PAGE
HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Falls, Oregon
Friday, August 30, 1963
NOTHING
SPECIAL
It's Still a Long Way to Heaven
jdii&iwL (paqjL
fwajBsssans-''
IW. B. S.I
Let's Do Some Stocktaking
Would it be completely corny to suggest
at least a partial return to old-fashioned sim
plicity and morality as a possible way out of
our current problems?
Would it be a confession of horse-and-bfgy
thinking to wonder if too many of us
aen't racing our motors when we ought to
6e hitting the brake a bit?
Sure, we are living in the space age. Sure,
everything today has to be fast, fast, fast.
Sure, we have to realize that times have
changed, and so have social customs, philoso
phies and values.
But does this mean that we have to work
so hard to make so many things so compli
cated and so breathless and often so de
vious? Would it really be in the national and in
ternational disinterest to try to state things in
such simple and forthright terms that they
cjould be clearly understood by one and all
including even the man in the street?
Would it be utterly primitive and in fla
(Montgomery, Ala., Advertiser)
Like many people, the Federal Govern
ment finds it hard to throw anything away.
According to the latest count by the General
Accounting Office, the United States had in
storage 6,000,000 cubic feet of records.
Government Printing Office, apparently
feeling that many of the documents are sup
erfluous, is suggesting that Federal agencies
If i HOLMES
By IIOLMKS ALEXANDER
WASHINGTON - President Ken
nedy's nuclear treaty now
threatens to tail him in two
fields where, unhappily, he has
failed before his credibility and
his judgment.
lie has led us to believe that
the suspension of above-ground
testing couiu be militarily and
scientifically justified at no ad
ditional peril to the national safe
ty. He has sent his administra
tion spokesmen to Capitol Hill
with slickly prepared testimony
that bore the evidence of collab
oration and ghost-written unani
mity. Secretary Rusk, Secretary Mo
Namara, Atomic Energy Chair
man Seaborg and Joint Chiefs of
Staff Chairman Taylor, each in
turn, swore up and down that
tlie risks were minimal and tho
advantages manifest. But I do
not think anyone could listen, as
j have done, to General Curtis
LcMay, the Air Force Chief of
Staff, and to Dr. Edward Teller,
the nation's foremost nuclear
physicist, without feeling that the
President's case for the u-cuty
is little else than a political ap
peal to Russia and to "world
opinion." As a proposition f o r
military and scientific sufficien
cy the treaty has reached the
brink of unbelicvability.
The treaty asks us to accept
nuclear parity, when what we
need is superiority and prefer
ably supremacy. It asks us to
swallow the theory, voiced by
McNamara and blasted by Tel
ler, that we can go underground
and successfully test the compon
ents of the unimaginably complex
nnli - missile defensive system
without ever trying tho system
in tho atmosphere as a whole.
It asks us to believe that the
President after making him
self the author and advocate of
this partial disarmament pact,
and the hawker of all the hor
rors of nuclear weapons could,
after so doing, creditably use nu
clear threats and nuclear arms in
a short-of-war action to deter, for
example, a Red Chinese invasion
ol India. It asks us to believe,
as Teller pointed out, that we
can deny atmospheric, anli-mis-sile
weapons to European allies
who arc faced with Russia's nu
clear arsenal, and yet not ex
iled tlie NATO alliance to he
blackmailed by fear.
Kennedy's plausibility as a wise
treaty-maker lay In a near-shambles
before the LcMay-Tclier tes
timony. And his judgment did
not look much better. In the
promotion of tin treaty he seems
to show himscU more as tlie po
litical campaigner whoso fluffs
and mistakes will be forgotten
grant violation of the Madison Avenue image
to try to sell things on the basis of actual
need, common sense and cold facts instead of
status symbols, nonsense and hot copy?
Would it be reasonable to current custom
to try to simplify things rather than to com
plicate them? To make them comprehensible
rather than unfathomable?
Would it be crude and unsocial to ap
proach our personal, civic and even national
problems from the angle of "What is the
RIGHT thing to do?" rather than from
"What's the SMART way to handle this?" or
"What's in it for ME?"
It has become the accepted custom in
this country, and elsewhere, to do every
thing bigger and faster and more and more in
the self-interest.
It might be interesting and refreshing
to see how many of our tough problems would
move toward a solution if plain talk and
friendly understanding were substituted for
doubletalk and dedicated confusion.
Anyone for giving it a try?
Paperwork Explosion
ALEXANDER
Treaty Of Bad Choices
tomorrow, rather than as tlie
leader who is making decisions
that must stand the unrelenting
proof of time.
For his form of presentation
has left many Senators and ob
servers with the impression thai
he demands a cabinet and a mil
itary staff who will sing for their
suppers. His political approach
has given credence to Teller's ac
cusation that our atmospheric
tests of 12 were stopped short
of tlie need to surpass Russia's
advantages slopped nt a point
where public and "woiid" opinion
might go against the administra
tion. The President has denied this
serious charge, as he might be
expected to do, and his adminis
tration witnesses have backed
him up. But the tests were feeble
compared with Russia's. They
are said in military circles to
have been "psychological" rath
er than scientific. They were not
satisfactory to General LcMuy,
among others, whose job is to
win our wars. In these circum
stances, as in tho question of
what side deals may have been
discussed with Khrushchev,
Kennedy stands in need of
credibility rating which was not
high when the treaty w a s
Letters To
Solomon
If I may bo permitted to try
and put into words my views of
the ponding catastrophe which is
hanging over our beads like the
"Sword of Damocles," which is
llio rules promulgation of t h e
American railroads. They are
using tlie modern "Frankenstein"
automation to force the public to
dance to the tune of the "Pied
Piper of Wall Street." J. K. Wolfe,
who has been instrumental in the
brainwashing of the people with
the big lie of "fentherbedding."
The weight and speed of opera
tion of a present day freight
train makes the safe operation by
one man a virtual iniossibilily,
no matter how competent aiid
well trained lie may bo, or bow
many remote controlled safely
factors are involved, there is stiil
the human clement to consider.
Now (lie temporary solution to
the entire deviously contrived sit
uation is lo he laid in the lap
of Congress, which, no mailer how
well intent ioned, is expected In
come up Willi a settlement worthy
of Solomon in all Ins glory al
tliough tlio wrties directly in
volved have been uiwible In arrive
at any progress in over four
years.
screen their records more closely before send
ing them to storage. This is not likely to stem
the avalanche because the GPO has just proud
ly informed Congress that due to new labor
saving devices, it has doubled productivity '
during the past nine years.
If the trend continues, Khrushchev will
not find it necessary to carry out his threat
to bury us. The nation will bury itself, under
millions of tons of paper and microfilm.
broached and has not been recent
ly improved.
Finally, taking the promotional
ballyhoo as a whole the Ameri
can University address with the
Munich-music of appeasement,
the Harriman mission, the Mos
cow spectacular of the signing
ceremonies it is evident that the
President is very close to mak
ing the one big, conspicuous blun
der that his knowledge of his
tory must have warned him to
avoid. He has encircled tlie Sen
ate with choices not unlike those
which Woodrow Wilson laid down
on the League of Nations.
Tlie present Senate, faced with
this over - publicized nuclear
treaty, can do three things all
of them very bad. To ratify the
treaty would be to compound
what many Senators regard as a
dreadful mistake in Presidential
judgment to reject the
treaty outright would leave the
American image, like Venus do
Milo, maimed though still sym
metrical and valid. To revise
the treaty with reservations that
Russia would probably refuse to
accept seems the least of the
evil." at hand yet. even that
would precipitate a far worse cri
sis than the one we had before
Kennedy undertook this radical
and ill-conceived remedy.
The Editor
It appears that the present
slaughter on tlie highways could
lie greatly reduced if the rail
roads were made to furnish an
adequate number of passenger
trains based on our exploding
population inslead of allowing
them to operate with their greatly
reduced personnel in order lo add
to profits which arc already fab
ulous. If this wnoc controversy is to
bo settled by compulsory arbi
tration then we will have taken
the first long slop down tlie road
which leads to socialism or fas
cism. Over a long period of years
labor and management have
built up a mutually satisfactory
system of arbitrating most of
their differences which has up
to now been a source of pride to
all concerned. Now nt Uie last
minute tlte pattern of long years
is all to be scrapped nt the sttoke
of a pen and we arc to bo left
al the mercy of I he dictates of
"Wall Street" praying for a
"Moses" to lead us out of tins
man made wilderness and in
some manner get another "Magna
Carta" lor the man in the street.
11. D. Lindsey
4MB Cleveland
Klanwith Falls. Ore.
Lngr. S. P. By.
fir. yffefi
IN WASHINGTON
Test
By RALPH de TOLEDANO
The catch-phrase on Capitol Hill
among those who strongly favor a
test ban treaty is thai, after all,
it's "a matter of judgment." Tlie
President, Secretary McNamara,
and some scientists are flatly cer
tain that the gains of a treaty
with the Soviet Union outweigh
the risks. Dr. Edward Teller,
father of the H-bomb, those mem
bers of the military who have not
been afraid to speak out freely,
and other witnesses feel that the
risk to the nation is far too great.
You pays your money, etc.
It would seem that where such
great and vital differences of opin
ion exist and where the adminis
tration frankly states that the
treaty accomplishes little except
as a "first step" caution would
dictate that the Senate reject the
treaty. If it does nut Uneaten
America's national survival, then
little is lost by not ratifying. If
it does put us in jeopardy, then
we cannot play games with the
future.
This is a point which some Sen
ator will perhaps make. But there
is another question. If we are
relying on the judgment of those
who favor the treaty and relying
blindly on it then it is pertinent
to ask. "How good was their judg
ment in the past?"
I call as my first witness Dr.
Norris Bradbury, director of the
By SYDNEY J. HARRIS
Have you ever thought of the
utter impossibility of describing
someone you are particularly
close to, or especially fond of?
It simply cannot be done without
sounding vague, stupid, insipid
and quite superficial.
When an out-of-town friend the
other day asked me what my
middle daughter is like. I sudden
ly became banal and tongue-lied,
mumbling something like, "Good
sport . . . tall for her age . . .
swims like a fish . . . nice kid."
But if we are asked about
someone we dislike or resent, the
words come tumbling out of our
mouths almost faster than the
brain can form them.
We know (or think we know '
exactly why certain personalities
offend us: we are mostly in the
dark about the magic chemistry
that produces not only love but
also a sense of closeness and
companionship.
This strange disparity is nut
limited to our feelings about peo
ple: it includes things as well. Al
though I have little interest in it
imself, 1 know that the average
fisherman, for instance, achieves
a deep spiritual satislaction, from
his sport, which has little to do
with the number or size ol fish
:r has caught.
Vet no fisherman can put into
adequate words his sense o(
"wholeness" or serenity while
fishing, and tlie reasons usually
given are obvious, trivial and
lame.
This stammering man, how
ever, can explain with voluble ac
curacy why lie despises golf, or
budge, or driving a car in trallic.
Ban Witnesses
Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in
New Mexico. Dr. Bradbury is a
fine scientist who has worked
hard to perfect America's nuclear
capabilities. He has been called
in to give a scientific and political
opinion of the dangers possibly in
herent in the test ban treaty. In
both areas and 1 realize it is not
tactful of me to note it ho has
shown himself rather weak at
looking ahead in science or look
ing back in polities.
It should be recalled that Dr.
Bradbury was J. Robert Oppen
heimer's choice for the post he
now holds. In 1954, Dr. Bradbury
appeared before the Gray Board,
investigating the Oppenheimer
case, as an anti-Atomic Energy
Commission witness. At no point
would he admit what had already
been conceded namely that Op
penheimer had opposed work lead
ing to the creation of the H-bomb
on "moral" grounds. Dr. Brad
bury himself had been convinced
that a thermonuclear weapon the
fusion or H-bomb was an impos
sibility. "The state of knowledge of ther
monuclear systems during the war
and thereafter, and really up un
til the spring of 1951, was such
as to make the practical utility or
even the workability in any useful
sense of what was then imagined
as a thermonuclear weapon ex
tremely questionable." he testi-
STRICTLY
PERSONAL
Deep positive emotions cannot
be verbalized which is why so
many millions of bad love-poems
and love-songs are perpetrated
year after year. With the utmost
ol sincerity (and even with con
siderable talent, we become
mawkish babblers when trying to
convey such feelings.
It is no accident that almost
every young writer begins his ca
reer with comedy and satire and
scorn and malicious wit directed
against society. Even Shakespeare
began this way; the plays in
which profound lpve dominates
came much later in his career,
and it took the summit of his
genius to carry them off suc
cessfully, as in the incomparable
"King I.ear."
Music is a greater art than
literature to me, precisely because
il embraces a wider range of
human feelings than the spoken
word. I cannot help agreeing with
Pater that "music is the art to
which all the other arts aspire."
for in it (lie form and the con
test are utterly the same.
The right movement of n Mo
zart concerto might make you
feel what my daughter is like,
but I can only tell you that she
is tall for her ago and swims
like a lish.
QUESTIONS
AND
ANSWERS
O On what play is the lib
retto ot Verdi's opera "Rlgolet
lo" based?
A "The King Amuses Him
self" by Victor Hugo.
fied. What was known in 19-19-50,
he said, "wquld certainly per
mit one to be very pessimistic,"
just as the Administration. is pes
simistic about the anti-missile
missile.
Yet from the early days uf the
Los Alamos project, Dr. Edward
Teller fought hard for the H-bomb.
In fact, he fought so hard that
Dr. Bradbury eased him out of
Los Alamos in 1951. Dr. Teller
was not a prophet. But his mind
was not blinded by preconceived
ideas.
Scientifically, therefore, Dr.
Bradbury was dead wrong, and
belligerently so, about the pos
sibility of devising an H-bomb.
Politically, Dr. Bradbury showed
a blindness which certainly dis
qualifies him from passing judg
ment on the intentions of the So
viets or their capabilities. For ex
ample, he was asked a ques
tion about Dr. Klaus Fuchs, the
British traitor who had already
confessed to serving as an es
pionage agent at Los Alamos for
the Soviet Union:
"There seems to be no ques
tion that he had a commitment
lo a foreign power, does there?"
Dr. Bradbury answered: "1 per
haps might have a slightly dif
ferent interpretation of it. I think
it must be said in fairness to
Fuchs that he worked extremely
hard and effectively for Los Ala
mos and this country."
Then discussing Dr. Oppenhei
mer's membership in "just about
every Communist front" on the
West Coast U. Robert's admis
sion! and contribution to Commu
nist causes. Dr. Bradbury re
marked in 1954: "I would not like
to say that I regard (these ac
tionsi as cither right or wrong.
1 say that simply they turn out
to have been bad for him to have
done at this time."
These are odd and fuzzy com
ments for anyone to make. But
they are particularly interesting
when they come from someone on
whose "judgment" the Senate of
the United States is asked to rely.
"Look, Bobby, if you wavtei mere tf your tfuff in
the Vhite Houst library, you should have urittcn
more books."
If what I hear and see of the
dismissal of Mrs. Betty Cote as
Klamath County librarian is valid,
then the incident is another of
the most bizarre in a long chain
of unfortunate incidents dealing
with the library.
The library board (those
members in on the kill) acted
with seemingly nothing more
than caprieiousness as the basis
for the dismissal. They can't
lake all the "credit" for the
kill. Oh, no. One member of the
county court is claiming that he
is personally responsible for her
dismissal. (This is not rumor
or conjecture he told me.)
The record shows that Mrs. Cote
did a good job as librarian. As
far as I know, even the board
and the county court acknowledge
this. While 1 don't want to get
involved in a matter that in
volves the privilege and responsi
bilities of a public board to car
ry out an assignment, there ap
pears to be some injustice in this
Cote instance. The injustice comes
ill that the board told tlie present
staff that there would be no deci
mation in personhel if and when
a librarian was engaged to as
sume the top job. This seems to
have been clearly understood by
the slaff including Mrs. Cote
who expressed a desire to work
with the new librarian.
It would be reasonable and
fair, I think, for the board
to reconsider their action and
extend lo Mrs. Cote an invitation
to assume a responsible position
on the library staff. It Is obvious
that she has won the respect
and loyalty of those she has
worked with in making the
s Klamath County Library a go
ing concern.
Ignoring the injustice to an in
dividual in this instance, it is
more discouraging to witness
again tlie apparent weakness of
Klamath County government
structures.
It illustrates that capricious-
WASHINGTON REPORT . . .
Student Conclave
Attracts Leftists
Uy FULTON LEWIS JR.
WASHINGTON The 16lh an
nual convention of the United
States National Student Associa
tion (NSA) is now under way in
Bloomington, Ind., and all indi
cations arc that the current gath
ering will be an unsavory repeat
performance of past meetings.
The organization has obtained
the reputation of being a mouth
piece for left-wing student politi
cians, and has been denounced
and repudiated by moderate and
conservative student elements
since its formation in 1947.
NSA leaders assert that their
organization represents the think
ing of "more than 1,000,000 Amer
ican students," and in years past
the group's resolutions have be
gun: "We, the students of the
United States . . ."
This claim is interesting, par
ticularly in light of the record.
Ot the nearly 2,200 colleges and
universities in the nation, only
M0 are affiliated with NSA. Of
these, only 100 or so even bother
It send delegates to the national
conventions; and 94 per cent of
these delegates acquire their
ness, personal spite and unsound
business practices dominate tlie
thinking of narrow-minded ofli
cials. This is something Klam
ath County residents liave lived
with too long. So long in fact,
many people have the conception
that nothing can be done about
the situation. Something can be
done if people will forget their
aathy long enough to take some
interest in government and those
who are in responsible govern
ment positions in the county.
Speaking about civil rights
(quite a few people are) how
about this portion of an ordinance
passed by the British Parliament
in 1770:
.All women of whatever age,
rank, profession, or degree, wheth
er virgins, maids or widows, thai
shall impose upon, seduce, and
betray into matrimony any of His
Majesty's subjects by scents,
paints, cosmetics, washes, artifi
cial teeth, false hair, Spanish
wool, iron staves, hoops, high
heeled shoes, bolstered hips, or
padded bosoms shall incur the
penally of the law enforced
against witchcraft and the like
misdemeanors and that marriage,
upon conviction, shall stand null
and void.
Now, that's a handy little rule
and I wonder how it never came
up during the Profuma et al epi
sode. A reader who makes a hobby
of finance has been examining
the shrunken dollar. He says
things are not as bad as they
seem, because although the dol
lar does not go as far as it used
to, what II lacks in distance, it
makes up in speed.
Looking for something in our
loot shed the other day brought
on the thought that our forefath
ers ran a farm with less machin
ery than we need to keep a lawn.
A hopeless optimist is a fellow
who believes a parking space will
show up if he drives once
around the block.
status through appointment, not
student elections.
Even the student delegates
have had little to say about
NSA's pronouncements. For ex
ample, last year the organiza
tion released 83 policy state
ments on controversial issues
ranging from nuclear testing lo
civil rights. Only 28 of these were
adopted in the convention. The
majority of the resolutions (53'
were passed by the 31-member
national executive committee,
some with as few as 10 affirma
tive student votes.
Positions taken by the NSA in
the past have followed the leftist
line with precision. The group
has called for abolition of the
House Committee on UnAmeri
can Activities and for repeal of
the Internal Security Act ot 1950.
The 19G1 convention condoned
the Japanese student demonstra
tions against Eisenhower's visit
as a recognition "of the right of
students to non-violent ly protest
actions which they consider un
just or undemocratic." The same
convention condemned the United
States for assisting Cuban ref
ugees in attempting to oust
Castro. On the 'question of Na
tionalist China (Formosa), the
NSA has censured "the National
ist government of Taiwan for its
suppression of academic freedom
and human rights." NSA's only
concern about Red China is
"the absence of formative con
tact between the United States
National Student Association and
Ihe All-China Student Federa
tion." This year, as in years past,
representatives of every left-wing
group in the country have es
tablished a lobbying headquarters
at the NSA convention, attempt
ing to influence student legisla
tion. What does the ADA demand?
Recognition of Red China; abo
lition of the House I r.Amcrican
Activities Committee; foreign aid
b "neutralist" and Communist
dictatorships: and accommoda
tion with Castro Cuba.
The President has less than a
month to redeem one of his most
important campaign promises.
Swinging through Texas on Sept.
12. I'm. nominee Kennedy prom
ised to eradicate all dictatorships
bom the Western Hemisphere
within three years. That gives
Ihe President two weeks in which
lo overthrow Fidel Castro, among
other dictators still liding high.