Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 29, 1963)
PAGE- HERALD The Every once in a while some scientist or science writer takes a flier into the future to predict the marvelous things that thinking ma chines will do someday. Don't look now but they're already doing it. Richard Bellman, a mathematician with the Rand Corp., points out that computers are, among other things, beginning to control traffic in big cities, direct the complete pro cessing of steel, handle drug quality control and take over many bank jobs. The man from the Air Force's "think factory" claims that by applying just what we know today about computers, all our mass- s The (Medford Mail-Tribuns) The Parent-Teacher Association has long been a fixture in most of the schools of the nation. Has it helped the schools? Has it hin dered educators in doing a good job? Has the PTA outlived any usefulness it once had? Or Is it still a beneficial influence in educa tion? These questions are almost always good for a lively discussion these days. We do not pretend to know the answers to them, but they are a legitimate subject for debate. A recent issue of the Seattle Argus car ried an article by Philip Bailey in which he calls for the abolishment of the PTAs. Give both the teachers and the kids a break, he -asks. . . Bailey does not see the PTA as a threat to the republic, but says "The main objec tions to its continued existence are that it wastes a lot of time of both parents and teachers, and only further muddles an already confused educational effort." He adds: "The teachers, of course, are forced to . attend the gatherings, and in most instances must spend considerable time and effort in getting their rooms ready for periodic inspec tions. I have talked to many teachers about the PTA, and have yet to find one who thinks the schools would not be better off without it. In fact, the main objection to the PTA is the strong and not so subtle pressure exerted .'. on (he teaching staff. Woe to the teacher who . docs not cooperate, and no unorthodoxy or hanky-panky will be tolerated. . . . "Wo wonder if the cause of education would not be bettor served if it were left in the hands of professional educators, and let parents confine their activities to the neces sary training in behavior, religion and mor als .. ." In discussing this article with a parent of our acquaintance, we found her in partial disagreement not with the thesis that the PTAs were not really useful, but because it was her experience that they tended to be used as "rubber stamps" for decisions of the . administration. A HOLMES We IV" By HOLMES ALEXANDER Dictators liavc their dreams. You wouldn't know it from the press clips of Fulgcncio Batista and Pore Jimenez, two strong men who arc down on Uieir luck, but they liad an idea in their heads beyond stealing Die money and the liberties o( Uieir country men. Batista did this in Cuba and Jinuw! did it in Venezuela, and 1 had the luck to interview bwth men when tliey thought them selves secure and both were be iiiiibed with visions o imagined grandeur yet to come. 1 saw JSalisla in his office in Havana, and later at his villa, when ("astro was far off in tlie hills. Between these interviews. American Ambassador Arthur Gardner had walked me earnest ly aroiuid the Embassy grounds, speaking of Batista as "a god send." At last, said the ambassa dor, a Cuban leader had estab lished the kind of government which attracted American busi ness ouVr than tourism and gam bling. At last through agricul ture, construction, industry and even oil exploration the Yankee dollar was a seed-dollar for in vestment that would produce in come lor Die Cuban people. Batista was conscious of Gard ner's aprobation. He was proud of it. lint 1 do not Hunk the dictator panted much for Uie bet terment of his people. 11c was a self-worshipper. A peasant, he was snubbed by the American and Cuban elite, who preferred tlie well born, university-trained "Dr." Castro. AND .NEWS, Klamath Tails, Oregon Load Bearers PTA Outmoded? Our own experience with the PTA consist ed of taking out a 50 cent membership for each of several years, under pressure from youngsters, who in turn were under pressure to make the room "100 per cent" thus enti tling it to a prize or recognition of some sort; and service on a PTA safety committee for i short time (We did succeed in having a traf fic signal installed at a school crossing.) We resented the pressures involved, and usually found the tea-and-cooky committee sessions just as fruitless as the full chapter sessions. It is our conviction that parents sin cerely interested in the education of their children as opposed to such things as room prizes, tea parties and social chit-chat would do better by visiting the classes their children attend, discussing problems personally with teachers and administrators involved, and in working with the children in an attempt to be helpful. We do not deny we cheerfully acknowl edge the PTAs have some real accomplish ments to their credit. But are the accomplishments worth the wheel-spinning, the pressures on children and teachers alike, the half-baked explanations of the "educational programs," the endless com mittee meetings, which are involved? We are inclined to doubt it. Teachers are gradually gaining status as a profession. More and more they are well educated, intelligent, dedicated people, who are trained to do a job, and in most cases do it .well, . . Would it, in Mr. Bailey's words, be better to leave education "in the hands of profes sional educators" and to concentrate on other parental duties and obligations? Let each parent answer for himself and herself. Let the teachers answer, too. For, ultimately, we must decide if teachers are to teach, or if they are to be subjected to pres sures, subtle and not so subtle, to conform and to present a bland and pleasant "image" to parents in general. E.A. ALEXANDER . . . All Can Dream! Batista felt this snobbery, but did not resent it. He gloried in it. All about him were pitcures and biographies of Lincoln. He had Jim Bishop's "The Day Lincoln Died" on his desk. This squat, swarthy son of the Cuban earth was not a candidate in the presi dential election of 1958 when 1 saw him. He knew that he had overstayed his time in office and he had a retirement home in Day tona Beach. But he hoped to leave his of fice to a Constitutional successor, and to have history say that lie. tlie peasant-President, had begun Die emancipation of his people from poverty and economic over lordship. Hail the Eisenhower tinv crnmcnt supported him to tlie end. and recognized his successor, Batista's fantasy might have liecn at least as real as most men s dreams. Peres Jimenez, a drowsy little jellybean of a man, talked with me last summer in his Miami Beach walertront home a house no grander tlian otlicrs in the neighborhood, not nearly so gran diose as some of tlie adjectives that it attracted alter Jimenez was snatclH'd (mm it and sent In jail. 1 later wrote of Jimenez as a pockctbook pirate, a horsclwck dictator. So he was, although I still feel lie was a victim of managed justice by an adminis tration which prides itself on sup porting Civil Kights. Anyhow, Jimenez, despite hems a multi-million-dollar emliezzler and an overaged Latin lover, was something of a dreamer, too. He looked upon himself not as a Lin Thursday. August IS. 1MJ produced goods could be made by just 2 or 3 per cent of the population. Hcnein lies the great question which will have to be answered by the next generation: What to do with all the leisure time that will be available? Although tomorrow's computers will be marked by machines that deliver more than is programmed into them that is, they can repair themselves and teach themselves fears that they will ever "take over the world" are groundless. Machines will replace men only in doing things men don't want to do themselves. coln but as a Caesar Augustus the Emperor who turned Rome into a city of marble. Like Mus solini and Huey Long. Jimenez saw his own glory in the great buildings and highways which were constructed during his re gime. But the little man. now jailed in Caracas and awaiting trial by the forces of his arch rival. Presi dent Romulo Betancourt. used to laze in tlie Florida sun and dream dreams of a return to Venezuela very different from tlie one he came to experience. He dreamt that some (lay the people would send him tlie message: "Rule us again, oh wise and mighty." Perhaps these two (alien tyrants demonstrate the only equality that is common to Uie sons of earth. We all can dream, can't we? Al manac It y United Press International Today is Thursday. Aug. 29. the 241st day of liitWJ with 124 to follow. The moon is approaching full phase. The morning star is Jupiter. The evening stars are Mars and Saturn. American poet and essayist Oliver Wendell Holmes was born on this dale in ISO'.). On this day in history: In 1921, newspapers said Uie Ku Klux Klan had tarred and feathered 4.1 Texans in the past seven das. IN WASHINGTON . . By RALPH de TOLEDANO During the 1900 campaign, John F. Kennedy and the Demo cratic Party pounded away at two points: The missile gap and economic growth. They said that the "missile gap" would allow the Soviets to surpass us by 1963 in the new weaponry. Mr. Ken nedy and Defense Secretary Mc Namara took care of that one very soon after the Inaugural ceremonies. There was. they admitted, no "missile gap" and today fin 1963) they arc boasting of our tremendous rocket lead. But the Administration clung to the economic growth gap, in the face of overwhelming evidence la the contrary, for some time. Depending on tlie speaker, the "statislics" cited showed Hurt whereas the economic growth of the United States was as low as 2.5 per cent, the Soviets were zooming ahead with percentages running as high as seven or eight. To listen to the "experts," the Communists would be far ahead of the United Stales in the pro duction of steel, butter, consum er goods, and hangnails before 1970. If doubting Thomases doubted, hand-picked Soviet fig ures from the mouth or pen of Nikita Khrushchev were quoted. The greatest exponent of this By SYDNEY .!. HARRIS Purely Personal Prejudices: The basic difference between the artist and the entertainer which is a vague distinction in most people's minds is that the former works to satisfy himself, while the latter works to please his (.udience; great artists rarely command the popular appeal of talented entertainers, because they do not give the public what it wants, but what it ought to want. Some people are so hopelessly utilitarian in their outlook that they can't buy a hurricane lamp without halt hoping or a hur ricane. What bigots never understand is that any group treated like inferiors become inferiors (try it with children!; ns C. I.. Dickinson observed long ago. "Every kind of discrimination Is a protection of the Incompe tent against the competent, with the result that the nwitive to become competent Is taken away." Does ainonc join me in admir ing my profound sell-restraint al being almost Hie only journalistic commentator in the i'nitod Slaies to have thus l.ir refrained Irom writing a single w o r d about the Profumo case" The four most dangerous words in anv language are "all." "none." "alu,is" and "ncvei" for tlie basic lest ot any civili zation i as ol any man' is Us capacity to quality ami modi ly us judgments and divisions: and the beauty of demivracv. despite its detects, is that it "Maybe We Should Trim Off a Little Say About Here" Growth Gap Disappears "growthmanship" was Dr. Walt Whitman Rostow, an Administra tion stalwart who wrung his hands at the thought of Soviet superiority and pleaded for a planned economy to "help" us catch up with those busy-bee Rus sians. What he said was good campaign and post - campaign talk and it made headlines in places overseas which were look ing for "(acts" to prove that the U.S. was on the skids, and the U.S.S.R. the wave of the future. But times have changed. It is now important 'for the Adminis tration to prove how tremendous ly successful the United States has been, how little we have to fear from the Soviets. (lft;lhis-. poinl can be driven-home prop- oily, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blow will be convinced that the Adminis tration saved the U.S. from eco nomic defeat.) Dr. Rostow, therefore, lias been trotted out to offer up a new set of "statistics" to show how superfine this country is. (I have nothing against that this is a superfine country but I am not impressed when those who have been downgrading us suddenly get the message. l The economist, now chairman of the State De partment's top planning board, has suddenly discovered that pri- STRICTLY PERSONAL makes modifying the main politi cal process. Nearly everyone uses the word "preposterous" as a mere synonym for "absurd." which is the Viss for a useful word; "preposterous" means a spe cial kind( of absurdity, such as putting the cart before (be horse, or sentencing a man be fore his conviction. The conflict between the gener ations was succinctly put hy Ly man Bryson, when he said: 'The error of youth is lo believe that intelligence is a substitute for ex perience: while the error of age is to believe that experience is a substitute for intelligence." Architects customarily look more harassed than any other group of professional men be cause theirs is the only profes sion in which the client usual ly thinks lie knows more than the expert: no surgeon is told by the patient where to make the inci sion, nor is any lawyer ordered lo rearrange jurisprudence hut architects ottcn have to satisly bad tasle more than their own canons of esthetics. Ruthless letters that are sent nut with (he bumptious inscrip "Kicliileil hut not read." should he promptly returned with the nnlalinn. "Received hut not necessarily believed." Water lapping against the shore at mclit outside one's win dow is the greatest soporific in the woild: to me. a land-locked vacation, nowhere near a coast, line, is a waste of time and mon- v a t e enterprise societies have greater economic growth than Communist societies. iVe could have told him all along that this was so.) With a great show of indigna tion. Dr. Rostow brushes aside the benighted fools of underde veloped countries who still cling to the notion that free nations are slipping back and being out-produced by the intrepid Commu nists. Ridiculous, he says, looking angrily at the nearest radical lighter. The exact opposite is true. For this. I feel a considerable gratitude. Throughout the cam paign and since then, I have been offering facts and figures In show that it will be a long, wet day be fore tlie Soviets even begin lo close the economic growth gap. The . figures were all there for any reasonably inquisitive reporter to read, but few enough did. Listen, therefore, to Dr. Ros tow. The Gross National Prod uct in the Communist empire rose an average of 3.6 per cent in 1962 with the Soviet growth not quite achieving foui per cent. On the other hand, the NATO powers were expanding al a rate of 4.8 per cent with the U.S. marking up a dse of 5.4 per cent. In I960. John F. Kennedy was telling the electoral,! thai U.S. economic growth was declining. The new Rostow figures are hard ly corroborative. It would be in teresting to compile all the Presi dential references to the "eco nomic growth gap" and to com pare them with the current words of Dr. Rostow. He is still calling or economic planning, hut he is ready lo admit that "efficiency in producing many diverse products is hr.rd for a government bureaucracy to at tain" because "there are not all that many competent bureaucrat ic managers." I've been saying that, too. for quite a while. But it's nice to know that Dr. Rostow now agrees with me. BERRY'S WORLD - -t "Tby can't VOL' grt ynurtrlf hbclti by 4omt masanHti" Letters To Concerned Why wasn't Mrs. Betty Cote re tained as head librarian? It is our understanding that her capac ity was a much more perma nent one than was indicated in the article a few days ago which stated that she had been "act ing" head of the County Library. Furthermore, in the discussion of consolidation of the two libraries a few months ago. the present staff was to be retained. We have no personal friends at either library, but after two years of being constant customers, we have grown to appreciate the pleasant and conscientious people who have always been kind about assisting us when we needed it. And one of the most helpful has been Mrs. Cote. So little has been said about the subject that we are inclined to feel that there has been some thing underhanded about the whole business. Please w ill some one explain the situation. I am sure there are others who are as concerned as we are. We would certainly hate to see the rest of the staff disappear in the same unorthodox manner. Mrs. Cote and all the rest have done a fine job and certainly desserve better treatment than this inci dent leads us to believe they will receive. Mrs. Glenn J. Shannon, 6047 Shasta Way. Reconsider To the Klamath County Library Board: It has been learned that the court and the Klamath Library Board have required Mrs. Cote's resignation after hiring Mrs. Karc zag. When questioned last Janu ary at a joint staff and board meeting the board stated that all employes would be retained. Both county and city librarians were to be retained under the survey by Mr. Coolidge, and according to the court and the board. The staff is willing and antici pates cooperating in every way with the new librarian: however, it is felt that she will be greatly hindered in her efforts since with Mrs. Cote gone, there is no one on the present staff who knows the procedure, files and policies connected with the administration of the main library, branches, bookmobile and extension services. With all the responsibilities of consolidation facing the new li brarian we feel Mrs. Cote's knowl edge would be of great assist ance to Mrs. Karczag. The replacement of Mrs. Gladys WASHINGTON REPORT . . Russians Have Long Record Of Perfidy By KCLTON LEWLS Jit. Senator Frank Lausche had done his homework. Dean Rusk had not. The story is that simple. The Secretary of State journeyed down Pennsylvania Avenue to Capitol Hill the other day where he was scheduled to plug the par tial nuclear test ban before the Senate Foreign Relations Com mittee. Waiting for him was Lausche. the maverick Democrat who may well be the only member of his party representing a Northern state to vote against ratification. Lausche had a few questions he wished to ask about the Soviet record of treaty violations. When Rusk indicated he did not know (lie answer to one of Lauschc's queries, and that he "w n u I d have lo be advised on that point," the Senator obliged. The wavy-haired onetime Ohio Governor launched into a ten-minute lecture on Soviet erfidy. Thirty-four years ago. Lausche re minded Rusk, the Soviets signed the Kellogg-Briand Treaty and The Editor Cox. reference librarian, when she retires has already been brought to the attention of the board. V, feel this person should be in train ing at present time to carry on with any degree of efficiency in this department. Mrs. Cote has many qualifications for this posi lion, including knowledge of materials and library holdings. This would shorten the training period necessary. Statistics show training periods are expensive. With the best interest of the library at heart and a knowledge of the tremendous job facing all of us during the consolidation, the staff asks the board to recon sider and retain Mrs. Cote as a staff member. i Signed i Ethel E. Zcvcly, Betty Emmert, Wendell B. Smith, Anne M. Briggs, Gladys Cox, Marjorie P. Eberl, lima Matthews, Beulah Campbell, Mike Ferguson, Gretta C. Moorman. Mess Recently about 30 Mazamas, members of a Portland mountain eering club, visited the Sky Lakes area in the Winema National For est for the first time. We were very favorably impressed with what we saw. Some of us hiked from Seven Mile Marsh to Cold Spring, savoring the good trails, the fine mountain views, and the many lovely lakes. We thoroughly enjoyed our twenty mile hike and weather favored us until a heavy rain began just as we came into Cold Spring Camp for lunch. Imagine our dismay and disgust in finding the attractive log shel ter too befouled for human use. Some riders had ignored the hitch ing rack and corral and stabled their horses in the shelter render ing it unfit for a long time. It is hard to believe that anyone could so misuse the only building in a campground affording people pro tection from a storm. Since these trails and camp grounds were established by the U.S. Forest Service for the com fort and pleasure of hikers, campers, hunters and fishermen; their use by horses or mechani cal equipment must be strictly regulated or prohibited if neces sary to protect these facilities from abuse or misuse. One such instance of abuse can ruin the comfort and pleasure of count less people who come later, right fully expecting lo enjoy a shelter, a clean campground and safe trails. Mrs. Martha Ann Piatt. 2738 N. E. 14th Street, Portland 12, Oregon. agreed lo outlaw war. Within months. Red soldiers crossed into Manchuria. Then Soviet diplomats inked a "non-aggression" pact with Fin land that contained an escape clause identical to that found in the current lest ban treaty. Either side could abrogate the treaty by giving three months advance no lice. Without five minutes advance notice, the Soviet Union invaded Finland. Nov. 30, 1930. Lausche referred back to 1933 when President Franklin Roose velt established diplomatic rela tions with the Soviet Union. Soviet diplomats then swore there was no agency located on their soil mapping world-wide Communist strategy. Al that very time, the Comintern was headquarters in Moscow, its agents plotting world revolution. Senator Lausche got Rusk to ad mit the Soviets had violated an agreement with this country as late as last fall. At that time. Premier Khrushchev agreed to on site inspection that would prove all long-range missiles had been removed from Cuba. The promise was never kept. Other treaties broken by the So viets: In 1920. the Soviet Union en tered into separate peace treaties with Estonia. Latvia and Lithua nia, recognizing their independ ence and autonomy and renounc ing voluntarily all Soviet rights to their territory. Each land is now occupied by Soviet troops. -On July 23. 1932. the Soviet I nion agreed to a non-aggression pact with Poland. On Sept. 17, 1939 as the Pules fought valiantly t" fend olf Nazi troops in the west. Soviet armies attacked in the east. On Dec. 27. 1943, the Soviets agreed in support formation of a provisional government for North and South Korea. From Ihe very beginning the Soviets violated the agreement. -On Jan. 29. 1942. the Soviet Union asreed to withdraw it tones from Iran. Three years lat er, tlie Soviets armed pro-Com-mumst rebels, supplied them with Red uniforms, and repudiated ihoir agreement. In January of l'46. tiie Iranian covet nment ap lualed to the United Nation charging the Soviet Union with violating the 1942 agreement and interfering in its domestic al- I
