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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1960)
From Oregon's Press -Oregon's newspapers are, generally, vigorous and well-edited. The following , are editorials, articles or column comment from various Oregon papers, quoted either in full or in part, and selected because of their general interest. Their publication does not Imply either approval or disapproval en the part of the Mail Tribune of the opinions given. ' The Hard Life Of the Liberal " The path of the liberal is a difficult one. Sometimes he looks at the conservatives, and even the radicals, with envy. For the conservatives, and often the radicals, know ex actly where their paths lead. There is seldom any ques tion of what to think, which way to vote. The way is well signed, with few paths lead ing off to deviations. But not so with the liberal. On every issue, as a new phase arises, he must reevalu ate his thinking if he is to keep a clear balance, an ob jective attitude, and act ac cordingly. For instance: , What are the real issues in the use of child labor in for eign factories that compete with the United States? Who is the best judge of whether the sand dunes of Oregon should or should not be made into a national park - with what boundaries? And how can we determine which argument is really in the pub lic interest and which is con cealed selfishness? What are the real truths in the arguments between business and labor, the state ments of politicians repre senting their various constitu encies, the differences be tween the law enforcers and the social workers? Every day the practicing liberal faces these and myriad other problems until the very process of morning awaken ing can become a challenge in itself. The brain grows tired. The mind becomes numb. And it is then the envy of the conservative (or the radi cal) grows. All the conservative has to do is exactly like his father did. Any small variations of thinking and conduct entail ed in being pulled toward the middle of the 20th century are ordained by a staunch bulwark of editorial and ad vertising advice in such pub lications as the Saturday Eve ning Post and U.S. News And World Report. The radical? " All he has to do is oppose the conservative, right down the line. His mind can be as closed as President William McKin ley's, just dressed in oppos ing colors. Who could blame the liber al for wanly wanting at odd, tired moments to join either rank for that safe, sure feel ing of being told exactly what to do, what to think, by lead ers who often haven't bother ed to do either in such a long time that they cannot re member if they ever did. It seems so invitingly relax ing, so nirvanish, to quote the Zens of modern beatnik Buddhism. But with relaxation comes again that itch that one think ing man diagnosed as the avocational disease of the true liberal. The itch to know for him self the true facts in the pan orama unfolding day by day. The itch to feel the actual experience of participation in the life going on about him rather than accept a watered down or over-emotionalized version of it from some self proclaimed leader. The itch to live, alert to every moment until death gets in the way. So he turns away again from the easy life he sees on either side and resumes ro tating his head, trying to look at all sides of all questions, hoping he will be able to evaluate and act intelli gently. It helps immeasurably if he has a sense of humor. - Robert W. Leedom in Coos Bay World. 'Now Lie In It!' From what I read in the papers, every property owner in Ashland should have been at Medford's annual Chamber of Commerce meeting the other night. Seems they had a speaker who told them what is wrong with their town; with colored pictures to prove it. And what goes double Ashland. he said there in spades for Among other recommenda tions, he suggested elimina tion of huge unsightly bill boards which hide and deface all natural beauty. If this expert thinks Med ford has billboards, he ought to take a trip on down to Ash land. We've got billboards telling people to read other bill boards. And the first ones cover up the second ones so that you've got to go around the block to see what you missed on the first ones. ..'. They have a place in Amer ican Life just like measles and whooping cough. Yes, I'm all for them if they are about two feet square and about a mile from the nearest road. On one of my first trips here I came out of a dense fog just north of town. Just in time to come face to face with a huge 30-foot cobra stretched across the landscape and apparently dripping venom all over my windshield. . I'll tell you that was a chill ing sight. Especially for a guy who is afraid of gopher snakes. And the sad part is that after the monster had appar ently flown the coop, so to speak, the sign lingers on. Hasn't anybody around here got a good chain saw? ' The expert also recom mended the use of paint and color to - accent or hide a city's good and bad points. Now before you apply that recommendation to Ashland, you've just got to give it a lot of consideration. I am reminded of a courte ous gentleman who, when walking down the street met a lady acquaintaince carrying her new baby. The infant was not cherub; in fact it was downright ugly. Mustering up his gallantry and realizing that some com ment was necessary, the gen tleman finally stammered: My, that certainly baby, isn't it! IS He's a Coward Every Other Year Every election year we learn what a low down coward we are. A fellow stops in for a visit and before the visit is con cluded he says, "I'm thinking of running for . What do you think my chances would be?" We proceed to talk all around the subject, never di rectly answering his. ques tion. We talk about who the candidates for the office may be, the issues likely to come up, if any, and the general political climate. By indirec tion we try to get through to him what we think his decis ion should be. But we don't come right out and tell him. We haven't always done this, however. We learned the hard way. In a couple cases we thought we knew the per sons well enough that we could give them direct an swers, tell them that we did not think they could win. We not only thought we could speak directly in answer to their questions but, because they were good friends, we owed them honest, direct an swers. We didn't want them to spend a lot of money and time and effort to no avail. In both cases it finally got through our thick skull that they really didn't want the answers we gave them. If we were not ready to encourage them to be candidates they didn't want us to answer their questions. In both cases good friendships cooled consider ably. One has been cool ever since. When the political bug bites him the victim can't be saved. He just has to run for office. No amount of think ing on the subject will change his decision. He knows that in every contest somebody has to lose. But he never sees himself in" the role of - the loser. So, in an election year we're a coward. Even if we think the odds against a man winning are 100 to I we don't say anything outright to dis courage him. Urgently as we may want to say to him, "It's for the best that you be told that you can't win. It will save you, a lot of heartache and money to forget it right now," we keep our lips but toned tight. Good friends are not easily come by. We will never again lose one by giving him politi cal advice he doesn't want. - J. W. Forrester in Pendleton East Oregonian. This 'Sorry' Age Walter Lippmann devoted a recent column to criticizing our economic objective to "maximize consumer goods." So intent are we on comforts we fail to support more vital programs for the national welfare. Eric Allen, referring in his editorial column of the Medford Mail Tribune, agrees with Lippmann's concern "about the self-satisfied, com placent, flabby, sanctimon ious, conforming attitude so prevalent t o d a y." Allen writes: "America today is becom ing a rather terrifying latter day Rome -eating, drinking, sleeping and playing while the Barbarians gather their forces and muster their strength." . There is truth in the charge that we are decidedly con formist in this day and age, also that we are more or less slaves to "modern conven iences." But part of this re action may be due to a "guilt complex." We are surprised at our own prosperity. We take it all in stride - power washing machines, television, motor boats, - but still think we must be cheating to have We really aren't as de praved as the Medford editor, following Lippmann, por trays. And as far as our "com petition" (the Soviet Union) is concerned its goals are turn ing more to what these crit ics condemn, consumer goods, with the time-payment plan to speed their distribution. America will not fall because we have pop-up toasters and electric razors .the wide spread of the comforts of life strengthens rather than weak ens our form of socio-economic organizations. Depriving the people of their gadgets would hardly make them better citizens. What we should do is turn the "guilt" feeling into per formance of good works, cul tivation of high standards of culture (not turning to the vacuum of the beatnik). We have many and great public works to perform, and can well divert part of our abun dance to such undertakings. Harvard College's recent in gathering of $82 million for its undergirding is a sample of what should be done, in proper scale, among other in stitutions. Huge contributions for medical research are an other. Our material goods should not reduce us to glut tony but spur us to higher achievement. - Oregon Stales man, Salem. Time To Heed Warnings The resignation of Dr. Har old M. Erickson as State Health Officer and the release of Oregon's comparatively dismal 1959 health record have caused many Oregonians to take another look at the state's defense against disease and death. And that, if there can be any consolation to jerking up roots and leaving one's home in mid-life, was clearly what the health offi cer hoped his letter of resig nation would accomplish. He admittedly was con cerned that some people might conclude Oregon's health record had suddenly gone into a tailspin, or that the state is now unhealthy in comparison to the rest of the nation. The 1959 health pic ture, Dr. Erickson empha sized, merely was an exten sion of a trend of the past several years. If last year's statistics are correctly viewed as "danger signals" indicat ing the need for more atten tion to our defenses, both Dr. Erickson and Governor Mark Hatfield point out there is no reason Oregon cannot quickly regain its traditional national Yes, you've just got to com pliment the Medford group for bringing in a man who will talk straight from the shoulder. As long as we are all apa thetic or worse; heedless to the aesthetic qualities which make life so much more pleas-' ant; and unwilling to speakj up for fear of jeopardizing j our quest for the almighty j dollar, we deserve what we ! usually get. j Like my old German pro fessor used to shriek when I became entangled in a hor rible sequence of verbs: "You haff buttered your bread, now lie in it!" -Edd Roundtree in Ashland Tidings. TUESDAY, FEB. 2ND 7:00 P.M. to 7:30 P.M. KBES-TV CHANNEL "The Dale Carnegie Story' Featuring I Lowell Thomas kAmm n 1.1 INVEST with CONFIDENCE at FIRST FEDERAL Your investment is insured to $10, 000 by an instrumentality of the U.S. Government. Earn healthy returns through current dividend at 4 per annum rate. Your investment is available for emergencies. It is our practice to pay withdrawals upon request. Invest NOW! FIRST FEDERAL Savings & Loan Assn. of Medford 29 North Ivy Street Robert F. Kyle, Manager leadership in the public health field. In any event, there certain ly is no reason for panic. We may have slipped, but we definitely haven't fallen, ex cept in a few areas, below the national average. What perhaps is a more serious implication of the whole affair is that such shock treatment would be necessary to awaken Oregon residents to the need for more attention to such a vital re source as their own health. As anyone knows who wit nessed the outpouring of af fection and esteem at his tes timonial banquet Deoember 30, there are precious few NEVER SAY DIE Springfield, Vt. (UPD- After George Connor wounded a 13 point, 210-pound buck, he had to wrestle the animal for sev eral minutes before it bled to death. ; men around with Dr. Erick son's ability to weld all the divergent official and volun tary interests in the health field into the smoothly-functioning team which has. car ried Oregon with remarkable success through one of the most difficult periods in its history. A state's public health rec ord invariably is exactly as good as the support given by its citizenry. That support is not necessarily always finan cial; it also is made up of such simple steps as each in dividual obtaining immuniz ations when asked to do so by health authorities. The finest tribute Oregon could give Dr. Erickson would be the resolution of each res ident to help restore the state to leadership in the health field. After 25 years of dedi cated and distinguished serv ice, he certainly has earned such a lasting memorial.-Or-egon Health Bulletin. Teamsters Express Confidence in Vote Officials of Teamsters lo cals in Medford and Klamath Falls are confident that the Teamsters Union will win if an election is held to deter mine whether ' grocery store clerks want to join the Retail Merchants association, accord ing to a story in the Oregon Teamster. The Retail Clerks associa tion has petitioned the Nation al Labor Relations Board for an election of grocery store employees in the two areas. If an election is granted by the NLRB, grocery employees will vote on whether they want the Teamsters or Retail Merchants association as their bargaining agents. Grocery store employees in Medford, Grants Pass, Ash land and Klamath Falls have been members of the Team sters union for more than 16 years, because the Retail Merchants association did not serve this area, the story said. The Oregon Teamster is the official publication of Joint Council No. 37, Portland. Confidence that the Team sters will win an election if one is scheduled was ex pressed at a meeting in Klam ath Falls recently when as pects of the change were discussed. MAIL TRIBUNE, Madford, Or. Sunday, Jan. 31, 1960 5: RECEIVES AWARD Eugene Robert W. Em mens, son of Mrs. Leah Emmens, 6 Modoc ave., Med-7 ford, has been awarded the Air Science I commendation J for superior classroom and . drill proficiency. 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