MEDFOKD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFOKD. OREGON
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18. 19tt
A 5
Albania
EDITOR'S NOTE Alba
nia is a tiny, backward, im
! poverished and strongly Stal
inist maverick among East
European Communist coun
tries. In the great ideological
debate shaking the Communist
world, Albania follows the
Chinese rather than Russian
lead. Its borders are rarely
Birth Rate High, Food Supply Low, Churches Ignored
crossed by Westerners. L'PI
correspondent Rolf Breiten
stein was one of the few West
ern newsmen to visit Albania
in recent months. His report
follows.
By ROLF BREITENSTEIN
United Press International
Albania is the poor backyard
ADRIATIC AiPlHK TV
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YUGOSLAVIA
KUKEJ
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TIN0 IALBANIAI
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GREECE
THIS IS ALBANIA Communist Chinese tractors till the stonv
soil of this country in the poor backyard ot Europe. Towering
Stalin monuments still cast their shadows across the land. The
Albanian Communists refused to dismantle them when Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev launched his anti-Stalin drive. (UPI)
Gardner Appointed
To Vice President
Of World Congress
International honors have
come again to Wilbur L. Gard
ner, Medford shoe repairman,
recognized as "father of shoe
.labeling in the United States."
The fourth world honor to
come to him is appointment as
an honorary vice president of
the Third. World Congress to be
held at Blackpool, England, in
October, 1963.
Gardner, who operates Gard
ner Shoe Service on East Main
St., was informed of the ap
pointment by L. W. Impey,
chairman of the Third Interna-
- tional Shoe Repairers' Congress.
The letter from England also
reported Gardner's nomination
-as delegate and representative
of United Shoe Servicemen of
American, Inc., to the congress.
To Consider Committee
Honorary vice presidents will
be invited to consider forming
an International Standing Com-
. mittee which could meet at
Blackpool during the Congress.
The object of the committee
would be to insure the con
tinuity of the congresses.
. Gardner's first world honor
came in the form of the Gold
en Heel award, which was pre
sented in 1961 at the first in
ternational congress of shoe re
pairers held in Hanover, Ger
many. The second was his appoint
ment as one of four speakers
to appear at the International
Congress in Paris in 1962.
-Repairman of Year
He was named Shoe Repair
man of the year and received
a plaque from the United Shoe
Servicemen of America for his
distinguished service to the in
dustry. Gardner was successful in
establishing the Fourth Interna
tional Congress to be held in
New York City in 1964 by mak
ing contacts with England and
countries on the European con
tinent. It was by working
through the Shoe Service In
stitute in Chicago, Gardner said,
that he was able to make the
necessary contacts.
Rites Arranged tor
Oregon FHA Director
PORTLAND (UPI) - Funeral
was to be held today for
Howard C. Heydlauff, 50, deputy
director for Oregon of the Fed
eral Housing Administration
who died Sunday at his home
here.
Heydlauff had been with the
FHA since 1962 in Oregon. He
was a member of the Oregon
State Bar and Multnomah Bar
association.
DEFENSE BILL APPROVED
WASHINGTON (UPI) The
Senate Appropriations Commit
tee approved Tuesday a $47.4 bil
lion defense spending bill. It
represented nearly half of the
entire federal budget for the
current fiscal year which ends
next June 30.
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of Europe. Communist Chinese i
tractors till its stony soil in the
shadow ot towering Malm mon
uments which the Albanian Com
unists stubbornly refuse to dis
mantle after Soviet Premier Ni
kita Khrushchev launched his
anti-Stalin campaign. j
Albania hit the headlines when '
its strongman Enver Hoxha re-;
fused to fall in line with Khru
shchev and made the tiny south-1
east European country Peking's
only ally outside Asia in its ,
ideological warfare with Khru
shchev, j
Otherwise outsiders see and
hear little about the mountain- j
ous, highly underdeveloped coun
try of 10,b29 square miles, about
the size of the state of Mary
land. Few Visitors
Only about two dozen foreign
ers from Western countries
crossed Albanian borders in re-1
cent months, this correspondent,
among them. I
The 1,625,000 shqipetars, "sons
of the eagle," as they proudly
call themselves, live surrounded
by the Adriatic Sea and high 1
mountains. I
Albania shares a long border
with Yugoslavia, ruled by Presi
dent Hoxha's arch-enemy, Mar
shal Broz Tito.
Albania lost 28,000 guerrilla
fighters in World War II, and
the population in 1945 stood be
low one million. About 16,000
more sons of the eagle died be
fore firing squads and in prison
cells, according to Western sta
tistics, when Hoxha brought the
Communist cadres under h i s
thumb.
Birth Kate High
Albanians, however, quickly
made up for it. The birth rate
is 31 per 1,000 a year, one of
the highest in the world.
In the United States the birth
rate is about 23 per 1,000.
The 55-year-old Albanian dic
tator Hoxha contributed two
sons to the baby boom and
encouraged it by a monthly al
lowance of 400 lcke for the first
and 200 leke for any further
baby.
Four hundred leke is a lot of
money in Albania. It is just
over $3 according to the latest,
but highly misleading, tourist
exchange rate.
An unskilled Albanian worker
earns up to 5,000 lcke a month,
working seven-hour shifts six
days a week.
Five thousand leke will buy
two pairs of high-priced poor
quality shoes.
Eggs sell for 7 to 9 leke dur
ing the season. A pack of 20
cigarettes costs 20 leke.
Shortages Exist
Manufactured goods and even
foodstuffs are short in supply.
Albania's exports of chrome,
nickel, asphalt, copper, tobacco
and olives are not buying much
in return, and the country s
mineral resources in the north
are not yet fully exploited.
State - distributed apartments j
are inexpensive, as in most j
Communist countries. A young
man playing the hautboy in the !
Tirana theater orchestra said he ,
is navine 100 leke per montn i
for a one-bedroom apartment
for his family of three in Ai-1
bania's capital.
The hautbov player manes ,
8,000 leke a month, which puts
him in the top income bracket. I
An elementary school teacher
earns about 6,000 leke per month ;
and scholarships for students at
the Tirana University amount to
3,000 leke per month.
Lack Religions
Youngsters spend much time
with the Communist youth or
ganization "Young Pioneers." j
Hardly any ever go to church, i
Every second Albanian citizen
is Moslem, the rest are Roman
Catholics or members of the
unique Albanian Orthodox
church.
The official party line is a
complete separation between
state and churches with no in
terference from either side.
But state workers took away .
the lead from the previously !
lead-roofed Dschamija Plumit ;
Mosque near Shkodra in south
ern Albania, the most beautiful
mosque in the country, and con
verted it into a cow shed.
Chapel Is Pub
An Albanian-Orthodox chapel,
sharing a hillside near Tirana
with old King Zog's castle and
a cemetery (or guerrilla fighters,
serves as a pub. The bar counter
replaced the altar and bottles of
raki and sweet Albanian cognac
took the place of the ikons be
hind it.
About two dozen faithful at
tend Mass in Tirana's only Ro
man Catholic church on a Sun
day morning.
"My children and I do not
believe in God any longer," a
party official said very firmly.
Were his children christened?
After some hesitation he an
swered affirmatively.
When night falls, the sons of
the eagle and the girls, loo
seem to forget about the daily
toil and hardships and try their
wings when the hands nlav it ud
in the "people's parks."
Sixth Potato festival
At Redmond Saturday
REDMOND (I'Pn-Thc sixth
annual Potato Festival will be
held here Saturday.
Lloyd Wanswer of Caldwell,
Idaho, national old-time fid
dling champion, Is scheduled to
appear during the event.
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