4 A
veryone In Southern Oregon
Reads fhe MaU Trlbun
KEfished Daily eicept Saturday bl
MEDFOHD PRINTING CO
83 North fir St.. Ph 8P2-6141.
ROBERT W RUHJU Editor
HERB GREY Advertising Manager
r.vnii rt t Latham Bua Mar.
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EARL H ADAMS, City Editor
HARRY CHIPMAN. Teleg Editor
RICHARD JEWETT. SporU Ed.tol
OLIVE STARCHER. Women Editor
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An rndnndent Newspaper
Entered aa second elais matter at
Medford. ureeon, unoer n .
March 3. IB97
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Flight or Time
Medford and Jackjon County
History from the files of The
Mail Tribune 10, 20, 30, 40
and 50 years ago.
10 YEARS AGO
April 29, 1952 (Tuesday)
Medford settled down today
to a mostly - uncomplicated
routine on Pacific standard
tlmc- .
California's Gov. Earl War
ren will open his campaign
for Oregon's Republican pref
erential primary election vote
for president in Medford on
May 5, it was reported today.
20 YEARS AGO
April 29, 1942 (Wadnatday)
Civilian employees who
work throuRh rain storm in
effort to keep Camp White
construction program on
schedule commended by army
officers.
From Arthur Perry's "Ye
Smudge Pot" column: "A
shortage now looms of saw
dust for fuel, but breakfast
food so far has not been af
fected."
30 YEARS AGO
April 29. 1932 (Friday)
Crater Lake highway open
ed up nine miles beyond Un
ion Creek; large crowd ex
pected to visit area.
Uniled Slates secretary of
Interior approves plans for
promotion of "Sparrow Me
morial" park on approach
road to Crater Lake National
park.
40 YEARS AGO
April 29, 1922 (Saturday)
Survey shows that average
cost per day in Oregon of
maintaining a family of five
persons is $1.47.
Moore Hamilton, Cent r a 1
Point, wins boys Class C 50
yard dash at county track
meet.
50 YEARS AGO
April 29, 1912 (Sunday)
Jackson county court or
ders construction of $40,000
bridge across Bear creek on
Main St. in Medford; o 1 d
Main st. bridge to be moved
to Jackson st.
Prof. P. J. O'Gara, Jackson
county pathologist, opens se
ries of experiments here to
ascertain effects of electricity
on plant life.
What's Your I.Q.?
Nina or ten correct It superior;
seven or eight is excellent; five or
six is good.
1. Which of these measures
denotes the greater linear dis
tance: rod, furlong, yard?
2. You are probably pro
ti'clod by the F.D.I.C.; what
Is it?
3. Was Confucius, the an
cient philosopher, Japanese
Chinese or Siamese?
4. Of what famous poem Is
the beginning: "This is the
forest primeval "?
5. Upon the death of Presi
dent Abraham Lincoln, who
succeeded to the Presidency?
6. In what town Is the Unl
versify of Michigan?
7. In t lie nursery rhyme
who climbed up the bean
stalk?
8. Does an owl see best In
bright sunshine, partial light,
or complete darkness?
9. From what animal is mo
hair obtained?
10. Of what religious body
was Brigham Young i famous
leader'
Answers: 1, Furlong. 2.
F d t r a 1 Deposit Insurance
Corp. 3. Chinese. 4. Longfel
low's Evangelint. 5. Andrew
Johnson. 6. Ann Arbor, Mich.
7. Jack, 8. Partial light. 9.
Angora goat. 10, The Mormons.
Km
SUNDAY. APRIL 29. 1962
What A Professor Does
A college professor, according to Chancellor
Roy Lieuallen, of the state system of higher edu
cation, has six jobs.
The first, obviously,
lecturing, stimulating discussion, and so on.
The second, equally
lectures or materials he will present to the class.
The third is in continuing his own education,
through study of publications in his own field,
attending meetings of professional societies, and
so on.
T'HE fourth is to make his own contribution to
his field. With the "explosion of knowledge"
on all fronts, the tasks of keeping up with it, and
contributing to it, take on more weight and mean
ing. Fifth, the professor, to be a good teacher,
must counsel and advise his students, discussing
their projects, advising them on courses of study,
and in some cases, listening to their personal
problems.
Finally, the professor is confronted with
evaluating the work of his students, reading their
papers and examinations, assessing their con
tributions to discussions, and determining his
progress and potential, as well as his mastery of
the subject matter.
CACH of these six jobs is exacting and time--
consuming. Each, to be done well, should re
ceive nearly equal emphasis and energy.
Chancellor Lieuallen said :
"All these elements of the professor's work have a
very direct bearing on his performance as a teacher,
and if any one of them is neglected long, the quality
of Instruction deteriorates."
Dr. Lieuallen's remarks were prepared for the
state board of higher education, in connection
with a report on how the colleges and univer
sities of the state coped with this year's shortage
of operating funds. The shortage resulted from
enrollments that were higher than predicted by
1 . i 1 ..il. . i t . . . I -.1 Jl J.1.
educational auinoruies, iar nigner man me gov
ernor's estimates, and way higher than the leg
islature guessed.
THE overcrowded institutions made as much
nca aa nnccil-ilo. nf nmpViiinir'nl rlovippa .enph n
ll.lt CIO J,U,1I)1U1 VJ 1 .1,1. Wlt.ll...... UUTlbvuj .".v-'.
TV; they limited enrollment in certain classes;
they eliminated some courses or postponed offer
ing them; they called on
part-time temporary help; and they overloaded
the faculty.
The last is the most significant, and wrought
the worst results.
Say a professor is teaching an English class
of 40 students, which suddenly becomes 60 stu
dents. If each does one
takes a half-hour of the professor s time to read
and grade each one, his weekly work-load sud
denly goes up 10 hours. If he has three such
classes, it goes up 30 hours. This example is hypo
thetical, but it gives the general idea.
And this is why the legislature must next year
make good for its mistake of last year. Mean
while, students are not getting the best possible
education. E.A.
The Right To Bear Arms
Before Congress is a bill which would require
that all firearms be registered with the FBI.
Sponsored by Rep. Victor Anfuso (D-N.Y.), it
is intended as a measure
quency and to combat
tne big cities.
According to Drew
ing fire from the "extremist lunatic fringe"
groups.
I he Minutenien, who train with firearms,
Dan Snioot, and others have assailed the bill as
iinAmerican and dangerous to our freedoms.
Rather to our surprise, we linn oursclt in
agreement with them on this one issue.
RANT, first, that firearms are perhaps too
casy to come by, particularly those who would
use them for illegal purposes.
(rant, too, that registration of firearms would
make the job of police and FBI somewhat easier
to do.
(Irani, also, that firearms are dangerous, and
that registration would provide a measure of con
trol and regulation now not possible.
Grant all these premises, and we still cannot
support such a bill, not as long as the U. S. Con
stitution says:
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the
serurily of a free stale, the right of the people to keep
and bear arms shall not be infringed."
Many states (including Oregon) require that
when a weapon is carried "concealed" the bearer
must have a permit issued for that purpose. In
Oregon, the sheriff is the permit - issuing
authority.
IT HAS always seemed to us that the permit re-
qtiirenient does, indeed, "infringe" on the
constitutional right to keep and bear arms, but it
has been judicially interpreted otherwise.
Still, registration of ail firearms .122s, hunt
ing guns, marksmanship rifles, and all is not
in the American tradition, no matter how much
it would help combat crime.
If registration is necessary, a law is not the
way to do it. The way to do it would be to amend
the Constitution to nullify the Second Amend
ment. But it seems to us that the case for registration
is not strong enough to
is teaching his class
obvious, is preparing the
graduate assistants or
paper a week, and it
against iiivenile delin
the increasing crime in
Pearson, the bill is draw
merit that. E.A.
Dennis the
w mis
I - VUIf - I III
' But, s. Hakris,xi phomisipto siTwrn) Dennis; What? bu
mttanofWftttWiOH.ioiKMW
Matter of Fact
(c) New York Herald
WHAT THE RADARS SAW
Saigon, South Viet Nam
At the time of the full moon
in March, the A m e r ic a n
watching ra
dars in this
c o u n try ob
served anight
para chute
drop in a wild
area of the
South Victna
m e s e high
lands near
Pleiku. The
Alsnp
planes em
ployed appeared to be three
Ilyushin transports of the
slow type the Soviets have
passed on to their satellites,
with escort by the Yak propeller-driven
fighters of the
same hand-me-down sort.
Monitoring stations further
more heard the Diane crews
speaking both Chinese and
Vietnamese.
The parachute drop, though
small in scale, was a warning,
as the first known episode of
this type. It was also signifi
cant for two other reasons.
On the one hand, it under
lined the increasing Chinese
participation in the aggres
sive enterprises of the North
Vietnamese Communists. This
is also evident in Laos. On
the other hand, this parachute
drop, obviously occasioned by
some sort of special emergen
cy, also pointed up the larger
problem of concealed inva
sion. IjVDR a great many months,
men and supplies have
been moving from North Viet
Nam into South Viet Nam by
the slower overland route
through Laos. The movement
of supplies, by truck or air
nlane to the Laotian town of
Tchepone and then by coolie
across the border, is not mas
sive as yet. The human move
ment is variously estimated
to be 500 to 1,000 men per
month which may not
seem verv Important until you
add up the total for the past
24 months.
It would seem to be a con
servative estimate that at least
12.000 North Vietnamese have
entered South Vietnam in the
last two years. Of these, be
tween one-half and two-thirds
have fanned out into the prov
inces, to serve as leaders in
the unending guerrilla war.
The rest, amounting to at
least 4,000 men, have moved
Into the Annamile chain
the almost trackless spine of
mountains which divides the
highland plateau on the Laos
border from the fertile sea
side strip of South Viet Nam.
In their refuges in the Anna
mite chain, the men of this
latter group are almost cer
tainly being used to form the
skeletons of regular regiments
of guerrillas with light b u t
powerful weapons.
rilE units being formed in
the Annainite chain m a y
soon constitute a very serious
threat, especially to the high-
Try and
By BENNETT CERF-
IX HOLLYWOOD, Herb Stein
nothing to get excited about
darling. It simply means she
Herb also tells about the
producer who, when ho
was a very, very poor lad
In Brooklyn, vowed that
If he ever made good, he
would remember his
childhood. Nowhc'swrit
ten, directed, and pro
duced a picture that cost
ten zillion dollars and
true to his vow, it's a
very, very poor picture.
e
An advertising man sud
denly noticed that the kids
In his nelKhborhood were
treating him with a defer
ence that bordered on reverence. Boya ""'l Str' bessn coming
from blocks away to ga at him in awo a he fumtleU for hia
The explanation came when one little girl, bolder than the rest,
tugged at hia coat and denuuiJevL "Are you really and tru- a
space aalesraaa ?"
MLUr OHU MAIL
Menace
By Joseph Alsop
Tribune Syndicate
land plateau provinces. The
seizure of Kontum, for in
stance, would give the Com
munists both a bridgehead on
this side of the border for
their Ho Chih Minh trail
through Laos, and a chance to
proclaim the formation of a
"people's government" on the
soil of South Viet Nam. But
the real point to note about
this concealed invasion of
South Viet Nam is that what
has happened to date is down
right trifling compared to
what may come later on.
Suppose, for instance, that
the U. S. policy in Laos pro
duces the result that seems so
sadly likely, the precise oppo
site of the "neutral" Laos
that U. S. policy is designed
to produce. Suppose that in
this extremely un - neutral
Laos the Communists can car
ry their supply road down
from Tchepone to Saravane
and Attopeu. Attopeu is only
two days' march from Kon
tum and only four days'
march from the Annamite
chain.
A single coolie can carry
60 pounds on his back plus
enough rice around his mid
dle to sustain him for a 10
day round trip. After allow
ing for rest and replacement,
a mere 500 coolies based on
Attopeu could lay down a ton
of supplies a day in the An
namite chain. That Is more
than enough for a North Viet
namese division.
Full Communist organiza
tion of the supply routes
through Laos would therefore
have two quite automatic con
sequences. First fo all, even
while coolie-power was still
used exclusively, the shorter
distances to be covered would
allow a really major move
ment of supplies. Second, the
supplies being available, the
movement of men could also
be greatly increased. This,
one may be reasonably sure,
is why the Communists con
tinue to expect to win the war
in South Vict Nam, despite
the powerful intensification of
the American effort,
IN REALITY, however, this
A intensification of the Amer
ican effort amounts to a com
mitment, final and irrevoca
ble, not to permit a Commu
nist victory here. Hence any
one who has studied the situ
ation in both Laos and this
country is obsessed by a com
parison of risks.
The risk of a change of the
present American policy in
Laos may be considerable. But
this risk is still far smaller
than the risk of bombing Ha
noi or doing the other things
that may have to be done if
the situation in South Viet
Nam gets out of hand as a
result of Communist success
in Laos.
I In sum, our Laos policy and
J out South Vietnamese policy
i appear lo be flatly contrariic-
lory; and as the latter cannot
J he re-examined, the Laos pol
I icy clearly needs to be.
Stop WVe
pauses to remind you there's
when a pretty girl calls you
can't remember jour name.
ub nn
'1H1BUNL. McutOttU. OHCUON
Drummond Reports
(Walter Liapman Is in Europe.
Washington in his absence.) e) 1962 New York Herald Tribune Inc.
WHY NEUTRALS PROTEST
Washington There is no
reason why we should be
pained or impatient or even
exasperated because many sin
cere people in many nations
are more critical of the Unit
ed States when we test nu
clear weapons in the air than
they are of the Soviets when
they test.
The extremes of this criti
cism, which take the form of
hurling rocks at U. S. em
bassies and breaking windows
of USIA libraries, are organ
ized by Communists. But
much of it is earnest and
honest.
There is an understandable
psychological reason.
The reason, I think, is that
neutralist leaders have come
to realize that they cannot
influence one iota the actions
and attitudes of the Kremlin;
hence, they turn by necessity
to a one-sided effort to in
fluence the United States
where they know that public
opinion is viewed with re
spect. When the neutralists see
that they cannot influence the
country they most fear, which
is Russia, they center their
hopes and their pressure upon
the country they most trust,
the U. S. Very few of them
would want America militari
ly weak and Russia militarily
strong. What they vaguely
and wishfully hope Is that, if
the flexible United States will
concede a little more to the
inflexible Soviet Union, some
how the arms race can be
brought to an end.
I am not suggesting that
this neutralist opinion is right.
It is perilously misguided. I
believe we should ignore it
-completely. But there is nn
reason to ignore it impatient
ly or with any animus.
WHILE the U. S. tests in the
Pacific are in progress,
it will be well for the whole
world to keep the Soviet rec
ord in view:
1 For years the Soviet
propaganda apparatus pro
claimed to the world that if
only the U. S. would stop
testing, then the Soviets could
do the same and there would
be no more hazard from radio
active fallout. We did, on Oct.
31, 1958. Last fall the Soviet
Union exploded in the at
mosphere a massive megaton
bomb equivalent to 55,000,
000 tons of TNT with all the
consequent radioactive fall
out. 2 On the eve of the
Geneva test ban talks in late
1958 the Soviet government
said it would abide by a three
power test moratorium during
the negotiations. They stated
they would never resume test
ing if the U. S. and Britain
did not resume. We now know
that while we were negotiat
ing at Geneva, the Soviets
were secretly preparing to
test. On Sept. 1, 1961, they
broke the moratorium, which
we were observing, to conduct
more than 50 tests in the at
mosphere. 3 In the wake of this
action they sought to trap the
United States into another un
inspected test moratorium
which they knew from expe
rience we would observe and
which we knew from experi
ence they were willing to
violate.
PRESIDENT Kennedy said
no. There was no other
prudent or safe decision which
he could take.
We do not welcome the ne
cessity of resuming testing.
But when the President, the
Secretary of Defense, the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the
'American
By ERIC SEVAREID
Get ready, self-conscious
America, to bleed from yet
another self-inflicted wound.
Fvit S?A most PerccP-
jj-ajr- r-i-i live of con-
V.. m.
t e m p o r ary
F r e n c hmcn
has said of the
United States.
"A n y writer
who bitterly
denounces the
ilk
ices of this
sevarrid country is lis
tened to with sspecial care
and sorrowful appreciation,
though he hurts . . . and the
writer who admires and prais
es this country has the nice
qualities of a gratifying
friend, to be sure, but is con
sidered softheaded."
So we sorrowfully accepted
the notion that affluence has
fastened the spirit of material
ism upon us. failing to notice
that in no other country do
riches alone produce so little
respect, that no other people
shows such a compulsion to
give their riches away. i
We accepted the notion of
the "orcanization man." as if
a new stylized personality cs-1
s-ence had come into being, a
concept as false as that of ,
"economic man" or "socialist '
man." We accepted the notion ,
of the brutishly ignorant i
"ugly American" abroad, un-1
aware that no other foreign
emissaries, in the round, show
the same degree of humble
Roscoa Drummond reports from
Chairman of the Atomic En
ergy Commission conclude
that It is vital maintaining the
balance or military power
with the Soviets, I cannot see
how any American can knowl
edgeably say that it isn't.
Nothing would be more wel
come to the American gov
ernment and to the American
people than to have the So
viet Union accept an inspect
able test ban as a beginning
toward ending the arms race.
It is no inspection if the
Soviets alone are to certify
whether or not they are ob
serving the agreement. That
is the only kind of "inspec
tion" they say they will ac
cept. If the Soviet Union could
get repeated extensions of a
test moratorium without in
spection, there is no incentive
for them to accept a test ban
with inspection. Therefore,
the prospect of a test ban
with inspection may even be
improved by the U
S. tests
which are now going forward.
In the Day's News
By FRANK JENKINS
What of our nuclear tests?
This seems to be the pic
ture: THE world outside the com---
munist bloc reacted with
a minimum of anger.
The Rusians, of course, ac
cused us of "bringing man
kind nearer to the abyss of nu
clear war." Soviet Delegate
Zorin told the 17-nation dis
armament conference in Ge
neva that the U. S. is challeng
ing the whole world with its
explosion of a nuclear device
over the Pacific. "The U.S.,"
he said, "has thrown away its
mask. It is unleashing a fresh
arms race, and is bringing the
world nearer to the abyss of
nuclear war."
Red China muttered angrily
that "these tests herald a new
phase in U.S. nuclear arms ex
pansion." BUT much of the rest of the
world took the news of
the testing calmly, with little
violence, few demonstrations
and restrained comment.
Newspaper comment in Brit
ain, West Germany, Denmark,
Holland, and Italy generally
backed the U. S. resumption
of testing.
Even in Japan, the only na
tion in the world that has
know the horrors of nuclear
bombing, expected demonstra
tions by extreme left-wing,
communist-leaning students in
Tokyo failed to materialize in
the size that had been ex
pected. F
a. II
JAPAN, when the U.S.
intention to resume nuclear
testing was first announced,
there was an interesting reac
tion from the English-language
newspaper Japan
Times, published in Tokyo. It
said:
"The Japanese people re
gret as much as anyone the
imminent resumption of nu
clear tests by the United
States, but it is dificult for
sensible men here, as else
where, to say that this de
cision is unwarranted by cir
cumstances . . . While the
present international tensions
exist, it is not safe for the
United States, as the leader of
the free world, to fall behind
the Russians in this matter of
the potentialities of nuclear
warfare."
LET'S put it this way:
Communist Russia's un -
Image1 Talk Is Nonsense
defference to tne views and
values of "the natives'' that
most of our agents exhibit.
Now we are told in a new
book, "The Image, or What
Happened to the American
Dream," that we are becom
ing walking zombies, lost to
reality, living a mirror-life
of pseudo-experience. We are
indulging in "tourism," not
travel, replacing fame with
mere celebrity, treating pseudo-events
as news, preferring
reprints to originals, the cor
porate "image" to the corpo
rate function - fabricating
facsimiles of life, that is. even
to the artifice of trying to
project a "national image'' in
the world and appointing
commissions to re-conjure the
"national purpose" which sup
posedly faded away when we
weren't looking.
This indictment, brilliantly
stated within its limits by
Daniel Boorstin. is likely to
be accepted as another bright
coin in the common currency
of upper-middlebrow dinner
party talk. Some will agree
with all of It; all will asree
with some of it. (I suspect I
contributed to the concept my
self with a widely reprinted
piece some years ai;o auout
pseudo-news and tne "pub
licity saints.") The theme it
self will become part of the
"conventional wisdom" for a
time. Then it will be put
aside because, even were it
true, it is. like pure pain, in
supportable to the nervous
system.
POTLUCK
(By M-T Staff and Contributprs)
Dear Potluck Editor:
Pier Tiiree, never a quiet
place at best, has been in an
uproar all this week-again.
The trouble -maker this
time is Bla '(jack Hibbard.
I've not mentioned him in
my letters before, but he is a
very big man along the pier.
People say he is absolutely
loaded.
Blackjack (he picked up
that nickname because in the
old days he used to have the
deplorable habit of bludgeon
ing anyone who got in his
way) Hibbard owns a fleet of
garbage scows and barges
which tie up at the pier.
He encountered some prob
lems lately because he has
been expanding his fleet
(there is lots of garbage in
San Francisco) and he has run
out of room along the pier lo
tie up his barges.
But Blackjack has a very
adulterated buncombe and
baldcrbash about U. S. re
sumption of nuclear testing
can be expected to have con
siderable effect on the ignor
ant, the prejudiced and the
RADICAL. We can't hope to
avoid that. But all the SENSI
BLE people in the world, no
matter where they live, must
be quite aware that it was
COMMUNIST RUSSIA that
first resumed nuclear tcsting
with BIGGER bombs than had
been imagined before. That
fact just simply CAN'T be
concealed. It stands in the rec
ord. My personal conviction is
that there are more reason
able, sensible people in the
world than we are sometimes
inclined to think. Let's go
even farther than that. EVEN
IN RUSSIA, there must be
sensible, reasonable people
who know that all the fault in
this resumption of testing bus
iness doesn't lie with the Unit
ed States. Russians of the
higher type have pretty good
minds. They must know who
started the testing again.
The cranks and the radicals
SOUND OFF. The wiser,
sounder ones keep still.
ANYWAY
We know we were right
in our resumption of nuclear
testing.
If you lived out in the for
est wilderness, among savage
beasts and perhaps even more
savage men who were bent on
your destruction-
And if your only protection
in such a world was a gun you
had fired only ONCE, and that
many years ago, and if you
didn't know whether your am
munition would even GO OFF
when put in the gun
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
You know what you would
do. You would test your gun
and your ammunition.
You would be a fool if you
didn't.
Mt. Shasta Firm Buys
Klamath Forest Timber
Yreka - Ralph L. Smith, Di
vision of Kimberly Clark Cor
poration, Mt. Shasta, submit
ted the only bid on 3.500,000
board feet of pine and cedar
timber in the Hebron Summit
unit of the Goosenest working
circle.
Total advertised value and
the bid value were the same,
1 S20.475.00.
It approaches the terrible
indictment of D. H. Lawrence,
who "w o n d e r e d whether
America really was the great
death-continent, the great No!
to the European and Asiatic
and even African Yes! , , and
all its people the agents of the
mystic destruction! Plucking
at the created soul in a man,
till at last it plucked out the
growing germ and left him a
creature of mechanism and
automatic reaction, with only
one inspiration, the desire to
pluck the quick out of every
living spontaneous creature."
But the "image" theme is
essentially untrue. There is
something deeply superficial
about it that is not a total
non-scquitur even though it
is not as spiritually profound
a profanation as the curse of
Lawrence.
The "graphic revolution" to
which Boorstin attributes
many of his evils is wave
action, not a sea change. The
anxious, relentless search for
spiritual certainties reflected
in American literature belies
tlic rc.ilty of tiie image life.
So docs the massive hunger
revealed in the public turn
toward pamtine. toward the
theater, toward the museums
of antiquities. So docs the
stumbling turn toward organ
ized religion, the dedd seri
ousness of much of the new
college generation, the rise
so astounding to Europeans
in the quality of American
clever (I might even say
crafty) mind, and he figured
out a plan to solve his park
ing problem.
He observed that there was
some space under the pier it
self that wasn't being used
for anything. He made tome
calculations and concluded
that for about $35,000 ha
could have the pier remodeled
so that his barges would fit
comfortably under it.
So far so good. But Black
jack had no intention of pay
ing for the project himself.
Not him!
He began spreading tha
word around that the pier
was in a terrible run-down
condition. He joined forces
with old Otto Phrumpmeicr,
whose troubles I have told
you about before, and the two
of them began screaming to
anyone who would listen that
creeping blight was absolute-
ly ruining the pier.
Now I'd have to admit that
the pier isn't in first-class
condition, Mr. Editor, but
gosh-all-hcmlock, it isn't as
bad as those two were able to
make it sound.
After they had everybody
all alarmed and excited, Hib
bard grandly came forward
with a plan which he said
would solve everything.
hat we all needed lo do,
he said, was to raise Pier
Three about six f. it so that
it would accommodate about
1..0 barges, scovs and small
craft underne "-. That would
cure the blight, he told us.
Several of us thought it
over, including Captain Blyc,
and we were hanged if ,a
could see how Blackjack's
"Resoration of Pier Three
Plan," as he called it, would
solve a darn thing. But ha
was such a big man that no
one wanted to argue with
him. Maybe they remembered
the old days.
He shored up his argu
ments by pointing out that
the installation of barge park
ing spaces was the only na
tural and logical use of all
that area under the pier.
Well, he sure had us there.
We all got down and looked
under the pier, and we had to
admit it didn't seem to ba
much good for anything else.
When he suggested, how
ever, that all the users of the
pier be assessed to pay for tha
project, some of the thriftier
souls, among them Captain
Blye, began to balk.
The recalcitrants met and
formed a commission to call
on Blackjack and tell him
they resented having to pay
for something that only ha
would benefit from.
Would you believe it, the
entire commission was found
floating BELLY-UP in San
Francisco bay the next morn,
ing?
That did it, I tell you, Mr.
Editor. Everybody clammed
up and kicked in.
Work on the restoration of
Pier Three starts next week.
Please give my best re
gards to all those fine folk in
Medford. At times like these,
I sometimes wish I were back
in a town where cooperation
really meant something.
Sincerely,
Earnest M. Cantwright
science and general scholar
ship, in the immense increa.s
in the reading of books. This
book itself, and the furious
argument it inspires, belie its
own theme of a widely per
vasive fake-life in America.
So does the very attempt to
restate the "American pur
pose," however embarassing
on one level this is.
It could, in fact, be argued
that what happened to tha
intrinsic American purpose or
ideal is simply that so many
Americans have been so busy
living it, realizing it. that it
has not occurred to them that
it needed fresh categorizing.
The author himself misses
the central reality of America
amidst the appearances that
he believes have become our
realities.
What is the central reality
of contemporary America? It
was stated by the foremen
tioned Frenchman, Jacques
Maritain. a few years ago:.
"... The people who lived
and toiled under this struc
ture or ritual of civilization
were keeping their ow n souls
apart from it . . they were
I lreedom-loving and mankind
loving people, people clinging
I to the importance of ethical
standards, anxious to save the
world, the most humane and
the least materialistic among
modern peoples which had
reached the industrial stage "
(Distributed 1962. by tht Hall
Syndicate. Inc.)
(All Rights Referred)