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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1959)
MAIL TRIBUNE, Medford, Oregon, Sanity, March 1, 19S9 I Presfldleoi. Fdet Assist St In the Day's News By FRANK JENKINS Foibles of youth i.ote: Seventy - four b o y i from Chelmsford high school (in taid old England) are out to set a new silly season record. Their goal is to push a baby carriage for 500 consecutive hours. The perambulator, bearing the school's crest, is pushed round end round the campus, day and night, without sur cease. The objective is to beat the 100 hour record now held by Nottingham University. THIS, at least, can be said for it: It's more practical than trying to see how many bodies can be packed into a standard-size phone booth. Both the Chelmsford and the Nottingham youngsters will be pushing baby carriages around a few years later on and the practice they're get ting now will come in handy then. D'ya reckon these silly sea son stunts the youngsters fall for are any sillier than a lot of the things their elders do? Trying to conquer the world, for example. All history shouts aloud the lesson that it can't be got away with and made to stick. But somebody is always trying it-communist Russia being the latest. More Assistance To Corvallis - Expanded U.S. assistance to Latin America for improved education and public health programs has received strong endorsement from Oregon "Great Deci sions" discussion groups. Opinion ballots from per sons participating in informal discussion groups in 22 Ore gon counties were tabulated by Oregon State college ex tension service. Discussion topic was "A 'Better Neighbor Policy for Latin America?" Nearly 80 per cent of opin ions favored higher priority for Latin America in U.S. global foreign policy. Voters split about evenly on whether the U.S. should approach Lat in American problems on a country-by-country basis or on a regional scale. HEAT PUMP Average itiiiWfaiilMi iiiitiNi.iiriiwWiiwtMnm .mrtiii&8 AND- The inflationary spiral which is based on the delusion that if the government just goes on printing more money everybody must sooner or lat er be rich and happy without doing any more work. MORE silly season stuff: Washington dispatches tell us the House and the Senate are holding perfunctory ses sions s6 the lawmakers can get last-minute speeches into the Congressional Record be fore recessing for the ten-day Easter holiday. In one of these pot-boiler orations, Senator Douglas of Illinois charges that the Air Force spends a million dollars of its training funds every year to stage air show junkets for civilians. He says the Ar my, the Navy and the Marine Corps waste additional milli ons on additional fetes. HOW much d'ya spose, does the CONGRESS waste on stunts deigned to IMPRESS THE VOTERS? I'd hate to guess. ' IT ALL .goes to prove the ba sic wisdom of Kipling's crack that "Judy O'Grady and the Colonel's lady are sisters under the skin." Latin America Favored in State About three-fourths of those balloting said the U.S. should keep hands off internal Latin American politics rather than intervene on the side of dem ocratic forces trying to over throw totalitarian govern ments. Priority to Assistance Ballot results gave top pri ority to U.S: assistance in im proving educational systems in Latin America. Latest cen sus for Latin America shows illiteracy for persons 10 years of age or older ranges from 14 per cent of the population in Argentina to more than 50 per cent in Brazil and nearly two-thirds in Honduras. Next priority was for assist ance to control disease and provide better health and san itation facilities. The home of Mr. and Mn. R. A. Skinner en Hillsida Drive. Electric heat pump. Operational cosrt for both heating and OPERATING COSTS for the 2700 sq. ft. Skinner home June, 1956 , July, 1956 Aug., 1956 Sept., 1956 Oct., 1956 Nov., 1956, Dec., 1956 Jan., 1957 Feb., 1957 March, 1957 April, 1957 May, 1957 cosfr per month for twelve months was $22.76 Ike's Unofficial Proposal Seen in Personal Letter (Editor's note: This is the ninth and last in the series of articles in which the Great Decisions program is discussed. Today's discus sion topic is "What chal lenge to diplomat and citizen?") A "First Secretary of the Government" who would have "time to think" is Presi dent Eisenhower's unofficial proposal to help deal with the difficult problem of making government policy in a world that grows more complex with each passing day. Ac cording to a personal presi dential letter, published in a recent issue of Life, such an officer would be relieved of all administrative duties in order to spend full time di recting and coordinating U.S. international affairs. The proposal, although completely unofficial, drama tizes a problem of great con cern to many American lead ers, in and outside the gov ernment. Stated in its simplest terms, this concern is whether or not the American democratic system, and its present gov- U.S. policy proposals now under discussion in Washing ton were ranked in the follow ing order of preference: Expand cultural and student exchange programs and en courage study of Latin Amer ican languages and cultures in U.S. schools. Seek long-range answers to the commodity price problem by joining with other surplus producing nations in joint stu dies. Brazil, for example, has a carry-over of 14 million bags of coffee from last year-more than four times normal "work ing stock." Reduce or discontinue U.S. military assistance to dictat ors. Expand present U.S. econ omic and technical assistance programs in Latin America. .59 . 2.00 . 4.55 . 3.01 10.08 .33.44 .46.20 .46.59 .46.59 .46.59 23.45 9.87 ernmental machinery, are able to deal imaginatively and effectively with the chal lenges of a fast changing world. Three Essentrfel Paris There are three essential parts to this concern: (1) how can the best and freshest thinking be brought to bear on U.S. foreign policy? (2) how can the instruments of government - Congress and the many Executive depart ments function as a team in framing and conducting all aspects of American foreign policy? (3) how can the Amer ican people participate, through the democratic pro cess, in shaping this nation's relations .with the rest of the world? At the governmental level, according to many observers, the problem of creating ef fective foreign policies is in separable from the problem of carrying out these policies. The same pieces of govern mental machinery are usually involved, and the same diffi culties of coordination are present. Thus, criticism of re sults is very often, at the same time, criticism of pol icy making methods. New Government Agencies A number of new .-government agencies, officies or spe cial panels have been created since World War II to deal with various aspects of secur ity and foreign policy. Many of the agencies have the dual job of drafting policy and of administering it; some of the offices and panels are wholly advisory. (The President, of course, is ultimately respons ible under the Constitution for conducting U.S. foreign policy.) One of the most important new agencies is the National Security Cquncil, which the President heads and which consists of the top officers of the Executive branch who are primarily concerned with de fense and foreign policies. Other agencies both plan and administer various foreign af fairs activities such as the foreign aid program, atomic energy developments, etc. In the advisory category are such offices as the Presi dent's special assistant on sci ence and technology and such special panels as the Gaither committee, which submitted to the White House a highly controversial appraisal of U. S. defense policies. The Skinners' 2700 square foot heme I heared and cooled by a General coolin g over a period of one year are shown below. These, however, are merely a few of the newly estab lished instruments of U.S. foreign policy. In addition there are the long established arms of the department of state, including the diplomat ic service, and the other Ex ecutive departments whose activities are closely related to international affairs - such as the defense department and the departments of agri culture, commerce, labor and the treasury. There are many agencies of government that deal with some aspect of foreign affairs. Yet only a handful of these report to the secretary of state. The President alone, at the pinnacle, has final author ity. Bureaucracy, some observ ers believe, has got out of hand; the machinery of for eign policy is so unwieldy that creative planning and ef ficient administration are dif ficult if not impossible. The President's idea that a First Secretary of the Gov ernment might be in a posi tion to "think" and thus to provide over-all leadership and coordination for all the branches and pieces of U.S. foreign policy, is one ap proach to this concern. Some observers feel that only the President can or should pro vide this kind of supreme leadership to the government and the people. Provide Fresh Thinking In Congress, meanwhile, spokesmen for the majority party have suggested that the Legislative branch can at least provide some fresh thinking on U.S. foreign pol icy, and can disagree con structively with the Adminis tration on matters like de fense and foreign aid spend ing. On one principle, however, there seems to be fundamen tal agreement; unless U.S.. foreign policy is imaginative, vigorous and efficient, the United States will not be able to provide effective leader ship to the anti-Communist alliance, through the Berlin crisis and all the other cold war challenges that are bound to come. World leadership, in turn, requires more than smoothly operating governmental ma chinery; it also requires un derstanding, participation and support by the American peo ple. Sovereignty, in a demo- cratlc society, rests with the citizenry. Most foreign affairs experts shy away from the notion that every citizen can be "his own secretary of state." Isstles are too complex,- and too much of the background information is necessarily secret. Yet in creasing numbers of govern mental leaders and other pub lic figures are begging the public to play a larger role in setting the general direc tions of U.S. foreign policy the "Great Decisions" which underlie specific policies and programs. Reasons Are Obvious Some of the reasons are obvious. The general direc tions of U.S. foreign policy must either express or con tradict the sovereign will of the American people. At stake is the kind of free or regimented society that sur vives the challenges of the present generation - or whether there is survival at all. Taxes are at stake, and the dividing, up of tax money among such commitments as national defense, scientific re search, education, foreign aid, flood control and other pub lic works. Or, as the1 President point ed out in his March 16 ad dress to the nation, "We must avoid letting fear or lack of confidence turn us from the course that self-respect, de cency and love of liberty point out . . . We need only to understand the issues and to practice the self-discipline that freedom demands." The challenge to the citi zen, in other words, is to make the democratic process come alive to serve his needs, interests and ethical goals. Citizen's First Tax The first task of the citizen, according to many experts, is education. The free Amer ican press (including periodi cals and broadcasting, as well as newspapers) is generally recognized as a unique ve hicle for lifetime citizen edu cation. Through news reports, analytical commentary, schol arly analysis and editorials the average citizen has access to almost limitless informa tion on day-to-day happenings and on the background to the day's events. 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MARINE 1163 James Road eign affairs and other public policy problems on which the citizen needs to hold informed opinions. , Adult education in a more formal sense is available through night schools, exten sion courses and special study programs such as "Great De cisions." 1 Available to Citizen A vast amount of informa tion, in other words, is avail able to "any American citizen who takes the trouble to in form himself. But what about the channels for actijn? How does the informed citizen take part in public affairs? One answer to this question fs that not all foreign policy action is taken in Washington. While Congress is in session, or during any public debate on foreign policy, the citizen can express his informed opin ions by letters or wire to his Senators, Congressman or the White House and state depart ment! But some aspects of American foreign policy lie even closer to the levers of citizen action. 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Furthermore, the citizen has numerous channels for in fluencing public affairs in his own community and state through school boards, busi ness and professional associa tions, chambers of commerce, farm and labor organizations, political parties, citizens' com mittees, etc. Direct Participation ' Even direct participation in international affairs is pos sible at the state and local level. Many churches are ac tively engaged in overseas missionary, educational or re lief work. A number of farm, labor, business, and service or ganizations are either interna tional in character, or are in volved in overseas action pro grams of a social or other na ture. Public agencies like CARE and UNICEF offer the individual an opportunity to i - kV &k - ULTRA SHOW YOU THE HEAR BETTER! We Se Telephone PUMP participate in important over-. seas assistance projects. . 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