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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (May 17, 1957)
52nd Year Medford United Press Full Leased Wire Price 10c Tribune United Press Full Leased Wim SECOND SECTION MEDFORD, OREGON, FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1957 8 Pages Article Painting Controversial Portrait Of West Arouses Congressional Discussion St A. HOBERT SMITH Hail Tribune Correspondent Washington Some Congres sional discussion has been aroused by an article in the cur rent issue of Harper's maga zine which paints a strik ing, if contro v e r s ial, por trait of the West as a land whose destiny has been more powerfully in- a. Robt smith liuencca by its desert character than anything else. Some senators have taken is sue with its author, Walter Pres cott Webb, history professor at the University of Texas, but an other senator, Mike Mansfield of Montana, liked it so well he recommended it to all his col leagues. "The heart of the West is a desert, unqualified and abso lute," declares Prof. Webb. He continues: "If we do not understand the West it is because we perversely refuse to recognize this fact; we do not want the desert to be tnere. we preler to loiter on the edges, skirt it, avoid it, and even deny it." Its radius varies, he goes on, "because the desert expands and contracts as its enemy rain retreats or advances. Always at its margins there is dampness, at its borders moisture, at its limits wetness. "When the desert pokes a hot finger into the border regions, the people speak of drought; when it pulls the finger back, they say 'the country is getting more seasonable.' At the heart of the desert there is no drought, there is only an occasional miti gation of dryness." Indian Driven To Desert "The concentration of the In dians in the West suggests how the desert has been used as a place to discard what is unwant ed elsewhere," contends Prof. Webb. "In their rush westward, the Americans drove the Indians toward the desert to bethe wards of Uncle Sam. In "the same movement they took the land from Uncle Sam, all they considered worth taking. The refuse mainly in the desert they left in the hands of the government. Here Uncle Sam is the biggest landholder; he owns 47.7 per cent of the land in the eight desert and three Pacific states. He owns 87.4 per cent of Oregon, 47.7 per cent of Wyoming, 42.6 per cent of Park Service Will Survey O&C Lands Portland W The National Park Service will conduct a sur vey of the recreational potentials of the O&C lands. The O&C ad visory Dqara was miormea Wednesday that such an agree ment has been reached between the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. The agreement was signed by James F. Doyle, area adminis trator for BLM and Lawrence C. Merriam, regional director of th National Park Service at Sbji Francisco. . The Service will make an in ventory of . recreational sites ithin the boundaries of the two million acres of O&C lands in 18 vstrn Oregon counties. The report by the service will in clude plans of each area desig nated by the Bureau for devel opment together with estimated cost of development, mainten ance and administration. , California. He owns it mainly because nobody wanted it. The Mormons, like the Indians, fled to it because they were not wanted, and all inland atomic explosions are touched off in the desert. (But ancestors of many of the best people in the West today went there because they were wanted elsewhere in another sense.)" Challenged by Senator When Prof. Webb pointed out that biographies of westerners constitute only 16.7 per cent of those listed in Who's Who, although the West has 22 per cent of the population, he was challenged by Senator Wallace Bennett of Utah. Said the sena tor: "This figure is an unfair one. I believe it will be found that it is based on residence rather than birthplace, and it is natur al that a larger proportion of outstanding men would be liv ing in the larger metropolitan, centers of the East, where we find the headquarters of the largest corporations, the most universities, the center .of our national government." Bennett pointed out that Dr. E. L. Thorndike of Columbia compiled a state-by-state list of the birthplaces of . outstanding men listed in Who's Who, then ranked the states "on the basis of their 'superior birth quotient.' Four of the eight highest states Utah, Idaho, Colorado and Wyoming are among what Dr. Webb calls the desert states." Utah ranked first, Idaho fourth, Washington state ISth and Ore gon 24th. But the senator tended to sup port the professor's thesis when he concluded that because of the desert, "the West makes ex traordinary demands on those who attempt to wrest a living from its soil . . ..This fact, dur ing the early days of the West, served to discourage those set tlers who were too lazy, too indifferent or too weak to live the hard life of a westerner, and those less hardy souls usually moved to some less demanding climate." Senator Bennett added that "in the number of school years completed, the Pacific and Moun tain states lead all other regions Eisenhower Showing Signs of Enjoying News Conferences Washington HP) The featured star of Washington's greatest show, the presidential news con ference, gives every sign of lik ing his role. There was a time when Presi dent Eisenhower dreaded this free-wheeling American version of parliamentary questioning. He tensed, stumbled over words and showed flashes of his fa mous, temper. At Wednesday s conference, he was obviously at ease, sure of himself and eager to launch into complex and politically treach erous questions. Contagious Warmth He makes up in contagious warmth and conviction what he lacks in natural eloquence. On the question of whether he was abandoning his 1952 conserva tism, as some former support ers charge, "modern Republi can Eisenhower grins and rat tles off a summary of his philosophy: . I thoroughly believe that - any modem political phi losophy that fails to study care . 1 1 i j i i it i iuiiy xne neeas 01 uje ueupie today, not of 1860, of today. What we need, the complica tions that have arisen in our in dustrial life, in our economy, how are they going to take care of themselves in their old age, what happens if they are dis abled and can't work for five months or so?" - Sitting in his presence, sensing his sincerity, most lis teners aren't aware that he has become entangled in an unfin ished sentence. This news conference is a great show not only because of its star attraction. It is also a demonstration of the highest forms of journalistic gamesman ship. Track Meet Staged Here, at the close of every news conference, is staged a track meet that never makes the sports pages. The track is the center aisle of the stately mar ble and gilt room. The starting signal is a blurted "Thank you, Mr. President," flung over the shoulder of the senior dash man of the White House press corps, U.P.'s Mer- riman Smith. Those four words launch a half dozen competing sprinters some balding, some paunchy but all fast off the blocksdown the short aisle to the telephone booths outside. The "specials" reporters for individual or small groups of newspapers and magazines look down scornful noses at the deadline-chasing aeencymen's dash to the phones. They practice other cunning arts. With an eye to the television cameras at the rear, some sit out on the flanks of the audi ence where their profiles will be available to cameramen. No back-of-the-head appearances for them.1 - - Nuclear Explosion Slated for Saturday Las Vegas, Nev. OB The Atomic Energy commission's first nuclear test of its spring summer series, twice postponed because of unfavorable weather and the danger of radioactive fallout, has been rescheduled for 5:50 a.m. (PDT) Saturday. The nuclear device was to have been set off at the same time Thursday from atop a 500 foot tower on the southern Nevada test site 75 miles north west of here, but was postponed for the second straight day. The AEC said winds blowing towards the southeast from the test site would have strewn ra dioactive fallout across a long, narrow area embracing Las Vegas, Boulder City and the Indian Springs Air Force base. The weather outlook for Sat urday morning is "more promis ing" than it has been for the post several days, the AEC said. Holmes Hopes Senate Will Reconsider Vote Salem (W Gov. Robert D. Holmes expressed hope today that the Oregon Senate would reconsider the vote by which it rejected the appointment of Rol lin E. Bowles, 49, Portland at torney, to the State Water Re sources Board. f WHY DRIVE A 1 WHY FEED A ' ' GARAGE CROWDER? I GAS HOG? I PARKING TROUBLE? J Be smarter! i?er a RcoLirayeirV'S or 65 American Motor Meant More for American 8m PiMithW Crmt TV far att On fim'h mr On ABC Ndwrt. Gat the car of new dimensions! New 1957 Rambler gives you big car room, comfort, performance on the easiest-parking wheelbase in America. See and drive Rambler Economy 6 or all-new 190 HP V-8. LEA MOTORS Bortlett at 5th Medford Phone SP 2-6185 of the nation, with averages of 11.5 and 10.7 years respective ly, compared to a national aver age of 9.3. Utah, Incidentally, leads all the states with an aver age of 12 years." Much Out of Little Prof. Webb agrees that west erners have had to make much out of little. He said: "This talent for making the most of little has produced two strange western societies, one good and one bad. The good society is that of the Mormons in Utah, a rejected people with a bizarre religion who sought peace in the desert, took the bee as their symbol, and created by their hive-like industry some thing admirable. ; . . "The other, society of more recent vintage sprang up in a similar desert, but took a dif-at the casinos. ferent direction. No state has less to recommend it than Ne vada. It is all desert and, once its minerals were depleted, it had little chance of prosperity and hardly enough people to maintain a state government. It solved its problem by creating an oasis of iniquity and license in a sea of moral inhibitions. It provided a haven in the desert to which all could come who wanted to gamble, divorce or fornicate and have it quick and legal. Then it found it could have a monopoly only on the first two, and so substituted for the third the abolition of state income tax to attract the million aires who make good customers "Nevada was revolutionized, ter," concludes Prof. Weblr, "if its population shortly doubled, and it has had the highest in come per capita of any state in the Union. Nevada is what it is today because of what it did not have yesterday. In compen sating for what the desert de nied it, it has created the most bizarre society in the nation." But westerners generally, through ingenuity and the aid of the federal government, have built dams and created oases wherever possible "Los An geles is the greatest oasis of them all" and "they are a normal people trying to create and maintain a normal civiliza tion in an abnormal land." 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