MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, ORE.
4 Sunday, April 20, 1958
MEDFORDt;WrRIUNE
"Everyone in Southern vyregon
Reads The Mail Tribune
Published Daily except Saturday by
- MEDFORD PRINTING CO
33 North Fir St. Ph. SP.2-6141
ROBERT W RUHL, Editor
HERB GREV Advertising Manager
GERALD LATHAM. Business Mgr.
ERIC ALLEN. JR. Managing Editor
EARL H ADAMS, City Editor
HARRY CHIPMAN. Teleg Editor
RICHARD JEWETT. Sport Editor
OLIVE STARCHER. Society Editor
DALE ERICKSON. Circulation Mgr.
An Independent Newspaper
Entered as second class matter at
Medfor'' Oregon under Act of
March 3. 1891
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Flight fo Time
Medford and Jackson County
History from the files of The
Mail Tribune 10. 20. 30 and
40 years ago.
The Press9 Calculated Risk
10 YEARS AGO
April 20. 1948 (Tuesday)
Patrons of 15 Jackson coun
ty rural school districts yes
terday approved the measure
to exceed the 6 per cent levy
limitation in the. consolidated
budget of the rural school district.
20 YEARS AGO
April 20. 1938 (Wednesday)
Boycotting of aggressor na-
tions is urged in a resolution
adopted recently by the Ap
uleeate Grange.
From Arthur Perry's Ye
Smudee Pot column: It now
appears, candidates who
swished info office on the
coat-tails of the president, will
have to do something besides
look wise like a trapped
skunk."
30 YEARS AGO .
April 20." 1928 (Friday)
The police and school au
thorities have shut down firm
ly on the practice of high
school boys raiding semi-high
school social functions in
homes.
Medford motorists are re
minded that Medford' s first
scenic drive will be officially
opened next Sunday.
40 YEARS AGO
April 20. 1918 (Saturday)
The crop and labor survey
taken in the early spring in
Jackson county indicates the
Jackson county farmers are
doing everything in their
power to materially increase
crop production.
From local and personal
column: "Because of a bad
freight wreck near Drain this
city was without passenger
train service from the north
Sunday, after arrival of the
morning train.
What's Your I.Q.?
Nina or ten correct is superior;
seven or eight is excellent; five ot
six is good.
1. Playgoers know that
S.R.O. stands for what?
2. Bible: To what did Christ
liken the Kingdom of God, ac
cording to St. Mark?
3. Approximately how much
money was paid to Russia for
Alaska?
4. A fathom is 6, 60, or 500
feet?
5. How should a woman
who occupies the chair at a
meeting be addressed?
6. Molten rock that is
erupted by volcano is called
java, lava or guava?
7. Name the director of the
Federal Bureau of Investiga
tion. 8. What is the longest river
in Africa? .
9. Silkworms feed on the
leaves of what tree?
10. Name the capital of
New Mexico.
Answers: 1. "Standing Room
Only." 2. The mustard seed.
3. $7,200,000. 4. Six. 5. Ma
dame Chairman. 6. Lava. 7.
J. Edgar Hoover. 8. "he Nile.
9. Mulberry. 10. Santa Fe.
Our neighborly contemporary the Grants Pass
Courier, in a rather patronizing lecture to this de
partment declares that an important command'
ment of journalism" is not to "assume things are
true."
No?
Neither the Courier, the Mail Tribune nor any
other daily paper in the country in fact the
world could 'be published without such an
assumption.
The entire newspaper business, from a news
standpoint is based upon "assumptions" of truth.
XE HAVE a perfect example at hand.
Last week we received a United Press dis
patch from Weed, California, .that a Central
Point boy had been killed in a head-on crash
between his small car and a truck, a few miles
north of there, and it was reported the small car
had been weaving back and forth across the road
before the fatal accident.
There was no more reason to doubt the truth
of that dispatch than the truth of hundreds of
dispatches received that day.
Newspapers just don't hire news services that
are not reliable.
.
THAT doesn't mean mistakes by such services
are never made, any more than it means mis
takes by a paper's reporters, columnists, corre
spondents yes, even editors are never made
It merely means that it is a physical impossi
bility for any daily paper to publish without as
suming the truth of the information it receives.
Every possible effort, of course, should be made
to eliminate errors of ANY kind, but to check
each and eveiy item, unless there is some imme
diate question of its authenticity, just can't be
done. ...
If our neighboring daily practices what it
preaches it will go out of business, much quicker
than anyone expects or wishes it to do.
DETURNLNG to. the above wire dispatch, that
"weaving from one side of the road to the
other" in the accident story was resented by 'the
young man's family. They said that would mean
to a majority of readers the boy had been drink
ing, whereas, he had never taken a drink; had
received honors for his skillful and careful driv
ing, and they wished a correction.
So a further investigation was made. It was
established beyond ANY reasonable doubt that
the boy had NOT been drinking, his car had NOT
been weaving-from side to side and the truck
driver had never said it had. The exact cause of
the crash was, and still is, in doubt.
But a certain amount of harm had been
done. And the Mail Tribune at once did every
thing in its power to correct it.
But, of course, this could not be completely
accomplished, which this paper -regrets.'
XE cite the incident because it illustrates the
"calculated risk" that every newspaper must
run, if it is going to do its job as it should be
done.
It sounds very proper and pious to declare
the factual accuracy of a newspaper's wire serv
ice, its news staff, its correspondents, etc., should
not be ASSUMED, but the plain fact remains,
it must be assumed if the paper is to remain in
business.
The remarkable fact is not that under such
conditions a system of supplying news as promptly
and accurately as possible to the people so many
serious mistakes are made. The remarkable fact
is there are so few. R.W.R.
s $50,000,000 Profit a Loss?
No reader of the Mail Tribune is uninformed
concerning this paper's belief the Southern Pa
cific Railway should resume mail, express, bag
gage and passenger service with as good or better
equipment and under the same conditions that
prevailed prior to its abandonment of such serv
ice from Eugene, Oregon, to Dunsmuir, Cali
fornia. It is popular in some quarters to look wise
and say:
"You can't expect a railroad to continue to oper
ate at a loss." ,
Dennis the Menace
HEY. WHO WSARS THE COPS CM?. HUH? WUIOiOM
OF YOU GUYS IS A COP1 HUH? WHICH ONE? HUH?
Yet, in the same breath the President of the
SP ADMITS his company's net profits in 1957,
a recession year, were greater than in 1956 a
"boom" year, totalling this is after taxes, not
before $54,507,686! So that's peanuts? Is that
LOSING money?
CEEMS to us the Southern Pacific to justify the
granting by the people of its franchise to cany
the growing volume of prof it-making freight orig
inating in this valley, has an inescapable obliga
tion to furnish at least ONE train a day for ex
press, mail, baggage and passenger service be
tween Southern Oregon and other points on its
system. R.W.R.
Mattes' of Fact
1 1
The S.P. s Phoney Claim
Before those who have read the above dis
miss it as the "same' old wheeze", resulting from
the Mail Tribune's anti-SP "complex", let it be
explained' that the undersigned did not write it.
It was written by Walter A. Averill, editor and
publisher of the "Casa Grande (Arizona) Dis
patch" on April 3d, 1958. If anyone wishes a
copy they can send a dime and get it.
We have only reduced it, and made minor
changes to conform to the local situation.
But we are sure any unbiased person will
agree, that the sentiments above are practically
identical with the sentiments regarding the
"Friendly Southern Pacific" expressed in this de
partment for many years.
And it is fair to assume that the people of
Pinal County, Arizona, feel just as the people of
Jackson County feel toward this railroad and
he way it has kicked communities along its orig
inal main line between Portland and San Fran
cisco "in the teeth".
The Casa Grande Dispatch thinks such treat
ment an outrage just as does the Mail Tribune,
the Ashland Tidings, the Roseburg News-Review
and as far as we know, every other newspaper
in southwestern Oregon except, of course, that
stalwart champion of this billion-dollar corpora
tion and all other entrenched Big Business
the Grants Pass Courier.
EISENHOWER'S GAMBLE
Washington In dealing
with the depression, the Ei
senhower administration has
MT"! Pretty
firmly commit
ed itself to the
happy prin
ciple of hoping
for the best
without pre
paring for the
worst.
It is a com
fortable s y s-
Josenh Alson I e III, u 11
works. But if you take a long,
hard look at the situation in
Detroit, as this reporter has
just done, you must conclude
that the President has em
barked on a fairly hair-raising
gamble.
This is because the Presi
dent is clearly gambling on
a big improvement in the
limping automobile industry,
when the change-over to the
new models occurs in late
summer. The automobile in
dustry cus'tomarily chews up
a fifth of the steel, nearly
two thirds of the rubber, and
fantastic percentages of the
fabrics, glass, aluminum and
scores of other things that this
country prpduces. If the mo
tor industry continues to limp,
therefore, other key sectors of
the American economy will
limp also.
TT IS childish and petty' to
- do what the President re
cently seemed to do blame
the motor manufacturers for
the recession, on the ground
that they have misjudged the
public taste in new' automo
biles. The manufacturers
have to back their judgment
of public taste, after all, with
annual investments of hun
dreds of millions of dollars.
They suffer acutely when and
if they bet wrong, as they
seem to have done this year;
and one can only admire their
willingness to go on making
this sort of bet on such a stag
gering scale.
But if the President thinks
the motor manufacturers bet
wrong in 1958, then it is high
ly likely he is betting wrong,
too. For the 1959 models were
not designed after the Ameri
can public's taste for. dropsi
cal juke boxes began to be
sated. They were designed,
and the dies for them were
ordered at fabulous expense,
no less than 18 months ago.
Hence the new cars are virtu
ally certain to be continua
tions and perhaps even exag
gerations of the style of car
the President seems to think
the public no longer wants.
IN other words, the most
vital question in the econo
mic future is whether the
American public will rush to
buy the new cars that will be
gin to pour out of the Detroit
arid other automobile factor-
By Joseph Alsop
ies next September. But this
is really a question give or
take a few dabs of chromium
of whether the American
public will rush to buy next
September very much the
same sort of . car the Ameri
can public is conspicuously
not rushing to buy today.
God forbid that this report
er should seem to forecast the
answer to any question that is
at once so arcane, so import
ant, and so remote from his
own limited experience. It is
plainly a serious question,
that has to be noted because
it has so much bearing on the
President s gamble.
There is another question,
too, that also needs to be not
ed, although once again this
reporter has no notion of the
answer. In brief, how great
wUl be the feed-back effects
of the existing level of un
employment in our great
mass industries? Going among
the automobile workers, you
begin to suspect that the feed
back: effects will be very
grave indeed, unless there is
a big job pickup in the near
future.
rriHE vast labor force of these
mass industries has ex
perienced stable employment
at high wages, protected by
strong unions, throughout the
whole period since the war.
Until they lost their jobs,
these workers regarded job
lessness as unthinkable. They
have been further tempted
by the Eisenhower adminis
tration's remarkably relaxed
consumer credit policy.
As a result, the workers in
the mass industries have
mortgaged themselves to the
hilt. They are carrying time
payments on everything from
automobiles to wall-to-wall
carpeting. The big layoffs in
the automobile industry oc
curred in December and Jan
uary. Thus far, with the help
of the unemployment bene
fits, the time payments have
generally been met by De
troit workers I talked with
But this spring, the time
payments are not going to be
met. They cannot be met
much longer out of the re
duced income provided by the
unemployment benefits. So a
great many tens of thousands
of additional second-hand cars
are highly likely to appear in
the already-saturated used-car
market, for instance, long be
fore new cars can make new
jobs.
Add the snowballing secon
dary effects of joblessness in
the mass industries in cities
like Detroit. Add the truly
horrifying social effects on
the people who are due to lose
all they have gained from
years of work. The sum of the
addition is certainly not
pretty.
(Copyright. 1958. New York
Herald Tribune Inc.)
"THE Mail Tribune submits that the railroad
has yet to submit audited statistics that will
convince any unbiased person that the railroad
in cutting out the "Night Rattler" service saved
any appreciable sum, or that with such service
there was any net loss in combined freight and
passenger operation at ALL.
IN OUR book it doesn't make sense for the Espee
Klamath Falls.
The SP could increase its revenues and re
duce its expenses by routing one of its present
three passenger trains through Medford.
What are the commitments of the railroad,
and to whom, that cause it to kick the communi
ties on this its original main line in the teeth?
JN COURT the railroad cries crocodile tears con
cerning the great amount of money the railroad
is losing annually.
MOW just a word about that frequent alibi for
A the Southern Pacific as noted by the Ari
zona paper to wit:
"You can't expect a railroad to continue to oper
ate at a loss."
Of course you can't. The answer is the "SP"
did not operate at a loss when it ran one passen
ger train a day between Eugene and Dunsmuir.
It would not if that service were resumed.
By its own figures it would still make a net
profit on TOTAL operation of over $54,000,000
a year. And it is total operation that determines
any corporation s income, not that of some one
minor department in the organization.
Today & Tomorrow
By Walter Lippmann
1WL
piNALLY we are weary of having SP apologists
say something like this :
"Why don't you ring off about the "Friendly SP"
you haveii't done anything about it and you ought to
know you can't." ,
"IIE HAVE always ignored this kind of talk
because the answer is so obvious.
However as it still persists, we might explain
that any newspaper that only continues to sup
port a principle in which it BELIEVES, because
the odds of success look" slim, is not worthy to
be a member of the profession.
This paper believes very strongly that the
Southern Pacific's position as a public utility,
always placing its passion for an extra, buck
above its obligations to the people in the way of
service in the territory it serves is utterly and
completely wrong.
So long as there is any chance whatever of
.correcting it, and getting the people of Southern
Oregon a square deal, this paper will continue
to do everything it can, in that direction.
' R.W.R.
NORTH AFRICA AND THE
UNITED STATES
The French politicians who
engineered the fall of- the
Gaillard government seem to
have decided
,'J to blame the
United States
for their in
ability to put
down the re
bellion in Al
geria. Their
argument is as
follows. The
waiter Lippmann rebellion in Al
geria would
have been crushed by this
time but for the fact that the
guerrilla bands are supplied
and supported, are aided and
abetted, across the long fron
tier with Tunisia. Instead of
aligning itself firmly with
France in demanding that
Tunsia close the frontier and
abandon the rebellion, the
United States has remained
friendly with Tunisia, thus
enabling Tunisia to refuse to
yield to France. In the eyes
of these politicians, this
makes us conspirators against
the vital interests of France.
In the second stage of in
toxication, these politicians
believe that our failure to
support them unreservedly is
due to a very sinister purpose.
It is nothing less than that we
desire to oust France from
North Africa, and from the
oil and the minerals of the
Sahara, in order to establish
an American empire in Afri
ca. This is, of course, the
Communist line. But that
would not matter much, were
it not the line also taken by
the extreme Right.
THE answer 'to the second
charge is that with all our
human frailties, we are not
that stupid. We know, though
the intoxicated politicians do
not yet know it, that the
French North African empire,
far from being a desirable
possession, is a heavy and
thankless liability. The rea
son the United States is using
what influence it has to in
duce a negotiated settlement
is that we dread the conse
quences if there is no settle
ment. In our view, M. Sou-
stelle and his Rightist friends
are preparing a disaster in
which we shall be, though we
do not want to be, involved.
If they come to power, they
will not be able to close the
Tunisian frontier by any pres
sure that can be put upon the
Tunisian government. The
fact of the matter is that the
Tunisian government is not
strong enough, does not have
the troops and does not have
the political solidity, to close
the frontier. M. Soustelle and
his friends cart close that fron
tier only by reconquering Tu
nisia, and if they do that, they
will set fire to the whole of
North Africa.
If this happens, it is any
one's guess as to what would
be the repercussions inside
France. But no one can rea
sonably suppose that the
French nation will like a
wide extension of this horrid,
cruel, and interminable war,
roTnycK
(By M-T Staff and Contributors)
An anonymous informant
of ours Thursday afternoon
overhead two men talking
as they walked briskly to
ward their hotel. One said
to the other, "Oh, what a
beautiful dayl And they
said it was raining in Ore-e-GON."
Well, it's spring, all right.
But we agree with a sub
scriber who thinks the wom
en's section last Sunday was
trying to speed things up a
little by carrying a May 13
date-line. "So soon?" she in
quired. Sign on a local laundry!
"Have soap, will wash."
And, down at the corner of
Central ave. and Fifth st.,
the Medford police depart
ment recently reported the
loss of a soap dish.
Communications
Letters to the Editor must
bear the name and address of
the writer although under cer
tain circumstances the use of a
pen name or initial for publica
tion is permissible. The Mail
Tribune reserves the right to
edit all letters with an eye to
clarification and condensation.
Letters submitted for publica
tion must not exceed 400 words.
The letters printed in this
:olumn do not necessarily repre
sent the views of the paper, in
fact the contrary is often the
case.
"Fraud" is the Word
To the Editor: In reference
to Mr. Parker Bailey's letter,
I'd like to inform him that I
made my choice a number of
years ago. I too wanted to
know whether the Bible gave
us facts or fiction, whether
through it God revealed to
the human race His eternal
plan and intent.
I was born and brought up
in a country where the church
was supported by the state.
Every child had to learn and
memorize a good portion of
the Bible as well as the
"Apostle's Creed" and the ten
commandments. Then after
two years of this religious in
doctrination we were con-
Officers are reluctant to ac
cuse either prisoners in the
jail, or fellow officers. But
they're looking suspiciously
at clean colleagues.
One of our cynical young
men comments that after
one of the city's grocery
stores remodeled their
building and made the
aisles about twice the width
of the former ones, he no
, lices that two women can
still block the route with
their shopping carts.
That junior grade philoso
pher of ours came up with a
sheaf of notes reminiscing
about childhood, the other
day, and we pass them along
for the edification of the
youngser generation, as fol
lows: Few if any youngsters now
adays have to put up with
such "blood-thinning" treat
ment as offered by the old
fashioned sulphur and mo
lasses. However, a New Eng
land grandmother who' be
lieved fervently in home rem
edies caused us to gag down
quantities of the thick brown
mixture. Try as we could, we
never escaped. She usually
managed to catch us . in a
neighborhood ball game. Like
as not we would be on third
base with two outs and the
score tied. She would bustle
over with her large apron
flapping, grab us by the nose,
and shovel the awful stuff
down our throat. By thinning
the blood .this stuff was sup
posed to prevent us from
catching cold. And we didn't
dare catch cold or we were
faced with the inevitable
chest-stinging mustard - plas
ter. A dignified-looking wom
an solved the problem of
frayed nerves and the high
cost of gasoline in Medford
traffic. She was observed
the other day, calmly pilot
ing a motor-scooter down a
main street, presumably
headed home from market.
The baks here have little
AQff rVi 1 . . A. A.
firmed and received the holy ZIUVpT c Z' , i
v , ,i Prt heavy sacks of coins from
one place to another. One
such was in use the other
communion. From then on we
were on our own and if we
were religiously inclined
.. , . iii j , , . aay, an miormant tells us.
Ji ZLC KST1Ce and iust as was being edged
now and then, which to us lin riirK a on ' fr 1,
nies rolled off into the gut-
was a monotonous affair,
cC 3d TJj-,!6 ter- The sa broke
Grahams." So one day I at- . A, last ht' two red-faced
tended one of these so-called ban "npjoye were sitting
revival meetings. where We on the curb, tediously picking
were informed that unless we
were born anew we were
surely lost and eternal dam
nation was our fate. Well I
for one took this seriously and
fell in line. After a while,
however, the devil started to
work on me and I began to
doubt. I was confronted with I
the logical paradoxes of the
Christian religion. I began to
rpHE French who have asked
us to give them our un
qualified support in the Al
gerian war are asking the im
possible. The war has gone
on for many years. There is
no end to that war in sight.
It is a war, we have come to
realize, which eannot be
brought to an end by military
means, and the attempt to
reach a military decision is
more likely to spread the war
to Tunisia and to Morocco
than to end it in Algeria. We
cannot allow ourselves to be
entangled in such folly.
We are bound, therefore, to
be the partisans of a negoti
ated settlement in Algeria
within a negotiated agreement
for North Africa and the
Western Mediterranean. . The
key to such a settlement lies
in the proposition that as the
political grievances of the
North African countries are
satisfied, their economic and
social and cultural affiliations
with France will cause them
to insist upon remaining "with
in the French sphere of in
fluence.
If once national and politi
cal pride were satisfied, geog- j
raphy and economics would
determine the issue.
(Copyrioht, 1958, New York
Herald Tribune Inc.
up the 5,000 pennies in the
gutter. ,
A man recently com
plained to city police that
his wife took his glass;
when she drove him to ana
from work so he couldn't
look at other women.
And (another glasses story)
use my reasoning powers, to we found the following note
analyze and investigate. on our overouraenea aesic
Then I said like Robert In- ine omer aay:
gersol: It is, but it cannot be. "If the society editor doesn't
I read his lectures as well as stop chewing on the bows of
the writings of other noncon- her glasses, we will be forced
lormists. Then and there I
experienced the emancipation
of my mind. No more fear of I
a revenging God, no bended
knees, no supplication, no I
prayers, no heaven, no hell,
no purgatory, no devil, no
ghosts. Yes, and no' worship
ing of a so-called inspired
book, a book, that in no sense '
of the imagination could be
considered a moral guide, a
book that reveals scenes and
to attch a teething-ring."
A Medford police officer
reported citing a man nam
ed Small one night last
week. Another officer, not
to be out-done, cited a man
named Large the followng
night. They declared they
were not looking for a man
named Medium.
One of our men was driving
episodes that shock the minds down the highway the other
of all decent people, a book so dav. listening to the car ra-
- i j., I - ' .
iuu uj. coniraaicuons, mat it dio. He heard an announcer
creates nothing but confusion say:
aim B"ue dmonS oeiievers, . . And now, baseball
as witness its multitudinous from the Pacific Coast leaguef
interpretations. Yes "fraud"
i. 4Vi i. j I o
13 mc tuueti ueiiinuon.
William Krauss,
Route1, Box 373,
Gold Hill, Ore.
Criticizes Cong. Porter
To the Editor: Congressman
Charles O. Porter's sugges
tion that this country cease
testing atomic weapons might
carry more weight if Mr. Por
ter could suggest how Russia
could be made to cease and
desist also. Unfortunately.
the congressman's proposal. u,f i
like his jaunte around Central be sentimental, or else be-
. ' lunations lieve in large ' families
co'""lunisl gPs ana He says a second-hand
their affiliates, can do no frnitnrp HpaW rpnnrts hp i
more than give comfort to unable to get any used baby
every iriena oi me soviet cribs
union in America. When is
He said he thought he was
dreaming for a moment, but
he kept right on, insisting
that it was the PCL. Just
habit, probably.
One sure way to bring on
a cold night, a colleague of
ours insists, is to wash the
electric blanket. Just like
the surest way to bring rain
is to wash the car.
An observer we know de-
our congressman going to re
alize that he was elected to
represent the fourth congres
sional district of Oregon, and
not the friends of Russia in
the Americas? For further ev
idence of where his heart lies,
he recently recommended that
our strategic Air Command
remove atomic bombs from
their planes that are always
ready to strike at Russia on
However, he added, peo
ple probably lend standard
baby equipment from one
household to another. And
he said, "We can remember
when the family bassinette
had to be brought back to
home base every so often
to have the rubber on the
wheels retreaded."
"Things are sure going to
a moment's notice if the U.S. pot," we overheard a friend
is attacked. .comment the other day.
Ann J. Lynch,
835 East Main St.,
Medford.
"First those birth-control
pills, and now they're creat
ing life in a test tjUbe!!"