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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1963)
PAGE- HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Fall, Ore. Sunday, March J, 1963 NOTHING SPECIAL IW. B. S.) There are perhaps 40 million Americans today who are seriously disadvantaged poverty-stricken, handicapped, ill, forgotten. Thanks to efforts like Michael Harring ton's excellent "The Other America," some of us in this country are perhaps a little more aware now of these unfortunate millions. They Include, of course, migratory workers, the out-of-work in abandoned Appalachian coal fields, aged folk cast aside, the young but unskilled who can't find jobs, and many more. Certainly our society can never be ac counted a success until we find a way to lift such millions out of their half-world of des pair and disillusion. The commentator who called attention to (Portland Oregonian) Management took a severe beating in the Atlantic-Gulf Coast longshore strike, and the federal government swung the club in the person of pro-labor Sen. Wayne Morse of Ore gon. This can be the only conclusion from the terms of the settlement, happily accepted by the International Longshoremen's Association and reluctantly agreed to by ship owners under Mr. Morse's threats of a worse beat ing in Congress after many more weeks of losses on the waterfront. The month-long strike is estimated to have cost $750 million. The settlement will add an estimated $28 mil lion in labor costs to a $145 million annual payroll in New York alone. Wage and benefit increases, by the Ken nedy Administration's own announced policy, should be kept within the bounds of increased productivity, which the government has said is about 3 per cent a year. But on the eastern waterfronts, productivity has declined by 14 per cent in 10 years, according to the em ployers. Featherbedding is rampant. ; This was a key issue in the dispute. Em ployers insisted that 17-man gangs could easi ly do the work of the present 20-man crews. They demanded that other practices which produce on work or limit, for instance, a checker's duties to a certain item or a crew's work to one hatch, be eliminated. But in the final settlement no considera tion was given to this vital issue. Earlier, the Labor Departments had got both sides to agree to a non-binding study by a government commission of work practices. Employers have little reason to believe that if the commission finds for them the union will accept the EDSON IN WASHINGTON . . By PETER EDSON ' Washington Correspondent Newspaper Enterprise Assn. WASHINGTON (NEA) - Presi dent Kennedy is now in the unen viable position ot being damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. Whatever domestic or foreign policies he proposes, he gets jum)ed on by his critics in both parties. And his defenders are few. Prime example at the moment is the lax program. For over a year practically everyone has been screaming nt the President for a tax cut as the only sure cure (or recession. i A few dissenters have pointed out that while tax cuts wcro nice, they couldn't be had without either a cut in government spending, deficit financing or tax reform. Nobody inid any altcntion. But now many of the people who last year were demanding tax cuU of every kind, just so they were big enough, have awak ened to the fact that both tax reform and deficit financing may be Involved. And they are yelling that the President Is going to ruin the country. So the demand now is to cut government spending right to the bono to pay for the tax cut. Meanwhile, opposition to the President's balanced, three-year gradual tax reduction and tax reform program has become prac tically unanimous. To labor un ion leaders, low income groups would not bo given enough of a tax cut. To business leaders, cor porate taxes would not be cut deep enough or fast enough. And to everyone who now gels liltle benefit from some escape clause In existing tax law like Revealing The Hidden their plight performed a useful service which ought to be repeated by one or another constantly. But he was unrealistic in suggesting that strong words from the president can magical ly start these people on the road up. The burden of Harrington's book is that the "other America" is largely hidden in a nation essentially prosperous. And, no matter how loud the President's voice, Congress is not in the habit of legislating about hidden problems. It acts when they are out in the open, feeding a fire that every lawmaker can feel. On the problem in question, admittedly a grave one, we have barely begun to gather the kindling. Settlement By Club findings or that the government will pres sure it to do so. Postponement of the featherbedding is sue left only wages and. fringe benefits for Sen. Morse and the other 'presidential com mission strike settlers to prescribe. How one sidedly they did prescribe is evident in origi nal demands and offers and the final settle ment. The union had demanded 50 cents an hour over a two-year period, of which 26 cents would be in wages. The employers offered a package of 22 cents. The President's commission gave the union 39 cents by em ployers' figures, though Sen. Morse denies it will nin that high. The Morse commission gave the union 24 cents in wage increases only 2 cents less than the union demand 15 cents retroactive to last Oct. 1 and 9 cents more next October. Pension contributions were upped by 9 cents over the two-year period and other benefits, such as an extra holiday, were thrown in. The longshoremen now earn $3.02 an hour, with 67 cents ad ditional in fringe benefits. Mr. Kennedy was "gratified" by the set tlement, the 'White House announced. How he could be gratified by a violation of his own rules relating to wages and productivity and by a settlement that is bound to disturb price stability and make world trade more costly is beyond our comprehension. Obvious ly the government-dictated settlement is not within the "framework of living costs," as Sen. Morse said it was. The image as a friend of business the President has tried to establish since the steel-price rumble is bound to suffer from this bludgeoning of an industry into submission to the union. Kennedy Popularity Jolted the people who have boon gelling dividend lax credits or extra large depiction allowances on min eral resources the mere thought of denying them these entrenched special privileges is revolution ary. Little realization is apparent that there never was a perfect tax bill and there never will be. A tax cut which gives everybody everything he wants and then some would not do the job it must do raise money tr pay for defense and run the government. The (act that somebody has to make some hard decisions on on theso matters and bull them through has not registered. Much of the same kind of criti cism is now being applied to the administration's foreign policy moves. Since the end of World War II, the principal fault found with the conduct of American foreign policy has been that this country lias not taken the position of world leadership to which It is entitled. There has been too much de ference to allied second-rate pow ers and underdeveloped countries on the foreign aid dole and not enough firm insistence that the American position should deter mine tree world policy in oppo sition to international communism, since America carries most of the load. In the past few months, how ever, the President has led the tree world in imposing a block ade on Cuba. He has forced the witlidrawal of Russian missiles from Cuban bases. He has in sisted Uiat Polaris missiles Iw substituted for Skybolts to de fend Britain. He has taken a strong stand on creation of a nuclear striking force in the North At lantic Treaty Organization. He has called on Canada to live up to its past commitments for nu clear defense. He has cut off for eign aid to Haiti and Ceylon for their unfriendly attitudes. Instead of taking a certain amount of pride in this softly siHiken diplomacy, backed up by wielding of a bigger stick, the burden of the criticism is that the President is wrecking all American alliances and that his foreign policy is a mess. The same kind of reaction has greeted almost every administra tion program. The President is blamed for not having been able to lift the country out of the recession lelt on his doorstep when he entered the White House. In the same breath he is criti cized liecauso he has tried to do something about this through ac celerated depreciation and invest ment credits to business, through extended insurance benefits for the jobless, by public works and redevelopment programs in de pressed areas. The whole purpose has been to reduce the curse of excessive unemployment. The justification for all this cirticism is that it is part of the American political system and tradition. The great game of pol itics is to destroy every president as soon as he takes the oath. This is what happened to Presi dent Hoover, to Presidents Boos evelt and Truman, to President Eisenhower, and now Kennedy. The logic, the consistency, and the everyday common sense ot such an attitude Is hard for the fair-minded citizen to follow most of the time. By SYDNEY J. HARRIS , My recent column on names of characters in fiction that have passed into the common vocabu lary of English speech has been supplemented by readers from all parts of the country. A few of my oversights were excusable only on the grounds of temporary im becility. For instance, I mentioned Dick ens' "Fagin," but neglected the far more popular "Scrooge." I credited Shakespeare with "Ro meo," but ignored the equally well-known "Shylock." And some how 1 overlooked the adjective "quixotic," which Cervantes contributed by Don Quixote. One correspondent suggested that "Walter Mitty" belongs in this small and select band of characters, and while it is still too soon to tell, it is probable that James Thurber's endearing dreamer will prove as enduring in the language as Nabakov's "Lolita." Medical men speak of the "Waller Mitly syndrone" to describe certain types of re pressed and fantasy-laden per sonalities. My reference to "Lothario" as being the only remnant of the works of Nicholas Rowe to re main in memory brought from a professor of English in California the reminder that the phrase, "simon-pure," is another strange vestige of an otherwise forgotten work. A comedy written in the year 1717 bv one Susanna Centlivre, Tunisia ACROSS ,1 Agriculture Is Tunisia's Industry 6 is its capital It Daring 13 Give 14 Feminine appellation 15 Kxpunger 16 Boy's nickname 17 Hops' kilns 19 Transposes tab.) 20 Prizes 23 Kuropcan 26 Feared SOSoothcj 32 Holding: 33 It is a country 35 Kiiiid 39 I'lly i,l Washington SS Kind p( pearl 39 Biierte is t Tunisian 42 Social Insect 45 Coat pit 46 Pedal digit 49 Bullfighter 62 Sauce ingredient M Elurier 55 Roman officials 68 Titled 57 Vapid DOWN 1 Scorch 2 Blood, (comb, form) 3 Persia 4 Kternity 6 Dogs Rocky pinnacle 7 Girl's appellation ft Cartoonist 9 Roman roar! 10 Indian weights 12 Dramatis personae 13 The Sahara is on its 12 13 14 15 I lb 7 18 19 10 U l7" HP ft is H17 iFrT9 luuJL Lna.ni J 20 21 22 - 23 124 125 ' 55 27 128 35 iTi th 33 34 ""j5 35 371 ""85 ' 35 trpij 4244T"''''f4ir jj' J 7T7 45 60 bl 52 53 ' 5? 05" 55 Ia - STRICTLY PERSONAL called "A Bold Stroke for a Wife," introduces an imposter who goes by the name of Simon Pure, pre tending to be a Pennsylvania Quaker of good repute. Miss Centlivre, her play, and her char acter, have been long forgotten hut for some inexplicable rea son, "simon pure" has remained in our speech. And a bacteriologist in New Jersey points out that the word "syphilis" has achieved a dubi ous immortality through the little-known book of the 18th cen tury, "Syphilis Sive de Morbo Gallico," by an Italian poet and physician. The hero of the book was a man named Syphilis, meaning "friend of swine." His name quickly passed into our medical terminology for the dis ease. Of course, hundreds of com mon words have entered the lan guage from the names of real people boycott, bloomer, guillo tine, mesmerism, ampere, braille, chauvinism, derrick, dunce, galvanic, macadam, mas ochism, nicotine, sadism, sand wich, saxophone, silhouette, fuchsia, and innumerable others. In our own time, one of the few' candidates for this linguistic honor is the infamous Vidkun Quisling of Norway, who was hanged in 1946 for betraying his country by collaborating with the occupying enemy. "Quisling" en joyed a considerable vogue for a number of years, but only time ' and the needs of language will be cide its immortality. Answer to Previous Puizt southern border 37 Roof finial 40 One time 41 Peruses 42 Solar disk 43 Rossa 44 British streetcar 46 Anatomical tissue 47 Algerian seaport 48 Essential being P0 Dutch city 61 Color fi3 Deep hole 18 Scatter 20 Happenings '21 Encounter 22 Most rational 23 Soap-making frame 24 Openwork fabric 25 Bewildered 27 Sand hill 28 Gaelic 29 Act 31 Location 34HullataIon Other Editors Say . . . FREELOADING (Register-Guard, Eugene) Rep. Richard Eymann, the Lane County Democrat who is both House majority leader and chair man of its tax committee, is inter ested in getting some tax-exempt property back onto the tax rolls. He suggests that churches, hos pitals and organizations of that sort go on the rolls in a small way, eventually paying a tax one third as great as other institutions of similar value would pay. Already he has bumped into some opposition. Small churches fear this could force them to close. Hospital administrators talk of the rising costs to the patient. And philosophers remember that "Uie power to tax is the power to destroy." Local officials have another ob servation: In many cities, includ ing Salem, Corvallis and Eugene, the greatest freeloader is the state itself. The state occupies many acres of land, uses police, fire and other city service, and yet pays no local property tax. If the Legisla ture really wants to get at the freeloaders, it will adjust the state's position in relation to local governments. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Pet Law I just came home from the store to find my son's kitten run over and still lying in the middle of the street (under a street lamp). I live in the first house behind Lucky Lanes Bowling Alley. Early this spring several new light poles were installed in the parking lot because of theft. It is now as bright as day so they couldn't possibly have missed see ing her to say nothing of being able to stop in time provided they were driving at a proper speed. Every day and night I see and hear "hot rodders," both young and old, gunning their engines, spinning their wheels and racing in and out of the parking lot. There are many small children in this neighborhood. I see them playing out during the day. Since children have a tendency to dart out in the street without thought I only hope I never look out and see one of them hit. By the time those cars pass my house they are doing 40 at least and couldn't possibly stop in time. I have often wondered where the police are, it's only four blocks to the station but then I realize they are very "busy." I would like to add whoever it was (I'm sure they know who I mean) didn't even have the de cency to remove it completely or nt least place it to the side of the road to prevent further destruc tion. 1 hope tliey have a hard time sleeping nights, I know I would know ing I had killed someone's pet. I hope someday to see it a law to report a cat mishap just as you must a dog now and I'm sure there are others who (eel as I do. Mrs. M. Reeves, ru," Arthur Street. Necessa ry Zoning laws arc as necessary as game laws in preventing unscrupu lous persons from abusing their individual rights at the expense of tltor fellow man. II. O. McCann, Allamont Drive. A visit for a day or two at the state capitol in Salem is inter esting, if rather frustrating. I happened to hit it lucky last week and hit a day when all Klamath County legislators were up to their ears in projects of interest to them and people in Klamath and Lake, so we had some news stories of specific in terest. It might be well to put in here a few of the observations made there, inasmuch as most of the topics are hardly up to full blown comment in the editorial columns. I do wish those people In Salem and those concerned with putting up highway signs leading to the "capitol" would get around to spelling the word one way. You see it spelled "capital" some places and "capitol" in others. I prefer the latter form, and my diction aries lend support to this claim. I don't profess to know about the innerworkings of the political situation in the state, and my limited contacts with those who claim to know lead me to believe much the opposite much of the time. Nevertheless, for what it is worth, those who should know their way around claim that this present session of the legislature is not so "unusual" at all. While it might get its work done in less than the 150 days freely pre dicted at the opening, work is proceeding through the various committees in pretty much of a routine manner, I'm told. An aspect of proposed legisla tion that disturbs me, and oth ers, is the large number (and increasing with each session) of bills from minority or special interest groups which purport to be setting up controls over other restrictive devices "In the inter- . est of the public safety and wel fare." Some legislators, includ ing four own delegation, are mighty disturbed over this trend. Their feeling Is that we'll get so many laws protect ing our safety, welfare and well being that we won't be able to turn any direction without vio lating a law. i Almost any. day you go to the WASHINGTON REPORT . . . State Department Briefings Shunned By FULTON LEWIS JR. Crusty old Steve Young, a Sen ate liberal whose Washington service dates back to the early days of the Roosevelt Adminis tration, is furious at eager-beaver "image makers" in .the employ of President John Ken nedy. Senator Young, an Ohio Demo crat, was selected recently to rep resent this country at the United Nations Cultural and Scientific Technical Conference, held in Ge neva. While Y'oung toiled abroad, State Department officials drew up a press release for use by Ohio newspapers, radio and TV stations. Five hundred copies of the release were delivered to the Senator's office and they read in part: "Sen. Stephen M. Y'oung, of Ohio, proposed that the United Stales employ roving teams of technical and information experts to help developing nations make the most of challenging, large scale, international conferences." When Senator Y'oung saw the release, upon his return, he ex ploded: "I made no such suggestion. That would be furtliercst from my thoughts ... I resent the fact that some public relations man, who probably failed to make a good living, or perhaps was fired, as a reporter for some newspa per, attributes something to me 1 never said." Moreover, Senator Y'oung said, the whole conference was a farce, a Slate Department boondoggle that cot U.S. taxpayers plenty. While Y'oung flew to Geneva on a tourist class ticket, delegates from "underdeveloped" nations arrived on first-class tickets paid for in large part by Uncle Sam. Delegates sat through boring speech after boring speech, tew understanding what was being said, then departed for the night ly round of receptions at which drinks "containing almost 100 per cent alcohol were served." "In the United States." says Senator Young, "we are used to diluting it with a little tap wa ter." Senator Y oung came back con vinced that a billion dollars can be slashed from the President's foreign aid request. Long an ad vocate of loreign aid, he now (eels such a cut would mean that capitol from now until the session is over, you're quite likely to run into one or more student groups being shown through the building. Thousands of students from high schools and grade schools around the state put in a day or more in Salem. A couple of bills co-sponsored by Sen. Harry Boivin and others really pulled crowds to the capi tol Tuesday and Wednesday. One was that pertaining to setting up an interim committee to study game management and the oth er was the so-called Sunday clos ing law. Both drew more than 300 persons to testify and listen. In cidentally, don't let that Sunday closing bill throw you. It's not as bad as some people would lead you to believe, even though it would be difficult to enfore'e. When it comes right down it, an observer can learn more by attending committee hearings than he can by attending the floor sessions of either the House or the Senate. Testimony in greater detail comes out in com mittee hearings than is the case in the assembly. The fact that members of our delegation are members of the most powerful and interesting committees in both the House and Senate adds to the desirability of attending' some of (he sessions in which they participate in committee activity. If you plan to visit Salem, don't overlook the opportunity to attend one or more committee hearings. They are held in the various com mittee rooms in the afternoon and evening, after the assembly adjourns for the day. While there is considerable hot air about economizing and so on, there is considerable cvi. dence that members of this leg islative assembly are not practicing economy when it comes lo their own working conditions. Incidentally, some of those leg ' islators who were not in favor of a pay increase are wondering what effect the new salary will have on the makeup of the legis lature in the future. Some are con vinced we have entered the era of the professional legislator. More on that later. "some of these (bureaucrats) can come home and make a gainful living." Young is by no means the only lawmaker angered by the State Department. Representative Tom Pelly (R., Wash.) has reacted sharply to a State Department in vitation for a "closed-door, top secret" Congressional briefing on foreign policy. Pelly replied to Frederick G. Dutton, Assistant Secretary of State, that he could not in conscience attend any more such briefings. He wrote: "In all frankness, I must indi cate to you my concern with re gard to these briefings because it is my impression that in the past the press and members of Congress, and thereby indirectly the public, have been briefed .for the purpose of tranquilizing pub lic opinion, regardless of the true facts." On Sept. 28 of last year, Pelly received from Dutton a one-page summary of U.S. Cuban policy for help in answering constitu ents' questions. In this summary, the State Department said: "There is. however, no evidence of any organized combat force in Cuba from any Soviet bloc coun try. .Nor is there evidence of any significant offensive capability, including offensive ground - to ground missiles, either in Cuban hands or under Soviet direction and guidance." - On the very day that Pelly re ceived that summary, however, William Bundy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, was ap pearing before a house military appropriations subcommittee. In an off-the-record talk, Bundy in formed the members present of the existence in Cuba of an of fensive military buildup. He told of the construction of a number of sites for ground-to-ground mis siles capable of destroying the Panama Canal. Cape Canaveral, and most major U.S. cities and defense plants. Congressman Pelly says he agrees with tlie HUH) statement of candidate John Kennedy that the American people "if they are armed with the truth can be trusted' to make the right deci sion." But the truth is not available from State Department salesmen, he says. And (or this reason Con gressman Pelly will boycott any future urtment "briefings."
