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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1962)
2 B THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 1. 1962 MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, OREGON fail-Safe' Does Job of Awakening Readers To Reality By A. ROBERT SMITH Mil Tribune Washington Correspondent Washington (Special) Last week was the wrong time to read "Fail-Safe" a highly r"'jufi V"" realistic novel 'jPZlliA about the POS- 'Jt--. J? :'l clear warfare -Tvrr 1 dcsDite t h e most strenu ous efforts of both the " Soviet and American leaders to alt averi u. Cuba isn't mentioned In this book; nor do any saber rattling hot heads shove the world over the brink. What scares the reader to death about "Fail-Safe" is that atomic destruction oc curs without genuine provoca tion, without threat to any thing that might pass for "na tional honor" on cither side, without any authentic threats posed by one aide toward the other. . It's all a horrible accident. It's not that somebody bumped the button with his elbow while scratching his ear. Nothing so simple or easily remedied. Co-authors Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler delib erately created a cracking good yarn in which our mili tary leaders and hence all of us became the unwitting victims of the complicated machines which were created to secure us. They seek to show the heavy risk of plac ing so much reliance upon the presumed reliability of a vast network of electronic and computer equipment and upon the mathematicians and scientists who have created it and defend its reliability even as the accident Is taking I place. Burdick and Wheeler are college professors bent on shaking us out of any compla cency we might have and they succeed admirably. They acknowledge they are novel ists with a message and they hope even the Soviets will receive it. The cause of the accident Is that a small condenser blows unnoticed in a secret machine at SAC headquarters in the midst of a standard de fensive maneuver taken by SAC bombers when an uni dentified object is picked up over the North Polo. The bombers are on their way to ward Moscow while efforts are made to identify the ob ject, which turns out to be a j crippled friendly commercial airliner. Normally the bomb ers never go beyond what is called the fail-safe point en route to Russia; there they circle awaiting instructions to return or, if it is the real thing, orders directly from the president on this special secret machine to proccde to their targets. The condenser fault trips . the secret fail safe machine, causing one flight of six bombers to mistakenly re ceive a signal they believe means that war is on. All ef forts to bring them back fail even the dispatch of U.S. fighters ordered to shoot .them down. The president, who Is name less but has many of Ken nedy's traits, gets on a spe cial direct telephone line with Khrushchev to explain the accident and to try lo convince him that no attack is under way, despite the ap proach of the six plane, load ed will) nuclear bombs and headed for Moscow While this novel may have literary shortcomings, never theless It is superior to many factional offerings w I; I c h have nothing lo say; and it has the merit of gripping the reader with both a good ad venture story and a terrify ing look at the world of mili tary science upon which a tenuous peace is all too dependent. The authors did consider able research In an effort to make their story as authentic as anything can b- that is pro Jected Into - the future five years (it lakes place in 1067). So, there is likely much more truth than fantasy here. Ironically, a few years ago, Charles O. Porter, as an Ore gon congressman, tried to arouse the country about the danger of nuclear war by ac cident. He wrote speeches and articles about it, but hardly anyone cared to listen and Porter was defeated in the 1960 election. By saying the same thing in fictional terms, Burdick and Wheeler have created a best-seller that will enrich them considerably and maybe we'll all live a little longer as. a result of their moralizing. Year of Hard luck Old Farmer's Almanac Publishes 171st Edition Despite Many Setbacks By DICK WEST Washington -0OT - The Old Farmer's Almanac has just published its 171st annual edi- 1 1 o n ana should like to pause here long enough to wish it well. I feel constrained to to do so be cause the Al- s "';. JT j to have been wt through a rather trying year. Nothing catastrophic befell it. It was just one of those years when things seem to go wrong. For one thing, the almanac, which is chiefly noted for its long range weather forecasts, predicted last autumn that the winter of 1981-62 would be colder than the year before. Were It not for the fact that the weather turned out to be warmer, the almanac would have been 100 per cent cor rect. This erroneous doublccross by Mother Nature, however, was nothing to compare with the frustrations experienced by Robb Sagendorph, the al manac publisher, in his deal ings with other elements of the communications media. It all began with what Sagendorph has labeled "lha most interesting tele vision appearance" of th year. He was invited to exhib'.t en a network program in New York lome of the old pictures, barometers and othar memorabilia connect ed with the almanac's 170th anniversary. On the appointed day he set forth from his Dublin, N.H.. oftice only to be inter cepted by a state policeman who brought him word that his part on the program had been cancelled. He returned home and spent the evening, as he re called, "answering calls from those who had tuned in at our suggestion." Some -rnonths later, Sagcn dorph was visited by a report er for a weekly news maga zinc, which led to what he has labeled "the most inter esting article about us ii 1962." After spending two days being interviewed and pho tographed, and a week an swering telephone queries, Sagendorph was told to watch for the next issue. He did. and found a fine Government Issues .. Pamphlet on Cancer Washington -a?H- The gov ernment Wednesday publish ed a booklet setting forth sim ply what persons should know and do to reduce the risk of contracting cancer. The pamphlet, entitled "Cancer, Cause and Preven tion," is available for 10 cents from the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. article about the Wall Street Journal. Still later, the scheduled speaker for the Manchester, N.H., Chamber of Commerce dinner was reported snow bound. Sagendorph was pre vailed upon to substitute. led to what he has labeled as "the most fascinating speech of 1962." He showed up at the ban quet room and sat nervous ly through the preliminaries. Just as the toastmaster was about to introduce him in walked the snowbound orator. After such a series of mis adventures, I'm sure you'll agree that the almanac is dua for a change of luck. For iis sake, I hope we are all in for a hard winter, as predict ed in the new edition. ALERT & EFFECTIVE ta, A3'., fnn lor Corg. Com., ! '.9 . 6ia. I Ewgtnt, Of, fialph Conb, Cnoirrr.an, Effective, Responsible Leadership o ED BRANCHFIELD for State Representative "Vote for three, including me" Pd. Pol. Ad., Brjnchtield for Stale Rep. Comm., Sim Harbison, Chmn., 2125 Orchard Homt Driva. JL S-ii. U k .ML. a-t rirtk I X. K - I I I 1 I II II I V " New York Hews Employees Strike New York -HTH- Editorial employees today went on trlke against the New York Daily News, which has the largest circulation nf any newspaper In the United States. 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