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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 1960)
mw1 a? fw 1 PREPARES FOR TRIP - Dr. Anthony M. Opisso, 35, is shown above in Napa, Calif., as he gathers medical supplies for his trip to the island of Dominica. Dr. Opisso is leaving a five-year practice in Columbia Falls, Mont., when he departs tomorrow. The island of Dominica has only a small hospital staffed by three nuns. Leprosy, tu berculosis and various parasitic diseases thrive on the island. The young doctor is receiving no pay and buying all medical supplies out of his own pocket. Dr. Opisso, a native of the Philippines, who gained Am erican citizenship through service in World War II, will remain on the island five years. (UPI Telephoto) Radio Signals From Planets Bring Astronomical Surprises Chicago-(Science Service)- Radio "messages" from Venus, Jupiter and Mars have allow ed exploration of these plan ets from the earth and there have been some surprises. A newly discovered radia tion hazard to space vehicles entering and leaving the at mosphere of Jupiter will be roughly a hundred times greater than the hazard of the earth's radiation belts, discov ered bv satellites. Dr. Frank D. Drake of the National Ra dio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, W. Va., told the American Association for the Advancement of Science here, Electrons Trapped Jupiter is emitting continu ously at least three billion watts in radio radiation at frequencies above about 100 megacycles per second. Dr. Drake suggested that this kind of radiation is caused by high energy electrons trapped in Jovian radiation belts similar to the terrestrial radiation belts that may worry future space travelers. The number of trapped particles in the belts around Jupiter may be a million times greater than in the terrestrial belts. The Jovian belts would require for their origin a magnetic field on Jupiter at least ten times stronger than the earth. Giant antennae forming ra dio telescopes allow the ob servation of radio emissions of heavenly bodies. The great new national radio observa tory in a sparsely populated West Virginia area is one of ihe principal receiving posts lor this new kind of look at the planets. 20 Megacycle Radiation Jupiter emits extremely strong 20 megacycle radiation that seems to be caused by great electrical storm disturb ances in the Jovian atmos phere. This comes from only a few points on the planet and has been observed for about eight years, this year's being less than before, sug gesting that solar activity con trols this radiation to some extent. The radio telescope also observed the hard sur face of Venus for the first time. It has a very high tem perature, very nearly 585 de grees 'Fahrenheit, which is likely to be caused by the atmosphere acting like a greenhouse, the same effect that keeps the earth warm at night. The variation in sur face temperature from day to night is extremely small on Venus. Because the temperature is very much higher than the expected boiling point of wa ter on Venus, no liquid water is believed to exist anywhere on Venus' surface. Because of absence of water in the liquid state, Dr. Blake be lieves life is very unlikely on Venus. What water there is on Venus is in the form of vapor in the atmosphere and the planetary surface probably consists of barren rocks and deserts. Older ideas on Mars have not been changed by radio observations. The radio emis sions from space are. of course, not from artificial sources like our radio stations but are natural and more like static. Better Moon Maps Even before explorers from earth arrive on the moon, there can be better lunar maps, D. W. G. Arthur, re search associate of Yerkes Ob servatory, Williams Bay, Wis., told the astronomers. Moon photographs contain a wealth of detail that has has j not been translated into maps, Dr. Arthur said, and the pho tographs have not been used correctly so that the major maps compiled in this century are only low-grade sketch maps. The best lunar map that could be made would still be inferior to a military topographic map compiled from very poor quality high- altitude aerial photography Tlie best moon photograph is equivalent to a naked-eye view from about 2,000 miles above the lunar surface and a telescopic observer at the best moments obtains an im pression equivalent to a view from 600 miles. Foreseeing the day when space navigators will require a map giving an overhead view of each part of the moon's surface, Dr. Arthur outlined ways of achieving new maps that will be incom parably superior to those available today. Optical-mechanical plotting equipment especially designed for the job and based on principles paral lel to those used in aerial photography would do the job. 1950s Considered a Decade of Revolution for Most Farmers Washington - (UFA - For the people who produce the na tion's food and fiber, the 1950s was a decade of revolution. It was a r e v o 1 u tion of science and technology. With it came a host of still-unsolved political and economic prob lems growing out of the fact that farmers have learned to produce more than American consumers want to buy. The production revolution was as dramatic as anything in the nation's economic his tory. Research stations pro duced new farm tools, chemi cals, feed formulas and production-boosting methods at a dizzying pace. Farmers me chanized their operations, en larged their farms, and pour ed hundreds of millions of dollars into new investments in their producing plants. By the end of the decade, farm production had risen nearly one-fifth to a record high in spite of the fact that the number of people on farms was steadily declining. Number Drops In 1950, there were more than 25 million people living on American farms. By the end of 1959, it was estimated that this number had dropped to about 20 million and no government expert was will ing to predict the decline was near an end: The fewer people on farms, equipped with more and bet ter tools and vastly better pro duction methods, were the world's most efficient pro ducers of food and fiber. In 1950, the average Ameri can farm worker produced enough to support himself and nearly 14 other persons. By 1959, the average farm worker was turning out enough to support himself and 24 others. In contrast, the average farmer in the Soviet Union produces enough to feed himself and just one other person. To take advantage of the production potential in new machines and methods, farm ers expanded their operations through the 1950s. In the pro cess, small farms were swal lowed up by the hundreds of thousands. 5.6 Million Farms The census bureau counted more than 5.6 million farms in 1950. A 1959 count still un derway was expected to show a decline of substantially more than one million farms during the decade. The acreage of the remain ing farms was, of course, growing each year. In 1950 the average farm had 215 acres. In 1954 it was up to more than 240 acres. The cur rent census will show another big jump. Some of the small farmers who sold out or leased their land to neighbors did so through choice because they saw a chance for better pay in business or industry. Others were forced out as heavy pro duction shoved farm prices down while costs especially on smaller units with less machinery rose relentlessly. In 1950, total farm produc tion costs were estimated at about S19 billion. In 1959, total production costs on a much smaller number of farms were up to an all-time high of about $26 billion. And net farm income, sliding 15 per cent in 1959 after a rela tively good year in 1958, threatened to keep the farm problem alive as a major po litical issue even though the farm vote was dwindling in numbers and influence. Political Force When the 1950s began, farmers were still counted an important political force. President Harry S. Truman was in the middle of the term he won by his surprise victory over Thomas E. Dewey. An important factor in that upset, many politicians believed, was Truman's success in exploit ing the unhappiness among Midwestern farmers over the way the Republican 80th Con gress voted on grain storage bills. The farm bloc in the Con gress was still strong at the beginning of the decade. Re publicans from the corn-hog belt and the wheat states had close working ties with Demo crats from the cotton, tobacco and peanut sections of the South. A decade later, partly through the persistence of the Eisenhower Administration's two-term Secretary of Agri culture, Ezra Taft Benson, the power of the farm bloc had been greatly reduced and farm price supports were sub stantially lower. Benson weaned some farm belt Republican lawmakers away from their historic al liance with the Democrats on farm affairs, and won the backing of some House Demo crats from city districts. The result was that, with the ex ception of tobacco, farm price supports in 1959 were at the lowest level of the decade, al though Congress rejected ad ministration proposals for fur ther cuts this year. Results Studied The political results of this course, past and future, were being studied closely in both parties as the decade closed. Democrats had gained strength in traditionally Re publican farm areas in the 1954, 1956 and 1958 elections, and many farm belt Republi cans have blamed this trend on farmer resentment against the Benson programs of lower price support and fewer pro duction controls. Benson's department esti mated that net farm income would be down about Sll bil lion this year compared with the 1950 figure of $12,857, 000,000 and the 1951 total of more than $14 billion. The Administration took some comfort from the fact that the per capita income of the American farmer is up to about $1,040 for 1959 - in cluding some $300 of non farm income - compared with a per capita average of $838 in 1950. But despite the fact that the farmers still left in agricul ture are averaging more be cause there are fewer of them than a decade ago, the in crease has not kept pace with the vast growth in farm in vestment. This investment, valued at $133 billion a dec ade ago, is now estimated at more than $208 billion. ' And the average farmer, trapped by his ability to pro duce more and more each year, lost ground through the MAIL TRIBUNE, Medford. Or. Thursday, Jan. 28, 1960 decade compared- with the average city man. In 1950, per capita income for farm people was 53 per cent of the income of the average non farm citizen. In 1959 econo mists estimate the farm per capita figure will be less than half the income of the aver age non-farm resident. OSC Foresters Set Annual Events Corvallis - The Oregon State college school of fores try will hold its 28th annual Fernhopper Day and banquet Feb. 20 with more than 500 foresters, lumbermen and loggers from throughout the Northwest expected to attend. The all-day program will include a special display of forestry equipment planned by the Society of American Foresters, and open house and research reports at the school of forestry and the Oregon Forest Research Center, the state-owned research center lo cated adjacent to the campus. The Fernhopper banquet, one of the west's largest gath erings of foresters, has been scheduled at 5 p.m. this year so those attending may see the OSC-University of Washing ton basketball game later that night. Eliot Jenkins, president of the West Coast Lumberman's association, will be banquet speaker. Gold Hill Scouts To Continue Drive Gold Hill-Boy Scout Troop No. 43 will continue to collect bottles to raise enough funds to purchase one American flag and one Boy Scout flag for the troop, according to Clayton Netzel, assistant Scoutmaster. Netzel said he and Scout master James Coward wished to express their appreciation to everyone who donated to the drive last Saturday. Others who wish to donate bottles may telephone Cow ard at ULrich 5-1388 or Net zel at ULrich 5-1318. The two ' men will make arrangements to assist the Scouts with pick ing up the bottles this Saturday. St. Peter's in Rome is the world's largest cathedral, cov ering 18,000 square yards. 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