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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1963)
PAGI i-A HERALD AND NEWS, Ktanulh Falls, Ore. Thursday. September 1, 191 dubiaL (paqsL Too President Kennedy has sent more than 20 major messages and letters to the Capitol 60 far this year one for every five days that Congress has been in session. It is a tremendous work load. Each mes sage has contained from one to more than 30 legislative recommendations. The total, ac cording to government sources, is close to 400. Now going into the eighth month of its current session, Congress has passed and the President has signed into law nearly 100 bills. But not one of the approved measures has any thing to do with a presidential recommenda tion. A Senate Republican Policy Committee staff report finds that the whole program is stalled because the President has made more than 200 requests for money to finance new or enlarged programs and 70 requests for more power. As a fundamental reason for the lack of action on Capitol Hill that explanation may be an oversimplification. Most of the President's recommendations admittedly are controver sial. From a Democratic administration point of view, the President's program recognizes that the United States and the whole world are changing. New solutions are said to be needed to meet new problems. Congress and the country have not ad justed to this need for change. So the whole program is slowed down. Whatever the cause may be, some of the pessimists now are saying that not more than half a dozen of the President's major recom mendations will be acted on by Congress this year. . It is further predicted that all of the original requests considered will be changed materially some almost beyond recognition. This list includes tax cuts, a limited civil rights program, some additional aid for de pressed areas and manpower retraining, new powers over the stock markets for Securities and Exchange Commission, a resolution to deal with the railroad labor crisis if manage ment and the brotherhoods do not settle it WASHINGTON Labor - man agement relations in tills coun try have been fundamentally and (orcver altered by Congressional passage of the most significant law in this field since the Wag ner Act of the '30s turned labor from a place of loo little to a place of too much power over our national economic life. On the surface, what Congress has done, with the approval of President Kennedy, has been to compel compulsory arbitration of the long dispute between Uic rail roads and the operating unions and to forbid a general strike for at least six months. But wistful Congressional dec larations that this is to lie seen as only a one-shot statute, hav ing no special application for the future, cannot change the deep root fact that a fork in the road has been turned. For Con gress has done more than to force by federal law, (or the first time in peacetime in our history, a settlement of an industrial con tost between two private giants, tlw railroad industry and big la bor. Congress, reluctantly and witn many a nostalgic glance at the past, has actually set a new standard which, stripped of all the whereases and yos-buts, says this: The point has boon reached where the interest of tlx public is openly proclaimed to bo what it hits always actually been the dominant interest which must in the end override all others, In cluding those of both labor and capital. This docs not, of course, mean that every kind of strike or dis pute nrreafter w ill (all under the compulsive, slaying hand of the federal government. But it does mean that an example has been sot hero and, again, never mind all the disclaimers oi troubled men inside tlw government and out of it that no stoppage threat ening Uie very life of this coun try can long be tolerated again. Having done what it has done in (lie railroad crisis and having done it with enormous majorities can Congress in the future re fust to do likewise when and if any other truly paralyzing labor management contest Impends? For the record, Congress says there Is no precedent here. But UWOM Uw is Um imminwW Many Messages themselves and, finally, ratification of the nu clear test ban. Given much lower prospects for passage this year are several consumer protection measures, aid for mass transit in metropoli-. tan areas, further changes in labor standards and unemployment insurance legislation, aids to grade and college education, new wheat, cotton and dairy programs all of which were recommended to Congress by the Pres ident last year. The score on the President's major spe cial messages to Congress, for this session therefore stands about like this: Tax reduction House Ways and Means Committee just completing first draft of bill still to be acted on by Congress. Health Hospitalization for the aged under Social Security in Senate committee; House hearings may begin soon. Aid for men tal retardation passed by Senate, in House committee. Development of recreation facilities Still in Senate and House committees. Wilder ness bill passed by Senate but still before House committee. Youth programs Youth Conservation Corps passed by Senate, reported out by House committee. National Service Corps reported out by Senate committee but still in House committee. No action at all has been taken on the President's recommendaitons on tax benefits for political contributions, revision of national origins quota system and other immigration laws, measures for reducing U.S. balance of payments deficit. Investigations all under Democratic chairmen drag on endlessly, probing De partment of Defense contracts on the TFX fighter, the space program, civil rights, for eign agents lobbying, foreign aid, economic policy and fiscal policies. It's small wonder congressmen don't have time to legislate. They're working like dogs, chasing their tails. The only thing that can remedy all this is reorganization of Congress itself which all but a few of the lawmakers refuse even to consider. WILLIAM S. WHITE . . . Labor Pressure I threat of a nationally destructive strike in the airlines, in the de fense plants, or even in the mil lions of trucks whose drivers are under the command of the malo dorous national Teamsters Union of Jimmy Hoffa. The public will not then read the fine print of Congressional disclaimers that this, that or the other was not really contemplated in Ihe railroad bill. The public will demand and lira public will get action in the public interest. Labor generally protests the arrival now on the American scone of compulsory arbitration as to, but only as to. those national economic dislocations which are literally intolerable in a complex society. But labor has only labor to blame. Against ev ery claim of coinmonsensc and o the eventual disgust of even their most faithful supporters in Congress, the railroad unions in sisted upon tlte maintenance, or cver and forever, of featherbed ding practices by which thou sands of trainmen must be hired i i r m ft &.i-.www i i i Tbt ftllowt in the Senai tutt aikttl mt fa get tht Uowi'i thinking fill coe.rnioiwl pay incrttu tbinif Fails for doing nolhing. Something had to give at last, and that something has now giv en. Only those who have watched Congress closely for many years in its approach to labor can imag ine now very far the wheel has turned. Politicians long docile to ward labor's smallest request are docile no longer. 11 Is not that lliey have "turned on" labor. II is that labor has turned on tliom and on ilsell by increasingly open disregard for a far larger if far less articulate lobby than a 1 1 oUiers combined. This is the lob by of the public. Pressure groups are perfectly right and proper and even neces sary parts of our political proc ess. But the final lesson to be read here is that any ami every pressure group even those lull of the most decent original pur posescan at last go oo far. And. going too far, Uiey can find slammed lightly shut a door t lint once gave inward at their slight est touch. IN WASHINGTON . The By RALPH de TOLEDAXO If a group of so-called humani tarians has its way, the Penta gon will be forced to gear its military strategy to outright ex tinction of the enemy. This is what the agitation by a Columbia University professor and his as sociates can lead to. At the same time. America's defenses would he drastically reduced, leaving us tile prey of any major nuclear power seeking to destroy us. If this sounds contradictory, don't be tooled. It is simply iron ic. The facts are these: Dr. Sey mour Mclman of Columbia has been busily agitating for a cut in defense spending of up to $26 billion. He argues, and there are eople on Capitol Hill who pay attention to him, that the United .States has such a vast stock of nuclear weapons that it can "overkill" any attacker many times. Therefore, he says, the By SYDNEY J. HARRIS Purely Personal Prejudices: Show me a man who mistrusts others, and I would not trust him with a shoelace of my own; our opinion of mankind is the re fracled opinion we secretly hold of ourselves. People who believe that "en thusiasm" is the principal in gredient of success forget that Ihe school cheerleader is gener ally the fellow who can do noth ing else. I have never understood why it i that we contemptuously disrounl a person who praises himself yet when he forms an Institution or a corporation and does the same thing, we ac cept this self-praise with re spect and submissive credulity. Speaking of self-praise, one of Ihe most amusing and inlorma- Al manac By I nllcd Press International Today is Thursday, Sept. 3. Ihe 24Mh day of 13 with 117 to follow. The moon is approaching its last quarter. The morning star is Jupiter. The evening stars are Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. Those horn today are under the sign of Virgo. On this day in history: In 1670, William Penn was ar rested in London for holding a Quaker meeting. In 177-1, the First Continental Congress assembled in secret at Philadelphia. In 1(182. 10.000 workmen took part in the first Labor Day parade al New York City. A thought for the day: English philosoplier Bertrand Russell com mented: "It Is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from liv ing freely and nobly." Irony Of Overkill U.S. must stop producing new nuclear weapons. His thesis is that we have more than enough. But if you talk to Gen. Maxwell Taylor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or to any one of half a dozen Pentagon strate gists, you realize that Dr. Mel man is proposing a program of horror which would make Hitler's schrccklichkeit seem like a Sun day school picnic. Both Taylor and the Defense Department's soundest civilian planners point out that Ameri ca's nuclear striking power is de signed to do a great many jobs. "Anyone who tries to work things out by simple arithmetic doesn't know what lie's lalkmg about." one Pentagon official says. "It's easy to add up the cumber of bombs we've got and the num ber of targets we would like to hit in case of war. But that doesn't give you any kind of an answer." STRICTLY PERSONAL live books is Darrcll Huff's "ffluw to Lie with Statistics." which shows how modern mountebanks can use figures, charts and per centages to achieve any cllect they care to. I especially enjoyed his chapter on "The Gee-Whiz Graph." Pious people who impute a vir tue to their dullness have done a great disservice to religion, by making it easy for sinners to dismiss heaven as a place filled wilh intolerable bores. Religiosity without charm or humor creates more rebels than converts. God cannot be solemn, or he would nut have blessed man with the incalculable gift of laughter. Candor in the arts is Ihe most dangerous device a man can use many great novels have es tranged their authors from soci ety, for society fears it will be too pitilessly depicted. "Every lime 1 paint a portrait, 1 lose a friend." John Sargent wistfully remarked. It Is difficult for some per sonalities to understand (until too Intel that doing nothing Is a form of doing sumclhlng and often its most disastrous form. The reil-ml make a derision Is a grave decision. 4 The best and most succinct ar gument against the necessity of 'equal rights" for women was given long ago by Samuel John son, when lie told a friend: "Sir. nature has given woman so much power lhat Ihe law cannot afford lo give her more." We can e how little real meaning such woids es "liberal" and "conservative" have, when today the liberal is clinging te naciously to the strictest letter of the Constitution, while the con servative is busy trying tn pry loose some of the nails on the Fifth Amendment. History kives lo play havoc wilh our neat little political piQ'iiholes. His explanation maMes very good sense. "Overkill," he points out, "is a meaningless term when applied to nuclear warfare. Be fore we can talk about a surplus of bombs or missiles, we've got lo remember that every weapon we've got is becorr.fes obsolescent at a tremendous rate. So it is important to keep tlw pipclhuis from production lir.e to niilita-ry unit always filled. Much r.f ci:r defense potential is being con stantly changed and improved which mcar.s that it is not in condition to be mobilized in ca.' of attack." "Bui," the Pentagon official says, "this is ei?!y a prl of ll story. This country i ccxnii'.letl lo a policy cf rctaliaticn. not of offense. We've got to gear our strategy lo tremendous impon derables. If we hit first. l;.v much of or.r retaliatory power will be wiped out? How much will tie shot oi:t uf the skies be fore it readies target? H o w many losses nr.il aborts will there be due to malfunction of missile systems and mechanical failure? Every oinj of these fac tors forces us to increase our nuclear arsennl." The Pentagon Ibis made its calculations. It realizes that if the country is to be safe, there must be a certain amount of over lapping, of duplication. If the de fense budget is drastically cut, then America's military strategy must be revised. At the Pentagon. Ihe military does not want to force this country to rely on mass murdci as a national policy. Yet if we reduce the nuclear strik ing power of the nation by bar ring further production of weap ons and by arming a1, a slower pace, then full reliance must he placed on a dilferenl strategic concept. With a limited number nf nu clear bombs, determined by a mathematical reckoning of their iciiiol power gnd'tne number of areas we must hit, then tlie Pen tagon must think in terms of blasting cities and suburban areas in order lo kill as many as possible in as quick a time as our ingenuity can devise. To knock out a military target re quires pinpoint aim and enough weapons on hand to allow for any weapons failure. To knock out a civilian target reouires only a big bang and a relatively sim ple guidance system. General Taylor and Ihe Penta gon legislative liaison team are scurrying ahout on Capitol Hill attempting lo explain this concept to House and Senate. Normally. mosHegislators would listen and S. -vlcr all. war is a mili tary specialty. Unfortunately, im pnrt.Jjt members of key commit tees on the House and Senate stds are listening with consid erable antagonism anH doubt tn Pentagon arguments. In this instance, the military and civilian chiefs at the De fense Department are absolutely correct. But tlieir credit is had or. the Hill. Secretary McNamsrs and his associates hive traded on Congressional goodwill. But their slock has gone down badly and the legislative leaders on -the Hill have lost faith. The TFX scandal is partly responsible. So is the Pentagon's seeming reluc tance lo follow procurement prac tices which would save the tax paver billions of dollars a year. WASHINGTON CALLING . . Lo, The Vanishing Local Postmaster WW!: mi By MARQUIS CH1LDS WASHINGTON-In the difficult ' search for a Postmaster General the White House might do well to try a want ad: WANTED chief executive for largest business in the world with 577,000 employes; salary $25,000; must be able to get along with all sorts of charac ters telling you how to run the business; annual deficit no cause for worry. The man just vacating the job tried hard to introduce some ef ficiency into a system that has been burdened by favoritism, pa tronage, special privilege and the barnacles of an ancient bureau cracy. J. Edward Day. who had a brisk, humorous approach to his thankless task, used to like to say there had never been any real change since Benjamin Franklin initiated the system. Like many another hoary institu tion the Post Office Department is caught in the switches of light ning change. The postal service was based on the railroads and that base has been largely eroded away. Day went to Germany and made a personal study of routing mail by a system of code numbers. He found that the German post office allows only 12 dilferent sizes of envelopes. In contrast into the mails in this country each day go on the average 700 sizes and shapes. And the Postmaster Gen eral knew full well that any at tempt to limit the variety in Amer ica would be frustrated by loud and angry squawks from the cus turners. The Soviet Union, where the customer has very little to say about the size and shape of anything, allows only six differing envelopes. Kor the first time in the fis cal year recently ended the number of postal employes was not increased over the previous year. This is attributed to some of the changes Day introduced in his elfort to move out of the handi craft era into the age of automa tion. But like every Postmaster Gen eral Jjfore him he could never tell wI-.pii o::e of his innumerable critics in Congress and out would come down on him. Alter Life published an article charging Congress with immoral use of pork-barrel appropriations for election purposes, including new post offices, members of Congress demanded to know how much sub sidy magazines like Life were get ting. The Postmaster General's office oVcliSi'd to give out specific fig ivs, sayir.g so many variables WASHINGTON McCormack Blunder Assists Republicans By FULTON LEWIS JR. A tactical miscue by Speaker of the House John McCormack helped Republicans to slash more than a half a billion dollars from the Administration foreign a i d authorization bill last week. McCormack. after conferences with floor leaders Carl Albert and Hale Boggs, felt he had suf ficient votes for passage. He re jected suggestions that the vote be positioned for several days. The result: a smashing 222-138 defeat for the President and a cut of $585 million in the Foreign Aid authorization. Even had Mc Cormack postponed the vote, how ever, it is doubtful that victory could have been achieved. And the blame lies wilh one man: John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It was one year ago lhat Ad ministration lieutenants discov ered foreign aid in serious trou ble. Southern Democrats had served notice they would not sup port the program. Only wilh strong, bipartisan support could the authorization pass. The President personally asked Waller Judd. ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, for help. Judd, the OOP's principal expert on for eign matters, agreed. He made impassioned speeches lor the President's program and helped Uie Chief Executive with the UN " bond vole and olher legislation. Acknowledging his gratitude, the President journeyed west to Minneapolis tn campaign for Don ald Eraser. Dr. Judd's ultra-liberal, vvell-linanced opponent. The Congressman, who had ne glected his campaign to fight for the President's program, never made up lo.-t ground. Eraser cap tured by a narrow vote the seat Dr. Judd had held for 20 years. Political observers agreed that the President s energetic cam paigning and personal endorse ment had put Eraser over. This is why GOP liberals this ear scolied at President Kenne dy's plan for bipartisan support. Maine's Stanley Tuppcr, consid ered a Rockefeller Republican, voted lo carve up the President's inquest So did Ahncr Sibal of Connecticut and Jim Cleveland of New Hampshire, both recog nized as members of Ihe party's liberal wing. wore involved. But the second class mailing privilege has long been one of the principal reasons for the deficit. In a detailed reply to Life, Rep. Morris K. Udall of Arizona charged that in the cur rent year it would cost $310,000,000 to carry the second-class mail while the Post Office Department would get back in revenue only $95,000,000 by the Udall calcula tion a subsidy of $215,000,000. He went on to put Uie sub sidy for the Luce publications "in the neighborhood of $20,000,000." The cost of carrying The Read er's Digest is estimated at $35, 000,000 above receipts and, as re sentful members of Congress have noted, it devotes a lot of space to attacking politics, politicians and the government. According to Udall, new post offices authorized are always far behind the need with the population growth and the difficulty of getting appropria tions to replace old buildings and worn-out equipment. Third-class or junk mail is an other reason for the deficit, which . was $400,000,000 last fiscal year and would have been twice that much if the cost of postage had not been increased in January. Yet the flood of junk mail adds less to the deficit than second class. Day will probably be remem bered for the Zip Code. This is a system of numbers for each re gion which when included in an address reduces the number of times mail must be sorted. The department has called for bids for machines that will read ZIP num bers with an electric eye 80 per cent thai are printed or typed. Someday the machines will read handwriting and then ZIP num bers may do away with place names. It is a-melancholy pros pect whatever the contribution lo efficiency may be. Stephen Vin cent Benet wrote a poem about American names Lost Mule Flat. Medicine Hat. Deadwood, Painted Post. Wounded Knee, Lundy's Lane, Santa Cruz. If those names give way to ZIP numbers we shall be infinitely poorer and near er that day in 1984 perhaps when each individual is a number sited on a vast concrete through way with the landscape all a dreary sameness. In that earlier era of Deadwood and Painted Post you looked for a shrewd politician as Postmaster General. He dispensed patronage and kept a careful eye on the machine of the party in power. Today he must be part politician, part businessman, part adminis tratora rare combination indeed. REPORT . . . GOP unity was surprising. Of 172 Republicans who cast their ballots, only lfi voted not to wield the ax. Had GOP Whip Leslie Arends been able lo find one more vole, nations trading with Castro Cuba could be forced off this country's foreign aid gravy train. Florida Rep. Bill Cramer submitted an amendment that would bar foreign aid to those countries whose ships engage in Cuban traffic. Before Arends could round up additional Republicans, a teller vote had been taken on Cramer's proposal. The initial result was 162 ayes, 161 nays. An Administration loyalist. Rep. Albert Rains 'D., Ala.', was sitting in Ihe Speaker's chair in McCormack's absence. In a vir tually unprecedented action, he rose from the chair, and east his nay. This made the vote a tie. 162-1(52. and the Cramer amend ment (ailed to pass. What did pass was a resolution jointly sponsored by Florida Reps. Paul Rogers and Dante Fascell. O Their amendment permits foreign aid tn countries trading with Cuba if the President deems it to be in the best interests of the United States. A similar law is now on the books, largely "ignored by t h e President. That statute calls for an end of foreign aid to all na tions supplying Castro with stra tegic materials including petrole um. Millions of barrels of free world petroleum were shipped lo Cuba in the first six months of 1963. The Greeks, who shipped almost 150,000 Ions of oil. never theless received $97 million in U.S. foreign aid. British ships earned 379.000 tons of petroleum to Cuba while tlieir government pocketed sfi 2 million from Uncle Sam. A second restriction denies aid to any country that permits ships under its registry to enter Cuban ports with goods of any kind. The President has authority tn waive this provision, if, in re ports to appropriate committees of House and Senate, he deems it tn be in the national interest. The President has ignored this statute, too. 0
