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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1963)
PAGE -A HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Falli, Ore. Wednesday, March 6, 196J ED30N IN WASHINGTON . . . Plastic Chair Mat Is Status Symbol The Yo-yo "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," a well-known playwright once wrote. Then again, maybe it wouldn't, especially if it were called something like barbed cat weed or flowering dogwort. Some suchjsvcholofiical connection be ?cysfifc.lftd their. names sfe'ems to oper ate in many areas of life. Sometimes it can lie serious, as in the case of food that hungry people could eat but don't simply because of its name or looks or because of certain taboos. John Fridthjof of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, a Dane who has spent his life championing the uses of nutritious and economical fish, recently told of some of his experiences. It seems that one of the tenderest, most Anguished (Register-Guard, Eugene) :j At hand is a letter, far too long for the Mailbag. It is from a man who says he is "bitter and angry," and "justly so." This is a moving letter, and it raises questions that many others have also asked, although few have had better reason to ask them. The writer was the father of a 19-year-old-girl. "Was" the father. The girl is dead now. She and a 20-year-old companion died on the highway when their car was hit by another, driven by a drunk. The drunk driver was charged with negli gent homicide, tried, found guilty and sen tenced to 18 months in prison. The father, a titter and angry man, reads that in Portland a fellow who stole and sold 217 Christmas trees was sentenced to 18 months in prison. "I must speak out, I must protest," he writes, "for even in death my lovely daughter would not respect me if I did not." He docs speak out in protest of a system that seems to equate the theft of 217 Christmas trees with the deaths of two girls. He asks, "Have you ever received a telephone call from hundreds of miles away, impersonally stating that your daughter was killed on the highway? Think a little. And then, later, after she is buried to receive a fiote from the Memorial Gardens that a bronze plaque had been Installed 'to commemorate an earthly mission that began September 15, 1943, and was completed October 27, 1962.' I am aware that it has ended. But was it com pleted?" One can have only sympathy as he reads this touching letter. And every reader will understand the father's bewilderment and anger. Two young girls are only equal to 217 Christmas trees? However, there can be no sentencing in which the punishment really fits the crime. Js'o penal system is really efficient. But one IN WASHINGTON . By RALPH it TOLEDANO In the past years. Democratic Senator Thomas J. Dodd of Con necticut has shown himself to be one of the most hard-headed, members of the "world's most ex clusive club." His speeches on foreign policy have become minor c!aisics in close reasoning based on excellent research. I say this as introduction to material which Mr. Dodd h;is gathered together and placed in that graveyard of Information, the Congressional Record. It Is ma teriai which will Rive the Adminis tration little comfort in its ef forts to convince the American people that a nuclear test ban at any cost is mandatory. Sena tor Dodd does not buy this "at any cost" line and his opposition will certainly (jive added power to those In the Administration ho hope to force him out of pub lic life. Senator Dodd has prepared a table listing the steady retreat of our test-ban negotiators since the first Geneva conference in lifts. As of today, we are ready to ac cept almost any terms if only Comrad Khrushchev will put his name to a paper which says, "I ain't gonna lest no more," In ItKfl, for example, the U.S. called for the right to inspect all seismic events nf Indeterminate origin above five kilotrons, and 20 per rent below that level. This ould adequately police any se cret testing. By February, I960, er asking for only 20 on site Inspections per year. By May, 1961, the Konnedy Adminis tration was ready to settle lor as little as 12 such Inunctions ht annum. Last December, the Ad By Any Other Name savory fish caught off Denmark is the lowly catfish. But the Danes had long rejected it because of its name and ugly appearance. Then it was decided to market only the clean, white fillets and also to give it a new name: "cutlet fish." Today, catfish j,s still unavailable in Den mark, but you can get cutlet lish in any res taurant, including the best. In another instance, in West Africa, fishing fleets and packing plants thrive and human diets have been greatly improved be cause of an abundant fish that was once ig nored all because its name was dogfish. Fridthjof renamed it "Fish 45," the num ber representing its protein content. Now West Africans can't get enough of it. Does this indicate anything can be done for our own lowly mullet? ' Father Views that seeks to be efficient must try to make the punishment fit the criminal rather than the crime. "The law," of which this father speaks so bitterly, recognizes this to a degree. It provides a list of crimes and maximum pun ishments. It provides, in most cases, that a jury will determine innocence or guilt, but not the penalty. The penalty is left to a judge who has experience, and likely information, that a jury does not have. This fixing of the penalty is the chore judges relish least. The drunk who went to prison was sen tenced by one judge, the tree thief by anoth er. The penitentiary is full of fellows who compare notes on their crimes and their per sonal backgrounds and who find seeming in justices as great as the one the father men tions. Each of these bitter men must know, too, that the sentence he got was the sentence imposed by one man who had to look at the criminal, as well as the crime, and determine what sentence would be best for society and, eventually, for the fellow in the dock, the fel low who would return to society as either a better or a worse citizen. The system has holes in it. The anguished father found one of the big ones. Yet, what other system can there be? Certainly we can not say that a certain crime will be paid for by a certain penalty, with no latitude, no allow ance for the backgrounds and potentials of the criminals. Some jurisdictions have had good results with a system under which pen alties are meted out not by a variety of judges, but by a single board that could deal with both the drunk and the thief. Perhaps one day Oregon will come to such a system. But we must never forget that the purpose of the sentence is neither vengeance or retribution. It is the long-range good of the community based upon the protection of the community from dangerous people and the return of these people, w hen they are no longer dangerous, to a useful life. Nuclear Test Ban Session ministration was talking hopefully of eight - lo - 10 inspections. In February there were planned leaks to the U.S. press that Mr. Kennedy's negotiators wore will ing lo accept a "compromise" of five on-site inspections. In order to protect against sneak testing by any country, scientists estimated that a world-wide net work of 600-6SO seismic inspection stations would be needed. At Gene va, however, our negotiators agreed to 180 stations only 21 of them to be within the Soviet Un ion. Last August, the U.S. of fered a "substantial" reduction of this number HO stations, with merely cight-to-IO in the USSH. Who would man these stations? In l!G8, the U.S. insisted that Ihe monotoring stations should lie manned by non-nationals of the country in which they were lo cated. This made sense. No one would expect a Soviet national to report on illegal nuclear test. By August, 19t2, the U.S. had retreated to the position thai I lie stations should be manned by nationals of the country Ihey were in. with international inspection. Last February, in his efforts lu woo the Soviets, chief U.S. negoti ator William C. Foster dropped mention of international Inspec tion. In I!i58, the U S. set as a thresh old for inspection all seismic sluxks above five kilotrons and. as 1 have noted, 20 per cent of those below that figure. By January, 11159. the thresh old for inspection had been raised to 20 kilotrons. In August, IW2. the U.S. didn't mention any threshold In its draft treaty. This The Law' means that the Soviets could claim Ihat 11 50-kilotron seismic disturb, ante did not come under the terms of Ihc "inspection" agreement making it a scrap of paper. When the U.S. went to Geneva, it proposed n control body maile up of Britain, United States, and the Soviet Union with no vein right. Spelled out, this meant Hint if the U.S. and Britain decided an inspection was warranted, the So viet Union could not block it. In August, 1W2, Mr. Kennedy's ne gotiators accepted the principle of parity for Communist and West ern nations on the control body. If outside monitoring detected a serious and undetermined .seis mic shock within the Soviet Un ion. 11 vote to inspect would be deadlocked, on a one-to-one basis with the Soviets in effect having veto power. The record, as outlined by Sena tor Dodd, shows conclusively that the United Stales has steadily pulled back from a position work out by its scientists. Our negotia tors have listened lar more lo the propagandists for a test ban than to scientists like Dr. Edward Tell er, father of the H-bomb, who has expressed deep concern over the proposed concessions A n d while the U.S. lias shown such sweet reasonableness, what have the Soviets t'"nc.' The record slums that they hate always asked for a little more than ue oiler. When we agree lo that, they up Iheir offer. At (his rale, the United Stales will be Agreeing to a nuclear lest ban with no safeguiiids. That, at least, is wh.it many Senators ami Congressmen have begun lo I cur. LETTERS Dogs I'm writing in regards to the many dogs running loose in the Shippington area (some of which is within the city limits.) Some of the dogs are old and lay around and don't bother anybody, but others are young and don't know the meaning of obedience. These are allowed to run wherever they please and in doing so, cause much damage. There are two sides to every story. In this case, the dogs and the gardeners. So as a gardener, I'm speaking in my behalf. I have nothing against owning a dog. We did for 14 years, and we love dogs in their place. I've never once blamed the animal but I do blame their owners. Our dog slept in the house at night on his blanket, on the floor, and ran on his chain during the day, when out. If he bothered anybody at all, it was only us. We took him hunting, fishing and most of the places we went in the car where wc could, and a good many places where he could run loose without hurting anybody or any property. So, dear reader, please don't think he was abused, we loved that old dog. He had a good home and worshiped us and the chil dren. Wo all enjoyed outings together dog and all. We have a lawn and flower garden that wc take a great deal of pride in, and while away many hours there. Seems like older folks would be entitled to a lit tle icacc in age, but that's not true, I guess, when you can look out and see several big dogs roaming in your lawn and gar densome roam and bark all night long, even bury bones in the rose garden most prized of all. Dogs bounding from here and there can do much damage to Birds ACROSS 40 Three IRoman) 1,5 North 41 Look closely American bird Bird's belly Sonsbird 48 tnsuing 12 Reprinted (ah.) 49 Era 13 Having card 50 Tempt 14 Tropical plant 51 shleW hearina 15 "Mow Groen M MaiculiM name W as Mv Valley" 53 Goddess of heroine ..S1,c?,riJ. .. IflUur 54 Small bird 17 Crude horn hs I'ound IS Oscine bird SOMinll alarm 21 Wool measure 22 Noise 2.1 Charming ; Small bird SO Top brats lab ) 31 Clean the pan Rinnan rner 3:1 Abridged lab ) 34 Hut 3.i Toon In I'tah 3rl Feathers Ss Curl 3u I'everaee 56 Posted DOWN 1 British (atil 2Kulk:arian coin 3 Preposition 4 Wandering 5 lAlmistcd 6 Maple cenus 7 I rue (slanjy 8 Ties 9 W inued 10 Roam 11 Alert 19 Almighty 'JO Basin 1 P 3 14 I 15 16 17 I J3 9 110 111 13 13 U f T5 17 J Ji 33 F 1 Li 3t5 37 " Jfy TPEr!" rTju J!!-Jo" JT"I iS a m ST 5l 53 i 54 a5 jo I I I I 1 urn By SYDNEY J. HARRIS A reader in North Carolina calls my attention to a recent case in which a judge, during the same week, sentenced two juvenile of fenders for committing the same act. One of the boys was given a "hard" sentence, and the other was given a "soft" one. .My correspondent was indig- nant at this act of what he called "injustice." He thinks that the two offenders should have been treated "equally" for equal of fenses. And he asks me to share his indignation. Actually, I feel quite the con trary. I don't know what the facts in each case were, but the principle followed by the judge is the only sound one. It is not "equality" to treat unequals equally; it is gross unfairness. It was the portentous Mikado in tender young shoots bursting from the ground. If we speak to the owners, we are termed "old grouches." Are we so wrong in wanting to pro tect what is ours to enjoy? Why do people have to be told what they can plainly sec? There shouldn't have lo be any trouble at all. Seems sort of useless to vote anymore. We realize our lawn and gar den doesn't mean a thing to any body else, since the expense, work and enjoyment isn't theirs, but to my husband and me, it means a great deal, and many happy hours are spent there, just as God meant it to be. I'm sorry if I've slopped on someone's toes, but I can't help feeling the way I do. Mrs. R. E. Jones, 2535 Bly Street. Answer to Previous Pu! S3 52 Cut inlo small cubes ?3Jtimt 35 Yellow birds 37 Fur 38 The right time 40 Structural section 4t Weather forecast 42 Territory (lb ) 4:1 Spindle 44 Indian city 4s Squeeze 4 Ireland 47 Bird home 49 Ventilate. 24 Exchange bill of lading lab.) L'5 South American countrv 28 Screech owl 27 Learning 28 Increases 29 Capa 31 Thoaler box 34 Cain ipl.l STRICTLY PERSONAL the operetta who believed in "making the punishment fit the crime." But the punishment should fit the criminal; justice is blind, but it cannot be stupid also. And nothing is more stupid, in criminal jurisprudence, than failing to distinguish real differ ences between those who com mit similar crimes. Three boys may sleal separate cars: one as an ill-advised es capade; another as an act of re bellion against his parents; and the third for dark and ugly rea sons. Must all three be punished in the same way? Unless we have a philosophical grasp of what "justice" is, we cannot understand the principle nf equality. For instance, parents who claim that they give their children "equal treatment" are guilty of a great fault if by this they mean that they judge all their children by the same stan dard. The loving and intelligent par ents take into account the pro found differences between their children differences in tempera ment and ability, brains and bod ily structure. To discipline one's children fairly means to give un equal treatment to unequals; for to treat them the same would be manifestly unfair to the weak er, the more delicate, the less in telligent ones. Justice consists in correctly proportioning the means to the ends. And this can be accom plished only by know ledge of the individual case. A judge who sen tenced all auto thieves to the same term would be a superfluous official: the statute books can do that without the need of a judge. Indeed, one of the tragedies of our crowded and archaic system of jurisprudence is the lack of time, talent and resources that would enable the court to analyze cases on an individual basis, tak ing into account all the social and psychiatric variables in each case. II is tlie "mass production" as pects of American courts thai create as much misery as t h c crimes that confront them. Other Editors Say . . . POIGNANT PLEA (Oregon-Statesman, Salem) A poignant plea to give an ex convict a chance comes from a Salem area woman who for ob vious reasons prefers her name w ilhhekl. "I encourage my guy Ihc best I can." she writes. "And I pray 'Lord, let this lie the day he finds a decent job instead of those lor $1 15 an hour in mud and slime a job that would give hack self-respect, the most needed ar ticle in rehabilitation ' " The fact that her plicht. and his. is not new is little comlort She signed her letter and wrote this postscript: "I have faith m my husband and know how much he wishes lo be self-supporting and lo do for his family, and I also know how discouraging it is to look for work and not get it " She added that she sicned her name because "1 am not ashamed of my husband or what I have written " With a wife like that, this man who made a mistake and has paid Ins debt can t fail, discouraging as tlie road may he. Ami site has set forth the problem inherent so well that no words of ours arc needed. By PETER EUSOV Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON I NEA I Newest status symbol for big bureaucrats in Washington is to have a trans parent plastic mat in the office. There aren't very many of them around yet, but wait till the word gets out and the fashion catches on. Pretty soon you'll be able to tell whether the government olfi cal you call on in his spacious .diggin;'really amounts to any., filling by one simple le It will be whether he has a sheet of quarter-inch thick Plexi glasssay 6x10 under the vast acreage of his flat-top desk and the space behind, where he rolls his $300-and-up, three-way-stretch, swivel - and - ballbearing - cas tered, deep - cushioned leather covered chair when he rises to greet you or bow you out. No plastic chair mat, as it's called, no big shot. The evolution of this new badge of prestige is fascinating. First, there was the marble floor, in the old government buildings. Hard on the dogs and cold. Then there were scatter rugs. Then hard wood flooring. Then parquet floor ing. Then more and bigger rugs. Then wall-to-wall carpeting. Only the biggest shots rated wall-to-wall carpets. But wall-to-wall broadloom cre ated other problems. Shuffling the feet under the desk in nervous irritation wore holes in the rug. Pushing the chair back and pull ing it up wore the nap off the carpet and wore down the knee high pile to the coarse foundation fabric beneath. This was expensive. For t h e only way to replace wall-to-wall carpeting is with wall-to-wall car peting. At $12 a square yard in a 100 to 200-sqaure-yard office, that runs into money. And a palch on wall-to-wall car peting, even under a desk, would be a worse loss of face than a palch on the pants. And so there was invented the fibcrboard carpet saver. It was a T-shaped piece of hard-surfaced, brown composition something or other. The stem of the T fitted under the center well of the desk and kept the feet from wearing out the carpet. The head of the WASHINGTON REPORT . . . Powell Committee Fund Slash Sought By FULTON LEWIS JR. As an orator ltep. Adam Clay ton Powell (D-N.Y.) has few peers. Not so John James Williams, the wispy-voiced, mild-mannered Republican Senator from Dela ware. Yet there is no doubt that "Whispering Willie" Williams has come off on top in his battle with Powell, the handsome playboy chairman of the House Labor and Education Committee. Ix'ss than a month ago Williams took to the Senate floor with a speech that made nation al headlines. He lashed into the Administration for dishing o u t funds and favors to Powell, said to be the nation's most powerful single Negro. Powell, resting in Puerto Rico, sauntered back to Washington when ready, called a Klieg light press conference, and told assem bled reporters that Williams had criticized him because he i Pow ell i was a Negro. Informed that Williams had vol. ed for the only civil rights bills lo become law in this century, Pow ell was undisturbed. He stuck by his guns. To buttress his case. Powell said that Williams opixised the creation of a Cabinet-level De partment of Lrhan Aftairs be cause he did not want Robert Weaver, a Negro, to head the department. He conveniently overlooked the fact that Williams voted to con lirm Weaver for director of the Federal Housing Authority. Powell denied Williams' asser tion that he 'Powell' had pulled strings to get a S25ti,tKio Federal giant for Associated Community Teams, a Harlem project of w hich he was a director. Powell neglected, howevci t,i quiet Livingston I.. Wingate.'the project director. Wjncalc told the Washington Star s Cecil Holland. "It's a fact that Adam Clavton Powell negotiated tins grant.' His influence was used to "el it " The nation's Inchest official who served with Jnhn James Wil' liams in the Senate for cisht vcars. is reluctant to entire Powell President Kennedv told a news conference that 'the best answer to any attacks" on Rep. reventative Powell would lie le-is-lation passed by the committee Ami. said the Chief Executive that record is a "f,l one. a vcrv uselul one." While the resident is reluctant T was behind the desk and there the bureaucrat could spend hours of deep thought, rolling his wheeled chariot to and fro or rocking, without wearing out the carpet. The trouble was, this sheet of brown hardboard looked lousy and it warped, tripping up hurried bu reaucrats. All these troubles made it in evitable that some genius he happened to be working for the Delta Division ofir Associates, in Fort Ub, Tex. should get the idea, ol putting a sheet of Plexi glass under the desk and chair, over the rug, to save wear and tear. It's transparent. You can see the wall-to-wall carpeting beneath it, color and all. Rohm and Haas of Philadel phia, who make Plexiglass a pure plastic acrylic, methol meth acrolate monomer were doubtful about this use of their material when they first heard of it. They happily admit now they were wrong. It doesn't scratch if rubber-tired casters are used. It doesn't get brittle, yellow or opaque. It's slick but nobody has yet reported fall ing and breaking his dignity on it. Spilled codec and snacks can be wiped off and don't stain the carpet. This reporter saw his first plas tic chair mat in the office of In ternal Revenue Service Commis sioner Mortimer M. Caplin. There are several others in IRS. That's where your money goes, citizens. A 10O-square-foot mat, at $1.75 a square foot retail, would cost you-know-what. Inquiry at General Services Ad ministration discloses thi't plastic chair mats aren't being stocked as regular equipment yet. But agencies that have special interior decoration funds for fussing - up big-shot offices are permitted to buy extras like objels d' art and spittoons. New fads calch on fast. State Department and NASA, the space agency, have a few for their top brass. Commerce De partment's new business center has one. GSA has a few smaller ones in its public buildings and space management offices, and a few were put out at Fort Eusticc, Va., for field office testing. to offend Powell in any way, not so John Ashbrook, a second-term Ohio Congressman who serves un der Powell on the Labor and Edu cation Committee. Ashbrook appeared before a sub committee of the Committee on Administration to oppose his chairman's record request for $H!J7.000 to run the Labor Com mittee. In the 86th Congress, Ashbrook pointed out, Committee Chairman Graham Barden was authorized $323,000 and returned $53,640 to the Treasury at the end of the second session. Powell spent $633,000 during the 87lh Congress, his first as chair man, and now wants almost $700. 000 for the 88th. He has packed the committee with political ap pointees, while reducing the num lior of Republican employes from four to two. He has quadrupled the number of Democratic aides, who totaled 12 two years ago. One of Powell's appointees. John Young III, a New York public re lations man. was sent to S o u t h America to make a 30-day "cul tural survey." He received $1,000 for services as a "consultant." and spent $2,000 for hotels and expenses plus another $1,000 for travel. "Young's report." says Repre sentative Ashbrook. "tells very little that any member of Con gress could not obtain on a straight request for information from Ihe Library of Congress." Examining committee vouchers. Ashbrook discovered that Powell regularly received funds for trav el to Puerto Rico, where he lives in a $50.W10 villa. Frequent pay ments were made to Powell for miscellaneous expenses in the Cnited States and the Virgin Is lands. Examples: Miscellaneous and per diem. Dec. 3-15. 12 place not known: $178. Per diem, and taxi. Nov. 1! 24. 1W2, place not known: Per diem and taxi, etc.. Nov. 3. 11112, place not known: $25. Per diem and taxi, place not known, no date: $105. Per diem. Oct. 9-13. place not known: $120. t'oneressman Ashbrook demand ed that $200,000 be slashed from Ihe budget for Powell s commit tee He was hacked up by Re publican Congressmen C roil 'Iowa'. McClory 'Ill.i. Alger 'Texas'. Curtis 1 Missouri '. Younger 'Calif.', and Findicy 'III..
