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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1959)
4 Wtdntsday, April 1, 1959 Mn)FORITRIBUNK "Everyone tn Southern Oregon Reads The Mail Tribune" Published Daily except Saturday by 33 North Fir St. Ph. SP 3-6141 ROBERT W BUHL. Editor HERB GREY Advertising Manager .vn - A 111! T . . . n . . m ' EiUC W ALLEN JR Managing Editor EARL H ADAMS. City Editor HARRY CHIPMAN. Teleg Editor RICHARD JEWETT Sports Editor OLIVE STARCHER Women's Editor DALE ERICKSON. Circulation Mgr. An Independent Newspaper Entered as second class matter at Medford Oregon under Act of March 3. 1897 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By M a i 1 In Advance, Copy 10c. Dail- and Sunday 1 year $13.00 Daily and Sunday 6 mos. 8.01 Dailv and Sunday 3 mos. 4-25 Sunday Only One year $4.20 By Carrier In Advance Medford. Ashiand. Central Point. Eagle Point. Jacksonville. Gold Hill. Phoenix. Shady Cove, Rogue Riv er. Talent and on motor routes. Daily and Sunday 1 year $18.00 Daily and Sunday 1 mo. Carrier and Deauers copy 10c All Terms Cash in Advance Official Paper of City at Medford Official Paper or Jackson county United Press International Full Leased Wire MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION AHvrrtisine ReDresentative: WEST-HOLIDAY CO, INC. Of fices in New York. Chicago. De - troit. San Francisco. Los Angeles. Seattle. Portland. St. Louis, At lanta. Vancouver B.C. NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION MATIONAL EDITORIAL Astfc5"" Flight 'o Time Medford and Jackson County History from the files of The Mail Tribune 10, 20. 30, 40 and 50 years ago. 10 YEARS AGO April 1, 1949 (Friday) . John Richards, Jackso.i county juvenile officer, stress es the need for a female pro bation officer and for a ,- tention home. MedforJ building permits In March topped the half-million dollar mark in assessed valuations, setting a new city record. 20 YEARS AGO April 1, 1939 (Saturday) A taxpayers' league is formed' to fight for lower taxes in Jackson county, its organizational meeting spon sored by the Medford Realty board. From Arthur Perry's "Ye Smudge Pot" column: "The horse-chestnut trees, that have escaped destruction to make way for a service station, are behind with their blooming." 30 YEARS AGO April 1, 1929 (Monday) There was light heating last night in local orchards. April Fools day passes quietly, neither excitement nor exceptional tall tales be ing reported. 40 YEARS AGO April 1, 1919 (Tuesday) A campaign is to be launched to compel property owners to repair wooden side walks. The county votes $50 a month to finance band con certs in Medford city park. 50 YEARS AGO April 1, 1909 (Thursday) Central Point starts a 54- member commercial club. Ladies of the Greater Med ford club plan a dancing party. What's Your I.Q.? Nina or ten correct is superior; seven or eight is excellent; five or six is good 1. Who succeeded Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minis ter of Great Britain? 2. Do Shamrocks have three, four, or five leaflets? 3. January 1 is observed as a legal holiday in all States; true or false? 4. If an actor wore mutton chops, would that be spats, tide whiskers, or a swallow tail coat? 5. Where is the body of the late F.D. Roosevelt buried? 6. On which, denomination of U. S. currency is depicted George Washington's like- r ness? ' 7. Feathers of what color . denote cowardice? - 8. Cashmere is the soft wool ; of a type of sheep, goat, or : rabbit? : 9. Who is the Supreme Be- ing of the Mohammedans? 1 10. What is the birthstone for January? . ; Answers:-1. Winston Chur- chill. 2. Three. 3. True. 4. t Side-whiskers. 5. Hyde Park, I N.Y. 6. One dollar. 7. White. S 8. Goat. 9. Allah. 10. Garnet. t EXTEND INVITATIONS ; Paris-flJPD-To mark the oc 2 casion of the Eiffel tower's 5 70th birthday, an open invi r tation has been extended to " persons born in France dur ing May, 1889, to come to Junch May 16 in the tower's famed restaurant. . Lion and Lamb March of 1959 arrived like a soft and cuddly lamb, warm and bright. It left in grayness and drizzles a lion, per haps, but a tame and friendly one. E.A. Dimly Lit Book What is history? . It is, we are told, the record of what has hap pened in the past. Viewed in a narrow sense, it is the dates of battles, coronations and assasina tions; of elections and discoveries; of the births and deaths of the notables. In a broader sense, however, history is the record of people of what they do and how they do it; of their hopes and aspirations and despairs ; of their way of life ; of their religions and political beliefs. ..." And writing this kind of history is a difficult thing to do; a well-nigh impossible thing to do really well. I70R each historian, no matter how dedicated r and informed and objective, approaches his subject with a certain bias, a set of prejudices, predispositions in certain areas, which inevitably are reflected in the chronicles he prepares. . Add to this the fact that he works with" docu ments prepared by equally-fallible human beings in the past, men who sometimes had an ax to grind or a special point to make. Sorting the wheat from this chaff is difficult, demanding, and sub ject to many honest errors, both of commission and omission. TPWO men, equally well - prepared, then, can each write a history of a certain nation or period, and come out with two entirely different kinds of articles, each of them perfectly honest in method and effect, but giving totally different impressions. One of them, for instance, can unconsciously inject into his treatment facts which tend to cor roborate his own., private "theory" of history, whereas the other may view the period in an en tirely different light, and choose as "significant" points which, while just as valid and honest as tb.e first man's, tend to emphasize other facets of the period under discussion. Each will contribute something to an under standing of the period. Yet in reading history it is necessary to recognize these drawbacks and limi tations under which historians work. MEWSPAPER writers sometimes consider them- selves to be the chroniclers of current history of "history-in-the-making." And in a sense, this is true. r. - Consider the broad scope which newspapers today cover not only the wars and the elec tions, but the habits and mores and beliefs of people; how they change and how they remain the same. , .. And even newspapers do not cover the entire field. They are not, cannot be, complete in their coverage of all the facets of life today some times facets of considerable long-range impor tance. IF NEWSPAPERS cannot do it, what a task 1 confronts the historian attempting tQ probe beneath the surface of a by-gone society. How to find the significant facts of a past era? How to weigh which is important and which merely window-dressing? And, when this is done, how to condense all the facts into a manageable chronicle, leaving out nothing that is important, yet not overburdening it with such a plethora of issues that the reader is lost in a maze of trivia? HTHERE are, indeed, lessons to be learned from history. One can learn from it the mistakes of the past. But one cannot read from it the right course for the future. For if the past is a. dimly lit book, the future is a book still unopened. History may, and sometimes does, repeat it self. But only in limited ways and in special cases. The lessons of history may tell us negatively, what not to do. But they cannot tell us, affirma tively, what must be done. That remains for each generation to decide. E.A. Multi-Colored State "Oregon," our farm editor philosophized in print recently, "is a many-colored state. He is right, and April Fools Day is a good day to prove the point. It is the delicate green of newly - budding trees; the brilliant yellow of daffodils; the pink of quince ; the white of cherry. There is still the light brown of winter-leached grass which has not yet been covered with green. There is the black of the rich earth turned by building machines, and the browns and tans of sandier soil. And there is the blue and purple of the far hills. jMAN-niade colors are impossible to ignore, too. lfl - There is the faded red of brick; the rain bow hues of the constant stream of automobiles; the flashing red and blue and green of neon. From the air there are the great black or gray scars of highway and railroad, the muddy brown or green of reservoirs, the checkerboards of green and black and brown of the tilled or sprouting fields. ' The colors, rich and varied, and either excit ing or soothing, add depth and texture to the pleasant land. E.A. Dennis the 'IP ft? LIVED HERE. WE'D PUTTHE DfVAM OVEf? THEtfE, AND lUAT eoajB 8 m fPLACtAtV V&8(JRfiUP WAT a Communications Letters to the Editor must bear the name and address of the writer although under certain circumstances the use of a pen name or initia' for publication is permissible. The Mail Tribune reserves the right tc edit all letters with a view to clarification and condensation. Letters submitted for publication must not exceed 400 words. The letters printed in this column do not necessarily represent the views of the paper; in fact the contrary is often the case. On Dog Licensing To the Editor: According to the April Farm Journal, a per son earning $4,500 per year has to work 2 hours and 29 minutes of his 8 hour day to pay his taxes. If we want to reduce our taxes, we must weigh well our wants and watch our elected official who wants to make a good name for himself by giving us some big thing for us to pay taxes on. March 19 Mail Tribune headline reads "7000 licenses bought for dogs." If they were all male dogs it would be $-10,-500. That is a -lot of tax money. Then there are the female dogs and the late ones, which will swell that fund a great deal more. So what happens? Money, and quickly spend it. First hire eight deputies with cars to canvass the county. These deputies stop at homes where they find a peaceful old dog on the front porch waiting for its master. Said master is a service man, and probably overseas. That dog which stays home must be licensed to the full ex tent of the law or else. Then there is the tiny house dog that is too small to chase any livestock and sleeps in a basket in "Ma Ladies Bou doir." They get it too. And then the faithful watchdog whose job it is to stay with the child in the yard. It too must have a tag. There are plenty of loose dogs which neither have a home or the owner does not claim it, and the habitual tramp dog. Who is paying their license fee? Those are the dogs the deputies neither look for nor see. I think somewhere there is a provision made for farmers to protect their livestock from molesting dogs and it is not a license tag on the dogs collar. Deer-chasing dogs get taken care of on the spot, li cense or no license. A good citizen does not ob ject to a reasonable and just tax for his faithful dog. It is the excessive tax col lected from many and un wisely and selfishly spent to satisfy the wants of so few that the general public ob jects to. . Delia A. Littlefield Box 3 Shady Cove, Ore. Against Bill To the Editor: A short time ago there was an article in the Tribune about a bill that was before the legislature pro posing an application to defer the property- taxes on the homes of the senior citizens that drew less than $4,000 per year, said taxes together with interest would be collectible at the death of senior citizen. If these taxes were com pletely erased from the tax roll, until the death of the senior citizen, then put back on the tax rolls, that would be a great relief to the senior citizens, and in the long run would be a very worthwhile economy measure, but as it is set up it is one of the most vicious pieces of legislation that I have ever seen. For example, say Grandpa is unable to work or is on a pension, his income is from $750 to at best $3000 per year, and so he applies for defer ment of taxes on their home, and it is granted, so he lives for 10 years, the taxes pile up, say for easy figures, $75 per year. At the end of 10 years he owes $750, then he passes on. Immediately the state takes steps to collect "the $750 plus interest. Now Grandma is left alone to carry on. She has not been able to save any money or sh wouldn't have let the Menace 1 1 taxes be deferred. So the property is sold out from un der her for taxes. To say nothing about the "heartaches of losing Grandpa, she is fac ed with the shock and the tor ture of being thrust out of her own home, and if she is able to survive the shock something has to be done about housing. Probably the state will have to pick up the check, and with rents the way they are, you couldn't figure to find anything to rent for less than $50 per month, which adds up to $300 or better per year. So Grandma: lives for another 10 years, the state puts out $3000 for rent. A pret ty expensive saving on $750 to begin with, to say nothing about the heartaches and an guish at her losses. I think everyone should write the Governor asking him to veto any such bil. Larry Turner, Route 1, Box 383, Central Point, Ore. Are They Worth Saving? To the Editor: This is to all areas who are considering school consolidation: Before you vote please read "Are Small High Schools Worth Saving?" by Richard C. Davids in the April issue of the Farm Journal. Don't be pushed into something before you investigate what you could do for your own school to bring up its scholastic rat ing without bringing up taxes. Work at your own problem. You don't have to consolidate! And please read the article. H. M. von Stein Sr., Post Office Box 609, Medford. Licenses To the Editor: With the con clusion of a recent trial in Medford, it can bo presumed from the verdict derived, that it is now open season on hus bands of rather dubious char acter, with the license require ments very slim. For those women who apply for a spouse shooting license, they should, first of all, bring forth witnesses who will testi fy before the twelve man board of license directors that the license seekers' husbands are not only of doubtful char acter, but that, as a whole, so ciety would be benefited by their extermination. It would also be advantageous to have the women's children give af firmation as to the austere traits of the proposed game. If the appeals are properly presented, the permits will undoubtedly be granted, for the licensers are a compas sionate lot, as evidenced by their recent dealings with a woman who neglected to ap ply for . her warrant before she went spouse shooting. Donald S. Wolfe, 322 Benson st., Medford. Other Factors, Too To the Editor: In a few days we will vote for or against the consolidation of our entire Jacksonville school system, buildings, property, equip ment and administration, into a large district centered in Medford. This is being done purely as a voluntary venture. Many of the facts and issues involved have been becloud ed. Probably the worst is that of taxes. The tabluations in dicate a millage levy reduc tion for Jacksonville, and an increase for Medford. But no tax cut wiil occur, the authorities hasten to state. With all costs rising, they say, such a saving would be large ly set aside for improvements or expansion. The tax picture is changing rapidly. In our state legisla ture right now, our 90 legisla tors are considering a bill to reduce property taxes, they Newsom Completes Losing in Mid-East, By PHIL NEWSOM UPI Foreign News Editor London OJPD The United States is losing the battle for th- Middle East. In Berlin, the chances still may be a little better than 50 50. That is the capsule im pression of a correspondent who in the last five weeks has travelled close to 20,000 miles i'tnl iNewsom and in the course of it visited the principal pressure points of the Middle East and Europe and talked to scores of gov ernment officials, editors and members of American em bassies. These are ancient battle grounds, both for reak estate and for control of men's minds. Techniques have are considering an increase in state aid from $105 to $150 per child year, they are discussing a 3 per cent sales tax to finance this. A change is in evitable. Our sister states have long since made such a change. The federal govern ment is giving attention to school legislation. Our authorities estimate we will need a new building in three to five years. With all the attention being given schools, with education in the cold war limelight, outright building grants could be ex pected. State andor federal funds could be made avail able. Don't force waste with haste. Jacksonville graduates are currently attending Lewis and Clark, Linfield, Eugtne, Cor vallis, Ashland and others. Don't offer to sell Jackson ville short on basics. Our small number of votes would stand a slim chance of giving us any representation in the government of such a consolidated unit. Property devaluation is a real threat. We sorely need in creased valuation and more building to provide it. Consolidation will mean added costs to every high school student. Economywise, every busi ness in Jacksonville, even the post office, would suffer. The positions of at least 13 of our instructors would be removed to Medford. Their residences will gravitate in that direc tion. Their annual salary rep resents about $65,000. Their cultural influence, as citizens, must not be underestimated. Consider the facts, remem bering the haste with which this project has been present ed, inevitable tax changes, our need for community develop ment, impact on students los ing their community identity, make a democratic decision and vote for the best interests of our children and our com munity, uninfluenced by the word "taxes" which are but a tool and will always be with us. Fred Edens 303 East F st. Jacksonville, Ore. How Come? To the Editor: On the front page of the Tribune Sunday,. March 29, there was an article about a request made from the Welfare Commission to the state legislature for an ap propriation of $1,900,000 to care for the needy for the next three months of the fis cal year, so the joint ways and means committee ap proved an appropriation of $1,200,000 instead, making necessary an all around cut of at least 5 per cent by the wel fare commission to the aged, the blind, dependent children, the disabled and as well as a general cut on all of their ac tivities. It is understandable that the wish of the house and sen ate is to keep taxes down, and as one member from Jose phine county remarked last year in the tax hassle, that the little people would have to carry the load, "because there were so many of the little peo ple," and we realize it is gen erally the little people that take the rap. But it is hard, very hard, to understand why the joint ways and means committee should see fit to take away from the old, the blind, help less kids and so on, and yet here a very short time ago the same outfit saw fit to vote themselves a substantial raise in pay. How come? I am 30 years old and have no interest in this other than I hate to see helpless people forced to suffer needlessly. " Jack E. Aldrich, Route 1, Box 382, Central Point, Ore. If Shoe on Other Foot To the Editor: I just read your editorial on school con solidation and decided it was well thought out and present ed, but I think you are taking a little too idealistic a view point when you give the im pression that the members of the school boards of the dis tricts proposing consolidation with the Medford district are working so unstintingly for changed, but not the objec tives. East, West Divided In Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate divides East and West Berlin and stands as a monu ment to man's destructive abilities as demonstrated by World War II. Camel trails and an occasional automobile track cut the desert between Damascus and Baghdad. Here, in this vast desert, civilization came to a halt 600 years ago when Tamerlane destroyed the fabulous canals which made the Tigris and Eu phrates valleys the Garden of Eden. Between Berlin and Bagh dad, the airplane is the link and the persistently cheerful air and ground crews "the guides in a journey that runs back in time but never es capes the conflicts that are strictly 20th Century. In Berlin, it is steadfast de Michigan's Dims Williams Future Plans By LYLE C. WILSON Washington-rtlPD-For Michi gan's six-time Governor G. Mennen Williams this could be the end of road. Will iams' state of Michi gan is coming to be known as the State of B a nkrupt cy. That is bad for a poli t i c i a n who .vi r. wiisnn nas n a a mi eye on the White House. The state of Michigan is broke. For 2Vi months the newspapers and news maga zines have been telling their readers about that. It is bad advertising, so bad that it could and probably will be deadly to Williams' political ambitions. Deadly, at least, to his political ambitions outside the state. Stories of the financial ca tastrophe which is overtaking Michigan never fail to identi fy Williams with the bad news. Much less emphasis is put on the fact that the legis lature of Michigan is Republi can controlled and, further, that the immediate problem in Michigan adds up to a gov ernor vs. legislature dispute on how to solve it. Solution Could Be Found Governor and legislature pulling together toward a common objective doubtless could find quickly a tempo rary solution to Michigan's difficulties. The Republican legislature wants to raise Michigan's sales tax by 1 per cent. A friendly on-the-scene reporter calls that proposal the one big solution offered by the Republican legislative leaders. This reporter adds: "To Williams, a self-labeled New Dealer, and to his big supporters in Walter P. Reu ther's United Auto Workers Union, a boost in the sales tax is just about as tasty as a dose of castor oil." Another on-the-scene report had this to say: "Probably in all the United States there is no more bitter feud between legislature and governor than in Michigan." Trying to Stem Tide Paul Weber is Williams' press secretary. He is attempt ing to turn the tide of bad publicity which threatens to overwhelm his boss. Weber mails friendly or merely fair news accounts of affairs in Michigan to political writers around the country, accom panied by little notes explain ing that they are offered "in view of the many distorted this deal solely for the good of the students. I can't help but think if the shoe was on the other foot, and Medford was asking these districts to raise their taxes substantially to pay off their indebtedness, and they knew they would have to build new school buildings, buy many new busses, hire more person nel, and all of the other ex penses that would further raise their taxes, as Medford will have to do, that there would be quite a few dissent ing votes. I can assure you that if con solidation would increase the taxes of the outlying districts, as it will Medford, consolida tion would be badly defeated, for we of Jacksonville are not as foolish as we are asking Medford voters to be. D. C. Stoner, 204 South Oregon st., Jacksonville, Ore. Nov.- Many Wear FALSE TEETH With Little Worry Eat. talk, laugh or sneeze without fear of Insecure false teeth dropping, slipping or wobbling. FASTEETH holds plates nrme? and more com fortably. This pleasant powder has no gummy gooey, pasty taste or feeling. Doesn't cause nausea. It's alkaline (non-acid). Checks "plate odor" (denture breath). Get FASTEETH at any drug counter. Tour, Finds Allies Even in Berlin termination of the people, backed by an equally stead fast military," that gives the west its best chance against further Communist encroach ment. Prosperous West Berliners give no indication or surren der, whatever Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's threats. Stockpiles against blockade have been laid up for months to come. And American mili tary commanders there make clear their determination to retreat only under specific or ders from Washington. If Ber liners and fighting men have their way, there will be no surrender in Berlin. But as of now, no such op timism can be expressed for the Middle East. The Middle East itself is split. It is Arab nationalism divided by the ambitions of Egypt's President Abdel Ga- Financial versions of Michigan's finan cial problems." Editorial comment has been severe on Williams. For ex ample, this on how Michigan got into the mess: "The state spent more than it took in, and kept on spend ing more and more. In 10 years it almost has doubled its spending." 4 Williams' friends insist that Republican state legislators consistently have gone along with this six term spending programs. The Republicans argue that things would be much worse if they had not cut the governor's spending programs all along the line. Important Question However that may be, Mich igan comes up now multi-millions of dollars short in pay In the Day's News By FRANK I suppose you have been following with at least a cer tain amount of sentimental interest the anti - communist revolution in Tibet. In itself, it is insignificant. There are only a few hundred thousand of these Tibetans. If they persist in their revolt against Red China, which is based on their desire to live their own lives in their own way, they will be trampled into the bloody mud by the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of Chinese communists, and that will be that.' It will be hardly more than an incident in the march of communism toward its objec tive of world conquest. . BUT In its impact on India, and on Jawaharlal Nehru, who is India's premier, and who for all practical purposes IS IN DIA, it might be very signifi cant indeed. Nehru has been posing as the Great Neutral. His atti tude so far has been that communism is probably bad but everybody else in the world outside Asia is WORSE. Especially the Western Pow ers, which are allied with Britain, which for a long time held India in colonial slavery. So Nehru has been preaching Asia should stand off to one side and not bother the communists. As long as they don't bother us, the burden of his comment has been, why should we bother them? ' WELL All the Tibetans wanted was to be LEFT ALONE to live their rather peculiar lives in their own rather peculiar way. It wasn't until the Chi nese communists said NO, YOU HAVE TO LIVE YOUR LIVES IN OUR WAY that they revolted. So Following the example of our own immortal Patrick Henry, they are saying GIVE US LIBERTY TO LIVE OUR PERSONAL CONDUCT C M. Litwiller Rendering a service of reverence and dignity as though the departed were a loved one of our own . .. . this is our calling. "Service measured not by gold, but by rhe Golden Rule.' LITWILLER Funeral Home Mountain View Chapel Hwy. 66 at Normal Office 88 N. Main ASHLAND We Never Close than mal Nasser on the one hand and by the creeping Commu nism in Iraq, which maintains Prime Minister Abdel Karim Kassem as its figurehead. Ike Doctrine Failed? Worst of all, from the U. S. standpoint, is the failure of the Eisenhower Doctrine in the Middle East. Arab nation alism revolted against any at tempt to line the Arab states up. East versus West. Too late, the West recog nized the reality of Nasser's positive neutrality and too late the Arabs themselves re alized their headlong flight from Western colonialism was leading them directly into the Communist trap. Today, Iraq is all but Com munist controlled, Western prestige in other Arab nations is at an all time low. And, as of today, there is in existence no Western policy which might reverse the trend. Plight ments for public schooling, for old age and children's aid. The state is facing a $110 mil lion deficit by July 1. Big business, the auto companies, paid $35 million recently in advance taxes. That has been swallowed up in the financial crisis. The big political fact in all of this is that, fair or not, the shame of it is rubbing off on Soapy Williams and already must have removed him from the national political stage. The big political question is whether all of this will rub off, too, on Reuther who com mands the union manpower nd union funds which put Williams in office and kept him there. That is a very in teresting and important ques tion. JENKINS LIVES UN OUR OWN WAY OR GIVE US DEATH. THAT must come with a considerable jolt to Neu tralist Nehru. It will be interesting to see what he does. It will be particularly in teresting because India is the unq uestioned intellectual leader of non-communist Asia and Nehru is the unquestion ed leader of India. Alcorn Reported To Be Resigning Hartford, Conn. - (UPD - The Hartford Courant said today Meade Alcorn is resigning as GOP national chairman and returning to his private law practice here. "An announcement is ex pected in Washington by Al corn, probably today, that he is submitting his resignation as a national GOP leader at a meeting of the party's nation al committee next week" in Washington. The Courant said he will continue for a short period as national chairman until a suc cessor is chosen. COME TO A tWtSlOK Of PACIFIC fWCt PACIFIC 'A INDUSTRIAL tan. "MONEYLAND" j prompt, courteous personal loan and new err used ear financing J 16 S. Central j Ph. SP 3-5308 j Jim Elbert, Manager ', . Open Daily 9 A.M. -5 P.M. . Mondays Till 8 P.M. Closed Saturdays Mrs. Litwiller 'It is better to know us and not need us to need us and not know us." V
