4 A-
SUNDAY. StP'JLMuttt 2, lbbi
ULUt OtiO MAIL THIBUnt:. MtUt OHO, OHi.COM
MEDFOBWWBIBUHI
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NATIONAL EDITORIAL
Flight or Time
Medford nd Jackson County
History from the filet of The
Mail Trlbun. 10, 20, 30, 40
nd 50 yaart ago.
10 YEARS AGO
Sept. 2, 1952 (Tuetdey)
Conrad Bruce and com
p a n y, investment brokers,
submitted the lowest bid and
was selected by the city coun
cil to purchase a $100,000
bond issue lor construction
work at the Medford munici
pal airport.
Thunderstorm brings at
least 12 (orest fires in the
mountains.
20 YEARS AGO
Sept. 2. 1942 (Wednesday)
Antelope Creek and Dry
Creek rds. are closed to the
public as Camp White soldiers
prepare to use Antelope ar
tillery range for cannon prac
tice. From Arthur Perry's "Ye
Smudge Pot" column: "Old
cows are being shipped to
Portland so fast there will
soon be none left on the high
ways to be run over by old
cars, if there were any old
cars left."
30 YEARS AGO
Sept. 2. 1932 (Friday)
Nineteen-year -old Ashland
youth, Just out of Jail for
liquor violations, is rearrested
and returned for marrying
and eloping to California with
minor Phoenix girl; youth is
charged with contributing to
the delinquency of a minor.
Judge William M. Colvig,
Medford veteran of the Civil
war, notes 88th birthday;
makes date with Portland
woman for his 100th birthday
party.
40 YEARS AGO
Sept. 2, 1922 (Saturday)
City council orders City
Superintendent Davis to ob
tain lumber and start refloor
ing Jackson st. bridge.
G. M. Mordoff finds per
fectly preserved human Jaw
bone; plans to Investigate,
hopes to prove It came from
prehistoric man.
SO YEARS AGO
Sepi. 2, 1912 (Monday)
Two Klamath Falls men
fishing off Wizard island in
Crater lake are lost for 38
hours because of a storm;
searching parties find them
across the lake, where they
were driven by the wind.
Ranchers, farmers refuse to
allow city folk to dance tur
key trot, angle-worm wiggle,
Texas Tommy, bunny hug or
other vulgarly suggestive
dnnces at their square donees.
What's Your I.Q.?
Nina or ten correct h superior;
seven or eight li atcclUnri five or
til ll good.
1. Which of these animals
has the most valuable pelt
sea linn or sea otter?
2. With what state do you
associate Cotton Mather?
3. On what river is Muscle
Shoals?
4. What are the names of
the four oceans whose names
end In 'ic"?
5. Which New England state
produces the largest amount
of maple sugar and syrup?
8. If you desire to exert
greater force with a screw
driver, will you use one with
a greater length or diameter?
7. Of what c 0 u nt r y is
Ottowa the capital?
8. In what sport was Ty
Ccbb famous?
9. In what group of Pacific
Islands is Saipan?
10. Is the condor a native
bird of South America, or of
North America?
Aniwmi 1. Sai otttr. 2.
Massachusetts. 3. Tennessee
River. 4. Atlantic, Pacific,
Arctic, Antarctic. 5. Vermont.
8, Larger diameier. 7. Canada.
8. Baseball. 9. Marianas. 10.
South Amerlct.
Let's Get On
An open letter to Ray Johnson and Win
Marks (of KMED and KBOY respectively) :
Dear Ray and Win :
All right, lads, now that you've had your fun
jabbing at the Mail Tribune via your airwave
editorials, let's stop and consider a few things :
First of all, let us compliment you on taking
an editorial stand, no matter what. We are so
used to the bland, innocuous, everything's won
derful world of radio and TV that an actual state
ment of position is, to say the least, refreshing.
Ray, your editorial, when analyzed, said al
most precisely the same things the Mail Tribune
said in its editorials of laot Sunday and Wednes
day. The only difference was that you slapped
the M-T for the statements we made, and then
went ahead and rephrased a number of them on
your own.
Win, your editorial (by the way, did you sell
a lot of commercials by your ploy to merchants
who were, at first blush, irritated at the Mail
Tribune for speaking frankly?) was a master
piece of misrepresentation.
e
WHY? We quote:
Marks' orlirnvial
"These continued attacks on free enterprise by the
Mail Tribune are typical of the egghead philosophy
that would turn us into a socialistic state."
M-T editorial:
"Our very economic system is based upon free
enterprise and open competition in the market place.
Rather than becoming frightened, the downtown mer
chants should imaginatively begin looking for ways to
attract some customers themselves.
"The consumer market in this area is more than
ample to support both the shopping center and the
downtown district, but if one or the other loses out
in the competition, it will have only itself to blame."
If the latter quotation is "socialist state" talk.
Win Marks is General Sarnoff.
TTHERE are few other things that need to be
said, and said again, and again.
1. There are in "downtown" some mighty
lively stores (we could,
names) which do a splendid job of merchandis
ing. Every shopper in the area knows them.
2. There are others which refuse to cooperate,
and which sutler (although they don t know it)
thereby.
3. The ones which are sub-standard in mer
chandising ability (and they know which they
are or it they don t, they re going to die on the
vine anyway) are in trouble. Whose fault is
this? The Mail Tribune's? KMED's? KBOY's?
No. It is their own fault. Maybe it's too many
afternoons at the country club, or maybe it is
the lack of courtesy, good merchandise, or proper
display. Whatever the reason, these stores not
only hurt themselves; they hurt the entire area.
.
FINALLY, the principal point made by the
M-T'a drlitm'lala nf locf Qtiiirl'n, on1 Wrtrlvirto-
day was to urge the downtown merchants not to
rely on the city administration to solve their
problems, and to suggest
sharpen their competitive position.
Is encouraging self-reliance, self-help, and
cooperation "socialistic"?
Fiddlesticks.
Is constructive criticism, designed to stimulate
thinking and action for the benefit of the entire
community, "biting the hand that feeds" the Mail
Tribune?
Baloney.
The Mail Tribune's future is inextricably tied
to the welfare of Medford
Telling the truth as we see it is part of our re
sponsibility to the overall welfare, despite shrill
broadcasts from outside the city limits.
XE HAVE long had a vision of Medford in the
fliflii'O Q it loan niHr o f tvanc orii-1 lowiic iii-il
homes, of space and air and beauty, a healthy city
with fine stores and shops, graceful churches,
good schools, green parks.
Medlord citizens have
ward making this vision come true. But much re
mains to be done. And any such vision depends,
in no small measure, on the downtown core area.
If it is to survive, healthy and prosperous, if
the threat of encroaching blight is to be met and
mastered, it is going to require courage and vision
and confidence not fear and whining. It will
require an end to bickering and confusion, and a
beginning of cooperation and hard work. It will
require an end to carping at city hall and a be
ginning of leadership.
IT WILL also require an honest facing of facts.
1 The Mail Tribune's editorials of the past
week were not, as some declare, "attacks" on
downtown. They were offered as honest presen
tations ot the situation as
Thn iv,niv.l-,.,nta
i w nivi vimmo nnu
criticisms do not apply
whom they do apply. "If
it tne lively discussions resu tmir tend to c ear i
. . . i . . -.r- .
the air and pave the way toward constructive and
mutually helpful endeavor, the whole uproar will
be of benefit to all concerned.
Let's pet on with the job. E.A. and G.H.B.
"Beauties" Series To End
m , , ,
1 011101 1 OW, l.aoor Uay, Will DC tlie Illial (lav
of publication of the Mail
Hires, i lie beauties ot Scenic Urejion.
We're kind of sorry to end this series, for it
has brought pleasure to many people. Clippings
of the pictures have been sent all over the world.
We appreciate the cooperation of the high
way department in making the series possible.
E.A.
if called upon, name
ways that they might
and southern Oregon.
come a loner wav to
we see it.
I .1 1, tn i U !
uiiiuunuo iu iivmii iiiu i
know it; so do those to !
the shoe fits . ,
.. . .
'
Tribune's series of pic
"Trouble Growing flair? You Came To
Jusl The Right Place"
Matter of Fact
(e New York Herald
By ROBERT DONOVAN
(Joseph Alsop is on vaca
tion. During his absence his
column will be written by
reporters expert in national
and international affairs.)
KENNEDY AND
McCORMACK
Boston The Kennedy-
McCormack debate last week
was one of the liveliest politi
cal spectacles in a long time.
Eddie McCormack wiped up
South Boston with Teddy Ken
nedy, brother of the President
of the United States. Ironical
ly, however, he went about it
In a way that may clinch vic
tory for young Kennedy in
the Senate Democratic pri
mary election on Sept. 18.
Really the only important
thing that McCormack has go
ing for him in his bitter con
test is the anti-Kennedy senti
ment which is flourishing in
parts of Massachusetts these
days.
The televised debate, an oc
casion of enormous public in
terest in the state, gave Mc
Cormack a matchless opportu
nity to exploit the role of the
underdog as against the rich
and powerful Kennedy ma
chine. Instead, he attacked Kenne
dy with a ferocity that is sel
dom seen in televised politics.
TURNING to Kennedy at the
very start McCormack told
him:
"You never worked for a
living. You never held elec
tive office . , . You lack the
qualifications, the maturity of
Judgment ... If you can do
more for Massachusetts, it
means that the President is
not doing enough . . . You
have said you would not vote
for aid to parofthiai schools
, Do you really care about
civil rights? You went to the
University of Virginia, a se
verely segregated school."
Then, turning to the audi
ence at the end, he said:
If his name was Edward
Moore, his candidacy would
be a joke. Nobody's laughing,.
In the Day's News
By FRANK JENKINS
Residents throughout North
ern Utah and Southern Idaho
were awakened the other
morning by what was de
scribed as a fair sized rolling
earthquake. There was no
major damage in the Utah-
Idaho area. Ihc most severe
damage appeared to be at
least one power failure and
some broken windows at Lo
gan, Utah.
Elsewhere in the area resi
dents flooded local law en- j
forcement authorities with re- j
ports of beds moved out of
place and dishes broken. Tall
buildings in downtown Salt
"o (. ity were shaken by the j
tremors
The University of California :
says the quake had a magm-1
11 I
" ..:' .". ..: :. .: ,
Illl fl n R n.. I in Bl.iri nf en.i
magnitude of 8 to
quite an earthquake.)
A.
SEVERE earthquake Jolt-!
rd Greece the other day I
and send termors all over the j " "imam T. Heftelfinger,
Eastern Mediterranean area, j who retired from the Treas
Considerable damage was re-1 ry Department this year, has
ported in Southern Itaiv. :
Sicily. Crete and Malta. j
Over on the Northern Cali-i
fornla - Southern Oregon coast :
a few davs back, there was a .
quake that did sever hundred granted permission by Treas
thousand dollars damage and ury Secretary Doi:g.as Dil-
ll.. I Inn In mnliniin I r 1 1 tia
quite
a ero
THEM BOMBS, maybe?
TjiROM Washington:
' The value of all
assets In the United
farm
States
By Joseph Alsop
Tribune Syndicate
Your name is Edward Moore
Kennedy."
The effect of this rough-and-tumble
attack was to
blunt the best weapon Mc
Cormack has. Ted Kennedy
wound up looking the under
dog. Like his older and more
famous brothers, Kennedy
played it cool under fire. He
took the blast with composure
and dignity. And to complete
the irony of the whole affair,
the young man whose qualifi
cations are justly in question
looked more like a Senator
than he had ever looked be
fore. JUDGING from the com
ments that have been ap
pearing In the Boston news
papers since the debate, wom
en voters in particular resent
ed McCormack's behavior to
ward the President's brother.
"You've got to remain a
gentleman when you go into
people's living rooms," a vet
eran politician was quoted in
the Boston Globe. "I think
Eddie stepped out of character
and in four or five days he'll
wish he hadn't. He's done him
self irreparable harm."
There is no question but
what McCormack knew in ad
vance that his tactics might
provoke this reaction. Yet he
went for Kennedy's jugular
vein anyhow. Why? The best
answer one can get here is
that McCormack reasoned that
the "dirty parlor" crowd con
trolled Democratic primaries
in Massachusetts and that this
crowd would love nothing bet
ter than the spectacle of a sen
sational public attack on Ted
dy Kennedy.
McCormack and Kennedy
will debate again in Holyoke
on Tuesday night, and the out
look is for resumption of (he
attack by McCormack. He has
gone too far now, it seems, to
change tactics. He is gambling
that the way to defeat Teddy
is to clobber him. Those peo
ple around here who gamble
with money, however, are still
betting that it won't work.
rose 3.7 per cent to a whop
ping record $207.3 billion,
the Agriculture Department
reports in its balance sheet of
agriculture.
rHICH is to say:
PROPERTY IN THE U.S., in
cluding land, buildings, ma
chinery, livestock, etc., and
NOT including debts (which, j
the Agriculture Department :
says, amount to $27.7 billion)
were sold at the value as
signed to it by the Department
of Agriculture, the proceeds of
the sale would pay off only
two-thirds of our national
debt.
tlMPVTI
vj
I '
How's this:
It's high time to quit put
ting more debt on the cuff.
,r "asmngton:
taken a FRINGE BENEFIT i
with him.
Hcffclfinger, who now
works for the America.n
Bankers Association, has been
treasury Department s Dark-
ing jot.
fPHE LUCKY stitf
Tn tht Hav a nUr-n
place
to park is one of American
mankind's mot precious
possessions.
Drummond
(Walter Llppmsnn b on vac
Washington tn hit absent.) (c
FAVORITISM TO
BILLIE SOL ESTES
Washington. The crucial
and heretofore unanswered
question in the Billie Sol Es
tes scandal has, from the start,
been this: was there or was
there not favoritism extended
to the Texas manipulator by
the Department of Agricul
ture favoritism which help
ed him make huge profits
from his illegal cotton-allotment
racket?
Secretary of Agriculture Or
ville Freeman has been will
ing to admit that in handling
the Estes matter there has
been administrative laxity,
looseness, bungling, bad judg
ment, and what-have-you. But
favoritism to Estes' Mr. Free
man has said no. Deliberate,
intentional, potentially cor
rupt favoritism to Estes? Mr.
Freeman has said absolutely'
not.
But now the sworn testi
mony of high officials of the
Department of Agriculture
who were closest to the oper
ation demonstrates that there
was Departmental favoritism
shown to Billie Sol Estes. De
liberate, intentional, and po
tentially corrupt favoritism
to Estes.
e e
THIS is not a matter of opin
ion. It is the evidence.
Admittedly, there is con
flicting evidence. But it is not
CONTRADICTORY evidence
on the central point of wheth
er or not there has been fa
voritism. Thomas H. Miller, South
west Area Director of the Ag
ricultural Stabilization Serv
ice, has testified that he was
instructed by his immediate
superior, Emery E. Jacobs, to
go to Texas and come back
with a report allowing Billie
Sol to continue his cotton deal
ing. Mr. Jacobs, subsequently
asked to resign from the De
partment, has testified that he
did not instruct Mr. Miller to
prepare a slanted, pro-Estcs
report.
The significant part of the
sworn testimony which stands
unchallenged is that a high
Department of Agriculture of
ficial namely, Thomas Mil
ler prepared a one-sided
analysis of the Billie Sol Es
tes operation deliberately de
signed to help him retain his
illegal cotton allotments.
Either Mr. Miller did what
he did because he was ordered
to do it (as he has testified)
or he did it himself without
being ordered.
fjiHE conflicting testi m o n y
-- leaves in doubt who com
mitted the offense. It does not
contradict the evidence that
the offense of favoritism to
Estes was committed.
The Immediate effect of this
testimony has been to center
attention on the conflict be
tween the two witnesses and
to overlook the significant
part of the evidence which
remains unchallenged.
Democratic Sen. John L.
McClellan, chairman of the
Senate investigating commit
tee, instantly put his finger
on the conflict when, as be
tween what Miller and Jacobs
were swearing to, he said:
Pandora's
By ERIC SEVAREID
Aspen, Colo. In this
serene valley it's still sum
mertime, fish are jumpin' and
"' j the thmkin is
:? v4 Kew hnilri.
iA." ines of harsh
4hfct Tj cinder block
V -'vi. i exterior and
subdued, aca
demic interior
rise from the
sagebrush t o
expand the ca
pacity of this
hidden Shangri La to accom
modate even more seminnrs
and conferences of general
and specific ponderers. If the
expense account society has
produced more Nevada gam
bling dens and Florida hotels
of Wall Street Renaissance
design, it has also produced
more deductibe opportunities
for serious group-thought
Plato must have had some
thing like the Aspen existence
in mind when he talked about
the good life. One leaves here
with a slimmer waistline,
browner skin, better appetite
and the visceral conviction
that he is a little wiser even
if he can't demonstrate the
fact by word or deed. Anyone
who can't learn something
from exposure to such men as
Walt Rostow, Crane Brinton
of Harvard. John Blum of
Yale, Charles Bohlcn, Jan de
Hartog, the poet Jonathan
" "t.-u
- lists is a dull dog indeed, and
i I'm in their debt even if I
can't calculate the figure on
j that side of the ledger.
We have hoard newly com-
i posed music by Milhaud and
umcrs. nave wara m- i
"K un- iuic
of the artist in society: meas-lof
jured worrts about the capac-i
i!in nt !h ItmtH Xatinn' ;
passionate words from nark-;
ktnncd alien i n tellcctuals
about the evils of the great j
Reports
t ion. Rotco Drummond reports from
1962 Now York Horaid Tribuno Inc.
"One statement is true and
the other U not."
But I wish to point out that
the conflict in evidence only
concerns who practised the fa
voritism, not whether favor
itism was shown to Estes.
Mr. Miller says he was or
dered by Mr. Jacobs to pre
pare a slanted, pro-Estes re
port. Mr. Jacobs says he did not
order Mr. Miller to prepare a
slanted, pro-Estes report.
This leaves the responsibil
ity in doubt. But it does not
leave the offense itself in
doubt.
MRoa
MILLER said under
oath that he was sent to
Texas by Mr. Jacobs with
these instructions: "I want you
to send me a report containing
every justification you can
find to permit retention of
these allotments" the Billie
Sol Estes cotton allotments.
Mr. Jacobs said under oath:
"I did not do it."
Mr. Miller also testified that
Mr. Jacobs "left me with the
definite impression that Mr.
Murphy (Undersecretary of
Agriculture) would be amen
able, agreeable, even desirous
of obtaining information per
mitting retention of the dis
puted cotton allotments by
Estes."
Mr. Murphy has stated that
"no pressures or improper in
fluences had any effect" on
his decisions in the Estes case.
The conflicting testimony
muddies the question of who
was responsible for initiating
the slanted, pro-Estes report.
But the uncontradicted facts
are that, whether he was di
rected by Jacobs, by somebody
else, or by himself, Miller
went to Texas, wrote the one
sided report, and thus provid
ed the basis for the last De
partmental action favorable to
Estes before the whole thing
burst into the open.
Try and Stop Me
By BENNETT CERF
DISTRICT ATTORNEY Frank Ho.san of Manhattan obvi
ously read The Jester when he attended Columbia Uni
versity. The D.A. told a dinner assemblage about a Dublin
jeweler who was arraign
ed for selling phony dia
monds to a trusting dow
ager. "I sentence you to
ten years in jail," thun
dered the judge (also
Irish) "for selling sham
rocks." .
Peter Llnd Hayes met an
old gaffer at the Winged
Foot Golf Club who boast
ed, "My wife and I were
married 55 years ago today
and we still hold hands."
Then he added, "If we didn't
we'd kill each other!"
OVERHEARD:
At Baylor University in Waco: "In my calculus exam this
morning I was mighty close to the right answers, They were !
only two seats away."
At Mike Romanoff's in Beverly Hills: "He says he's got a big
part in that new TV series, but I noticed that when he drove Into
the studio parking lot, he didn't turn off the motor."
At the University of Hawaii: "Presidents of universities never
die; they just lose their faculties."
In the dugout of the Milwaukee Braves: "I was so bad out1
there on the mound yesterday I was afraid Gillette was going to
ask for its razor back." j
Box Open;
world powers; baffling words
about the properties of a new
type of helium; words both
ambitious and skeptical about
the role of Americans as
world redeemers; trim and
elegant words, edged with
acid, about the uglification of
our physical environment;
stodgy words about big gov.
eminent and big business, the
evils and virtues thereof.
Man is a thinking breed,
descendent though he be of a
risen ape and not a fallen
angel, "nature's first brief ex
periment in self-awareness,
trapped between earth and a
glimpse of heaven." He tried.
So the premise of this place
and this process n.ust be that
nature is going to give homo
sapiens another chance,
whether he deserves it or not.
Man seems unshakably con
vinced that his soul is unique
and Americans remain at least
half persuaded that nature
has some special interest in
their own survival. So these
discussions have been es
sentially exercises In morality
the luxury always enjoyable
wher survival is assumed. We
have been living on intellec
tual dessert all month.
The only rebuttal is the oc-
casional sound of a military
jet from the Air Academy,
high above even this altitude
that Shangri La must look, to
the pilot, quite fat and un
exceptional. nen you minx
about the jet, its sound is
waspish Bronx cheer, and
moral concepts seem embar
rassingly pointless.
The group thinking here
has been wide and top lofty.
We have gossiped about the
nauire 01 man, jucgiea pm los
opmcs, empires ana eras, am
us exhibited 20-2fl hind.
sight and made it perfectly
nlnaf tvhal iho ns, nf U nr
battled religion, the age of
exploration, the age of the
industrial revolution had done
POTLUCK
(By M-T Staff and Contributors)
Here it i September, al- (
ready. September, as you all
undoubtedly know, is Nation
al Better Breakfast Month,
American Wool Month, Youth
Month, American Home Light
ing Fixture Month, Protein
Bread Month, and Lamb Time
U.S.A.
And among the events to
which we can look forward
during the month are Lessons
In Truth Week, International
Tuna Week, National Slacks
Week and National Dog Week.
Are we not truly blessed?
Sandy, the cub reporter,
went down town Thursday
during the sidewalk sale.
Mostly she was well-pleased
at the display of merchan
dise on the sidewalks and
the crowds hovering around
them.
But she reported one
major disappointment.
The banks didn't have
their money on the side
walk, e
The English language is
phenomenal.
A call came to the news
room the other day, and was
answered by one of our young
men. The lady said she wanted
to report some births.
"Birds?!" the young man
asked.
"Yes, births," the nice lady
said.
He covered the mouthpiece
and said, "Who wants to take
some bird information?" No
one answered, although one
cynic was heard to mutter
"Only if It's the blue bird of
happiness."
Finally our man persuaded
The Fun
to and for the human race.
We plucked but feebly at the
age of science, the present
age, while the military jet
with its hypothetical load of
impatient atoms uttered its
little jeer overhead
Even to a jump-seat philos
opher it seems clear that this
age of science has to be, in
the history writing sense,
man's final epoch or era. We
are now taking apart and put
ting to use the basic stuff of
nature, and that's the end of
the line. The embattled relig
ions were controlled by one
force or another, political or
geographical. There were nat
ural limits to surface explora
tion or invasion. In these
cases a limited portion of the
human race was involved; the
effects were partial.
This age of science has no
natural limits we know of,
and what is dawning on us
now is that it is also uncon
trollable. Science simply does
not know what it is doing or
where it is going, in any uni
versal sense; and if the good
it does is fundamental, the
damage it does is absolutely
unrepairable. We stand Just
at the faint beginning of both
the good and the evil, and
man's big brain in exist
ence for only an instant of
time, a blind, groping veg
etable in the scheme of na
ture hasn't the foggiest no
tion whether the good or the
evil will take command.
Science can't control what
it will produce, because that
is the nature of science, and
since there is no control over
frightened governments and
very little over eager in
dustry, there is no real con
trol over the uses to which
the products are put. By any
measure it stuns reason that
we permitted hydrogen blasts
to form a new radiation belt
one of his more gullible col
leagues to answer the call,
and it came out all right in
the births column.
BIRDS?!
Another horrible exam
ple of English in action is
this sentence:
"A rough cough and a
hiccough plough me
through."
All those "oughs" are
pronounced differently. If
English were logical the
sentence might read:
"A ruff cuff and a
hicuff pluff me ihruff."
Or
"A roff coff and a hiccoff
ploff me throff."
Or
"A rup cup and a hiccup
plup me ihrup."
Or
"A row cow and a hiccow
plow me throw."
Or
"A roo coo and a hiccoo
ploo me throo."
The Salem Capital Journal,
commenting on this English
inconsistency, says:
A teacher we had used to
play games with these awful
words to ease the burden. The
kids would see how many
they could string together.
There were such sentences as
"flough floughting like eider
doughn on the sluff." That's
"Fluff floating like eiderdown
on the slough." The English
English, by the way, call a
backwater a "sluff," but spell
it "slough."
Then there was dewdrop,
spelled "doughdroghp."
But the best example of
phonetic confusion occurred
in the news not long ago
during the fuss in the steel
industry.
Steelman Roger Blough.
wasn't sure what his name
was when it was all over.
We heard radio and TV peo
ple call him "Bluff," "Blog,"
"Blah," "Blew," "Blow," and
even "Blouch."
One of the family finally
tipped the press services that
it was pronounced as in the
word scow, meaning a slow,
blunt-nosed boat.
Or is that a scough, mean
ing a slough, bloughnt-nough-sed
bought?
Has Begun
when even a few eminent
scientists pleaded that tha
chance not be taken. Only an
essential anarchy could hava
permitted a situation in which
two and a half million thalid
omide tablets never cer
tified for sales were given
to twelve hundred American
doctors for "tests on patients."
Anybody still sure that man
is in control of his fate on
this earth has only to look at
the new facts and figures on
the massive use of pure poison
on our fruits and vegetables,
on the increasing pollution of
our air, soil and waters. He
has only to consider that doc
tors have but the haziest no
tions as to the ultimate ef
fect of the indiscriminate usa
of antibiotics in altering body
chemistry, in creating new
diseases still unimagined. Wa
aren't fruit flies; a generation
requires 33 years.
Pandora's box has Just been
opened; the fun has just be
gun. It is an ingrained human
and particularly American il
lusion that we will always
win in the ninth inning be
cause we always have we're
still here, aren't we, after a
couple of million years of
catastrophes? What is so hard
to grasp is that we aren't
playing baseball anymore. Up
to now everything, including
wars, plagues and tidal waves,
was a game compared to the
business now at hand.
Well, maybe it's the Aspen
altitude, physical and intel
lectual. Gravity is weaker up
here and thoughts have a way
of floating out of reach. At
sea level, the Birch society,
desegregation, Jackie and the
stockpile controversy will no
doubt assume form and sub
stance again, but from here
you couldn't make them out
with a telescope.
(Distributed 1962. br The
Hall Syndicate, Inc.)
(All Rights Reserved)