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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1961)
Kennedy's First MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON TUESDAY. MAY 2. 19S1 Eftlton Note: On Jin. Id, mi, a onfldent young man the vounr. - ever elected to the American prenuency loon over what 1 Ire. auently called the tourheit Inh in -the world. Today 100 dayi later 2" iiunn r. Kennedy naf thoroughly tested the meaninr nf that t.rriti. tlon. What have theie 100 dayi .fceen like? How have they teited the new President? How hai he iivuuEa mi we enormoui cnal- lenref Of a world rnnv1ail lth Senile? Unlt.d Preii InternaUonal ulfned to the Uik or appralilnc atheie 100 dayi a warn ol Ite top Washlncton expert men who i.have obierved the new Chief Ex--ecutlve In action dally. Herewith It their comprehensive review of - nenneay-g nrst loo days. ; Washington (UPD Presi dent Kennedy finished his -first 100 days in office today. , They have been days of -bright promise, of great chal lenge, of deep agony. : The young President's trou bles are as big as the world, f as far-reaching as outer space. His administration, symbol ically born in a blizzard, has -ifceen riding the fury of a 'world in turmoil. Jl Wherever he looked beyond i,the three-mile limit, he saw -signs of crisis - in Cuba, Laos, iyiet Nam, the Congo, France and in nuclear test negotia tions teetering on the verge ipf collapse. ji At home his domestic pro gram and the national econo- f"my were moving sluggishly. The United States suffered "ttwo damaging blows to Its prestige last month. The So viet union won tne race to riput a man in space. Then -came defeat for the U.S.-ap-3roved effort to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro in -Cuba. ' By every meter of public . 'opinion, the new President's Ijdisplay of energy and deter--jnination has won him person al popularity. The same re corders have indicated that he l3ias failed to instill in Con gress and the country that J"sens of urgency" he talked labour last year. J" He has moved aggressively c"ln foreign affairs, searching :for ways to build western uni 'ty and power against the So viet Union. Except for the -Initial failure in Cuba and " growing pressure in Laos, he can ask for more time before 7 the results are assessed. ( : On the domestic front, he has fired a score of messages 'to Congress. Where possible, ,. he also has moved by execu tive action - to feed money i into the sputtering economy, 1 to open jobs with government and private contractors for V Negroes and other minorities. ' His goals are economic recov ery, greater national econom ic growth and expanded wel fare programs. ', Here is the aDDraisal In 1m- , port areas by members of i UPI's Washington staff: f THE WHITE HOUSE J . By Merriman Smilh 4 The mood of the new ad t ministation shifted quickly during its first 100 days, from J ihe elation of the inaugural , period to tension over Cuba and Laos, deep concern over t Jhe domestic economy,.chagrin at Russian success in putting tthe first man into space, the i sudden eruption of a new )Franch crisis. Kennedy and those around 4 him met the challenges with ihard work and long hours. Jhe President followed a pun ' ishing pace. He thought noth f ing of 12-hour days. Some , .staff members worked even .longer. Kennery amazed vet t eran WhiteHouse employees iy returning to his office dur ' 'ing the evening, even after a 'Jong day. On several occas t 'ions, he returned to his office rafter midnight. ,' Before inauguration, Ken Jnedy was determined not to get into personal d 1 p 1 o- rnacy and foreign travel early Iln his administration. In of-J-fice, however, the internation , al facts of life changed his mind. He found himself play- Ing host to a stream of foreign ' leaders and he planned two strips out of the country in May to Canada and France, d If there was one descrip tive word for the first 100 ,tiays at the White House, it t was "active." Errors were ' .made, as in the case of Cuba, J but Kennedy and those around i pirn kept driving toward '. jloble but elusive goals that J have eluded other Presidents - stable prosperity and dur .'able peace. FOREIGN POLICY i By Stewart Hentltf Kennedy has been trying to let guidelines for long-range 'policy while hampered by the " need to deal immediately with 'ca series of crises. There has been intensive review and re- '. assessment of all policies ' punctuated by specific actions . forced by the swift pace of i developments. '.I The President won British 1 and German approval of his ,' program for strengthening i NATO. U.S. allies generally ' Jike his calm and non-belliger-'' ent, but firm, approach to , dealing with Soviet Premier t.Nlkita S. Khrushchev. But a ' bigger test comes when he ' meets Charles de Gaulle next . month to try to persuade the r French president to abandon ''his present policy of non ' cooperation with NATO and I'the United Nations. And he ' Will le meeting with a de Gaulle beset by grave new ioroblems of his own. lays in 'Toughest Job in the World 100 vlded immediate tests of Ken nedy's mettle in international affairs. He won at least tem porary success when a firm U.S. stand against Soviet at tempts to wreck United Na tions effort in the Congo won support of majority of Asian and African countries. The final outcome is still unpre dictable. Kennedy's firm support of the royal Lao government against further Communist military inroads, presumably backed with force if neces sary, won a pause in fighting and enabled the British to undertake diplomatic efforts. The situation had deteriorated so far -that Kennedy felt he would h a v e to settle for a coalition government giving pro-Communists some repre sentation. The anti-Castro invasion of Cuba presented a delicate problem ,'n which Kennedy had to make clear the United States was not Intervening but supported the aims of the invaders. His blunt reaffir mation of U.S. intention to block Soviet intervention was an effort to show the problem as a Communist threat to the hemisphere. On more quiet fronts, the administration pursued pro grams aimed at strengthening relations with new African nations, increasing Latin American aid and stimulating more Western aid to under developed areas. INTELLIGENCE By Donald May The methods of gathering and evaluating military intel ligence gave Kennedy one of his major problems and were involved in the ill-fated Cu ban invasion cttempt. Most administration offi cials blamed the failure of the Cuban rebel assault on a two-fold intelligence misjudg ment of Premier Fidel Cas tro's strength: . 'Underestimation of Cas tro's police state control over the people, which prevented a local uprising. Underestimation of his military strength, mobility of forces and their will to fight. f Officials said Castro had more planes and more artil lery than anyone had thought. How such a misjudgment could happen for a small coun try close to American shores was the subject of searching government review. Other officials denied there were any intelligence miscal culations and said the failure was one of military tactics, In any case, the whole ma chinery of intelligence-gathering, evaluation, and decision-making were made the subject of a special study headed by Gen. Maxwell Taylor. At the center of the dispute was the Central Intelligence Agency, formed after World War II and headed by Allen W. Dulles. The Kennedy ad ministration expressed con fidence in Dulles, but took a hard look at his agency's ma chinery and its ties with the rest of the government. LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM By Raymond Lahr After a slow start, consist ent with the perennial climate in Congress, the Kennedy leg islative program has begun to move. Nearly all of the big tests still lie ahead. , As an alumnus of both the House and Senate, with 14 years of experience in Con gress, the new President lias maintained close and usually cordial relations with the lawmakers. Except in the early battle over reform of the House rules, he has tried to avoid excessive pressure. He has settled for half a loaf rather than none. Major completed action in cludes Senate ratification of the organization of economic cooperation and development and enactment of bills dealing with supplemental unemploy ment benefits and feed grain prices and production. Sev eral other major bills have been pushed close to final pas sage. The lawmakers have barely started or prepared to start work on controversial items on which the outlook is cloud ed. These include aid for edu cation, new farm and housing programs, proposed changes in highway and business taxes and higher postal rates. No action has been schedul ed in either chamber on the Kennedy health program, in eluding his disputed plan to finance health care for the aged under the Social Securi ty system. As the first Roman Catholic in the White House, the Pres ident found himself in the middle of an argument that threatened his entire program of aid for education. The hier archy of his church said some of the benefits should go to parochial schools. Kennedy said such action would be un constitutional. ECONOMIC POLICY By Edward Cowan Although the Kennedy ec onomic program is considered modest by Democrats of lib eral persuasion, it has bumped iito resistance. The President held off ask ing for tax reduction or mas sive public works spending on the basis of advice that the re cession probably would end in the spring. It seems to have touched bottom. Kennedy did order some speedup in present public works projects and in pay ments for tax refunds and GI insurance dividends. Econo mists generally feel these moves had only a slight ef fect on business. Another administration move to feed money into the economy was the proposal for supplemental unemployment insurance benefits. This was one of the first major bills through Congress. The President sent Con gress new budget estimates, showing federal spending at $80.7 billion for this fiscal year. This left a deficit of $2.2 billion compared to a ?79 million surplus forecast by Eisenhower. . For the next fiscal year, the revised Kennedy budget in dicated spending of $84.2 bil lion and a deficit of $2.8 bil lion compared to an Eisen hower estimate of a $1.4 bil lion surplus. The administra tion said the previous admin istration had underestimated spending and overestimated revenue. To speed up economic growth, the President asked Congress to approve a $1.7 billion tax cut to business in vesting in new plants and equipment. He would offset the loss with higher taxes on dividend income and with holding levies on interest and dividends. The Federal Reserve Sys-' tern was persuaded to aban don - at least temporarily -its long-standing policy of trading in only short-term se curities. Here the: goal has been to check the flow of gold abroad and to bring down long-term interest rates. The gold outflow stopped in mid - February but govern ment experts doubt that this problem has been solved. . NATIONAL DEFENSE By Charles Corddry The Defense department, in the words of Kennedy's March 28 budget message, Is embarked on a "fresh, clear course for our security in a time of rising dangers and persistent hope." Many ob servers call the fresh course only an elaboration and accel eration of Eisenhower defense policies. In the missile field, the new defense team found that there was no meaningful mis sile gap - that is, a Russian numerical superiority which would tempt the Reds to at tack. They concluded, as did their predecessors, that there was no gap in U.S. ability to deter global war. The new program, as re vealed so far, is based on two principles: There must be a retal iatory force so well protected that it can ride out an attack on this country and then dev astate Russia. The nation's convention al forces must be strengthen ed. This is intended to reduce the number of situations in which nuclear weapons might have to be used. The administration' appears also bent on developing guer rilla warfare forces in this country and helping other countries to do the same to combat subversion and Com munist guerrilla activities. The first new moves were to increase retaliatory forces and to make them less vulner able. The Pentagon proposed 29 Polaris missile submarines, 10 more than the Eisenhow er administration had sched uled. It planned increases in Minuteman missiles for bas ing in underground sites. It stepped up research on the bomber-carried Skybolt mis sile. And It planned to keep half the Strategic Air Com mand's bombers on 15-minute alert for takeoff instead of the present one-third. On the conventional arms and limited t war issues, jet transports were ordered for the Air Force to haul Army forces to trouble spots quick ly. Funds were asked for mod ernizing Navy ships and for a modest increase in procure ment of conventional weap ons. While the administration asked Congress to appropriate more than $2 billion above the Eisenhower budget, only $650 million would be spent in fiscal' 1062. The defense spending total is now project ed at $43.8 billion in fiscal 1962, the biggest m history, except in Wor.d War II. AGRICULTURE By Bernard Brenner The Agriculture depart ment has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the farm economy in three months. Eut this is intended to be just the beginning of a broad er assault on the problems of mounting farm surpluses and declining farm Income. The administration has sent Con gress its prescription for a long-range change in the farm economy. This is a new sys tem for developing programs to .adjust farm production to the market. The administration bill would authorize the secretary of agriculture, working with farmer committees, to devel op new commodity control and price support programs on a crop-by-crop basis. The plans would go to Congress for review. Those which did not involve controls could go into effect unless vetoed by either House within 60 days. Control plans could go into effect only if they won fur ther approval by two-thirds of the farmers voting in refer endum. Before sending that plan to Congress, the administration won passage of an emergency bill to raise 1961 price sup ports for corn and other feed grains. The bill was designed to cut feed surpluses by re quiring farmers who want supports to cut acreage in re turn for land-retirement payments. The boosts in feed grain administrative action to In crease farm income by raising supports for other major prod ucts including milk, cotton, rice, peanuts, soybeans, flax, and dry beans. To give farmers springtime) cash, the administration tap ped reserves to Increase feder al farm credit funds, and eas ed credit regulations. . It also moved to expand its food donations to the needy at home and its food-for-peac supports were coupled with program abroad. f COMPETITIVE f 71 I prices f VAIIB7T7. , I plus ,mvlir) V QUALITY VMP1 J The R. A. Holmes Agency ; SINCE 1909 Medical Center Bldg. Phone SP 2-4444 fTWE City of NEW YORK is im,qus-it is IX I a nation within a NATION, Its inhobi Tonr5,of which there ore Some 8,000,000, ate called MEW YORKERS. This MAPU presented.after patient mearch.as a com- .petite of the NEW YORKERS idem . concerning THE UNITED STAKES ' ..... A ' j . fx. "- v r -?. v : . h. ' 5S v- -Iin 1 '.' ov-vir-jjH5' jrv V ! v LBT THEM SPEAR We have axmns in the Wt -"Hier li in Wit- mtnqbn, Dlawore. He is moir) to Dallas So ht can be near his little MothrmflRuo Indiana was an Indian Reservation i "until just recently, VWMn'f it? ; So yoo ate rnovinq y Indianapolis: you must let me jieyou o letter To my niece in plioneapoiia. ' Ohyes! he entered the Maralbon owim from Los Anqeles To Hawaii -7 f-7 .c-BF7r, P 'I v MP8? ' 1 -v. . eook -v-jyb .'INN' t'!V4U- 111 H r- II 1 .t ttr " -tU VI V -7 I ! J I I 7 r H ..0yX 31? W VJ - V. . A r ..- GEORGIA, v '-T ' ffW THE UNITED STATES 5f WWj ; ' OF AMERICA ; , W tr'i j c"r2!rji .tl-iJ'"!r..!&1!.. " Sl" Ch'"'0' I11'"0' ' ! 4 A!TVK ''V' Jo uewwitK vom.tarit 1 1 "i L2JU If you're not a native of the Northwest (and one out of every three of us came here after World War II), you know just how true this map is. And un-funny. Thousands of otherwise enlightened Americans still regard New York as the center of the solar system, and Portland as a trading post somewhere south of Sitka! In drawing up their vacation plans, these people unfortunately rule out the Northwest as an isolated wilderness accessible only by wagon train. Other than hometown pride, why should you care if these out-of-staters feel that way? The answer is basic dollars and sense. Tourists are Oregon's 3 industry. More than 6 million of these Easterners and Californians, and Midwesterncrs, and Southerners, and Canadians still manage to visit us every year, leaving behind 170 million good spendable dollars. They spend about $6 a day, or about $20 for the average family of 3.3 people. (Did you ever see 3l0ths of a tourist?) Suppose your community figures out a way to attract an additional 100 families per day for the 90-day tourist season. This could be the same thing as enticing a new industry with an $180,000 annual payroll! See what we mean? ' What can you do? Plenty! Turn State's witness. Be a one-man Chamber of Commerce. Make yourself Insufferable with your out-of-state friends. Be a "Texan." (You've certainly got more to shout about.) Tell the next Californian you see about our lakes and seashores and mountain peaks' and festivals and boorning cities and more. When you're traveling in other states this summer, proselyte for Oregon all the way. Spread some of our famous Oregon hospitality around. Convert these myopic out-of-staters into far-sighted Oregonians - maybe they'll bring their industries and their fat payrolls with them. Every new industry and every new family who moves here benefits all of us. We're with you! The men and women who work for Pacific Telephone Northwest (all 6.000 of us) have picked this state for our home. We're here for keeps. Like you, our future is invested in Oregon. Join us and the Chambers of Commerce and the State Government - in making this the most traveled, the most prosperous stute in the nation! ABOUT THE MAP: This marvelous factual fiction is the Inspiration of Minnesota-native Daniel K. Waiting ford who was amazed at how little New Yorkers knew about America. It is copyrighted and was published in 1939 by the Columbia University Bookstore. If you have any misguided out-of-state friends who plan to visit you this summer, give us their names and ad- , dresses and we'll send .hem a free reprint of thb ad and other informa tion about Oregon. Write: Economic and Industrial Development Office, Km. S01, 509 S.W. Oak Street, Port land 4. Or call CA 6-5978. Or contact your local Telephone Business Office. Left leU the world about Oregon I PACIFIC TELEPHONE NORTHWEST PT Or IN RAhO WiH ItU ITItfd Congo, Laos, and Cuba pro-
