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Flight o' Time ,
Medford and Jackson County
History from th flies of The
Mall Tribune 10, 20, 30, 40
nd 50 years ago.
10 YEARS AGO
June 22, 19S2 (Sunday)
Two Rogue valley marines
express their approval of new
armored vests being used in
Korean war.
Alter 20 years in the city
hall, the offices of the Med
ford public schools have been
moved to a new location on
Monroe st., between Whitman
and J sts.
20 YEARS AGO
Jun. 22, 1942 (Monday)
Registration places listed by
local draft board for all Jack
son county men between 18
and 20 years old to register
for draft.
From Arthur Perry's "Ye
Smudge Pot" column: "The
public in its war news wants
the 'naked truth' not even
wearing a propaganda smile
or fig leaf."
30 YEARS AGO
Juna 22, 1932 (Wednesday)
Hottest day of the year
recorded as the thermometer
reaches 96 degrees.
State fire marshal appeals
to citizens of Medford to use
extreme caution with "big"
firecrackers over Fourth of
July holiday.
40 YEARS AGO
Juna 22, 1922 (Thuraday)
State highway commission
announces that all advertising
signs along highway right-of-ways
must be removed at
once.
Small amount of opium Is
confiscated as police raid
Medtord Chinese laundry,
SO YEARS AGO
Juna 22, 1912 (Saturday)
Twentieth annual assembly
of Southern Oregon Chautau
qua schedules opening in Ash
InnH
William Jennings Bryan
"tears the lid" o(f national
nnmnrratic convention by
switching his vote from
Champ Clark to Woodrow
Wilson; declares Clark nas
Tammany Hall backing.
What's Your I.Q.?
Nina or ten conect Is luperiot.
seven or eight is eiceltent; fiva at
lit is good.
1. Is the outside of
sphere concave or convex'
2. Alligators are hatched
from eggs; true or false?
3. Is a chamois a bird, a
fish, or an animal?
4. Who or what are the
Hopi?
S. In music what sort of in
strument is a tympan?
8. Name the author of "Dr.
Jckyll and Mr. Hyde."
7. Since 1878, has the popu
lation of the United States
been less in any one year than
the year previous?
8. Are Greece and Turkey
members of the North Atlan
tic Treaty Organization?
9. What Is the principal
grain crop in Kansas: rye,
wheat, oats, or corn?
10. During World War II,
D day on which the Invasion
of Normandy began occurred
on June ?, of what year?
Answers: I. Convex. 2.
Trua. 3. Animal. 4. U. S. In
dian triba of S.W. S. A drum.
8. Robert Louis Slevenson. 7.
No. 8. Yes. 9. Wheat. 10. Juna
, 1944.
TO
FRIDAY. JUNE 22. 1962
The Senate's
The Senate Permanent Investigating subcom
mittee headed by Sen. John L. McClellan (D
Ark.) on Wednesday begins hearings on the af-
. ri mi? iini. rrr . . T ? .. 1
iairs 01 Dime 001 &sies, lexas iarm nnancier, anu
his dealings with officials of the U. S. Depart
ment of Agriculture.
The Senate hearings in the Estes case, almost
certainly, will be marked by thoroughness,
sterness, fairness, and a kind of no-nonsense
practicality you would associate with a "good"
Southern conservative. This will be a reflection
of the character of the man who will preside,
Chairman McClellan, the old McCarthy commit
tee. ,
McClellan, who took over when the Demo
crats won control of Congress in 1955, has re
stored to the subcommittee the prestige it had
under Harry Tinman, former Sen. James M. Mead
(D-N.Y.) and the late Sen. Clyde R. Hoey (D
N.C.). Typically, he has assigned 46 investiga
tors to check on the affairs of Estes. About 100
witnesses will be called. The hearings will run
several weeks.
I JNTIL John McClellan, by the osmosis of the
seniority system, became the ranking Demo
crat on the Government Operations Committee
and its unruly subcommittee in 1953, he had at
tracted little attention on Capitol Hill, although
he had served in the House from 1934 to 1937
and in the Senate since 1942. Even then he seem
ed inclined at first to go along with Joe Mc
Carthy, the subcommittee's flambouyant chair
man.
But McClellan all
under a series of improprieties. Finally, when
McCarthy hired a discredited ex-preacher and
ex-Red as subcommittee executive director, Mc
Clellan walked out, taking with him his Demo
cratic colleagues.
THEY stayed off until
r.ir-ln'f nnma anh irif
McCarthy. A few months later came the Army
McCarthy hearings. Overnight the morose, inde
pendent, always fair McClellan became known
to millions of television viewers as the possessor
of perhaps the only calm voice in what sometimes
became a brouhaha of heroic intensity.
Investigation of government procurement of
army uniforms led eventually to the establishment
in 1957 of the Select Committee on Improper Ac
tivities in the Labor or Management Field.
It promptly became
Committee. Its findings
sage of the Labor-Management Reporting and
Disclosure Act of 1959.
of rights" amendment.
CRAGGY and
f ronnant lif fniri iir in
II VUUVIIWJ VMl 11 111 Ml J I, UUUUU iUVWIiidlll
McClellan once explained his concept of in
vestigative procedure thus: "When those who
came before the committee resort to the Fifth
Amendment they command no respect from me,
as individuals ... I respect their right to resort
to it if they feel they must, but it carries with it
an implication I am compelled to consider, and
not favorably ... At the same, I don't believe in
permitting smears and slanders which can t be
answered before the same tribunal."
Inevitably McClellan's subcommittee has oc
casionally been accused
most recently in the rather pathetic questionings
of B-girls and exotic dancers. But the criticism
rarely applies to the chairman of the group the
Senate's top investigator. E.R.R.
The Legion's Last Stand
The French Foreign Legion by the terms of
its own charter may not te based in France
proner. More than a vear
warned that the Legion
once independence was
mercenaries faces a kind of dispersal among
ranee s few remaining
Legion headquarters
bel-Abbes to a camp near Marseilles. Units will
be sent to Corsica, to the Sahara to protect French
oil holdings, to French Guiana, and to French
Somalia. Madagascar,
has asked for troops; it
third Infantry.
THE French Foreign
"fTi'niif familir srtnifl
erals have served in the
and most distinguished
began their careers in its
Of late there has been a lull in recruiting,
partly the result of complaints from other Euro
pean nations that the Legion was recruiting
minors under 18 years of age but more im
portantly because of the Legion's role in the gen
erals' putsch in Algeria in April, 1J61.
"THE 25,000 Legionnaires in Algeria 14,000 of
them Germans formed the generals' basic
military force. The First Parachute Regiment,
which had been formed in 1949 and had fought
gallantly at Dien Bien Phu, shouted defiantly "Al
gerie Francaise" while being driven to their dissolution.
And Legionnaire deserters have formed the
hard core of Secret Army (OAS) insurgents.
German Legionnaires directed sabotage by Al
gerian Jews. For over 130 years, Algeria has
been the Legion's home and France its Mother.
And wrong-neaded and villainous as the OAS
has been, the Legionnaires in it were stubbornly
maintaining their dual loyalty as they saw it.
E.R.R.
Investigator
the while was smarting
December, 1953, and
Vrnf nnn riocoinna frnm
known as the McClellan
made possible the pas
McClellan wrote the "bill
judicial-mannered are words that
artist. aa aKnnf TVTnP.lo 1 Ian
of headline-hunting
ago the Algerian rebels
would be asked to leave
achieved. So the army of
colonial possessions.
will be moved from Sidi-
a former French colony,
will get a battalion of the
Legion considers itself a
-f lira nna a m'fiQfoot rratv
Legion. Often the highest
officers of the Legion
ranks.
"I'll Have It Filled In No Time"
Washington Report
By William
(c) United Peitur Syndicate
NEW POLITICAL CLIMATE
Washington It is not the
heat that has got hold of
Congress and so slowed it
ffhS. down Wltn tne
official arrival
of the s u m
mertime. It is
the timidity.
More exact
ly, it is a
pause not for
r e f r eshment
but rather for
r e c o nsidera
tlon. It Is a
halt not for purpose of rest
but rather for purpose of re
orientation, for looking back
down the road already travel
ed and up along the road lead
ing to the congressional elec
tions in November.
Washington has entered a
new political climate that has
nothing to do with the weath
er. And it is not really the
formidable size of the con
gressional calendar that is giv
ing an impression of a Senate
and a House moving only fit
fully and unwillingly about
their jobs.
rpHE decisive factor in the
- current Indecisivencss of
congress is this: Congress
wants to know or to take a
little time at least to try to
guess what the country now
thinks before it commits it
self to major parts of Presi
dent Kennedy's unfinished
legislative program.
For the impression Is now
widespread here that changes
of unknown depth and mean
ing may be taking place in the
political attitudes of the coun
try. Has the President lost
some of what has thus far
been a consistently high popu
larity? The common congres
sional verdict is that undoubt
edly he has.
A Gallup poll indicating
that some 20 per cent blame
the President for the stock
market slump has been most
carefully noted on Capitol
Hill, even though It is accom
panied by evidence that a vast
majority of the country is by
no means afraid of a depres
sion.
TUT Just how much of the
- President's popularity has
gone, and for how long? And
how much does this highly
generalized factor of presi
dential popularity have to do
anyhow with this or that spe
cific issue before congress it
self, having in mind that
highly popular presidents (Ei
senhower, for example) do not
necessarily always carry con
Try and
-By BENNETT CERF-
A CLEAR THINKER is Mis. O. Strickland, of Cleveland
and no nonsense about her. She recently descended
from her station wagon to mall a letter. The station wagon
rolled down a hill, pick
ing up speed en route,
and landed eventually at
the bottom of a ravine.
Asked by the cop why
she hadn't set her emer
gency brake before she
got out of the car, Mrs.
Strickland explained suc
cintly that she did not
consider mailing a letter
an emergency.
Reservtata recalled for
actlva service were griping
about ahortagea In equip
ment and uniforms. They
recalled a Jest current during World War I: a recruit mourning,
"I reported at Yaphank Monday morning, and by Tuesday I had
a uniform, hat. ahoea. and putteea that fit m like a glove. I
don't understand tt. Can I be deformed '"
Tha alatna of the account executive has definitely Improved
alnca tha day. In 1890, when adman pioneer Fiank Presby opened
hia agency in downtown New York. The morning he entered
tha building as a tenant for the first time he spotted this sijn
over tha entrance: "Peddlers, book agents, and advertising men
are not allowed In these premiaea."
Somebody made the mistake of asking Joey Bishop hnw his
wife could cook. Bishop grimaced, grabbed the inquirer by tha
arm. and Imploied, 'Tell me: how can anyona burn lemonade!"
O 19, br Xa Ce). rayrejutw bjr King Futures Sradicate
S. White
gressional elections for their
party and that highly unpop
ular presidents (Truman) do
not necessarily always lose
congressional elections for
their party.
Lacking the answers to such
questions, congress is doing
what it usually will do in a
time of doubt. It is doing, for
the moment, as little as pos
sible until it can get a better
sense of the current popular
feeling on specific legislative
issues.
Thus, when you read that
the Democratic leaders are
"driving" congress onward.
you should put it all down to
a shorthand way of saying
that the leaders are going
through an accustomed drill,
TT IS like a minuet. When
- congress is "bogged down,'
as the cliche goes, tradition
expects the leaders to issue
various manifestos for more
"speed"' whereas the real
problem is not lack of velocity
in congress but rather a lack
of consensus as to what ought
to be done and left undone.
It is tradition which has
now moved the Senate Dem
ocratic leader, Mike Mans
field of Montana, to announce
that hereafter the Senate must
work longer hours and come
in on Saturdays. For the num
ber of hours the Senate spends
in session has very little re
lationship to what it does. It
can move fast enough when it
wants to, even if it meets only
two hours a day.
Equally, it is tradition
which impels Speaker John
W. McCormack of the House
of Representatives to make
confident forecasts of com
ing successes on this or that
bill. If these successes come,
they will in no way rest upon
encouraging cries from the
speaker. They will come or
they won't come, depending
on what the House learns, or
thinks it learns, from the
country within the next few
weeks.
People Attracted To
Personality Classes
Los Angeles-IUPD-Poise, pos
ture and personality classes
for seniors in Los Angeles
County are for the young in
heart.
Senior citizens meet once a
week in Plummer County
Park for instruction in voice
and diction, posture, color
harmony, wardrobe, person
ality development, makeup
and hairstyle techniques.
Stop Me
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD, OREGON
Khrushchev Puts Finger on Phase of
Twin-Horned Dilemma of Red Rule
By PHIL NEWSOM
UPI foreign News Analyst
"No one is born as Com
munist. I know it from exper
ience. In the Soviet Union
farmers keep
on looking in
the barn for
'their horses'
even after
they have giv
en them to the
collective."
This was no
enemy of com
munism, no
f..-
"V
Nawioaa opponent of
the Communist collective talk
ing. It was none other than Pre
mier Niklta Khrushchev dur-
Communications
Latter to tha Editor must
beat the nme and address of
the writer although undei cer
tain circumstances the ute ot a
Een name ul initial tor publlca
on Is Darmtssible The MaU
Tribune reserves the right to
edit all tetters with an eye to
clarification and condensation
Letters suhmittea for publica
tion must not exceed 400 words
Forest Enemy
To the Editor: This poem
has been printed in many of
the nation's leading newspa
pers and it would please me
to see it in the Mail Tribune.
Gertrude H. McLean
Eastwood Village
Cave Junction, Ore.
O
Forest Enemy No. 1
"Now for my pipe. Aw, what
a treat!
What an aroma. Deliciously
sweet!"
The match he dropped was
still a-blaze.
That forest burned for days,
and days.
In the flames, wild life died,
And others fled, terrified.
Valuable timber went up in
smoke, .
Just because of an aimless
bloke
Whose carelessness was to
blame.
This man dropped a tiny
flame.
The raging Inferno that
ensued,
Was eventually subdued.
There's no estimating the cost,
Because, human lives were
lost.
In the battle waged from
sun to sun.
With Forest Enemy No.
One.
-Gertrude H. McLean
Can Ba Overcome
To the Editor: In battling
for anything worthwhile in
this life, one meets with ups
and downs. That is no reason,
however, for getting discour
aged. The arguments used in
the letter below can be over
come. We here on the scene
are better aware of the neces
sity for hospital facilities in
this area. Medical skill is
available. It is easier and
more economical to act now.
David Frisch
P.O. Box 292
White City, Ore.
O
Dear Mr. Frisch: Your letter
to the President concerning
the need for a Veterans Ad
ministration hospital at While
City has been referred to this
office for reply.
Our tentative long range
plans do not call for a hos
pital at White City. The diffi
culty which we would en
counter in obtaining quali
fied professional personnel
would preclude such an un
dertaking. When a location is being
selected for a new hospital
every effort is made to select
a site adjacent to a medical
college. We then have reason
able assurance of the avail
ability of professional person
nel and a high quality of care
and treatment.
Your interest In this matter
is appreciated.
William S.
Middleton, M.D.
Chief Medical Director
Department of Medicine
and Surgery
Veterans Administration
Washington, D.C.
'Crowing'
To the Editor: And "thanks"
to Gladys Governer for her
"Dad" poem.
Being a New York orphan
the only parents I knew were
foster ones. They passed away
long ago, but I have many
pleasant memorie of a lovely
mother and a dad who taught
me to love the big out-of-doors
where we fished, hiked
and learned old Mother first
hand.
I hope you folks were at
the Rooster Crow in Rogue
River. It was fun.
Our Senior Activity Center
Orchestra made m -e noise in
the Grange hall han the poul
try did at the school yard.
When we played and sang
"The Rogue River Valley," I
didn't say "From" this valley
they say you are "Going." I
sang "For" this valley they
say you are "Crowing." Gosh,
I wish I had a better voice.
Nobody heard me. If our
leader, Edward C. Root, had
noticed It he'd have "no noed"
his head at me, I bet yuh.
So many let on that they
ing a tour of collective farms
in Romania.
In that one paragraph he
put his finger on one phase of
a twin-horned dilemma in
which the Soviets find them
selves and which is the cause
of a note of desperation in the
voices of Soviet leadership.
On the one hand is the stub
born peasant who refuses to
produce as well for the state
Strictly
Personal
By Sydney J. Harris
(C Field Enterprises Inc.
ABOUT THE 'SNOB'
We all know that words
change their meaning with
the passing of time; but what
is more fasci
nating to stu
dents of lan
guage and hu
man behavior
is the way in
which some
words reserve
their meaning
entirely. The
word "snob"
is a striking
Harris
example. We use It today to
mean someone too acutely
conscious of his social posi
tion, who looks down upon
those he considers his in
feriors. But when the word was
first put into currency, in
England more than a century
ago, it meant precisely the op
posite. A "snob" was some
one who was distinctly not a
gentleman, someone of low
social standing who imitated
his betters and sneered at the
rabble-
Tha word itself means
"without nobility," and
was put after tha nama of
commonars ai boys' schools,
to indicate that they had
no litlaa and did not coma
from noble families.
I thought of this while
reading a news story out of
Southampton, England, last
month, which told of nine
haadwaitars on tha liner
Quaan Elisabeth who quit
ihair jobs "because they
couldn't stand tha lower
classes."
Tha nine ware all classi
fied as haadwaitari in the
liner's first-class restaurant.
Whan ordered to work tha
cabin and touriai class res
taurants in rotation, they
walked out In protest.
"Waiters Are Class Con
scious" said tha punning
headline which comes as
no surprise to anyone aware
of tha British status system.
The biggest snobs in the
Empire have always been the
upper servant class. The aris
tocracy, in private, often
makes fun of the peerage; and
history records that even the
Royal Families have been the
object of derision from the
gentry.
But the servants, properly
trained from generation to
generation, are the most pre
cisely sensitive to subtle so
cial differences, the most con
scious of caste, the most
intransigently snobbish of all.
To have worked for a duke,
and then go into service with
a mere baronet, is a shameful
comedown in one's profes
sional and personal status.
The dukes and the earls
wear their titles lightly and,
for the most part, with ex
treme diffidence. They are
not snobs for the simple rea
son that their position is
unassailable. The common
denominator among all snobs
whether social or intellec
tual is their personal in
security. And by the way in
which this insecurity reveals
itself, they demonstrate (with
out knowing it) that they do
not belong in the niche they
so desperately aspire to.
liked our ol' time music that
I, for one, got the "big head"
and had to remove my hat.
The rest of our group ap
peared happily smug. too.
Best of all, they fed us: Those
Rogues-er-I mea' "people"
do make the best sandwiches,
salads and pies I've tasteds in
a dog's age. Thanks, Friends.
Back to Ch'cks: I once
owned a Barred Rock rooster
who was a noisy fellow, but
he took exception to my crow
ing bark at him and managed
to take my knees from under
me every time I entered the
yard.
That tickled my other half
prodigiously, but when he got
the seat of his new coveralls
spurred into two parts, we
had hot pie for dinner.
'Bye now, I'll be seeing
yuh next "Crowing" time if
I should live so long. In the
meantime - visit the Medford
Fifty Plus club soon, Friday
at 12:30 p.m.. Fifth st. and
Oakdale ave (North East
Corncri.
Pearl Spackman.
Jacksville, Ore.
as he would for himself.
Western Challenge
On the other is the Europe
an Common Market which not
only is enriching the countries
involved but is proving a bril
liant reply to Khrushchev's
challenge to the Western
world to engage in peaceful
economic competition.
The Soviets cannot abandon
the collective. To do so would
be to admit a fatal flaw in the
whole theory of communism.
In the whole Soviet bloc,
Poland stands as the only ex
ception to a succession of ag
ricultural failures.
Except in Poland where 87
per cent of the land remains
in private hands, the only
answer has been to increase
collectivization of the farms
and to heap on more hardship
and more work for less return.
While the Soviet Union,
East Germany, Bulgaria, Hun
gary and Czechoslovakia were
suffering meat shortages last
year, the Poles were eating
nearly 90 million pounds more
meat than they did in 1960.
Poland's success with a capi
talist - style agricultural sys
Reading for Putting
Record Straight Is
Suggested
By LYLE C. WLSON
United Press International
Washington - IUPII - Recom
mended reading for putting
the record straight is Adm.
Lewis L. Strauss' just pub
lish e d me
moirs. Men
and D e c i s
i o n s." The
publisher is
Doubleday &
Co., Inc., Gar
den City, Long
Island, N Y.
E s pecially
recommended
for reading
are:
"Decision in
LTD
Wilson
Chapter 14,
In the Day's News
By FRANK JENKINS
Interesting question:
Have you noticed that since
the big bust in the stock mar
ket we tend to shiver less
when we read the FOREIGN
news - and even skip some
of the headlines?
THE home front news is
dull today. So Old Kroosh
gets back into the picture. In
a rather odd way.
He spent yesterday talking
to collective (meaning com
munized) farmers in Ro
mania. His speech, coming
from the world's top commu
nist, had a strange ring. He
admitted that communism is
having difficulties in persuad
ing peasants (the communist
name for farmers) to accept
collectivization. He said to his
peasant audience:
"Do not be too proud that
you in Romania have finished
collectivization of farms.
There is always (in commu
nism) the psychological prob
lem of the soul of the peas
ants. "No one is born a commu
nist. After collectivization
the peasant goes out to LOOK
FOR HIS OWN HORSE, and
feels that it is still HIS OWN
property."
TTE COULD have added
i but DIDNT-that when the
peasant realizes that what
USED TO BE HIS OWN
HORSE isn't his own horse
anv lonecr he LOSES INTER
EST IN HIS JOB and no
longer cares whether he raises
much of a crop or not.
After all, he says to him
self: "What difference does it
make to me NOW whether I
work hard and produce a big
crop or goof off and produce
a little crop? In any event. I
won t be allowed to keep FOR
MYSELF what I have worked
hard to produce."
That's the fly in the oint
ment of communism.
WEIRD note in the news:
" The suicide verdict
still stands in the case of the
mystery shooting in Texas last
year of Henry H. Marshall,
the department of agriculture
agent who had been checkine
into the cotton allotment deal
ings of Billie Sol Estes.
After a month-long probe
of the reopened case, the
Texas grand jury decided that
"the evidence was too incon
clusive to substantiate anv
conclusion other than sui
cide."
T ETS sec.
" Marshall was found dead
on June 3. at a lonely spot on
his ranch in Robertson coun
ty, near the town of Franklin.
He had been shot five times
with a .22 caliber bolt action
rifle, which lay on the ground
not too far away from his
body. The verdict at an in
quest hv a justice of the peace
was SUICIDE.
If so. he must have been
DETFRMIXED to die. Imug
ine shooting yourself FIVE
TIMES with a bolt action
rifle!
13
tem also led to a marked lack
of Polish enthusiasm for an
other Soviet desperation plan.
Bloc Integration
This plan proposed tight
economic integration of the
whole Soviet bloc, with each
country to be assigned special
ties which would be produced
tor the benefit of the bloc as
a whole.
It received the enthusiastic
endorsement of East German
boss Walter Ulbricht whose
regime has admitted concern
over the anger of people who
stand in line for meat, butter,
eggs and other dairy products
only to find at the end there
are none.
Poland's food exports pro
vide more than half her for
eign income, with the United
States and other Western na
tions her best customers. She
is the sixth largest exporter of
food in the world.
Poland's agricultural suc
cesses have given her a cer
tain amount of independence
within the Soviet bloc. They
should also give Khrushchev
cause to wonder about the ef
ficiency of his own system.
by Wilson
the case of Dr. J. R. Oppen-
heimer."
Chapter 18, "Decision in
the Senate."
In the case of r. Oppen
heimer, Adm. Strauss was
one of the judges as chair
man of the Atomic Energy
Commission. The decision was
whether Dr. Oppenheimer
should continue to be cleared
for access to secret informa
tion as an AEC co.isultant.
Re-examination of the Op
penheimer record was under
taken on orders of President!
Eisenhower. Strauss relates
that Ike read an FBI report
on the scientist and ordered
that a blank wall be erected
between Oppenheimer and all
secret and top-secret informa
tion until a hearing on his
clearance had been completed.
Democrats Join In
Strauss effected Ike's orders.
In the end. the AEC commis
sioners voted 4 to 1 to sup
port the recommendation of a
special inquiry panel that the
wartime clearance Oppen
heimer had enjoyed should
be suspended. Gordon Gray
of North Carolina was panel
chairman. He had been Presi
dent Truman's Secretary of
Army, a post he left to be
come president of his state's
university. The panel W3s
composed of two Democrats
and one Republican. It had
voted against Oppenheimer 2
to 1.
Dr. Oppenheimer was not
found to be disloyal, but lost
on grounds that he was a se
curity riik. The Oppenheimer
incident was xp!osively con
troversial. Adm. Strauss'
documented record is persua
sive proof that the procedure
against Oppenheimer was fair.
In Chapter 18, Strauss is
the accused. He was nomin
ated by President Eisenhower
to be Secretary of Commerce,
succeeding Sinclair Weeks,
resigned. After three months
of committee hearings and
Senate debate, Strauss was re
fused confirmation by a vote
of 49 to 46, the 10th Cabinet
nominee to be rejected in tha
history of the United States.
Was Senate Fair?
The record of the Senate
hearings and the circum
stances of the Senate vote are
adequately documented. This
documentation leads inevit
ably to the conclusion that if
Strauss had been dealt with
as fairly by the U. S. Senata
as Oppenheimer was fairly
heard by the AEC, the ad
miral would have been con
firmed. Both incidents, Oppenheim
er's sad experience and
Strauss' humiliation, aroused
national controversy lighted
mostly by the prejudice?, ig
norance and angry passions of
the controversialists. Strauss
was clubbed with rotten
wood.
"Men and Decisions" is a
fascinating book from begin
ning to end. Chapters 14 and
18, however, are especially
recommended reading because
they illuminate two import
ant political episodes that
have too long been shadowed
in bitter partisanship. These
are Adm. Strauss' accounts,
of course, and if his antagon
isis desire to challenge his
facts, perhaps they will do
so. Theirs will be no easy
task.
When the Senate rejected
Strauss, old timers recalled
two recent secretaries who
had passed the Senate test:
Harry L. Hopkins whose
qualifications were slight, at
most.
Henry A. Wallace whose
disqualifications were such
that the Congress reduced th
authority of the Secretary of
Commerce before giving him
the Job. They were two of
I FDR's cabineteers.