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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 31, 1957)
O TOtm MEDFORD (OREGON) tiyil an Southern Oreeoo japes The Mail Tribuna" Daily Except Saturday jern FSt Phona 2-ell O irSRf W R 17HL. Editor IVJans QAY Advertising Manafer RA1.D UTMia Business Manama asKIC tLUiii JH Managing; Editor EARL AEkAns City Editor HARRY Clir.1i)l Telegraph Editor RICAD JE''F.rT SDorta Editor OUVE SliCMFM Satiety Editor DALE BH.KSC1 Circulation Mgr. 4a Iaeeaat Newspaper Shaved m seaeae' oust, matter at XttJ4 drama under Act of .Tfcrch 3. B7 SUBSCKimON RATES By aiil la Aavaace Per Copy 10c Daily and fcuaday On year 113 00 Daily m4 Suay Six month 8 00 Dally mm Siay Taree not 4 -25 6'irefc laUy One w 28 rfiy Carrier la Aavaace Medford Ashland Cnatral Point Eacle Point. Jacksonville tol mil Phoenix. Shady Cove Bacrue River Talent and on motor routes Dally and Sunday Oai year SIS 04 Dally ana aunaay Oae month 1 -50 ttmer and Deafeas lec per cony All Terma Caab in Advance Official Paper a aha City of Medford Official r-aeer cat faction County United Pre?i FuM Leawd Wire MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU Ot CIBCULATlUN Advert! sine Revresentadve: WEST-HOLIDAY COMPANY INC Offices in New York Chicago de trolt San Pranamce Loa Angelas Seattle Portland St Louis Atlanta Vancouver S C NAT lOtl V . 0 I T 0 t lA a 63afa I ' J I Flight o' Time dfcere! and Jackson County listory from the files of The ail Tribuna 10, 20, 30 and V0 years eo. II TXABg AGO 9aa 1, 1947 (Monday) Prmiion to operate an FM raiio station is granted Medford Printing eompany, publishers of ffi Msil Tribune, by the Feder al Communications commission. Prom Arthur Perry's Ye Smudge Pot column: The dollar now buas less than it did 27 years ago. There is now less for dollar to buy than 27 years ago. 20 YEARS AGO March 31. 1937 (Wednesday) City ordinance prohibiting outdoor freedom of dogs unless accompanied by attendants dur ing the next three months goes Into effect tomorrow. First police school of a series will be held in the council cham bers of city hall today, sponsored by bureau of municipal research at University of Oregon. 30 YEARS AGO March 31. 1927 (Thursday) A Wild Flower and Bulb show will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at the Medford hotel. Southern Oregon apiarists are urged to attend meeting Satur day to form a beekeepers asso ciation. 40 YEARS AGO March 31, 1917 (Saturday) Three one-act plays are pre sented by members of the Med ford Center of the drama league at St. Mark's hall. A patriotic rally will be held at the Presbyterian church Sun day. What's Your I.Q.? Nina or ten correct l in parlor; ter an er elrht la excellent: five ar six la food 1. Is the city of Naples on the east or west coast of Italy? 2. Bible: "But when the ful ness of time was come, God sent forth" whose? son? 3. Pure sold is 14, 20, or 24 carats fine? 4. Tetanus is another name for arthritis, diabetes, or lockjaw? 3. In England, what is a drug store called? ' 6. Was Gilbert Stuart a fam ous artist, statesman, or writer? 7. Prof. Raphael Lemkin of Duke University coined a new word for the English language: It was used in the indictment of the 24 German war criminals What is the word? 8. What is the sweetest fruit grown in the U.S.? 9. Which President hanged two men? 10. "He that loses his honesty has nothing to" what? Answers: 1. West coast. 2. "His son." 3. Twenty-four. 4. Lockjaw. 5. Chemist's shop. 6. Artist. 7. Genocide (from the ancient Greek word "genos" meaning race or tribe, and the Latin "cide" meaning killing). 8. The date. 9. Grorer Cleveland. 10. "lose." John Lyle. More than two million persons are employed in the nation's pub lic eating places and the industry ranks third in the number of persons who are given steady employment. Vi'A'SSOCIATIOM MAIL TRIBUNE Is Dave Beck The Oregonian declares that "Dave Beck is through." We grant he should be. And we have no doubt that eventually he will be. But we would question the Oregonian's present tense. As of today our belief is that the doughty, burly and resourceful "Dave" has only started to fight. And no one who knows him and his record questions his fighting ability. There is even less question about his resources. Not only is he a millionaire in his own right, but he has, as recently demonstrated, many millions at his command, and not only those of his teamsters union, but he has extremely cordial relations with certain Big Banks and Big Business. Sears-Roebuck is not the only multi-million dol lar corporation that granted special favors to the "teamsters." The record will show the Ford company, General Motors and Montgomery Ward also on the list. With the sensational growth of the teamsters union, and the increased importance of "trucking" in the national economy, none of the "Big Boys" wanted to tangle with the "Big Boss" of the I.T.U. And as the evidence to date indicates, there is little doubt they were willing to pay a price for it. QF COURSE the action of AFL-CIO in suspending Beck and demanding his trial on charges of mis handling union funds will be a blow to the Seattle Boss. But we predict far from a fatal one. Other unions and their leaders have suffered a similar "disciplinary action" and have survived. All but one of them we believe remaining in the AFL CIO fold. Under Beck's strong and skillful direction the teamsters may do the same. In fact there is the crux of the present situation, whether the rank and file of the teamsters will re pudiate Beck or stand by him. There is no question what they should do, for their own sake, that of union labor as a whole, as well as the welfare of the country. But what they WILL do remains to be seen. THE main trouble as we see it, is the fact that the 1 teamsters union is a sort of "race apart," a very clannish and scrappy organizaiton, rather like an army of over a million men, with a lot of pride in their outfit, proud of what they have done for IT, even more proud of what it has done for THEM, and up to the time of this "exposure" extremely loyal to the Big Boss and to all his men. His "men" in this case have been not only the teamsters "chiefs of staff," but all officers including the "non-coms," from corporal up to the five-star general, the "Big Chief" himself. THERE is a formidable group. And if that loyalty A continues then to get rid of Dave Beck will take more than suspension from the AFL-CIO, more we fear than an Internal Revenue indictment, it will take an uprising, a mutiny in the teamsters ranks. And for a mutiny to be successful requires a strong, fearless and skillful leader. WHERE is there such a leader? We hope one is found. But until one is found, while we don't deny Dave Beck is "on the way out," we think it foolish to kid ourselves that it won't take a long time and a lot of fighting before he gets there. R.W.R. The Tax Revolt We liked what President Eisenhower had to say about the present uprising against his record-breaking budget. He did not deny some small reductions might be made but he did maintain that the budget AS A WHOLE, represented the necessary demands of this growing democracy, so it may play its proper part in domestic and world affairs. That, we believe, is true. Seventy-one billion-plus is a huge sum, but this is a huge country, and its demands as a leader of the free democracies of the world, financially speak ing and otherwise, is even "huger." We don't deny the President's claim that the budget was the result of exhaustive study and intelli gent examination, and we shall be much suprised if in spite of the Byrds and the Hoovers, there will be any drastic reductions made, when the budget reaches final passage. TOR some weeks reports have been coming over the wire from Washington that "business men" are overwhelmingly opposed to the Eisenhower budget and not in '.he memory of most legislators has there been so violent an uproar against a Re publican administration's spending program. " The American people dote on extremes and this reported avalanche of protest is probably based on fact. DUT there are other facts to consider. And one of thera is a survey conducted by the "Opinion Re search Corporation" .which was hired by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an organization which can hardly be accused of a "spend, spend and tax, tax" phobia ! And what are the conclusions of the US C of C? Here are some of them, quote: "Businessmen 'fail to see the connection between na tional legislation and their own welfare.' "The budget debate is healthy and needed, but it is being increasingly obscured by misleading cleaims if not down right nonsense." a a J "AS JUST one illustration, some of the most vocal against the massive budget are businessmen in the steel, oil, railroad, trucking industries. "But the price hikes put through or on schedule in these industries alone will tend to RAISE the Sunday. March 31, 1957 "Through"? with impressive finality Senate Racket Probe Getting to Heart of Matter Writer Says By A. ROBERT SMITH Mail Tribune Corespondent Washington The Senate La bor - Management Racketeering Committee has its teeth clamped firmly into the meat of the prob lem it set out to investigate most observers became convinc ed here this past week. This happened when the com mittee veered away from the gamey subject of Portland "call girls" and dug deeply into the financial maze of the head of the country's largest labor un ion. Teamster President Dave Beck. The Portland hearings were useful in themselves to demon strate the ready use Teamster officials have made of local racketeers in the Pacific North west for personal gain, and how they offered financial backing to law enforcement officials on condition that certain illegal ac tivities in which they had an interest would be shielded. This was pretty largely an exposure operation by the Senate commit tee, designed to give the watch ing nation an education in "how it's done in the rackets" and to help out honest local law en forcement officials who had pre viously been handicapped in tak ing effective criminal action where it was warranted. To Heart of Matter But since congressional inves tigations are generally justified on the premise that federal leg islation may result from the find ings, the committee went to the heart of the matter this past week in tracing the alleged mis appropriation by Dave Beck of vast sums of Teamster funds, the dues of John C. Truckdriver. Even assuming Beck has re paid the union, the $300,000 to $400,000 he used for personal advantage, the committee has shown the easy financial virtue of top Teamster officials who have millions of dollars at their command from the dues of their 1,500,000 -member organization. budget beyond even where it is! The Defense De partment is a major buyer of industrial goods. Every penny hike in industrial prices, every boost in trans portation costs will add to the defense load. This Congress could slash the budget by more than a bil lion and still the actions of businessmen could more than erase the saving. "If businessmen are as upset about this budget as the headlines say, they might find it wholesome to weigh the implications of this survey of themselves by their own Chamber. And they might find it even more wholesome to stop talking fanciful budget froth to each other and start grappling with the facts of finance in '57." CONSIDERING the source that is surely a devastat- ing indictment of those leaders of the "business world" who are flooding Washington with propa ganda, demanding billions be sliced from the cur rent budget and as a result they be favored with a radical reduction in taxes. If the U.S. Chamber of Commerce can question the soundness of that 'protest and justification of the so-called businessmen's revolt, it must be a question able one indeed. We would agree with another comment on this report, namely, quote: "According to their own remarks, a large percentage of businessmen who do have ideas about legislation, would when it comes down to cases, tolerate no reductions in con struction of public works, new and better highways or aids both to education and the farmers." In other words they do make a big howl about taxes but when it comes to doing what will have to be done to reduce them they are exceedingly back ward about coming forward. It all goes back to the old and in this depart ment, familiar saying "It all depends upon whose ox is gored." There undoubtedly is a country-wide revolt against high taxes and increased federal expendi tures particularly in foreign fields, but when the chips are down a surprisingly small number of the "protesters" will demand any reductions in the ex penditures which will benefit their states and com munities and therefore, themselves. R.W.R. April We have been caught on this one three times be fore in 1954, 1955 and 1956. But if you are one of those still believing that tomorrow (April 1) your federal gasoline tax is going to drop back to IV2 cents a gallon, as the law says at the moment, or are gleefully contemplating cheaper liquor, made possi ble by a cut of almost 14 per cent in the tax: Wake up, John Taxpayer! Congress raised the gasoline tax last year from 2 cents to 3 cents a gallon, raised other highway users' taxes, and earmarked the whole package for the next 16 years to pay for the new highway program. Wake up again, John! Even the distillers aren't arguing very loudly for a cut in the tax on liquor from $10.50 to $9 a gallon when the government is planning to spend nearly $72 billion next fiscal year. Wake up again. The federal tax on that pack of cigarettes is going to stay at 8 cents not fall to seven cents a pack. And the tax on beer is still go ing to be S9, not $8, a barrel. So wake up, taxpayers and in words of the old refrain: "April First is past, you're the biggest fool at last" E.R.R. Whether it be the general ac counts of the unions or their welfare funds, these resources are now reaching gigantic pro portions which represent power ful temptations to officials who feel little of the moral responsi bility that goes with this trust. May Use Case The committee may or may not find a duplication of Beck's abuse in other labor unions, but Congress is likely to use the Beck case to generalize about the need for new laws to protect dues paying union members against hidden misappropriation of these resources. . Congress has before it a bill to require unions to disclose fully the details of their welfare funds. A number of labor leaders have come out for this measure, believing that labor cannot re tain its effectiveness with the public or with Congress unless it shows clean hands. What other legislation may arise from the current investi gation can only await time and further disclosures. Surely one result, which frightens labor, is the prospect of the dirt the com mittee is digging up being used by anti-labor forces to smear or ganized labor generally. At the least, there will doubtless be action by unions themselves through such affiliates as the Committee on Political Educa tion, the labor backed group which pumped considerable sums into Democratic campaigns in Oregon and Washington last fall. Historic Pattern There is a historic pattern into which the current labor investi gation seems to fall. When the Senate discovered banking abuses which contributed to many bank failures after the 1929 crash, Congress enacted the Glass-Stengall act of 1933 which provided individual depositers with insurance to safeguard their savings and gave the Federal Reserve Board power to prevent Fool fACSttQi" Of FOCt By Stewart Alsop AFTERMATH OF BECK Washington The Teamsters Union hearings on Capitol Hill have been wonderful theater. .-Jfw, Thpv har hari fyi!z4 J B BcK-tftuSft ss suspense, emo tion, spicy rev elations, comic relief, and above all a su perb cast of characters. Dave Beck, Teamster s' stewait Alsop doss, nas Deen brilliantly cast in the central role. His pink pate positively glittered with righteous indigna tion and injured innocence as he lunged arrogantly back at his Senatorial tormentors, like a snarling badger beset by a Ter rier pack. Senator McClellan's dry monotone had precisely the proper "dragnet" intonation, as he forced the infuriated Beck again and again to take refuge in the Fifth Amendment. The supporting players were equally well cast. Committee counselRobert Kennedy, for ex ample, has been fine as the idealistic young crusader. Even Senator McCarthy has done a reasonably convincing imitation of McCarthy, although the old, familiar growl sounds, somehow, like voice from the grave. But, although a political re porter these days often finds himself poaching on the preserve of the drama critic, the Beck hearings have been more than good theater. They have been comparable in some ways to the Pecora investigations in the last year of Herbert Hoover's Presi dency, which exposed the arro gance and irresponsibility of an important segment of big busi ness, and set the backdrop of the New Deal. a rpHE Beck hearings are also likely to have important con sequences. One possible consequence was suggested by Sen. Irving Ives of New York, when he warned Beck that the open shop for union labor might be "the up shot of what you are doing to day." Already, some 18 states have passed the so-called "right-to-work laws" which gravely weak en labor's bargaining position by outlawing the union shop. Until now, despite a concerted drive by conservative interests (spear headed by former Congressman Fred Hartley of Taft-Hartley fame) the unions have been able to head off right-to-work legislation in most of the im portant industrial states. In the Day's News By FRANK JENKINS At a news conference in Salem the other day, Governor Holmes reiterated his support of the so-called "key district" bill, which proposes to change the pattern of distribution of the basic school fund in Oregon. The objective of the bill, he told the legislative correspond ents is to "make the distribution in such a manner that all kids in poor districts will get the same educational opportunity as the kids in the rich districts." T ET'G take a sharp look at this " business of so distributing the state's basic school support money that "all kids in poor dis tricts get the same educational opportunity as the kids in the rich districts." TT IS probably true that in Ore gon there are richer school districts and there are poorer school districts. But In general These areas of inequality In Oregon occur WITHIN COUN TIES. TN MANY counties of Oregon, as everyone knows, there are school districts that have within their borders a lot of valuable timber, or some big railroads or other public service corpora tions, that produce a lot of tax money. It often happens that in these districts the school popu lation is relatively small. There are often other districts that are not so well off. The bulk of their area may consist of property whose assessed value is low. It may be that in these districts the school popu lation is relatively high. But, personally, I can't believe there are any COUNTIES in Ore gon that are underprivileged and poverty stricken. I am reason ably certain there is no county in Oregon whose people would be willing to confess they are so poor they are unable to educate their children and have to have help from other counties. banks from making risky specu lation loans. After Congress probed the electric utility industry and un covered details of Sam Insult's vast and abusive control of utili ties from coast to coast, it passed the Rayburn - Wheeler utilities holding company act of 1935 which required utilities to re port their finances to the Se curities and Exchange Commis sion and brought dissolution of the Insull empire. The long range benefits of these 20-year-old laws, for the banks and utili ties as well as the public, justi fies the hope that today's head lines about Dave Beck will her ald tomorrow's acts of Congress to the permanent benefit of la bor and the country. . . . rv 1 ; .- J But after Beck's amazingly ar rogant performance, it will be a brave state legislator who will dare" to vote against right-to-work laws. There is also a real chance that Federal right-to-work legislation will pass this Congress, in the form of an amendment to the Civil Rights Bill, if the bill reaches the floor. m m m . IN THE Beck-produced atmos phere, such an amendment might well pass. Again, if the "clean elections" bill reaches the floor, an amendment sharply restricting all labor's political activities will certainly be intro duced, probably by Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona". And again, such an amendment would have an excellent chance of passing, thanks to Beck. This suggests why the North ern Democrats are almost as worried by the Beck perform ance as Beck's fellow labor chieftains this despite the fact that Beck and most of his co horts have supported the Repub licans. Republicans like to charge that the Northern Demo crats are supported by an im mense slush fund provided by the unions. Actually, under-the-table money from labor for Democratic candidates is a small fraction of the political contri butions of business, most of which goes to Republicans. BUT it is true that Democratic candidates in many Northern industrial states, notably Michi gan, Wisconsin, and western Pennsylvania, are greatly, and in some cases wholly, dependent on labor money and other help from laborr Even without legis lation to restrict labor's politi cal activities, Democrats in such areas will suffer. They will be hurt because la bor will be very cautious in the political atmosphere created by the Teamsters' investigation about taking an active political role. The Northern Democrats will also be hurt simply because they are identified in the pub lic mind with union labor, just as the Republicans are identified with business. Predictions are even being heard on Capitol Hill that the McClellan investigation, especi ally if it continues to put on a good show for months to come, wUl cost the Democrats control of the House in 1958. However that may be, the arresting drama on Capitol Hill is almost certain to have f ar-reaching political after-effects. (Copyright 1957 New York Herald Tribune Inc.) Communications Lettera to the Editor must bear the name and address of the writer althouKh under certain circum stances the use ot a pen name or initial for publication is permis sible The Mail Tribune reserves the right to edit all letters with an eye to clarification and conden sation Letters submitted for pub lication must not exceed 400 words The Bureaucratic Nightman To the Editor: Most of us would not recognize a thousand dollar bill if it came a-tapping at the front door. ' It would take a good sized laundry basket to hold the thou sand of those bills it takes to make a million. And a thousand of those baskets can you vis ualize it? would mean a billion dollars. And yet, so casually, the powers that be talk in terms of billions for foreign aid while wringing blood from un-foreign taxpayers. Why not read "Bureaucratic Nightmare" in April Reader's Digest and then think a bit on it? E. B. M. (Name on File) Medford, Ore. A Tip to Merchants To the Editor: There are a number of subscribers to the Medford Mail Tribune that re ceive the paper by mail. We would like to remind the merchants that when they ad vertise special' sale items for "one day only" we are seldom able to take advantage of the sale since we do not receive the paper until the afternoon of the sale if they advertise only one day ahead. Might we suggest the retail merchant advertise one day sales, two days ahead? Helen Nelson, Route 1, Box 75, Applegate, Ore. State Egg Law Favored To the Editor: There has been little publicity given to a bill before the Oregon Legislature which provides for the identifi cation of Oregon produced eggs. Present marketing methods of eggs by quality and size desig nations gives the consumer part of the story of the eggs they are buying. What they do not know are such things as how old the eggs are, whether or not they have been carefully cooled, re frigerated as a perishable food should be, processed to lengthen shelf . life, transported many miles to market from some other area where surplusses have made it economically feasible to ship them, etc. House Bill 459 is one step in the direction toward providing the consumer -with a better knowledge of the background of the egg products they are buy ing by telling them that the egg was produced in the state. Stores handling Oregon eggs can ' ad vertise that fact. Stores can offer other eggs at prices which more nearly reflect their true value. POTLUCK (By M-T Staff and Contributors) If only the rain would let up a bit, things could get going. ' Farmers have to hold off planting crops because the ground is too wet, and the time has already passed when some crops should have gone into the ground. The rain In the lower-ljrng forests and snow at higher ele vations (combined with the slack lumber market, which is gradu ally beginning to pick up) hr-ve slowed down logging activity The best part of the wet wea ther is that the outlook for irri gation water through the dry season improves somewhat with each downpour. But enough is enough. Wea therman, let's have some sun. shine.'! , ' On Feb. 21. 1927. the raj leys' second-woril flood in his tory (the worst was in 1890. when much of Medford was washed away) occurred. The Southern Pacific (which in those days must have lived up to its designation of "friend ly") purchased 200 copies of the Mail Tribune, to be taken to Gold Hill and Achu.j , the pleasure of passengers on two fraina vtuVk -. n c i e mar ooned by washouts on the rail lines caused by the high wa ter. The newspaper business. Is, among other things, one of con trasts. One of the area's leading busi nessmen has a son who is a 4-H member, and who recently was named to write about the hap peninings of his club for the pa per. This he does, and credit ably, too. Then he gets his fath er to mail it to the paper for him. So, we receive a beautifully printed business envelope, com pleted with a dictated, perfectly typed (on an electric typewriter) letter from the father, inform ing us that, herewith, is the re port of the Such and Such 4-H club. Enclosed is the report, written out longhand in a shaky youthful scrawl. Hooray for them both. A philosopher (jg) we know ' comes forth with the observa tion, with reference to good and evil influences, that when one touches mud with a glove, it is the glove that gets mud dy not the mud that gets glovey. -. A TV repairman was called to a home, the story goes, and was trying to locate trouble in the homeowner's set. A 6-year-bld boy stood by, watching the pro cess with considerable fascina tion. Finally he said: "I'll bet if you'd clean out all those dead cowboys from the bottom of the set it would work again." This is the place where wa feel free to scream and weep about the typographical er rors which.' despite the best efforts of us all, creep insid iously into the paper. One last week recorded the fact that Mr. and Mrs. So and So at Such and Such a hospital bo came the parents of a 10 pound box. One of. the Gabor sisters (we think it was Zsa Zsa) was quot ed as turning down $100,000 to shave her head because "One Yul Brynner in Hollywood is enough. The reverse. Miss Gabor, is al so true. One Gabor is enough, if not too much, anywhere. And look at the number we have to put up with! No wonder the name is pronounced with the ac cent on the last syllable. '. m m m Today, alas, is he last day day of March. Times not only flies, it scoots. And does any . one still remember whether or not the groundhog saw his shadow Feb. 2, or whether March came in like a lion or a lamb? And does anyone care? m m m A Salem newspaper reports, the story about the man who was marooned on a desert island dur ing World War II and stayed there for years, and therefore had no way of knowing about automobile tail-fins, Elvis Pres ley and all the other items of "progress'' we've seen come to pass. One day he was wandering on the beach and found a Coca Cola bottle washed up on the sand a new, king-size one. He took one look at it and started screaming, "Help, I've Shrunk!" Determination of egg quality by candling is not an exact sci ence and for this reason, toler ances in grades are permitted under the . present egg laws. Border line cases are frequent and generally favor the one who does he candling. Flavor, fresh ness, etc., are not measurable by candling. We believe that locally produced eggs are better than those produced many, many miles from the local market. It is on this premise that the shoppers will get more for their money and better eggs if HB 459 is put into law. We know your legislators wil appreciate your comments on this matter. Barry Brownell, ' Oregon City, Ore. . t
