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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 1963)
iAGE 6A HERALD dtbiial (paqsi Studebaker's Demise In South Bend, Ind., the community is faced with a crisis due to the announcement by the Studebaker Co., that it will close its plant there within a matter of a week or so. Reason given: The company has lost $40 : million "in trying to keep the South Bend : plant open." But the concern makes further an : nouncement that it will move to Hamilton, ' Ont. and continue manufacturing automo I biles. ' At first, South Benders were shocked at the announcement. It meant 7,000 work ers in the Studebaker plant will be forced to find employment elsewhere' and at a very bad time, just before Christmas. Business leaders in the famed Indiana city then braced and have taken the atti tude that South Bend was in existence before Studebaker came on the scene; that South Bend is a good industrial town and that some how, some way, the community will go on. They have taken a positive attitude toward the economic setback rather than a negative view. At first blush you would get the im pression that Studebaker's demise in South Bend would take with it most of the job op portunities In that city. But apparently only about three per cent of the employable peo ple will be affected. Three per cent is big percentage when you are talking about jobs but a strenuous campaign by the industrial Ask A rather curious little item comes from North Dakota. There rural telephone co operatives propose a change in the tax sys tem affecting them, which would result in an increase in their tax payments. The proposal has been made to a leg islative subcommittee which has taken it under advisement. According o a co-op spokesman, "We offer (his proposal as one our member organizations could tolerate without jeopardizing their operations to the point of requiring increased rates to their customers." ': The proposal, it would seem, has merit -s-as would any move which would do away with the very substantial tax and financing advantages, which are forms of special privilege, these and other utility co-ops now enjoy. But there is still another element that deserves some notice. WILLIAM By WILLIAM S. WHITE WASHINGTON - President Johnson's action to bring the next man in line for the Presi dency, Hop. John W. JlcCor mack of Massachusetts, into the highly secret National Security Council puts a Speaker of the House for the first time into the most intimate war-and-penco de liberations of this government. It will do a great deal more, however, than (his. It w ill enor mously increase Speaker Mc Oormack's real power base out side Congress, and most notably within it. There, a quietly gath ering "revolt" by a handful of ultra-liberal democrats i, gainst MoCormuck's autlvority had been signalled several weeks ago by sonic of those directly involved. This whispered coming palace revolution or, more exactly, this potentiol putsch of good in tentions and disorderly implica tions for responsible operation of the House .May now be said to be doubly dead before it started. Its chances had In any event been thin in the extreme, ijnee a very considerable num ber of tliose counted upon to be eager to "go out against 'John" were in fact always loyal to his elected leadership and meant 'to remain to. Now, however, the substan tial certainty that Uie Speaker could not be effectively chal lenged by small rump move ments wiuiln his own party had become an absolute certainty. For power is power, and while iMcormack is in no way short of that commodity singly as Speaker of the House, he it now amply rearmed by tlw fact tliat AND NEWS. Klamath Falls, Oregon development arm of the South Bend Cham ber of Commerce should, in due time, pick up that slack. Naturally it will take a lot of cooperation on the part of the city council and other civic units. Studebaker says it will capitalize on the eight per cent dollar differential which now exists. And the chairman of the board thinks that there is better opportunity of cutting costs in Hamilton. Probably from the stand point of labor. On the other hand how can Studebaker, or other companies which are manufacturing products abroad, continue to flood the United Slates market with items which are produced much more cheaply than they are here? You'd expect the person who makes the world's top wages would insist on "buying American." We hate to see a concern like Stude baker, which has been an important com pany in the nation for more than 100 years, leave the United States. For most of this pe riod, Studebaker was a healthy, prosperous company. Why, suddenly as opposed to other automobile manufacturing companies has Studebaker fallen on such evil times? It must either be poor management, or be cause it has manufactured a product that hasn't been acceptable. It's hard to believe that the company will "get well" in Canada because it will be paying its employes less wages or because it will get the benefit of the Canadian-American exchange. Tax Increase According to the news accounts, a search has been going on for two years for a tax system which would place co-ops on the same tax basis as private utilities without excessively burdening them. This kind of consideration, needless to say1, is not given to private utilities or any other private en terprise. Private enterprise and its custo mers must pay taxes in rates charged under the general existing system and make or break in the process. So far as telephone or electric co-ops are concerned, everywhere in the country, the fair and reasonable step would be to place them on the same tax basis, and fi nancing basis, applied to private utilities of a comparable nature. They certainly should not be penalized. They shouldn't be favored, cither. S. WHITE Speaker's Power in human truth as well as in law he is the next man to tlie President of the United States. That official who is truly next to Uic President this or any other President is not lightly rebelled against. Even less is he successfully rebelled ugainst. All this aborted and minor cloak-and-dagger stuff is only accidental and incidental, how ever, In the true meaning of Speaker McCormack's elevation into a second hierarchy, that of tlw executive branch. The genu ine and lusting significance of what has been done is this: The United States has made certain before history that there cannot again be such a situation as oc curred when Franklin Roosevelt died in 1945 and left his succes sor without any real knowledge of what had loen going on in the White House. Of course, there was then an elected and sitting vice presi dent, Harry S Truman. But Mr. Truman had to assume the Presidency at a moment's no tice In almost total ignorance of what his Lite chief had been do ing and thinking and planning and promising. Because he had not been taken into Mr. Roo sevelt's confidence perhaps be cause of the cruel pressures of a tuo4runt w ar Hai ry Truman had not even been aware that something called an atomic bomb had been made. The failure was one of liai son. All the same, it couki have been catastrophieally cosily to this nation had not Mr. Truman shown an almost incredible ca pacity to bring himseif abreast of die state of affairs ali around the world. He soon poinled out Thursday, December It, 1963 Rises that he had no vice president at his side and that as matters tlien stood, the presidency would pass to a non-elected official, the Secretary of Stale, should he himself suddenly become in capacitated Congress responded with a bill to make the Speaker of the House Uie next in line of suc cession for the presidency in such circumstances. Today, Mr. Johnson, too, has no vice presi dent. Today. Speaker McCor mack is by law his appointed successor, should trugedy strike. Thus, one of tlie first ads of the new President is to make sure not simply that he lias a successor qualified by law but a successor qualified also to act, not simply alter boning up on live facts but in concurrent possession of the facts all along. As it happens, too, the close association is not only a clearly necessary one. in the highest of national interest, but also a happy ami relaxed one. Speaker McCormack and tlie President hae been lor nearly two dec adesa time going back to Mr Johnson's service in the House on a "John and Lyndon" bas is. The Speaker, moreover, though an early backer of tlie late John F. Kennedy for the I960 Presidential nomination, was an equally early backer of L)mln B. Johnson for vice president. McCormack was one of Uie few wlio believed from tlie beginning rightly, as it turned out that Mr. Johnson wouk) accept second place if this became necessary to pro mote Democratic fortunes. By BRUCE B10SSAT Newspaper Enterprise Assn. NEW YORK (NEA) - Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy has told President Lyndon B. Johnson she would be happy to play any political role he might ask of her in the 1964 presidential campaign. A source high in Democratic circles says the late John F. Kennedy's widow made this of fer to the President in his of fice, on the occasion of her "last look'' at the Oval Room where her husband had worked f o r nearly three years. Mrs. Kennedy is said to have told Johnson she never before had been really closely involved in politics nor experienced in it. but that she would "do any thing" the President might think helpful. The impact of any measur able participation by her in the 1964 campaign could be im mense, in the view of political observers. Remarks one: "Can you imagine the effect One That Wasn't On The Map WASHINGTON REPORT . By FULTON LEWIS JR. WASHINGTON By the mid dle 1950s a logjam of litigation threatened to paralyze the fed eral courts. With animal regularity, begin ning in 1U54. President Eis enhower would ask Congress to create new judgeships, citing the heavy work load and the ever - increasing backlog of cases on tlie docket. Just as annually, tlie Demo cratic leaders of Congress would reject Ike's request. They did not wish the President to have new tools of pauonagc. Attorney General William Rogers went so far as to as sure Democrats that Eisenhow er would "(ill the new posts on a 50-50 basis from the two poli tical parties." The Democrats' answer: no. Tlieir reason was simple, as one correspondent wrote: "With all bets riding on tlie outcome of llie I960 election, the Democrats rejected a half-loaf in hopes of winning the whole loaf." The gamble paid off. A Dem ocratic President pushed through a Democratic Congress a bill creating 73 new judge ships. With 42 other vacancies caused by death or retirement, the President had a patronage lever unprecedented in judicial history. Of the President's first SO ap pointees, 79 were Democrats. The ol her was a member of New York's Liberal Party, which supported John Kennedy for President. Of Uiose 80 ap pointees, seven were found un qualified by the American Bar Association. Now controversy swirls about two men named to tlie bench by President Kennedy a low months before his death. They are David Rabinowitz. named federal district judge or west ern Wisconsin, and George Chi ton Edwards Ji , appointed to tlie Sixth Circuit Court ol Ap peals in Deli oil. Rabinowitz is an old colleague of Walter KouUier's. As far back as 19M. he was defending strikers at Kohler, Wis. Two decades later, lie was still on the union payroll as the lawyer for United Auto Worker pickets arreted in the violent strike against the Kohler Company Rabinowiu first caught John Kennedy's eve during hearings of tlie Senate Labor Rackets Committee. Rabinowiti was a UAW counsel, representing la bor statesmen sunpoenaed for testimony. Mrs. Kennedy of having Jacqueline Kennedy go on television and even just introduce Lyndon Johnson'.'" Mrs. Kennedy would stand as tlie living reminder of the dead President, the focus of whatever sympathy for him might still be at work in vot ers' minds as election time nearcd. And she would have great stature in her own right for the example of courage and dignity she exhibited in the or deal of her husband's death. If taken up, her offer to John son would represent for her an ordeal of another sort. The former First Lady, as she told the President, has done little in politics up to now. Until the fateful trip to Tex as, which she happily entered upon in a manner thought to foreshadow heavier political ac tivity with her husband in 1964, she had not made a purely po litical journey since late Octo ber, 1960. Her final venture in that campaign was on tlie day Ken- Politics Rule Choice For Federal Judge The liberal Capital Times, Madison's chief paper, called Rabinowitz' appointment "al most unbelievable." The Amer ican Bar Association said Rab inowitz was "unqualified" to serve on the federal bench. A solid majority of Wisconsin at torneys, polled by the Slate Bar Association, urged Rabinowitz' rejection by the Senate. In the same week that Presi dent Kennedy named Rabir.o wilz to tlie bench he also ap pointed Edwards, another for mer LAW leader. Edwards' legal experience dates back to February, 1935, when he was thrown hi jail in Fort Smith, Ark., on a charge of barratry (habitual lawsuits'. A self-styled class warrior. Ed wards had visited Fort Smith to help "downtrodden share croppers." Out of jail. Edwards became the first national chairman of the American Student Union, a group later declared by a Con gressional committee to be a Communist front. In that po.-t he helped plan a nationwide strike "against war" and urged students to refuse to serve in the armed forces. Soon after, Edwards became an organicr for the UAW, during which the bloody Yale and Towne strike occurred when strikers threw lead weights and tear gas bombs at the police. He ignored a court order to call off the strike, staged a sitdown in the company plant, and wxin a 30-day jail sentence for his elforts. Behind bars, lie tried to organize fellow inmates in a L AW local, confident he could win them a 40-hour week and vacations with pay. Leaving prison. Edwards rose quickly m the UAW hierarchy to become welfare director, then went into politics. In a phenomenally successful career, he was elected Detroit city councilman, president of t h e city council, probate judge, cir cuit judge and Michigan Su prcme Court judge. Only in 1949, when he sought Uie Detroit mayoralty, did Ed wards meet defeat. In that elec tion, a former UAW vice pres ident. Richard Frankenstecii. Iiclped torpedo his old col league: "I worked with Ed wards when he first came to Detroit and believe me when I say he came here to organize the Socialist Tarty " Both Edwards and Rabmowru must win Senate contirmatinn belore Uwir appointments are otfictal. O Offers 1964 Election nedy rode up Broadway from Wall Street to midtown New York. She left the cavalcade at lunchtime. She was then ex pecting her second child, and doctors had advised her against further public appearances. Beyond this, however, report ers who had observed M r s. Kennedy on the campaign trail in I960 and earlier in Massa chusetts found her basically shy. This reporter recalls a small incident in the bitter cold of the Wisconsin primary of 1960. The late President and his wife came to a tiny movie theater for a morning rally. Kennedy mounted the stage but Mrs. Kennedy sat down in a shadowy corner in the first row of seats. He motioned to her to come up. "Can't I stay here?" she pleaded. He shook his head and beckoned again. She went up and sat beside him. Though she repeatedly braved the harsh weather and Politics. In State Of Flux Bv DORIS FLEESON WASHINGTON - Behind the scenes the profcssonal politi cians are feverishly attempting to adjust to changed conditions and a new President. Lyndon Johnson differs from John F. Kennedy in b a c k ground, temperament, style and spirit. He shares some Kenne dy virtues and professes t h e Kennedy aims. But his faults are entirely dif ferent, and this is where the politicians must change pace, both Democrats and Repub licans. Democrats have a new product to sell and to defend. Republicans w ill run against a fresh set of faults. The 30-day period of mourn ing, added to Uie near approach of the Christmas holidays, cloaks much of the current dis cussion. Still it is starting to break through, and it can be expected to erupt when Con gress convenes in early Janu ary. For example, there is the cautiously worded statement which the House Republican pol icy committee released. It said that we should not lose sight of y why we mourn, but adds: "Neither should we permit the tragic event . .' . to be used EDSON By PETER EDSON Washington Correspondent Newspaper Enterprise Assn. W ASHINGTON ( NEA l There is still hope that some new larm legislation may make a little progress in the final days of this session of Congress but it's very faint. Of a score or more major farm bills, only three or four are given any chance. Wheat legislation is given no chance at all. in spite of pres sure from farm organizations and wheat state congressmen, particularly the Republicans. The daily bill introduced by Sen. W illiam Proxmire, D-W'is.. passed the Senate but no House action is scheduled. Department of Agriculture would like action to extend the Kennedy administration conser vation reserve program beyond 1964. but prospects are doubtful. If not extended, all the acre age in the Eisenhower adminis tration soil bank reserve could be brought tack into production next year. With nearly 10 years of new farm technology available since tiie soil bank bill was passed, Uiere is considerable fear over what will happen. Production of most major crops might soar, leading to still larger surpluses and necessitat ing huge increases in govern ment farm program costs for OUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q Which was (he first state In the Union to be permanently set tled by Europeans? A Florida, in 1563. Q What name did Columbus give to the Island ol Cuba? A Juana. in honor of tlie daugh ter of the king and queen of Spain. Cuba is its Indian name. tr-By what treaty in M3 A. P. Is France considered to have be gun lis history as a separate n- lion? A The Treaty of Verdun. other hazards of the early 1960 struggles, Jacqueline Kennedy seldom if ever stayed on the road more than three days at a ' time. She told this reporter in a 1960 interview that her reasons were two: she did not want to be away from her daughter, Caroline, any longer than that, and she found her energy run ning low. Even to keep her energy at working levels for three days, she often quietly slipped away after lunch on a crowded cam paign day and went on to the evening stop where she rested a while before dinner and re ception. She had .no wish ever to speak on her trips w ith her hus band, but a few times she did. Once in Wisconsin in early March, he was called back to Washington to act on important legislation. Mrs. Kennedy filled in for him all the next day. making simple direct ap as a device to cloud the future of honest debate and dissent. Efforts to make Americans feel generally guilty cf the crime now are obscuring the nature of the crime. "There is guilt, but it is not American guilt. It is the guilt of the murderer, If it was ha tred that moved the assassin, that hatred was bred by the teachings of communism." Thus the verdict of the War ren commission is anticipated and a backfire set against the present trend toward self-examination. It is not yet the Re publican party line, of course, but it is the beginning of a de bate which w ill not long be car ried on privately. Most sharply frustrated are the draft-Goldwater forces. The Senator's personal grief w a s sharply etched on his face as he moved slowly past the Ken nedy bier in the Capitol Ro tunda. For the first time, at 54. he did not seem to be quite a contemporary of the President slain at 46. The Goldwalcr drive now con fronts a President one year the Senator's senior and widely ac cepted as a moderate conserva tive. The President is a South erner, and while he has 'had IN WASHINGTON Farm Bill Outlook Poor support prices and storage. A major effort is being made to enlist President Lyndon John son's support for pending bills. Farm organizations and lobby ists vie w ith each other in pro claiming that the new president from Texas is indeed the farm ers' best friend. This has succeeded to a limit ed degree on a bill to make the Kennedy food stamp pilot plan program a permanent govern ment operation and to get ac tion on a new cotton bill. Agriculture Secretary Orville L. Freeman declared in a Thanksgiving letter to 50 state governors that President John son had asked for a "redou bled" elfort to insure mat Unit ed States food abundance is "fully" available to all who need it. This would include food stamp, school lunch and Food for Peace plans. On cotton legislation, the late President Kennedy over a year ago advocated congressional consideration of ending the two price system for domestic and export cottcn sales, in effect since 1957. A bill to make this change, introduced by House Agricultur al Committee Chairman Har old D. Cook-y. D-N.C. is sup ported by the American Cotton Council, Textile Manufacturers Institute and other trade or ganizations. The Cooley bill would substi tute a "payment in kind" of surplus cotton to persons other than producers so as to elimi nate the cost differential now paid by foreign and domestic nulls. It would in effect reduce the price of cotton and cause ma jor readjuments in the cotton industry. But its spokesmen in sist this is necessary because tiie two-price system which they originally supported hasn't worked. Shaker John W. McCormack got President Johnson's approv al for the House to take up the Cooley bill Doc. 2. so that it could be brought before the Senate this year. Passage or defeat of this bill is not considered a first test of President Johnson's intli.'cnce with Congress. It was foreseen Aid peals to voters in town after town. . Later, pressed into a brief television appearance on the road in West Virginia, she heard a station manager com p I i m e n t her performance. Mindful of her "breathless" voice which seldom projects easily, she replied: "You caught me on one of my good days." The swirling confusion of pol itics seemed often to puzzle, if not upset her. Giving this re porter her impression of a na tional political convention, she remarked the general chaos and added: "All those men not going to bed for five days, and shout ing and stomping around." , Against the background of s u c h recollections, Jacque line Kennedy's offer of political assistance to President Johnson stands out as a striking new departure. It may well be read as impressive fresh evidence of her devotion to the causes John F. Kennedy espoused. troubles in his own Texas, the fact is bound to affect the vot ers in the territory marked out as Goldwater's own next year. Even more discouraging to Goldwater admirers is the fact that not one of them is able to say that the Senator promised him categorically that he would run for President. They were assuming that the enthusiasm of his crowds would create enough momentum to sweep him into the race. They are less sure now. A few are saying that they believe his promised January announce ment will make him a candidate for reelection to the Senate. Gov. Nelson Rockefeller makes no secret of his own be lief that his chances are strengthened. He is trying hard to wrap up his New York state legislative message and budg et so that by mid-January he can spend much lime campaign ing in the New Hampshire pri mary. Some New Hampshire politi cal veterans are not convinced Rockefeller will be helped there. They recall that a well organized write-in vote served Richard M. Nixon well in the state in 1956. They expect it to appear again this spring. that the House vote would be close. Cotton Council and Textile In stitute spokesmen concede that there is little chance the Senate will pass the Cooley bill this year. Senate Agriculture Com mittee Chairman Allen Ellender, D-La.. opposes it on Uie grounds that it would cost the govern ment more money than existing cotton programs. There is more Senate support for a bill introduced by Sen. Herman Talmadgc, D-Ga. It would provide a direct subsidy payment to cotton producers, like the old Brannan plan. In the meantime, it is general ly expected that cotton produc ers voting in referendum will approve continuance of support price payments with acreage production controls under exist ing legislation. For cotton farmers to reject" this plan would be a far great er upset than when wheat farm ers rejected controls in last May's referendum. Al manac By United Press International Today is Thursday. Dec. 12, the 346th day of 1963 with 19 to follow. The moon is approaching its last phae. The evening stars are Jupiter. Saturn and Venus. On this day in historv: In 1930. Edward D. White of Louisiana became chief justice of tiie United States. In 1947. John L. Lewis with drew his United Mmc Workers Union from the American Fed eration of Labor for the second tune. In 193.1. Maj. Charles Yeager flew a research jet plane more tlvan two-and-one-half times Uie speed of sound In 1939. the Paraguayan gov etument announced an invasion by 1.000 rebel exiles based in Argentina had been crushed. A Uiought for the day Amer ican theologian Jonathan Ed wards said: "I assert that nothing ever comes to pai without a cause." O o
