4. .v. .
PAGE (A
HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Falls. Ore,
Friday, October 11, 1963
BERRY'S WORLD
IN WASHINGTON
GOP Optimism Premature
?
The Ignored Assassination
ij:: Ever hear ol Aaron Presnell? .
.He was shot down in cold blood recently
:-iear Whitwell, Tenn. Whitwell is located in
:;fhe Southeast Tennessee coalfields where a
j-600-worker UMW strike has been in progress
c tor a matter of months.
: The reader will not remember Presnell's
; name, because he has become conditioned
; over the years to murders committed in the
course of labor disputes.
; x Presnell was just another man who was
Offered a job and took it in defiance of a
United Mine Workers' decree that he
I 'shouldn't.
- He will be mourned by his family, who
;aye probably lost their breadwinner, and by
"'Tils friends in the area where he was gunned
down.
His murder evoked no oratorical outburst
from the President of the United States. His
picture and a report of his widow's reaction
have appeared on no national TV network.
His assassination will not be considered a na
tional disgrace. He will receive no burial in
Arlington Cemetery in Washington, even
though he may be a veteran. No dignitaries at
tended this poor man's funeral.
Easy
Yesterday two bits bought a lather and
clip job, easy on the sides, please. Tomorrow
it appears 28 bits may just buy the clip job.
Members of the International Barbers Union
recently announced a goal of $3.50 for hair
cuts. This has a number of implications to
the average American man who is already
chasing himself in circles to keep in step with
the cost of living.
If Mr. America has three sons it means
he will spend $20 a month to keep them
shorn.
If he's a bachelor he'll spend roughly
$84 annually to keep well-groomed.
There are, however, a few bright pros
pects to the otherwise disheartening thought
of watching $3.50 fall around your shoulders
every two weeks.
EDSON IN
By PETER EDSON
Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NEA) - Crea
tion of a government field serv
ice for consumer protection
throughout Ui6 country is one of
the more challenging ideas to
be suggested in tlio first report
from President Kennedy's Con
sumer Advisory Council CAC
now being readied for early re
lease. And to top this, there is another
proposal that the government
sponsor that is, publish a month
ly news letter to provide a two
way flow of Information between
consumers and government agen
cies charged with protecting the
public interest.
Tlieso and other such forward
looking Wens may lw shrugged
off In Washington ns just a lot
more welfuro slate planning,
which goes on nil the lime.
Then, around the country,
among merchants ami manufac
turers, any thought of more gov
ernment horning in and reporting
on consumer goods offered for
sale to the public in a free mar
ket may bo considered too much
, interference with private enter
prise, even to protect buyers.
The Consumer Advisory Coun
cil report In nearly final form
is said to contain such an un
systematized collection of recom
mendations that it is something
of a mishmash. v
It asks the U.S. Department
of Agriculture to review Its stan
dards for grading and labeling,
to obtain more uniformity. The
council asks for souped-up en
forcement of consumer protec
tion orders, with less discretion
left to tlx) Judgment of inspec
tors who pass on everything from
meats to housing.
The council endorses the idee
proposed by Sen. Vance Harke,
D-Ind., and others for labeling
of food products and household
furniture. This would Rive con
sumers the same protection they
now have on wool and synthetic
fiber textiles. Labeling would also
be required on all repackaged
imports.
In its recommendations on con
sumer safety, CAC advocates
more staff for the Food and Drug
Administration for premarketing
inspection of cosmetics and label
ing hazardous substances.
There is no real difference between the
assassination of this poor man and that of
Medgar Evers, field secretary of the NAACP,
who was also piteously gunned down. Both
men were citizens of this country. Both were
entitled to live out the life God had given
them. Both were entitled to the protection
which all citizens of this country are guaran
teed under the Constitution- of the United
Stales. Both were fighting for a principle and
were assassinated for persisting in the face
of a threat of bodily harm.
The point to be made here is that one
part of our federal constitution deserves the
same respect and support from the nation,
and especially the federal government, as any
other part. The man assassinated was attempt
ing to exercise his right to work in a free
country just as Medgar Evers was attempting
to exercise his right as an American citizen.
There is something wrong with the think
ing of both the nation and the federal gov
ernment when one assassination becomes a
matter of national concern while the other
is treated as a local happening scarcely worth
a half column in any newspaper.
With The Clippers!
Higher prices will conceivably mean cus
tomers will get the
-juggling, neck - vacuuming inventions
which have made the old barber counter look
like a launching platform.
From an economic standpoint another
rise in haircuts will be a godsend. For every
disgruntled adult who decides to boycott the
corner barber there will be electric clippers,
talcums and combs to buy (not to mention hats
when do-it-yourself attempts go awry).
But most importantly a 28-bit haircut
will cut down the ranks of psychologically dis
traught males who seek comfort on the psy
chiatrist's couch, Why go to an analyst when
you can get the usual sage advice your barber
offers. ... at the quite respectable fee of
$3'.50 per half hour!
WASHINGTON
Council Is Unnecessary
National safely standards would
also lie set on electrical and other
household equipment. National as
opposed to state standards are
recommended for highway safely.
The council asks for a study of
converting all U.S. measurements
to the metric system. It rec
ommends that the Bureau of Stan
dards bo strengthened (or more
research and dissemination of in
formalinn to I lie public on c o n
siimer hard goods.
The council also endorses such
varied programs as health insur
ance under social security, low
income tax-reductions, better pub
lie accommodations for Negroes
and much more public educa
tion on consumer credit uses and
costs.
Those are mere highlights in
what is probably the most com
prehensive report on consumer
protection ever compiled.
The 12-membor Consumer Ad
visory Council was appointed
over a year ago at the suggestion
ol President Kennedy.
It has worked quietly perhaps
too quietly Willi the President's
Council of Economic Advisers un
der chairman Walter Heller.
There have been no public hear
ings and no progress reports.
'Stop The World -I
Want to Get Off
3?
mm
This has given some impres
sion of inactivity.
Actually, the final CAC report
was dialled by Dr. Robert J.
Lampmnn, professor of econom
ics at University of Wisconsin.
The draft report was submitted
to the 23 U.S. government agen
cies now having offices (or con
sumer protection. Alter their
review, lunil revisions were mode
by CAC and CEA.
Members of the Consumer Ad
visory Council under chairman
ship of Dean Helen G. Conoyer
of Cornell's School of Economics
include: Dr. Caroline Ware, for
mer chairman of Consumer Clear
ing House; Mrs. Persia Camp
boll, City University of N e w
York; Mrs. Helen E. Nelson, Cali
fornia Consumer Council; -Mrs.
John G. U'e, former president.
League of Women Voters; Sylvia
Porter, financial columnist.
Also, those male members
served: David Angevinc, Cooper
ative League, Chicago; Dr. Ed
ward S. Lewis, New York Urban
League; Minnesota's Attorney
General Waller E. Momlale; Dr.
Richard L. D. Morse of Kansas
University, and Dr. Colston E.
Warne, president of the Consum
ers Union.
is s
if j
. . . And with the determined efforts of Canada
and the United States . . . We can bury world
communism first with our surplus wheat!"
By SYDNEY J. HARRIS
At the airport the other day,
1 was informed that my plane
was late because the landing
radar was "inoperative." This
meant it was out of commission,
not working, broken down.
1 picked up a newspaper while
waiting, and read that some milk
companies were not, as they,
thought, being boycotted they
were being subjected -to a "selec
tive patronage program."
There was some mail from the
office in my briefcase, and I took
out a communication from the
"Council for Independent School
Aid." In my day, these were
called "private" schools; now,
apparently to avoid the stigma of
snobbism, they are officially re
ferred to as "independent" ones..
And so it goes. We live in an
atmosphere of euphemism, of the
soft phrase to cover the hard
fact. Not only do we refuse to
coll a spade a spade (except
when we are emotionally upset),
but even the men who wield shov
els for the city are called "sani
tation employes" rather than
street cleaners.
One of the most fantastic re
versals of the English lan
guage in the last few years has
been the word "exceptional."
which is now applied to troubled
or retarded children. In my time,
an "exceptional" child was one
who showed more promise, not
less.
It seems that as we become
WASHINGTON REPORT . . .
I Foreign Countries'
Debt
By Fl'LTON LEWIS JR.
WASHINGTON Eighteen years
and more than $100 billion laid ,
Uncle Sam still lacks accurate
records on myriad loans made
under various programs of forjign
aid.
A red-fared David Bell, riiirf
of the Agency for . International
Development, was forced to admit
he has no tabulation of what Co.
eign countries owe what to the
U S. Treasury. After all, he lend
Senator John J. Williams, strh
an undertaking would be a "ru'.p.
er massive typing and cleric a!
job."
The explanation did not salWy
Williams, known as Mr. Economy
to his colleagues. He asked Be'l
to prepare a report listing evo-y
outstanding loan; the manner in
which it is to be repaid; Uie ou1
standing balance; and other spe
cifics. Bell, who winced as the House
of Representatives chopped more
titan lialf a billion dollars from
his budget lost month, is in no
mood to annoy anybody. He prom
ised Williams Ilic report would be
ready in no time flat. That was
in August. In a matter of days,
Hell now says, the figures will be
available.
Backers of Senator Barry Gold
water arc cheered by the findings
of Klelclier Knchel. Washington
correspondent for Look Magazine.
In a recent swing across the
Southwest, Knebel found "the
Goklwaler surge strong and vi
brantin places even bellicose."
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas,
ami Oklahoma, Knebel tinds. will
wnd Goldwater delegations to the
UM Republican Nalional Conven
tion in San Francisco.
If nominated. Goldwater will
carry all four states, something
no oilier GOP possibility could do,
according to Knebel. These four
would give Goldwater 42 of the
IH3 electoral votes necessary for
election.
Goklwaler would pull into of lice
innumerable other Republicans.
STRICTLY
PERSONAL.
more violent in our behavior,
we feel the need to become more
euphemistic in our speech. An
honest despotism in the past
used to kill dissenters; today, a
totalitarian government merely
"liquidates" its enemies. They
used to imprison foes of the state;
now they are placed in "protec
tive custody."
Governments, corporations, la
bor unions, institutions and collec
tive entitles of all kinds engage in
mass euphemisms, to soften the
impact of their desires, to dis
guise llieir inadequacies, to ex
cuse their blunders, to shift the
blame from the personal and the
immediate to the vague, the
abstract and the mechanical. The
"system malfunctions" when the
people in charge have goofed.
We spend the summers in the
cherry orchard country of Wis
consin. I was explaining to my
boy, during cherry-picking time,
the various kinds and breeds of
cherries, and the different uses
to which they are put. "Those
are sour cherries," I said. "They
are used for canning or pie-making,
not for eating directly."
"We don't call them 'sour' any
more," said an orchard owner
standing next to us. "We call
them 'tart cherries.' People don't
like the idea of buying sour cher
ries, so we changed the name."
That night I told my boy the
fable of the fox and the tart
grapes.
Still Unknown
yielding the most bountiful GOP
harvest in history. "A shower of
blessings," says Oklahoma's GOP
Chairman William Burkctt.
Goldwater could net the Rcpubli.
cans another Southwest Governor
U hey now have two); another U.S.
Senator (they now have three);
tour to six new Representatives
(they now have four out of 34);
and perhaps 100 additional state
legislators (they now have 90 out
of 551).
No other Republican nominee
could run as strongly, according
to Oklahoma Governor Henry Bell
mon. his state's first GOP Chief
Executive. Democrat Jack Camp
bell, Governor of New Mexico,
says much the same thing:
"Goldwater has made an im
pact on this state, and he'd add
something to the Republican tick
et. I'd rather run here against a
ticket headed by Nelson Rockefel
ler." Allen Duckworth, political ana
lyst for the Dallas Morning News,
quotes an intimate of Vice Presi
dent Lyndon Johnson to the. effect
that Goldwater would carry Texas
by more than 150.000 votes. Other
Texas experts feel the GOP can
oust Sonalor Ralph Yarborough.
ultra-liberal Democrat, and pick
up several seats in the House of
Representatives if Goldwater runs.
Almanac
Ry l ulled Press International
Today is Friday, Oct. 11. the
2fHth day of 1983 with 81 to fol
low. The moon is approaching i'.s
new phase.
The morning stars are Mercury
ami Jupiter.
Tlie evening stars are Jupiter
and Saturn.
On this day in history:
In 1811, the first steam-driven
ferry in the world started its run
between New York City and Ho
boken, N. J.
In 1868, Thomas Edison filed
papers for his first invention, an
electrical vole recorder.
Bv RALPH de TOLEDANO
With considerable glee, the Re
publican National Committee has
been looking over the South and
acting as if it were already
in the two-party corner. But this
joy may be premature. Everything
points to a massive shift of politi
cal sentiment south of Mr. Ma
son's and Mr. Dixon's line. But
this can go for naught under two
condiUons:
1. If the Republican Party nom
inates a candidate hand-picked by
the Eastern "liberal" (or Wall
Street) wing.
2. If the "uninstructed elector"
move takes hold.
So far neither of these possible
eventualities is any more than a
cloud on the horizon. The Southern
Division of the Republican Na
tional Committee has been able
to report a continuing movement
to the GOP in the South.
Democratic clubs in Georgia,
considered among the least
threatened of Southern states,
havo been voting resolutions en
dorsing Republican candidates and
the party itself. Southern officials
admit openly that they can spot
a real trend. Governors of eight
Southern states are visibly shying ,
away from the Kennedy Admin
istration. It is dubious if the "state
house gangs" which rallied to
Lyndon Johnson and helped save
most of the South for John F.
Kennedy in 1960 will show very
much enthusiasm this time.
And the polls, for what little
they are worth, show Senator Gold
water comfortably ahead of Presi
dent Kennedy in the South. But
it should be noted that they are
for Mr. Goldwater. A candidate
like Nelson Rockefeller, the New
York governor, would make no
headway in the South and it re
quires no pollster to confirm this
conclusion. However, there are
still some in the GOP who believe
that the South should he written
off, that the Midwest will go along
with any Republican candidate
"because it has no place else to
go" (except to remain at home
on election day), and the GOP
will win or lose in the "big in
dustrial stales" (which, of course,
is where "liberal" Republicans
have steadily been losing in Presi
dential years).
Democratic strategists would
like nothing better than a Repub
lican Party committed to such a
policy. Conservatives can win big
"WASHINGTON CALLING
By MARQUIS CHILDS
WASHINGTON As in almost
every term since the racial con
llict became acute the Supreme
Court will once again, as it re
sumes its sittings, be in the eye
of the storm.
Far more than Congress this
third coordinate branch of gov
ernment has moved in response
to the upheaval shaking the coun
try. The decision on school inte
gration written for a unanimous
court in 1934 by Earl Warren
whom President Eisenhower had
made Chief Justice was in a sense
the signal for all that has fol
lowed. Eisenhower, incidentally,
never quite concealed his unhap
piness over that decision and his
reluctance (o work toward its im
plementation. In the new term school integra
tion is only a minor matter relat
ed to past decisions. Another his
toric issue is involved in the 24
or 26 civil rights cases the court
expects to hear. That is the right
ol access by all citizens to public
accommodation versus the charge
of trespass and the right of a
private owner to say who shall be
accepted for trade on his property.
The ruling of the court may
prove as far-reaching as the school
integration decision. And if Con
gress continues to stall the deci
sion could come even before the
passage of a civil rights bill with
a public accommodations provi
sion. The cases to be heard involve
sit-ins and the freedom riders in
a dozen or more communities.
Two grow out of the refusal to
admit Negroes to amusement
parks and the mass protests that
followed. The noise, the vio
lence, the fury of these racial
struggles will have an echo In
the solemn marble temple of the
highest court. This is in itself a
significant commentary on the
American system.
Despite rumors to the contrary,
some of them seemingly inspired
by w ishful thinking, the expecta
tion within the court is that it
will not be altered by retirement
at this term.
Next week Justice William O.
Douglas will be 65 and, therefore,
eligible to retire at the full salary
of $35,000.
When he was divorced for a
second time and shortly thereaf
ter remarried speculation had
Justice Douglas stepping out. He
was interested, so the rumor
went, in taking a post with a
large foundation. This would en
in the suburban and rural
areas and eventually, this
vote will enable them to smother
the big cities whose claim to po
litical power is highly exagger
ated. But a "liberal" Republican
has only a hardly appreciable ad
vantage over, let us say, Senator
Goldwater among the solidly
Democratic minority groups.
The "uninstructed elector" move
is linked to the need for a
conservative. Those who clamor
for this kind of political maneuver
in effect, asking the voters to
sign a blank Presidential check
do not realize that they are allow
ing their opposition to the Ken
nedy Administration to blind them.
President Kennedy's one hope to
take the South from a conserva
tive Republican is that enough
"uninstructed electors" are chos
en to split badly the anli-Adminis-tration
vote. Every vote for an
"uninstrucled elector" with no
chance of piling up enough of
them ,to elect a Southern Demo
crat neutralizes a Republican
vote. Guess, then, who wins?
So far, the Republican Party
seems determined to nominate
Sign Of The Times
II fmmwnsm
01 11
Supreme Storm
able him to travel to the faraway
places where he has spent most
of his summers since he was ap
pointed to the tribunal by Presi
dent Roosevelt in 1939. But his
associates expect him to remain.
The other justice still on the
court to be appointed by FDR is
Hugo L. Black. Now 77 years old
he took his seat in 1937. Justice
Black was also reported to be
contemplating retirement. With
his health excellent he plays ten
nis every day the weather per
mitsBlack has no intention of
retiring. He is just now casting
about for a young man to serve
as his law clerk in the term to
follow, that is, beginning in Octo
ber, 1964.
One of the disquieting rumors
was of the nature of the succes
sors considered for two vacancies
if they should occur. To one a
Negro would be appointed and to
the other a Southerner of strong
known Southern views. This would
be an obvious political balancing
act too obvious and in official
quarters it is scoffed at.
Such appointment would further
fragment the court ethnic, reli
gious and geographical grounds.
This is already an unhealthy trend
with the tradition of one Catholic
and one Jew. Great jurists do not
come by religious or geographical
prescription.
When this has been said, how
ever, the court has a w ay of prov.
ing out the finest in the men ap
pointed to it. Justice Black is him
self the best proof of this. He
came to the court as a senator
from Alabama. It was established
after his appointment that as an
ambitious young politician he had
been for a time a member of the
Ku KIux Klan.
Yet the record he has written
on the court assures him of a
very high place in the annals of
the law and in the history of free
dom in America. Irving Dilliard
has put this together in "One
Man's Stand for Freedom," which
s a monument to Justice Black.
It contains his great dissents in
the civil liberties cases when by
five to four the court was find
ing against a series of hapless
victims whose ideas had run aloul
of prevailing fears and prejudices.
So once again this curiously
comprised court finds itself at the
stormy center of a time of trou
bles. Besides public eccoiiwiMa
turn. 14 or U caaes to U ki;d
involve (uiporihmnwnt of M4 j,.
uUtures. brwjmg up it (1
m si kfimtors euvotinn, ,
Barry Goldwater. (The White
House expects that nomination
and does not look forward to a
contest with him.) Governor Rock
efeller dwindles in importance as
a threat and can only stir up a
very small breeze.
At the same time, the "unin
structed elector" proponents have
been considerably embarrassed by
their leaders. Many Southerners
who believe in states rights are
simply reminded of federal inter
ference when one of their gover
nors overrides municipal authori
ties. But any political observer knows
that logic is not the most im
portant ingredient in the electoral
stew. As conventions and elections
approach, people often forget
what is to their own advantage.
Their principles are somehow con
fused by their emotions. Trouble
may then develop. This Is what
makes the bandwagon psychology
so important and what causes
stampedes. That the conditions for
a good Kennedy showing in the
South are unlikely docs not mean
that they are impossible. It is
precisely this thought that less ex
uberant Republicans are holding.
"ill.' iUMt
Bruce Shanks. Eu.'.'lo "vening News
Center
sentatives of the great cities. For
all the furor of the radical night
the decisions the nine reach in
their lonely conclave are the law
of the land and therefore they
touch every citizen.
LETTERS
TO THE
EDITOR
Fine Job
In reference to the editorial
"Tax Referral Not a. Disaster."
Your last paragraph of the edi
torial dated Aug. 25, 1963, states,
"Maybe the legislators could for
get the lobbying of the labor
leaders long enough to write a
sales tax bill that would go far
to straighten out all of our tax
problems." But I believe the
people of Oregon voted against a
sales tax. Was the present tax
bill by the legislature made so bad
on purpose, so that a sales tax
or per cent one shot tax could
lie forced on the people of our
slate? Just as the unfair voting
on Daylight Saving Time was
dune.
I feel that Governor Hatfield
deserted the vole of the people
when he allowed the daylight
time bill. I also feel he is re
sponsible for the failure of the
legislature to produce a sensible
tax bill.
If the people of Oregon paid
as much atlention to what is hap
pening in our government, and
spoke their views (as they did
about the Game Commission)
we would find the governing
bodies would support the vote of
the people.
Do we know what Bill S-839
is- If not. let's find out and
speak up. Or are we going to let
the governor and legislature run
the state for us?
I believe Dan L. Eastman's re
port in the Herald and News of
Sept, l. 1963 was a good report.
1 think the Game Commission hi,
none a fine job. In either sex
hunts the first deer killed arc
the sick, the old. or last year's
cripples. This is a big help to
the deer herd. U the past fiv i
yri I hiv, ft a sick
er, but I have sx vir d wr
staying tli yr mnw4 it their
summer habits 1 oejtamjt 0id
hate to f; tip bu,thtt ot th fc-