PAGE-
HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Falls, Ore.
Monday, January 14, 196J
Keep Your Distance
If you drive a car 12,000 miles a year,
which is a fairly average number, the chances
are 1 in 3 that you will be involved in an ac
cident. They are 1 in 35 that you or another
person will be injured, and 1 in 1,300 that
someone will be killed.
Fully 13 per cent of the time, these deaths
or injuries or bruised fenders will result from
the widespread practice of tailgating follow
ing the car ahead too closely. As a cause of
accidents this is second only to speeding or
failure to yield the right of way.
The figures come from a source that
ought to know, the Association of Casualty
and Surety Companies, whose members base
their rates on the accuracy of such statistics.
With the growing congestion of ordinary
traffic, the rear-end collision is certain to be
come more and more common, unless motor
ists generally change their practices.
The brakes on a modern car are marve
lously effective and the distance required to
stop a car traveling at different speeds can
be calculated to the fraction of an inch. The
imperfect element is the driver; no matter
how fast his reactions may be, he cannot beat
the physics of mass times velocity.
The standard rule of thumb is to allow
one car length between the car ahead for
every 10 miles an hour of speed.
The standard objection is that every car
length ahead will be filled by another car.
In bumper-to-bumper city traffic, this
probably cannot be avoided. The insurance ex
perts thus advLse drivers to make the best of
the situation: Allow as much margin as you
can without tempting other cars to squeeze
in front of you.
Combined with that, drivers should:
Be alert to everything that goes on
around them, especially to changes in the
traffic pattern.
Avoid sudden, unexpected moves that
may confuse the fellow behind.
Use signals when slowing down or
changing lanes.
Above all, when in doubt, act. The time
to begin braking is when the line of cars sev
eral lengths ahead slows down. Don't take
your cue just from the car immediately ahead.
"Togetherness" is a great thing, but not
on the highway.
The Tumult And The Shouting
(The Christian Science Monitor)
Ralph McGill, columnist and publisher
of the Atlanta Constitution, has put his finger
on an important and disturbing index of the
times in American life.
A town in southern Ohio which may as
well be nameless here, since there are many
like it has collected $10,000 to send its high
school band to march (with 200 other bands)
in a football parade in Miami. Yet the high
school Is in danger of losing its accreditation
because the library is below minimum state
standards, a third of the teachers are unquali
fied for the subjects they teach, and the town
shows no interest in raising the tax levy to
remedy these situations.
Just what is it that Americans value? On
one hand, two hours of noise and color; on the
other, unbought books that would feed the
minds of pupils for years.
At a more advanced level of American ed
ucation, college administrators, according to
an article in Fortune magazine (by a former
Big Ten football player), are asking whether
college football has not become in many cases
a losing business.
Finding that it costs upward of $400,000
a year to field a "big time" varsity team,
some universities suspect that this has become
a financial drain rather than an aid to the
financing of other sports. Lesser colleges,
says the author, are moving back to "ama
teur football" and finding it "still a fairly
rousing game."
Of the two areas, high school and college,
probably overemphasis on sports (and bands
as an adjunct) is more widespread at the high
school level. Where the attention paid to
amusement is at the cost of educational
standards, American parents and taxpayers
are failing to equip their children for the
world ahead.
To A Neighbor
(Tulia Tribune)
Save a dismaying hcadshake for Missouri.
A federal court up there just upheld the
state's 136-year-old Sunday closing law. Be
ginning at once stores may sell cigarettes and
gasoline Sunday but not baby bottles and dia
pers. The weather may turn cold overnight,
but a clothier may not sell a shivering friend
a sweater. The druggist, however, may sell
him medicine. . . .
All this confusion is designed to compel
Missourians to take a particular day of rest
a week on the golf course, at the bridge
table or fishing, we presume. It must come on
Sunday, because the law, the federal judge
said, pinpointed that "as a day of rest in a
Christian society." If any Missourian's re
ligion designates another day for his prayer
ful observance, that has no standing.
We feel for our Missouri neighbors; most
of all for the prosecutors who must begin fil
ing charges. But we must confess it is their
own fault they are in such legal chaos. They've
had 135 years to change their silly law and
they've done nothing about it, except to vio
late it pretty generally. Finally the federal
court has been brought in to it.
This raises bristles merely to contem
plate. But it is going to happen more and more
frequently unless the people of the various
slates have courage enough to meet their own
problems.
THESE DAYS . . .
Age Of Innocence Persists
tty JOHN CHAMBERLAIN
The Mona Lisa. Leonardo da
Vinci'i most famous portrait,
which Is on loan by the French
government to the United States,
went on official display at the
National Gallery in Washington
Wednesday, and thousands who
have never been able to visit
the Louvre in Paris will have
their first opportunity to gape at
a Renaissance lady. With our in
stitution of the inquiring reporter
it should be relatively easy to dis
cover what Americans think of
Leonardo's art. But, though it
can never be known, it would be
more interesting to learn what
might pass througtl Madame
Lisa's own shapely head as she
looks out on our naUonal capital.
In Uie once familiar purple
patch prose of the Victorian Wal
ter Pater, an older generation of
art lovers read all about Uie enig
matic quality of the Mona Lisa's
smile. "She is older than the
rocks among which she sits."
wrote Pater in a burst of subjec
tive divination: "Like the vam
pire, site has been dead many
limeJ. . . . Hers is the head
upon which all 'Uie ends of the
world are come," and tlie eyelids
arc a little weary." In short, a
sophisticated dame.
Would the Lady Lisa with the
sophisticated smile find much
that was new and strange in Wash
ington? She lived In Uie time of
the Borgias, those notorious pois
oners, and she must have wit
nessed the swirl of intrigue Out
gave her contemporary Machia
velli his entirely modern theory
of politics as an unprincipled
struggle of "who gets what,
when." II the late Attorney Gen-
i
oral and Supreme Court Justice,
Frank Murphy, were still alive,
he might confide to Lisa, ns lie
once did to me, the secrets of
Washington wire tapping and
"bugging" by which even those
who worked closely with cabinet
officers allegedly kept labs in
rather recent years on their rivals
and underlings. But lor all Uie
occasional hints of corrupt prac
tice in Washington. 1 am sin e the
1-ady Lisa would find it a relative
ly innocent place.
We talk about "dynasties," and
laugh knowingly at the line from
the phonograph record about the
"First Family" which urges us
to "vote for (lie Kennedy of your
choir, but vote." But Uie lady
who lived in the day of the Bor
gias would smilo wilh a little
hint of balded incredulity at our
worries almiit the supixiscd dan
gers of a dynastic succession in
America. They really had dyn
asties in Uie time of the Borgia
Poie who burned the incorrupti
ble Florentine priest, Savonaio
la. a contemporary of Da Vinci,
on a cross and had his remains
thrown into tlie Amo.
The Borgia Pojie coveted vari
ous states in Central ami North
ern Italy for his son, Caesar Uor
gia -and he stopped at little to
advance the family fortunes. In
Renaissance Ilaly it was custo
mary to poison or assassinate
one's rivals; today any presump
tive "dynast" must beat a rival
at the Mls. Tlie late Franklin P.
Roosevelt's sons, once feared in
certain quarters as prospective
dynasts, have not had much suc
cess at the polls and even if tliey
did It would merely be a matter
of Ui best campaigner winning.
In learning that the Kennedys.
Jack and Jackie, arc patrons of
the arts. Uie Lady Lisa would find
herself on familiar ground. After
all, 1-conardo da Vinci served
live Sfora Duke of Milan lor
years as resident artist. The great
Leonardo ended his davs as an
intimate of King Francis the First
nl France, who brought Uie high
Kcnaissancc to Pans, But there
is a difference belwecn govern
ment art patrons then and now.
Both the Duke of Milan and the
king of France thought nothing of
squandering the finances of their
respective realms on artists and
on art. In Washington today we
d things a hllle more circum
spectly. Sometimes a poet is
tapped to serve as librarian of
Congress, and in the WP. period
artists were set to painlmg wilh
government funds. But if Jackie
Kennedy should covet a Kenoir
or a Jackson Pollock canvas for
herself, she Mould have to buy it
wilh her own money.
The relative integrity of con
temporary Washington is perhaps
besl summed up by the fact Hut
J. Edgar Hoover remains head of
tlie FBI no matter whether a Re
publican or a lYmocrat sits in
the While House. Hoover has
consistently resisted the tempta
tion to gather the sort o( power
for lus FBI that might turn it
into a Gestapo. Ionardo da Vin
o's friend, Machiavelh, wouldn't
have understood this at all.
Our corruption, where it ex
ists, is entirely different from
that of tlie I.ady Lisa's time It
consists of people voting, through
their representatives, to bribe
themselves with their own monev.
""We Feel You Should Extend Your
'Conventional Forces' Coverage"
Letters To The Editor
Reasons
Letters To The Editor
Guard Rail
Why! Why! doesn't the Oregon
State Highway Department, Klam
ath County Road Department,
City of Klamath Falls, the Klam
ath County Chamber of Com
merce, or any other organization
interested in the health, welfare
and safety of other human beings,
start a campaign to install a hea
vy guard rail along U.S. High
way 97 from just north of Worden,
where tlie roadway runs between
Uie canals, to just south of Mid
land? Or at least put one on Uie
east side, of the roadway where
the deepest canal is. If this were
a California highway, there would
have been one Uicre for many
years.
I am sure if anyone having
the responsibility of seeing to
the safety of motorists in Oregon
had witnessed Uie scene we saw
on the afternoon of Dec. 24, he
would never rest until something
had been done to help prevent
automobiles from going into that
canal.
We were returning home from
a last minute Christmas shopping
trip to Klamath Falls, tired, but
happy with the last minute treas
ures jve had found. As we ap
proached the big curve midway in
the canals, we could see a cluster
of cars, and with sinking hearts,
we knew what we were about to
see on this Christmas Kvc.
First, we saw the broken sur
face of the ice on the canal and
pieces of ice laying on the side
of the road where they had fallen
from the cloUiing of a heart-broken
husband who had tried in vain
to rescue his pregnant w ife. Next,
we saw the bubbles still rising
from Uie submerged car, in wa
ter so deep that there was no
visible sign of the car to be seen
from the surface. And. lastly, we
saw Uie young husband sitting
in the car of a kindly passing
motorist, his anguished wracked
body wrapped in a comforter,
as he cried with his face buried
in his hands. The scene was all
the more horrible because of the
fact that there was no way one
could help him. If the car had
been wrecked with no canal or
water involved, one could have
at least helped by rendering first
aid.
Al
manac
By Initrd Press International
Today is Monday. Jan. Jt, the
Ulh day of wuh 351 to follow.
The moon is approaching its
last quarter.
The morning stars are Mercury
and Venus.
Tlie evening stars are Mars and
Jupiter.
Those born on tin- day include
medical missionary ami philosoph
er Albert Schweitzer, m 1873.
On this day in history:
In 1878. the I'.S. Supreme Court
ruled that a Male law outlawing
segregation of the races m rail
road travel was unconstitutional.
In 1; Henry Ford revolution
ized the manufacture of automo
biles by inaugurating the "assem
bly line" method
In I'M.". President Franklin
lioosevcll and Prune Minister
Winston Churchill began a 10-day
conference in Morocco to plan Al
lied oflcnsives aimed at ihe "un
conditional surrender" of the Ais
ow ers
In l!2. scores were s!am m a
terror wave which swept Algeria.
A thought for the day Fng!ih
c.-av 1st William llahtt said "No
young man believes he should
ever die."
I had heard and read of the
woman who was drowned just
four days earlier in the same,
canal. But. until one actually wit
nesses such a tragedy, one doesn't
fully realize the horror of such
an accident, nor is he very much
concerned or disturbed about it.
We, who live to the south of
those canals in Worden, Dorris,
Macdoel and all of Butte Valley,
and do all of our shopping and
business in Klamath Falls, travel
that road at least once a week,
and some, several times a week.
In the summer during farming
season, we sometimes go twice
in one day after parts, if some
vital piece of farm machinery
breaks down. I would surely think
that the business and profession
al men of Klamath Falls, who
prosper from our patronage, could
help protect us and our young
people, who find most of their
recreation in Klamath Falls, by
urging the chamber of commerce
to institute a campaign to get
some kind of protection along the
canals.
I saw in the paper this past
week of the many millions of visi
tors to Oregon in 1WS2 and the
millions of dollars spent by those
visitors. I do not think that strip
of highway is a very thought
ful way to welcome motorists to
Oregon and the Klamath Coun
try, or a very warm way to say
"goodbye hurry back."
Last Friday, as I traveled to
KlamaUi Falls for my weekly
shopping trip. I saw Uie Oregon
State Highway Department salv
ing its conscience by erecting re
flector posts on either side of the
roadway many yards apart. I
fear this will accomplish little as
a deterrent.
Can't something a little more
sturdy be installed to stop any
more automobiles from going into
the canal as those two did iin
which two women lost their lives
during the Christmas holidays?
Mrs. John Archibald,
Macdoel, Calif.
Survival
We of the American Legion, ex
servicemen like yourself, take this
opportunity to urge your readers
in and around the Malm area to
attend the free illustrated lectures
to he given on Ihe evenings of Jan
nary 22, January 29. February
5 and February I!) next, by t h c
qualified instructor, James Lacy
of Mai in.
They will be held in the Malm
High School music room from
7 no p m. to 9 30 pm.. with a
short coffee break at 8 SO
Those of us who attended last
year feel that the entertaining
movies of the actual tests held
in the Pacitic. showing high
powered explosions of atomic and
hydrogen bombs were well worth
going to see. And besides the in
teresting pictures, is the course
of instruction on the effects of
nuclear weapons, especially (all
out measures; the importance of
family planning, what you must
do for yourself: what Red Cross
and otlier agencies may do for
j on: techniques of survival; state
and local Civil Defense disaster
plans; National Shelter Program:
shelter equipment and supplies:
riifterent ways of purifying wa
ter; lamily radiation detection and
decontamination measures; the
eltects of chemical and biological
weapons and protective measuies.
Mr. l-acy was trained by the
Civil Defense adult educat.on
staif in an area tra.ning center.
He is a cert. lied Civil Deiciise
inst.iMor. You will have oppor
tunity for lively discissions ars.1
receive take-home literature. No
examinations.
Survival courses are compulsory
for every citizen in the Soviet
Union.
Some of your readers may
say that they prefer not to sur
vive nuclear war because Uie
protection we can muster seems
so little.
The American infantryman has
for protection only a tin hat, which
is certainly not bullet proof.
He is ordered to march ahead into
what seems certain destruction
for a purpose that transcends his
own survival. Should not we
civilians be willing to do Uie
same?
Many Americans are going to
survive. The most pessimistic es
timates are placed at fifty mil
lion. They will make Uie most of
what shelter there is, and will
want to be in a position to help
alleviate Uie suffering after an at
tack. Is it fair that some should be
indifferent now, and then, when
the panic strikes, forcefully invade
the shelters of Uiose who did
prepare?
Isn't it important that as many
as possible intelligent prepara
tions be made, and that every
one participate so that there will
be as little as possible chaos
when the unhoped for moment
arrives?
Wo urge your readers to co
operate with the Civil Defense
program by coming.
Malin Post No. 84, American
Legion, thanks you.
Werner Bungc,
Adjutant.
Box 401, Malin, Ore.
Dictator
I have just read the letter writ
ten by Paul Norris and if he is
not the front runner of a dictator
ship I have never met one. In
his letter on zoning he says a
vole would be ridiculous. I con
tend that no zoning should he
brought about by a county court,
a stale government or the federal
government. It should first be
initiated by the people affected
first by petition then by ballot at
a general election, and anything
less than this is dictatorship, and
1 did not say Communist. How
ever all dictators arc much the
same.
O. II. Osborn.
Midland. Ore.
POTOMAC
FEVER
Congress isn't so much an in
stitution as it is a long breathing
spell between two fights: one on
how to begin and the other on
when to quit.
Thanks to Postmaster Gener
al Pay, Ihe nickel wins the
award for the greatest come
back of the decade.
Ike urges Congress to save
money. It's a new tack, born of
experience From his davs in the
White House, he learned it
riiesn't do much good to urge a
president to cut spending.
The Pentagon is disturbed at
news that James Meredith may
quit the I'mversity of Mississippi.
This means the Army may have
to go hack to its old job oi fight
ing the Air Force.
Republicans complain they're
Ihe nation's only mirority group
without a government agency to
protect them from discrimina
tion. FLETCHER KNEBEL
Those among us who are will
ing to barter away our rights and
freedoms under Uie constitution
and the bill of rights, must have
something to gain by doing so.
After much thought on the sub
ject, I personally am not willing
to concede that any group of peo
ple (even if that group consisted
of 99 per cent of the people of a
community) should have the right
to vote away even one small right,
that we hold as a free people.
How many reasons are there for
not zoning? Here are a few of
which I could think.
1. Zoning helps to create a class
society. (This is so obvious, that
It should not need explaining. I
Who among us can say that they
were created to hold special priv
ilege? 2. It is segregation, in its worst
aspects; based not on moral,
race, or religious grounds: but on
money values. (People who live in
apartments, house (j ailers, or mo
tels, are not quite as good as we
are, because they can't afford to
live in a one family residential
area.)
3. It is foreign to, (please note)
not meaning communistic or so
cialistic, but, foreign to our con
stitution or bill of rights: and it
is not compatible with cither.
4. Zoning destroys freedom of
choice, by taking Uie power to
decide from the individual and
bestowing it on a group.
5. Zoning makes it possible for
a favored few to force all the
remunerative forms of land use
into areas where they own a ma
jor interest, and thus gain a tre
mendous economic advantage. I
do not mean that this particular
group would do this; but it does
open the door for someone in the
future.
6. Zoning does not necessarily
mean that your property will have
the highest value possible. Some
body's property will assuredly be
of higher value, but possibly not
yours.
Suppose that your property was
located in Uie neighborhood of a
zoned industrial area; and an
aluminum plant moved into that
industrial zone; and by creating
fumes, destroyed your land use;
same with pulp mills and other
forms of industry.
Y'our right to a redress for loss
es suffered may be lost.
7. It is an extension of govern
ment beyond what is essential to
good order; it created new com
missions or bureaus, (possibly to
fill up space in a new court
house) and thus raises taxes. Gov
ernment should be reduced to a
minimum, not extended to a maxi
mum. 8. It regiments: Are humans-to
become a completely regimented
society such as ants or bees? It
would destroy, the adventure of
living: There are many million
ex-servicemen in this country w ho
are completely fed up with non
essential rules and rcgulaUons,
particularly those that just affert
the privates.
9. Zoning would take away tiio
ability of Uie people to escape
from over control. As it is now,
whenever the individual gets fed
up enough with too much con
trol, he can remove himself and
his business, to an area outside
the control zone, and still live
within a reasonable distance from
his work or trade area. (I, too,
would like to see the densely popu
lated suburbs brought into the
city, but they should not be forced
in.) It would be better for t h a
city to do away with over control,
and thus create a desire in these
people to want to gain the ad
vantages of living inside the city,
and without the loss of their free
doms. They live where they do be
cause they have fled from over
control.
10. This is government by mis
direction. Who among you wishes
to be ruled, not governed by set
laws, but ruled by the passage of
new ordinances, that you did not
even understand the reason, when
it was placed into law. Could
anybody have designed a more
perfect weapon than ORS215-014?
Did they want to force a desire
in the suburbanites to become
part of a city rather than stay
outside Uie limits and maintain
their freedom from all the count
less hundreds of city ordinances
and codes?
. 11. It would destroy the ability
of Uie individual to compete with
the downtown business area. Ma
nipulated land use would not set
up a zone where competition
would hurt. Just who would this
zoning be good for?
12. The meUiod has been to di
vide and conquer; note the divi
sion into areas, it is easier to
control Uie thinking of the people
if the area is divided up and
then make each little group fight
alone.
Now, how much is the added
cost of this multiple advertising
of each small area? Who is pay
ing for it? You and I. Think.
Frank R. Weaver,
631 South Fifth Street.
Addresses
Since there are so many peo
ple in the Basin who like to write
letters, and since a new session
of Congress is due to convene on
Jan. 9, it might be quite appro
priate to publish once more the
names and addresses of each of
our representatives in Congress.
GetUng our letters in early
might be of more help to our Sen
ators and Representatives than if
we wrote pleading letters at the
tail-end of the session, after minds
were pretty well made up.
Hoping you can find a spot
on your editorial page in the
very near future, I for one. will
be grateful. I will clip it out
and paste it above my typewriter.
Eleanor Thomson,
. Bly, Ore.
Editor's Note: Good idea. And,
here they are:
Sen. Wayne E. Morse
Senate Office Building
W ashington 25, D C.
Sen. Maurine Neuberger
Senate Office Building
Washington 23, D C.
Congressman Al I'llman
House of Representatives
v Washington 23. D.C.
WASHINGTON REPORT
African Students Get
Facts Of Commie Life
By FULTON LEWIS, JR.
From Peiping to Moscow, from
Leipzig to Sofia, Communist lead
ers have failed in their effort to
win African students to their side.
Nearly 20,000 young Africans
have been lured behind the Iron
and Bamboo Curtains, promised
. free education, room and board.
This grandiose program, de
signed to create a new corps of Af
rican Communists, has failed.
Thousands of young students have
returned home, bitterly disil
lusioned with Communist reality.
They have learned the hard way
that Communist education means
mammoth doses of indoctrina
tion, intimidation and humiliation.
A young Nigerian. AnUiony Ok
otcha. returned from Moscow's
Patrice Lumumba University to
give first-hand reports on So
viet Communism. He told of
classes in "self-defense" wlierc
instructors ("serious faced mili
tary men in unilorm") demon
strated how to use pistols, rifles
and machine guns in insurrection.
Other instruction. Okotcha said,
included demolition. "H o w to
throw a hand grenade into a
crowd and how to kill a man
quickly with a knife."
Finally. Okotcha was ordered
to carry out an elaborate plot
to kill Nigeria's pro-Western lead
ers. Okotcha left for home, where
he publicly exposed tiic Soviet
scheme.
African students have been
sliocked at blatant racial dis
crimination throughout the Com
munist world. Consider these ep
isodes: On August 22. 112. the Came
roon radio reported that a group
of 30 African students had left
Red China because of "raual
discrimination "
Earlier lhat month, a Bulgar
ian youth attacked a Ghanaian
student dancing with a kcal girl
in Sofia. A brawl criMied ai which
the police used clabs and fire
arms E.ght Ghanaians vtcie ar
rested. On August 14. the Ghana
Daily Graphic carried a picture
of seven of those who had been
ordered to leave Bulgaria. All
were injured; four had bandaged
heads.
Abdul Amid Mohammed of So
malia, a former Mosiow student,
tells how Russian youths "Often
surrounded us in a circle and
pointed out to each other our
hair, our hands emphasizing
with snickers tlie racial differ
ences." Although he had lived
among white people in Italy, An
dul Amid had never before en
countered such behavior. "I had
to go to the USSR." he says,
"to realize Uiat I am different
from others and to be humiliated
as a result of this difference."
In a notorious incident of two
years ago. Theoplulus Okonkwo
of Nigeria was photographed while
exercising in a Moscow gymna
sium. That picture, heaviiy re
touched, appeared one month later
in New Times, an official journ
al of propaganda widely distri
buted in Africa. Soviet artistj
had sketched broken chains on the
wrists of Okonkwo and a comic
strip colonialist was shown fall
ing back in terror: Uie innocent
boxer was now "breaking the
chains of colonialism."
African students studying at
Leipzig are ani-ercd by the fact
tiiat a "loyal East German Com
munist" must share a room
with each foreign student. The
Fast German is there to "ex
change" views and monitor the
African's aitivitics and contacts.
Mail is censored, often never
delivered. One letter that did get
out, however, was published in a
Kcnva newspaper recently. The
writer, under a psuedonym, lold
h.s Kcnva readers: "You don t
kno w much about the misery and
indignity that Communism ha
brought to Poland. Instead of
I'huru 'freedom1 you get the most
dreadful slavery and dictatorsh.p
he world las ever known."