The passenger departments for many years have not been profitable, the railroad freight traffic has liter ally ''paid the freight" since the war with Spain. But such directing heads as those of the great New York Central system and the Santa Fe, believe they owe a certain obligation of service to the traveling public and they are making a determined effort to meet it, not by dropping passenger service entirely and be coming freight lines only as S.P. proposes but by improving BOTH. yHESE two railroads have improved their service to passengers materially, provided better cars and I more modern Diesels, offered special family rates and increased speeds. They have not put on more trains, but better schedules. It is doubtful they expect to make their passenger traffic pay a profit, but they are obviously doing their best to so improve the service that the losses, if any, will be so slight the large freight profits Call Cai'lT them. u In the end they may fail No one can be sure about the future. But at least THE are not quitting. They I are making a fight for it, which is more than can be I said for the "friendly Southern Pacific." A XD WE HAVE a hunch JTX. Motor and air transportation are growing by the proverbial leaps and bounds, and this growth as the country grows will continue. But both are based very largely on the American mania for speed and more speed ! Because of increasing congestion on land as well as in the air both casualties and discomforts in these areas of transportation are on the increase also. In far greater comfort and safety, and in a free and exclusive right-of-way, with terminals in the business sections of cities instead of miles away, the railroads, we believe, enjoy an advantage the importance and value of which will increase as time goes on. After ail. there is a limit to this passion to "pass the car ahead." In other words the people of this country as they - - ,1 ij i. grow more mature, will or at least should not care ?o much about how fast they can get somewhere else, h safeiv how comfortably and with how little - '. stress ana strain. When they do arrive at this point, the "friendly S.P." may find that becoming a freight line only, put ting the Almighty Dollar above good-will and public service, did not add up to such a smart business move after all .' R.W.R. Foolish Naturally foiTner Secretary McKay is delighted , j f' t f th h fe(feral dam at Hells Can. . yon and the victory of the Idaho Power Company, If he had his way he would follow his beloved leader, former President Hoover, and not only bar ... ' .1 -i. L "it. any iuture ieaeiai ciam projecis, uui lurn over muse nowT in existence, like Bonneville, Grand Coulee and XVA, to the private power companies. j Well "Doug"' is entitled to his opinion, and no one censure him for celebrating this victory of the ! Grand Old Party and the defeat of his pet aversion, ' Wayne Morse, the senior senator from Oregon. ! . en-jpUT THE REASONS given in the press dispatches J , r ..r for hi? uibilation, are somewhat surprising. . According to his statement from Portland this de- , , , f , "nnwPf hiinm-v imrth. .. , ,. ' 1 west," for the Hells Canyon Sunday, July 22. 1958 passenger business for long service ov ran, ana aenea in the S.P. philosophy to , j j., j jr they won't fail. Talk r "f.- measure only AUTHOR Matter of Fact DULLES IN A JAM (The following dispatch by the Alsop brothers wii writ ten the day before the slate department announced it has withdrawn its offer to Egypt to help finance the Aswan dam.) Washington The handling of the matter of the Aswan high has been one of the strangest exercises in di-1 plomacy since Secretary of State John Fos- ter Dulles took office, which is saying a ood deal. In- deed, Dulles- and American foreign policy -is in about the along with him- w-orst jam in his career as sec retary. Dulles is faced with a most un- pieasani cnoice. ne can reverse his previous policy, and make a firm agree ment with the Egyptians to help build the dam. which is d e sicnod to avert future starvation in Egypt by irri gating desert areas. If he does 50. he worst possible Congress. and tlic powerful ft- 1 Mf warl Aisnp will be in the trouble with especially with conservative Republican leader ship, which violently opposes the dam proioct. The alternative is to risk Egyptian acceptance of a Soviet offer to build the dam, which will ultimately mean Soviet domination of Egypt and the Middle East. It is not an agree able situation for the Secretary of State. Yet it is a situation largely of his own making. T AST December, an Egyptian -i delegation visited this coun try, and an asreement in prin ciple was reached for an inter national bank loan of S200 million for the dam project, plus initial grants of S56 million from this country and S14 mil lion from Britain. In January, Eugene Black, able President of The International Bank, went to Cairo to work out the details of the deal with Egyptian boss Ga mal Abdel Nasser. He found Nas ser reasonable enough, and the deal seemed all set. The S56 mil lion was set aside from foreign aid funds for the dam project. Thereafter, the Nasser govern ment brought up some nit-picking points about the terms of the Anglo-American grants. In stead of answering these points, an attitude of studied indiffer ence was adopted by Dulles and the State Department, over the strong protest of Henry Byroade, American Ambassador in Egypt. T AST month, when Dulles testi lu tied before the Senate Appropriations Committee, he j stated flatly that there was "no j likelihood" of using ''any United j States funds'' for the Aswan dam. He further promised that, j "no funds would be used without ! further reference to the Com mittee, which is strongly hos tile to the dam project. And he dam in KqvpI Six IZED a federal high dam and "past history indicates" that it "takes 7 to 10 years after authorization to get appropriations." "We can't wait that long," said Mr. McKay. We wonder what history our former governor has been reading? Practically all of the measures authorizing multi ple federal projects like Hells Canyon have had to wait upon the necessary appropriation from the House Wrays & Means committee. Work could not be started without money. But does Mr. McKay believe and expect the people of Oregon to believe the Upper Colorado project for example which will cost almost twice as much as the Hells Canyon proposal, and is just as socialistic," but has been passed, will have to wait 7 to 10 years for the appropriation? Our former Secretary of the Interior must be hard pressed for an argument in favor of the Idaho Power Company if he has to put relief for power to the north west first on the list. MOT only will it be many years before the Idaho Power Company completes its three small dams if it ever does but it will not produce nearly as much power as Hells Canyon, and it, in all likelihood, will furnish no power, or any real benefits to Oregon at all! This Is not our opinion but the considered official opinion of the examiner for the Federal Power Com mission, whose conclusion as far as benefits to the northwest are concerned, were as follows, quote: "The prospects as reflected in this record for the sale in the Northwest of any large amounts of power that would be available from the three (Idaho Power Company) dams at rates which would equal the cost of the power are so feeble as to be worthy of no consideration." And later the same official examiner stated, quote : ''The High Dam (Hells Canyon) would be dollar for dol lar the better investment and the more nearly ideal devel opment of the Middle Snake." So just where and how "power hungry" Oregon and the great northwest are to be put on Easy Street, by the victory of the Idaho Power Company and the defeat of the Hells Canyon bill is unclear, to say the least. R. W. R. By Joe and Stewart Alsop .remarked that the Russians; J might well build the dam in- ! stead, as though this were a j i matter of hardly passing interest. I ! No doubt Dulles had his rea , sons for adopting such a policy. jThe Egyptians are anything but j easy to deal with. In recent months, moreover, Nasser has I acted in a manner nicely calcu- j lated to infuriate the American j government. ! In such circumstances, Dulles I might reasonably have adopted a policy of calculated hostility to Nasser. He might have used the considerable power of the United States notably in Saudi Arabia, where American oil j money finances many of Nasser's ; pet foreign projects to cut the Egyptian President down to size. But Dulles adopted instead his policy of studied indifference, which was really a policy of do ing nothing, and he thus fell be tween two stools. j TPHE basic reason for the sud- den indifference to the dam project, moreover, was to "be found not in Cairo but on Capi tol Hill. The Aswan Dam proj ect is opposed by a curious alli ance of southern Democrats from the cotton states, pro-Israel senators, and conservative Re publcians like Senators Knovv iand and Bridges. In the cir cumstances Dulles preferred simply to duck the issue. Meanwhile, Nasser, who is ' no fool, and who is not eager j to commit the economy of his country wholly to the tender mercy of the Soviets, has sent Ambassador Achmed Hussein to Washington for another try at negotiating the Aswan Dam deal. But Nasser himself is sched uled to go to Moscow in August, where Soviet Foreign Minister Dmitri Shepilov will almost cer tainly repeat the offer he has al ready twice made to finance the dam on seemingly reasonable terms. Ambassador Byroade (who has an inconvenient habit of reporting unwelcome truths to Washington, and has now been removed for his pains) has warned that Nasser will in all probability accept the offer if Hussein returns to Cairo empty handed. In the circumstances, it is not surprising that Dulles has shown signs of hastily reversing his policy. But it will not be easy. The money earmarked for the dam is no longer available. Above all, the anti-dam sena tors, no doubt led by Republi can minority leader Know-land, will fight any reversal tooth and nail, a prospect with unpleasant implications in an election year. Either way, in short, the Dulles policy of studied indifference is likely to prove costly in the end. (Copyright 1956, New York Herald Tribune Inc.) Costly Wind Carries Away $975 in Bills Battle Creel:, Mich. (U.R) It was a costly wind that blew open Mrs. Robert Williams' purse as she hurried across a downtown street. It carried away S975 in small bills. Motorists and pedestrians help ed Mrs. Williams round up S900 but no trace was found of the other ST5. She had withdrawn the money minutes ea-'ier to cash pay checks at a restaurant she and her husband operate. Today and By Walter THE RADFORD PROPOSALS There are going on inside the government two big arguments about military policy. The one has been brought into the open through the Sy m i n g ton Sub - Commit tee, prompted, it seems plain enough, by high but not the very high est officers of the Air Force. This argument Walter lippmann IS about whether the money asked for by the Administration is enough to keep us ahead of the Soviet Union in the ultimate nuclear weapons. Out of this argument has come the action of Congress in voting $900,000,000 more for the Air Force than the President asked. The second argument, which was brought into the open in dispatches by Mr. Anthony Leviero, turn on proposals by Admiral Radford to reduce the armed forces by about 800.000 men during the coming three years. This would mean a smal ler army but one armed with i more deadly modern w eapons. ! The Radford doctrine would give j I up the idea of being prepared j I to fight large local wars, like i the Korean, with "convention- i ai." that is to say without mi- clear, weapons. j There is a connection between ! the two arguments. It is that j the cost of maintaining both kinds of military povvi would be prohibitive. It is not possible as the cost ot weapons rises to keep up two military establish ments one for a world war and one for local wars, one with the big nuclear armaments and the other a powerful but convention al army, navy and air force. It would mean that both military establishments would be second rate. Insofar as the Radford pro posals face up to the dilemma, they will have a sympathetic hearing. FOR the general public the most serious question is raised by those who make the following argument. Now that the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. have reached a stalemate in nuclear weapons, neither will dare to use them. This will mean that military aggression with con ventional weapons like that of the North Koreans can be undertaken without fear of nu clear penalties. It is necessary, therefore, to be ready 'co resist conventional aggression with a conventional army, navy and the air force. Without saying that it is the oretically impossible, it seems to me most unlikely that a war as big as the Korean war, which concerned the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A., could ever be fought again without the use of nuclear weapons. The chances would be j very great that small atomic bombs would be followed by bigger bombs and these by still bigger ones. The chances of gen eral war would be so great that a local war on the Korean scale would be an incalculable mili tary risk. It is not absolutely certain but it is very probable that for the visible future wars of this type will be absorbed into the over-all nuclear stale mate. This calculation should not prove to be an imprudent risk. HPHE assumption which lies at A the root of the argument is that the alternative to general nuclear war is local convention al war. I wonder. It seems to me that the real alternative is first, guerrilla warfare and second, political infiltration and maneuver. Against neither of these kinds of warfare are the conventional American military forces prepared to be effective. What fighting there is in the world today is in Algeria and in Cyprus and in Palestine. Such guerilla warfare can be an ef fective kind of warfare in a sense that it wins concessions. But it is not the kind of warfare for which American military power, nuclear or conventional is prepared or even designed. It follows, I believe, that if ever our vital interests are in volved in an outbreak of local violence and disorder, for ex ample in the' Middle East, we shall not again do what we did in Korea. We shall not engage nurseles in a big land war on the other side of the world. We shall remember that we are a sea and an air power, and we shall tailor the shape of our in tervention to the character of our military forces. ITE are vulnerable in Germany, in Japan, in Vietnam, in Korea and in Formosa, not to military aggression but to politi cal infiltration and maneuver. Red China is working to make a deal with the Chinese in For mosa, and who can be at all con fident that they will not suc ceed, if not now behind Chiang's back then later on when Chiang goes? The same kind of thing is under way behind Dr. Syng man Rhee's back in South Korea and behind Diem's in South Viet nam. In Germany negotiations with the East are not very far off, and once Dr. Adenauer re tires, they are certain to take place. ha' Tomorrow Lippmann The critics of the Radford thesis, who want to maintain conventional forces big enough to fight another Korean war, may fairly be asked at what place, where our interests are at stake, a war of the Korean type might break out. This is a fair question because a mili tary establishment has to be de signed for a war with a particu lar adversary. It cannot be de signed for any kind of war any where with anybody. Our stra tegic air force is designed for a particular war. But is not the plea that we must also have big conventional forces prepar ed for another Korean war a case of preparing for a war that is past? Copyright 1956, New York Herald Tribune Inc. Communications Scores GOP Pamphlet To the Eritor: Twelve years ago, Russia was allied with the United States against the pow ers Germany and Japan, and I'm sure we heard the phrase "Good old uncle Joe" many times. I think everyone will agree, however that the passing years have a way of changing just about everything because circumstances vary continually. Every two years during election time, one becomes aware of those, who in order to gain their end. take phrases out of context, either written or spok en and distort to suit their spec ial, vindictive motives irrespec tive of the consequences. Shorty after the birth of the human race, the Almightly gave us, among others, the eighth commandment prohibiting this practice. It must have present ed a serious problem. Political campaigns have a tendency of bringing the indi viduals that exist in this cata gory into the public eye. They are with us the rest of the time more or less under cover; for where there is no selfish po litical end, there is no public need. How are we to recognize these distorters of persons and facts? To me they rlpresent a very poor artillery battalion that is supposed to soften the resistance which of course comes at an early stage in the battle. Instead of using live ammuntion, theirs is quite dead for it consists of very carefully edited, rephrased, old, twisted bits of misinforma tion gathered over a period of years which have seen multitud inous changes in events and per spectives for everyone. I am re- fering primarily to the booklet published by the Republican Central Committee in Oregon intended to stop Wayne Morse politically, personally and any way possible to prevent his re election. It is not a factual rec ord by the same reasoning that a selection of sentences from a group of entirely different poems could make anything worth while reading. Material taken from context in this man ner can be but for one purpose. Every right thinking person realizes the total Inadequacy and malicious intent of such a pamphlet. The serious aspect of all this is that the Republican party officials in this state ex pect the people to believe it. is it ngnt mat we nave our intellects belittled in this man ner? Ken Corliss 1564 Myers lan Medford, Ore. A Truck, A'Rope, and A Ladder To the Editor: Mrs. Erismann writes from Portland of her am azement and dismay concerning the fact that the further opera tion of the Southern Oregon Hu mane society in Medford de pends upon the compassion of one man alone. As she suggests a community as large as ours must provide for its dumb resi dents; and there must be many other citizens who are concern ed for their care. However, as Mrs. Elizabeth Adams pointed out recently, those people have become dis couraged from contributing to the work of the Humane society because it has proved inadequate to the needs of the community. The proverbial "vicious circle" has proved an ever-lessening spi ral: the society was not ade quately supported, and could not therefore serve adequately; it failed to serve adequately and accordingly lost support. Children and others needing its help in emergencies were often refused aid because they could not make the contributions required. Some who had contri buted regularly to the society found themselves called upon to render services they felt should have been rendered by the soc iety. The time seems to have pass ed when a private society partly dependent upon voluntary con tributions can adequately fulfill the needs of this community. As Mrs. Adams and Eric Allen have pointed out, we need a humane officer with authority to prose cute cases of cruelty; we need housing for strayed pets; we need free disposal of sick, crip pled and unwanted animals. We need a strong, agile man to ef-j POTLUCK (By M-T Staff and Contributors) The mother-in-law of a man we know is sometimes difficult to convince that things hava changed. In correspondence involving her possible visit to Medford from her midwestern home sh was told that the Southern Pa cific no longer runs passenger trains through Medford. She just plain refused to be lieve it, and wrote her son-in-law in a chiding manner. "What you undoubtedly mean," sha said, "is that the train doesn't stop in Medford any mora. If you just check with the agent, I'm sure you'll find I'm right." Somebody overheard some body else remark about last week's warm weather ai fol lows: "Well, it puis sugar in the peart." The laws and regulations cov ering the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in Ore gon are designed for maximum sobriety, tempered by the pub lic's right to purchase and down the stuff. This uneasy compro mise sometimes results in oit situations. At a rural Jackson county store, for instance, beer is sold. But it cannot be opened or con sumed on the premises. The solution to this dilemma is a post located just at the edge of the property. On the OUT SIDE of the post is a bottlo opener, and a sack for empty bottles. So members of a visiting group we know about stopped there last week, bought their beer, trudged to the edge of the property, opened the bottles, crossed the road into some shade, consumed the beer, dropped tha bottles in the sack, and went on their way. In last Sunday's society sec tion a story about a wedding recorded the costume of tha bride, and said she was wear ing a cap "encircled with pears." This, obviously, was an error, and what she really wore was pearls. We were chided for this by a neighboring daily paper, which Is perfectly all right, always remembering iha ad vice: "He who is without sin . . ." The Medford Kiwanis club has a small novelty band, of which it is inordinately proud. The band, as yet, has no name, and at the club picnic Friday night suggestions for a name were taken, and applause was recorded for each suggestion. A name may be selected by the next meeting, but we like ona suggestion especially: "Five Crackers and a Crumb." A possible difficulty is the de termination as to which Is tha crumb. feet rescues and to capture ani mals which are endangering pub lic safety. We need an agency with a truck, a rope, and a lad der, as well as boarding cages. These things the Humane soc iety could not supply with its available resources. It seems to me that it is now time for Jack son county to extend the function and increase the budget of its Dog Control Board so that all members of its dumb population can be controlled and protect ed for the general benefit. Helen E. Webster, 940 Whitman St., Medford, Ore. SP's Crossings To the Editor: Some time ago the Southern Pacific railway, after a long and painstaking ef fort on their part through fur nishing unsatisfactory service with delapidated equipment to discourage passenger service, finally gave notice that they were discontinuing passenger service to Medford. They claimed that this was due to fi nancial losses because of lack of passengers. How they could expect passengers to ride the trains they provided is beyond comprehension. However, no mention was made of the enor mous profits they were deriving from the freight haul on this road. As a result of their action tha population in the vicinity of Med ford was forced to provide their own transportation. This was principally provided by automo biles. But, not satisfied with the roadblock they threw In our way when they discontinued rail service, they force us to driva our automobiles over the delapi dated crossings on our main streets. I have driven in many cities in Oregon and throughout the United States, but in no case have I ever in an incorporated town observed crossings in a worse condition than the one on Main street. In fact the sama holds true in practically all crossings in the city. What I would like to ask is, would it be expecting too much to ask the City Administration to require the Southern Pacifia to spend a small portion of their profits from the freight traffic in keeping these crossings in a usable condition so we may save on our tires and make our trans portation last us a little longer? A. J. Curry 906 West Main St. Medford, Ore.