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