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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 1957)
FOUR MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNL Mefordtribune "Tveryone tn Southern Oregon Readi The Mail Tribune" Published Daily Except Saturday by MEDFORD PRINTING CO 27-29 North Fir St. Phone 2-C141 ROBERT W RUHL. Editor SERB GREY Advertising Manager GERALD LATHAM Business Manager ERIC ALLEN JR. Managing Editor EARL H ADAMS City Editor HARRY CHIPMAN Telegraph Editor RICHARD JEWETT Snorts Editor OLIVE STARCHER Society Editor DALE ERICKSON Circulation Mgr. An Independent Newspaper Entered as second class matter at Mediord Oregon under Act of March 3. 1897 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Mail In Advance: Per Copy 10c Daily and Sunday Ope year $15.00 Daily and Sunday Six months 8.00 Daily and Sunday Three mos 4-25 Sunday Only One vear $4.20 By Carrier In Advance Medford. Ashland Central Point Eagle Point Jacksonville Gold Hill. Phoenix. Shady Cove Rogue River. Talent and on motor routes-. Daily and Sunday One year $18 00 Daily and Sunday One month 150 Carrier and Dealers 10c per copy All Terms Cash In Advance Official Paper of the City of Medford Official Paper of Jackson County United Press Full Leased Wire MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION Advertising Representative: WEST-HOLIDAY COMPANY CNC Offices in New York Chicago, de troit. San Francisco. Los Angeles Seattle Portland St Louis Atlanta Vancouver B C NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION NATIONAL EDITOIIAt ASSOCfA'lCN rUMTUfJ'M'l HI Flight o' Time Medford and Jackson County History from the files of The Mail Tribune 10, 20. 30 and 40 years ago. 10 YEARS AGO Oct. 8, 1947 (Tuesday) Contributions and pledges of 16 organizations or individuals In the county to augment the salary for a county juvenile offi cer are received. From Arthur Perry's Ye Smudge Pot column: "Under the new order, Tuesday shall be meatless and Thursday chicken less days. It wasn't so long ago the people were urged to eat more, chicken and save the beef for the "war effort." 20 YEARS AGO Oct. 8. 1937 (Friday) State law now requires that any plumber must hold a certifu cate of competency from health department;. City school budget for fiscal year beginning next June 30 estimates total expenses at $297,313. 30 YEARS AGO Oct. 8. 1927 (Saturday) Justice of the peace of Klam ath Falls indicted by Jackson county grand jury on charges of violating the national pro hibition act. Federal judge hears testimony of 12 Indian girls charged with setting fire to a dormitory on the reservation. 40 YEARS AGO Oct. 8. 1917 (Monday) Former resident of Phoenix and escapee from the state hos pital apprehended in Medford. From local and personal col umn: T. E. Daniels receives a letter from Seely Hall at North Island, San Diego, in which the Medford aviator states he has been promoted to expert me chanic and transferred to the 18th Aerial squadron. What's Your 1.0-7 Nine or ten correct Is superior; seven or eieht Is excellent: five or six Is good 1. Is Midway Island in the Atlantic nr the Pacific Ocean? 2. Does moss thrive in well drained, or in damp soil? 3. Bible: Did Joseph, Mary, anri jpsus "depart in Egypt" during the morning, afternoon nr night? 4. Does the term "senior Sena tor" aDDlv to age or service? 5. Logopedics is the scientific study and treatment of speech defects in humans or knots in timber? 6. Did the U.S. declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917, 1938. or 1942? 7. The term "vulnerable" is used in playing poker, contract riripp or five hundred? 8. In which city in Maryland is Fort McHenry, the birthplace of the National Anthem.' o "ReceiDt". "recipe", "for mula": Which word is used more fnr rnmriounding a medicine? 10. "Training is everything. Thp neach was once a bitter al mond; cauliflower is nothing but -3 hh cp with a c e e n"? Answers: 1. Pacific. 2. In damp soil. 3. Night. 4. It refers service in the Senate. 5. Scien- Jific study and treatment of speech defects. 6. April b. iai t roniract bridge. 8. Baltimore 9. Recipe. 10. "college educa tion." Mark Twain. cnicago iu - - boy" is a rarity. Harvard profes t Dr.,.,oii riailafjher told the EOT J AUJIY"" c American society of pediatrics raw Inexcusable Bigotry To the Editor: The attached was taken from the Daily Journal of Commerce dated 10557. Is it true that the New York City Board of Education is made up of people who actually believe that "The Adven tures of Huckleberry Finn" be removed from the list of bpoks to be read by young people. Is such a thing possible among educated people? I would enjoy seeing you write an editorial on this. I am a newcomer to this area, however, I want you to know your paper and its editorials are enjoyed very much. G. V. Mullen P. O. Box 897 Central Point Mr. Mullen then quotes the Portland Daily Jour nal of Commerce as follows: t Good Bye Huck FinnI Stephen Foster's "Old Black Joe" is a piece of immortal Americana, loved and sung by tens of millions of people over the generations. But it has been banned from certain air networks on the grounds that it contains racially offensive phrases. Now the New York City Board of Education has taken "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" from its approved textbook list for grade and junior high schools. A great many excellent critics regard Huck Finn as the greatest of all American novels, and practically all put it very high on the short list of genuine classics. The New York Times reports a publisher as saying the book was banned because, like Stephen Foster's wonderful old song, it was held to contain racially offensive material. There is only one logical end to such a trend. All literary and musical material which happens to offend anyone should be banned whether those offended are white men, yellow men, or black men; Protestants, Catholics or Jews; business men or labor leaders, and so on ad infinitum. Then we can all live in a cultural vacuum comparable to the Dark Ages. We. can't blame our correspondent for wondering if this reported action of the New York School Board is true. Had we not read so many news stories and edi torial comments on this absurd and inexcusable blow to liberty, we would not have believed it either. Most of the comments we have seen, however, blame it all on the Association for the advancement of colored people, and if that organization brought political pressure to bring this about then blame is justified. But even so, we know enough about political pressures in the field of education to know that the chief responsibility in such cases rests not upon those who BRING the pressure, hut upon the official body that YIELDS to it. DRESSURES for unworthy and selfish ends are brought to bear on Public School Boards all over the country year after year ad infinitum. Any one of them that would remove an imperishable American classic like "Huckleberry Finn" from the list of ap proved reading for such a reason, should first have their heads examined, and then if 100 arrested mental development were not proved, they should be fired. TTHE present writer was brought up on Tom Sawyer " and "Huck" Finn many years ago as were most of the then younger generation. Instead of either book being barred from any schoolboth should be required reading. We have, as indicated, read several reports of this incredibly stupid and ignoble action, but have never found in any of them, the School Board's excuse for its ridiculous ruling. Our guess, as to the reason for that is, they could find none none at least scrutiny and the universal condemnation of our en lightened public opinion. R.W.R. Wake Up Governor There is a song about "Famous Last Words" which might fittingly be sung to the Governor of Mis sissippi. According to press reports, at least, he either coined the phrase or publicly endorsed it, that the people of his state will never accept school integra tion if the government tries to get it for a "thousand years." A "thousand years" is quite a bit of time, and "never" is even longer. QF COURSE it MAY be the chief executive of Mis- sissippi will not live long enough to realize the in accuracy of his estimate but judging the future by the past, he is as completely off the beam, as the Russian satellite is ON. And the Russian satellite is a good example of what can happen in a thousand years. I OOK at what has happened in the last thousand. A thousand years ago was before the Norman conquest in England, and even before the feudal system and before when "Knighthood was in flower." Imagine what the Anglo Saxons would have thought if any town-crier round, that m some 500 years a "New World to the west would be discovered, and that world would one day be in a deadly straggle control of the earth, but tions of the solar system. The Queen would not head!" The "stake" would have been considered a mild ending for such a blasphemous infidel. . "VES a thousand years is hundred years ago we anyone predicting that structed in far-off Russia, safely from Detroit, Michigan to Washington, D. C, in one minute would be questioned. So, your Excellency, why be so positive that even after a thousand years of effort, the good people of Mississippi will still deny to non-white citizens of that state, the basic rights that for so many years, have been guaranteed to them by the Constitution? ' r.w.R. Tuesday, Ociober 8, 1957 that would bear up under had declared the earth was with Russia for not only for the moon and other sec have to say "Off with his quite a spell, and even a are quite sure, the sanity of a man-made satellite con wrould be capable of going 'l got a euesr for the Clearance of Slums Congress' Objective; New Legislation Seen By Congressional Quarterly Washington (CQ) Congress is laying the foundation for new legislation to help clear away city slums. Staffs of the housing subcom mittees of the Senate and House since Labor Day have been pre paring for hearings to find out what more the Federal Govern ment should do to save deterio rating neighborhoods and rip out hopeless ones. The Senate subcommittee will go to Chicago Nov. 2 for its first slum clearance hearing, then travels to cities in Maine, Pennsylvania and Alabama. The House subcommittee will hold slum clearance hearings in Wash ington the second week in De cember. The investigations will help shape slum 'clearance legislation that will be introduced in Con gress next January. "The ques tion," says a Senate subcommit tee staffer, "is not whether to continue the slum clearance program but how big to make it." He said he knew of no na tional group opposed to slum clearance legislation. Funds Expended Since 1949, Congress has au thorized the Federal Govern ment 'to give $1.25 billion to cities so they could rehabilitate rundown neighborhoods or bull doze them away and build new ones. Of that amount, $890 mil lion had been promised and $99 million had been disbursed to cities as of Aug. 31. The long interval between the time the Federal Urban Renewal Admin istration approves a slum clear ance project and the city actual ly carries it out accounts for the big difference .between the two figures. New York has been promised $143 million for slum clearance and Illinois, $83 million, the largest amounts among states participating in the program. Legislatures in Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming have not passed laws to enable their com munities to participate in the slum clearance program. Oregon so far has been prom ised $2,923,471 in Federal slum clearance and rehabilitation grants but has actually received none. Law's Origin The Congressional attack on slums was launched by the 1949 Housing Act. The Act said clear ance of slums would contribute to "the development and rede velopment of communities and to the advancement of the growth, wealth and security of the Nation . . ." In 1954, Con gress authorized rehabilitation which it labeled urban renewal of decaying neighborhoods to supplement clearance of Hopeless areas. Under the slum clearance and urban renewal programs, a city first receives a Federal loan and then a grant. The loan is like a drawing account to be used until the Federal grant arrives The loan covers the cost of plan ning the slum clearance project, clearing the land and readying it for new houses or stores by putting in such things as water and sewers. When the city sells its former slum site to a private developer, the money from the land sale is subtracted from the total cost of the city's entire slum project. The result is the city's net cost, or loss. The Government pays two-thirds of that net cost and the city the other third.' This Federal money is used to pay off the city's original Govern ment loan. ' In order to qualify for Fed eral grants, the city must have a detailed plan for its slum clearance project that conforms to its master plan and must be prepared to move persons dis placed from slum areas into suitable housing. City slum quest rocw clearance agencies work through regional offices of the Urban Re newal Administration. Cities Support Program The slum clearance and urban renewal program passed its most recent popularity test in 1957. The Eisenhower Adminis tration proposed that money au thorized for the' program be re duced from $250 million for fiscal 1958 to $175 million. Mayors from cities throughout the country squawked so loud that Congress eventually au thorized $350 million for fiscal 1958. -i Mayor Richard C. Lee of New Haven, Conn., typified the atti tude of the Nation's mayors when he told a Senate housing subcommittee: "The Federal moneys involved in urban re newal are less than one-half of 1 per cent of the Federal budget. . : . Figures from the Federal Works Agency show that slums and blighted areas take up about 20 per cent of a city's entire residential area. But in these slums live 33 per cent of our population; in these slums are committed 45 per cent of our major crimes; these slums are the scene of 55 per cent of all our juvenile delinquency; these slums account for 60 per cent of all our tuberculosis patients . . . Unless renewal and rede velopment programs are rolling across the country, especially in our older cities, by 1960, then these 'cities will face complete fiscal municipal ruin by 1965." The fact that the mayors won out in Congress in economy conscious 1957 indicates that Congress in 1958 will continue, and probably expand, its pro gram designed to give American cities a new lease on life. (Copyright 1957, Congressional Quarterly Inc.) In the Day's News By FRANK JENKINS This is National Newspaper Hence this piece about news papers. rpHE newspaper's job is to tell -- the news and offer opinions Of these jobs telling the news is infinitely the more important. Letting the people know ac curately, fairly and objectively what is going on is the news paper's justification for exist ence. The newspaper's OPINIONS are of secondary importance and are offered chiefly in these days for what they are worth. Our reasoning along that line is this People who NEVER HAVE AN OPINION are seldom interest ing. We think our newspapers will be more interesting if they express opinions. Hence newspaper editorials. rPHIS Question is often asked A no Deorile read editorials? T think thev do IF THE EDI TORIALS ARE WORTH READ ING. A NOTHER frequent question . Do editorials infl u e n c e elections? Personally, I don't care. think newspapers HAVE NO BUSINESS trying to win elec tions. Their job is to tell the news and express their opinions. XTEWSPAPERS are intensely interested in what people read. Our nationwide industry organization is the American Newsnaoer Publishers Associa tion ANPA for short Several years ago the ANPA sponsored a nationwide study of news paper readership. It cost several million dollars and among other things it developed this startling fact: THE AVERAGE READER READS ONLY 16 STORIES IN EACH DAY'S COPY OF HIS NEWSPAPER. That scared us half out of our boots until we realized that NO Gornu Semi-Independent Rule Attempt By CHARLES M. McCANN United Press Correspondent Wladyslaw Gomulka is under going a severe new test of his strength in his attempt to rule Poland as a semi - inde pendent Com munist leader. The rioting which broke out in Warsaw last Thursday, was started by students in protest against Charles M. McCann the suppres sion of a newspaper which had consistently accused Gomulka of subservience to Soviet Russia. Over the week end, young hoodlums took the leading part in the riots. But the students continued to demand that the ban on their weekly newspaper Pro Prosty (Plain Speaking) be removed. So far, Gomulka's civil mili tiamen who constitute the main police force have been able to break up all disorderly assem blies without any serious blood shed. But where they started out by using truncheons and tear gas, they are now carrying rifles. Big Danger Looms The question is whether the rioting can be confined to its present limits. The big danger is that industrial workers might decide to start strikes to back up their own demands for great er freedom and higher pay. While Gomulka is facing this situation, he is still under attack by "Stalinist" members of his Communist party who do not like his independent attitude and... accuse him of leading Po land back toward capitailsm Soviet Russia- probably is watching the Warsaw situation TWO PEOPLE READ THE SAME 16 STORIES. rPHAT fact is fundamental in A newspaper making. No two people are cast in the same mold out of identical ma terials. No two people think exactly alike. No two people are interested in exactly the same things. You may pick up this newspaper and skim throught and say there's NOTHING IN IT. The next person who picks it up may find it INTENSELY interesting. We have to take all that into consideration in making news papers. XTEWSPAPERS have two sources of revenue adver tising and circulation. In rough figures and using broad, general averages, advertising represents about 80 per cent of a news paper's income and circulation about 20 per cent. That brings up the subject of readership again. How many people read ads? Along that line, the Klamath' Falls Herald and News had a very interesting experience, back in 1947. News print paper was then very scarce as it has been practical ly every year since until this year. We overshot the mark in the last quarter and used too much paper. We ended the year with only a few tons left and no more obtainable. For five weeks we had to run a little eight-page tabloid (half size) newspaper WITH NO ADVERTISING IN IT. We scornfully dubbed it Junior. We kept a careful record of complaints which by the end of the five weeks mounted up to more than 4,000. This sur prised us: MORE THAN 90 PER CENT OF THEM SAID" THE NEWS CONTENT OF "JUNIOR" WAS ALL RIGHT BUT FOR HEAV EN'S SAKE WHEN WERE WE GOING TO PUT THE ADVER TISING BACK IN! The advertising, these critics said, was the most interesting part of the paper. fkNE more point in closing this " Newspaper Week disserta tion. ; In earlier and simpler years, news stories were built around four "musts:" Who, what, when, where. That is to say, it was held professionally that what the reader wanted to know was who did it, what he did, when he did it and where it happened. In these more complex times, a fifth. must has been added WHY. People now want to know not only who it was, what it was, when it as and where it was but WHY IT HAPPENED. In a wide range of news in these days the WHY OF IT is more interesting than the who, the what, the when and the where of it. Jasper Lumber Co, Destroyed by Fire Springfield (IP) The Jas per Lumber Co. at Jasper, about eight miles southeast of here, was destroyed by fire Monday evening. Owners of the company, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Kaizer of Jas per, estimated the loss of the building and its contents in ex cess of $30,000. Firemen said cause of the blaze was not im mediately known. Ilea Facing Severe Test in with as much interest as is Gc mulka. Gomulka is no pin-up boy in Moscow. His election as first secretary of the Communist par ty last October, after imprison ment as a rebel, was a big defeat for Russian Communism. The only kind of Communist that Russia likes is one who follows the Moscow party line. Possible Russian Intervention If Gomulka lost control of the situation because of anti-govern ment riots, it is certain that Rus sia would have to intervene as it did in Hungary and crush op position by brutal force. But the revulsion against the Hungarian intervention through out the world, not only in West ern countries but in the "neu tralist" ones and in Communist parties themselves, must be fresh in Kremlin minds. For that reason, it is likely that Soviet Russia leaders will be glad if Gomulka can keep control of things.. Matter of Fact by THE KEY QUESTION Paris The stern repression of the Warsaw students raises a very solemn question. It is sol- e m n because the answer in t i m a te ly af fects all calcu lations of the world future.' But it is a question that can be simply phrased: Does not a "liberalizing" Joseph Alsop movement in a Communist soci ety always carry within itself the seeds of its own destruction? All the anxious hopes, all the easy optimism of the years. since the death of Joseph Stalin have been squarely founded on the assumption that a Communist so ciety could indeed be gradually "liberalized.". From Nikita Khruschev to John Foster Dul les, from Harold MacMillan to Mao Tse-Tung, statesmen have acted, or at least have seemed to act on this assumption. But is the assumption at all well founded? The question does not have to be asked just because of Poland The Polish government has ac corded to its people an immeas urably greater degree of free dom than any other Communist government has even thought of permitting. In Poland, there fore, checks, effervescenes, even open struggles really have to be expected. And the checks may not be final. , "DUT what has happened in Po land has also happened in different ways in every other Communist country in which the iron bonds of Stalinism have been at all relaxed. The same morning parier that carried the news from Warsaw also told of Yugoslavia's verdict on Milovan Djilas. And there are many oth er, more decisive reasons for thinking that the Yugoslavs are currently moving away from the West and drawing closer to the Kremlin. Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia was the originator of "National Communism" and he pleaded with all his might for Soviet lib eration of the satellites, up to the moment, of the Hungarian re volt. Then, when the Commu nist party's rule in Hungary be gan to be jeopardized, he switch ed over to support of the grim Kadar regime. In the same fash ion, the Chinese leaders support ed and strongly encouraged Po land's Wladyslaw Gomulka un til last winter, when Chou en Lai went to Warsaw to warn Gomulka not to go too far. Within China, too, an attempt to "liberalize" has been followed by a hasty and very ugly retreat. Freedom of discussion and criti cism were proclaimed by Mao Tse-Tung himself when he an nounced his doctorine of "the Counsel With . . . Mr. Insurance Fred Brennan Kiaaft : mm f h i Fred Brennan Or Call Mr. Friendly Bill Fish Phone SP-2-4940 MEDFORD INSURANCE , AGENCY 27 NORTH HOLLY ST. It is one of the strange angles of the present situation that the Roman Catholic church in Po land, despite its detestation of everything that Communism represents, has supported Go mulka ever since he was re stored as Communist leader and Poland's real ruler. Stefan Cardinal Wyszynskl, Roman Catholic primate of Po land, called for support of Gomulka in the elections he called after his victory in estab lishing himself as at least semi independent of Moscow rule. On Sunday, Wyszynski again came out in Gomulka's support. In a sermon marking the opening of the academic year, Wyszynski said to students: "I can understand your yearn ing for freedom of speech and thought. But you should respect what you have." He also told the students that they must understand that "our country is in a particularly dif ficult situation." ! Joseph Alsop hundred flowers blooming to gether." The results so appalled the Chinese leadership that the period of the hundred flowers has now merged into a new pe riod of brutal, rigid and fre quently bloody repression of all of the regime. "FINALLY, the same pattern of cautious advance and hasty retreat has been obviously dis cernible in the Soviet Union it self in the years since Stalin's death. There is no doubt at all that within the Kremlin Nikita Khrushchev was the chief spon sor of the policy of greater liber ty for the satellites. Most prob ably, he was also a chief sponsor of the "thaw" in Russian intel lectual life. But now he is back ing away hard from both these policies. Khrushchev, Mao. Tito and Gomulka all have this in com mon, that they are what one might call human Communists, as opposed to the inhuman Com munists of the Stalin school. Be ing human, they do not lack sympathy for the normal human impulses and aspirations, includ ing even the unquenchable aspir ation of every man to be his own master. . All in their different ways, and in their different degrees, have sought to satisfy the human aspirations of their peoples. But in each case, what has happened. In each case, the relaxation of the old,-iron bonds has immedii ately encouraged the people to challenge the sacred authority of the sacred Communist party iii one way or another. And in each case,' these human Commu nist leaders have at once remem bered that they were Commu nists first and human second, and have acted to safeguard the party's holy prerogatives. rpHAT is the way it looks from V here, at any rate. The real test case is Poland, whose bold experiment with freedom so re cently and so profoundly stirred and excited this reporter. An other visit to Warsaw seems to be immediately indicated, in or der to try to find out whether the Polish gamble, as I called it, has really gone hopelessly and . finally sour. One cannot judge facts with any certainty at all except by the first hand study. But one thing at least is absolutely cer tain. If the general pattern above-examined really is mean ingful," then the whole western world outlook and policy stand is in need of radical revision. For if Communist societies can- not evolve towards freedom, as Secretary Dulles keeps telling us they are doing and will go on doing, then the policies now be? ing pursued are about on a level with the policy of Baldwin and Chamberlain. (c) 1957, New York Her- aid Tribune Inc.) Don't be subjected to undue fright You may never get hit by a Moon Satellite, But if you desire complete protection, Our "policies will suit you to perfection. Bill Fish
