PAGE U
HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Falls. Ore. Wednesday. December 18, 196J
Hour of Decision
EPSON IN WASHINGTON . . .
Ax-Grinders Board
LBJ Ranch Wagon
Don't Economize At
An announcement by Secretary of De
fense McNamara recently which calls for the
closure of some 33 domestic and overseas
military establishments almost set off an ex
plosion In Congress. Senators and Represcn
; latives from the 14 states which will be af
fected, raised a storm of protest.
;.' And yet many of these same lawmakers
. have constantly cried for a reduction in gov
' eminent spending.
President Johnson is being blamed for
the cutback. But the late President Kennedy
had proposed to McNamara that he provide
defense at the lowest possible cost.
Republicans, in particular, have been
critical of our continuous spending and
mounting debt. Conservative Democrats
have been of the same opinion. But when
actual steps are taken to save in the case
of the military cutbacks it will amount to
some $442 million annually a hue and cry
immediately goes up from the representa
It's a good thing the President did
something about preventing a strike which
would have put six major U.S. airlines out of
commission right at the peak of the Christ
, mas holidays. '
This would have been catastrophic to
hundreds of thousands of persons who have
' waited all year long to make a trip home
or elsewhere for Christmas. A disappoint-
vment of this character would have been bad
:enough for normal travel-minded citizens
rf the U.S.A. But think of the hundreds
'. and hundreds of servicemen who have been
stationed beyond the limits of the U.S. They
: would have been shut out entirely. It's tough
enough as it is. G.I.'s lucky enough to get .a
leave during the holidays or any other lime
of the year, are permitted to travel on a
commercial airline at a half-fare rate. But
WILLIAM
IgpjGOP
By WULAM S. WHITE
WASIIINGTON-Tlio extraor
dinarily eager Interest shown
by Henry Cabot Lodge In tor
mcr President Elsenhower's re
ported suggestion that ho seek
nomination is troubling t w o
very different groups for vory
different reasons.
People in the Administration,
though far from afraid of Mr.
Lodge as a potential rival to
President Johnson in next
year's campaign, do not hido
their concern at (tic Ambassa
dor's open and wholly unexcct
ed Injection of himself into par
tisan politics in an arena of hot
war with Communist invaders.
Mr. Lodge accepted President
Kennedy's appointment as Am
bassador to South Viet Nam for
the precise purpose, on his side
and on Mr. Kennedy's side, of
keeping domestic politics strict
ly out of a war effort in which
18.000 American troops are In
volved alongside the anti-Communist
Vietnamese.
Tho regular Republicans, for
their part, are putting out (or
Mr. Lodge a mat upon which
Die word "Unwelcome" is, in
spirit, written large. The Am
bassador, who lost his Senate
seat from Massachusetts to
John F. Kennedy and went
on to represent President Eisen
hower at the United Nations,
has been In the black books of
loyalist organization Republi
cans since l!M9. He led an un
successful effort to oust t h
late Sen. Robert A. Toft of
Ohio, "Mr. Republican," as
principal GOP spokesman in the
Senate.
Then lie burned the last
bridge with the orthodox Re
publicans by taking the lead In
accusing Taft men of attempt
ing to "steal" the 1952 Repub
lican Presidential nomination
from General Eisenhower.
While nothing is Impossible in
politics and certainly not in
the present slate of affairs with
in the GOP serious talk of Mr.
Lodge's nomination Is I e e n
among Uie Republican regu
lars as akin to moon-madncs..
And it It far (mm relished by
tho backers of Gov. Nelson
Rockefeller of New York, Sen.
Barry Goldwater of Ariiona,
Gov. William Stanton of Penn
sylvania and Gov. George Rom
ney of Michigan.
Thus, many Republican pro
fessionals are wistfully await
ing soma signal that General
a
tives of states or areas where these econo
mies are to be affected. First to howl after
McNamara's announcement was Sen. Ken
neth B. Keating, R-N.Y. New York is one
of the heaviest losers according to McNa
mara's schedule. In fact he was quoted as
saying, "It is incredible that anyone could
analyze this as an economy move."
We feel you can call a rose by any
other name but if the trusted Secretary of
Defense says he can provide adequate pro
tection of our nation for some $442 million
less annually than is the case today, then this
is tightening up the fiscal belt.
The curtailments in government spend
ing almost everyone wants to make are those
which affect other areas and other people. In
Oregon we don't get very excited about clos
ing military bases in Texas. This is true in
reverse. But when they start cutting back
at home we scream bloody murder.
But we're surprised Republican Sen.
Keating made such a howl!
Airlines Strike
they get no priority. So during Christmas
time especially the lowly-paid draftee who
has a chance to come home has to have
everything working for him. Because being
bumped is S.O.P. An airline strike would
certainly foul up the detail.
The scrap, incidentally, is between ma
chinists and these lines: Braniff, Continen
tal, Eastern Northwest, Trans World and
National. When the aforementioned com
panies are not flying, a great segment of the
nation is left at the airport.
Thank goodness the President's recent
action will postpone for at least 60 days the
threatened walk-out and will give the board
a time cushion during which it can furth
er study the hassle over pay raises and rule
changes. We hope it will be resolved by
Easter.
S. WHITE
Regulars Snub Lodge
Eisenhower has not selected
Lodge as his personal choice,
but is so they hope and be
lieve only trying to broaden
the field of GOP possibilities,
as he has before.
What Ambassador Lodge is
doing is not at all boUicring the
purely political headquarters of
tho Johnson Administration.
That headquarters is in the hat
of the President himself, who
intends tor Cabinet associates
just to got on with their jobs
and leave tho politicking to him
an intention that suits both
sides.
Lodge's ready "availability."
however, Is causing great con
cern to those in the Adminis
tration who must implement the
President's foreign and military
policy the Stalo and Defense
departments. These depart
ments, under both President
Kennedy and President Johnson,
have been deliberately kept out
of politics, under a career Sec
retary of Stale. Dean Husk, and
a Secretary of Defense, Robert
McNamara. who in private life
was a big business Republican.
W ithin thorn there is now fear
that the diplomatic and milita
One of (lie men most often
named as a great prophet of
the twentieth century was II. G.
Wells. In his numerous books
around (he turn of the century,
he quite accurately predicted
many of the latest developments
In scienco and technology.
Vet It is Interesting that even
so Imaginative and speculative
a thinker as Wells w li o so
clearly saw tlie shapes of
tilings to come in many areas,
had his own gigantic blind spots.
In his book, "Anticipations,"
written in 1901 and giving pie
dictions of things to happen be
fore tlie year WOO, Wells wrote:
"I have said nothing in this
chapter, devoted to locomo
tion, of llw coming invention
of flying , , . 1 do not think it
at all probable that aeronautics
will ever come Into play as a
serious modification of transport
and communication ..."
1
Home
ry situation in South Vict Nam,
already a bit chancy in the aft
ermath of the revolt which de
stroyed the regime of President
Ngo Dinh Diem, might become
dangerously bedeviled by do
mestic American politics.
There can be no doubt that
if the present problem were
only a political one Would
Lodge be an especially danger
ous opponent for President John
son next year'.' no one in the
While House would be running
scared. The answer from there
sound or not, as it might be
without question would be:
"No; not very dangerous."
Indeed, a widespread view,
quite outside the precincts of
tile White House and not con
fined to Democratic politicians,
is that Mr. Lodge's somewhat
remote form of campaigning in
l'.HiO, as the Vice Presidential
nominee, was not of the great
est help to tile top of the tick
el. Richard Nixon. There is also
the fact to which anti-Lodge
Republicans are already begin
ning to point that Lodge is a
two-time loser, first in Uie Sen
ate race of 1932 and again in
19i0 on the Nixon slate.
STRICTLY
PERSONAL.
My SYDNEY J. HARRIS
And. a little further along in
the same chapter, Ik- wrote: "I
must confess that my imagina
tion . . . refuses to see any sort
ol submarine doing anything but
suftocatc its crew and foun
der at sea."
Tins, mind you, was not some
rigid traditionalist, but the most
daring extrapolator of his
times, much of whose brilliant
"science-fiction'" turned into
fact before his own death.
If so prescient a man as Wells
himself could not anticipate un
a book called "Anticipations"!)
the tremendous impact of tlie
airplane or tlie devastating pow
er of the submarine, how can
we ordinary mortals have any
conception of what the next dec
ade niay bring us?
And, since his time, the rate
of acceleration has increased a
hundredfold: not only is there
more change today, but the rate
Washington Window . .
Politics
By LYI.E C. WILSON
United Press International
A decent interval will have
passed by (lie time Congress
reconvenes in January and Re
publicans will be able to re
sume speaking frankly their
opposition to the Kennedy-Johnson
program.
The Republicans are handi
capped just now by a whimsi
cal fraud variously known as a
political truce or a political
moratorium. This is a period of
grace and seemly conduct most
often in effect after some trag
edy of national proportions
such as the assassination of a
president. In Uie shocked after
math of such an event, the loy
al opposition usually hastens to
announce that for the time be
ing it will forego petty politics
and nasty cracks about the late
leader. If tlie opposition is
caught with a big political
clambake scheduled, it is tra
ditional to postpone or to can
cel it as the Republicans
cancelled a midwestern meet
ing at which was to be
launched the campaign to re
lire the Kennedy's nil three of
them) from public life.
An Absolute Phony
Such -are the outward mani
By PHIL NEWSOM
I'I'l Foreign News Analyst
"The Soviet army which
crushed the Hungarian revolu
tion seven years ago, plans to
leave Hungary in the next few
months, diplomatic sources said.
UPl news dispalcn from
Moscow.
It was 8 o'clock in the morn
ing on Nov. 4, 1936. and over
Budapest Radio came the des
perate cry:
"Help Hungary! . . . Help us
...Help us!"
Just before that had been the
playing of the Hungarian na
tional anthem, and before that
an announcement by Premier
Inire Nagy.
". . .Soviet troops attacked
the Hungarian capital with the
open purpose to overthrow the
legal government," he said.
"The Hungarian troops are in
combat. . .This is announced to
our people and to tlie world."
Story 01 Courage
The following days were a
of change has been speeded up
to a dizzying degree. It is star
tling to realize tlie fact that 90
per cent of all scientists who
ever existed are alive today.
What is frightening about a In
ture war. and what makes it so
unfeasible from every point of
ucw except the suicidal, is that
governments have become the
sorcerer's apprentices. Science
is tlie sorcerer, which more or
less knows what it is doing and
can control its experiments: but
governments use science for
their own purposes, and are not
wise or disciplined enough to be
able to control all the possible
results
We cannot know what tlie
next decade will bring in terms
of mass destruction, any more
tiian Wells could know how de
cisive the airplane would be in
modern transport and warfare.
All e can know is that tlie po
tentialities (or annihilation of
the human race far outrun our
capacity for survival, and that
tlie sorcerer is becoming the vic
tim of his power-mad apprentices.
Truce Self Imposed
festations of a political truce in
Ihe train of national tragedy. It
is of no consequence that such
a political truce is an absolute
phony. The facts, of course,
are that the loyal opposition
calls the truce against itself.
This is done, not so much in re
spect to Uie date leader as in
the certainty that outrageously
noisy political activity at a
time of national grief would of
fend a great many citizens and,
thereby, cost the political activ
ists a lot of votes next time
around. You might say that
there is a generous helping of
self service in any political
truce called against itself by
the loyal opposition.
But this does not prevent the
loyal opposition from becoming
restive as the truce is pro
longed and tlie party in power
happily ignores it. Not only
does the party in power ignore
the truce, but it does so in con
fidence that no citizens will be
offended nor votes lost in tlie
process. This enrages tlie loyal
opposition which can only pout
or mutter to itself that the time
of the loyal opposition will
come, one day, and when it
does the dadburned administra
tion and its politicking presi
Revolt Effect Still Felt
story of human courage raised
to incredible heights, of treach
ery compounded, and, in the
West, a time of agonizing in
decision. The reappraisals and the
harsli recriminations for what
might have been would come
later.
On that morning in the
blasted streets of Budapest
men. women and children
hurled their home-made Molo
tov cocktails beneath the treads
of Russian tanks or threw
themselves bodily against tank
portholes.
It was an unarmed popula
tion against 200.000 Soviet
troops and four to five thou
sand Soviet tanks, and before
it was over more than 20.000
Hungarians were to die.
These were some of the
memories evoked by the dis
patch sent from Moscow seven
years later.
Announces Withdrawal
This had been the sequence
of rapid-fire events:
Oct. 27-28 Nagy announces
Soviets had agreed to immedi
ate withdrawal of Russian
troops from Budapest and ne
gotiations for withdrawal of
troops from the whole of Hun
gary. Oct. 29-30 Nagy ends single
party rule, forms an all-party
government and promises free
elections. Tlie new government
includes Janes Kadar.
Nov. 1 Nagy repudiates the
Warsaw treaty and proclaims
Hungary's neutrality.
Nov. J-On this night, on a
Soviet guaranty of security.
Hungarian military leaders
meet with the Soviets to nego
tiate withdrawal of Sonet
troops. The Soviets arrest thf
Hungarian leaders and launch
their attack. It was the same
treachery which had been
employed against Polish mili
tary leaders in 1945.
Nov. 4 Joseph Cardinal
Mindienty takes refuge in U.S.
legation in Budapest (where he
still remains). Soviets recog
nize turn - coat government of
Kadar. Nagy takes refuge in
Yugoslav Embassy.
dent had better not forget to
duck.
GOP Holding Off
And so it is with the Repub
licans just now and with Pres
ident Johnson. Politics as usual
is not for tlie Republicans dur
ing this period of mourning for
John F. Kennedy. The citizens
would resent it and that is that.
But no such hazard frustrates
the political activity of JFK's
successor, nor should it. A
president who undertook to ob
serve a political truce would be
abdicating his responsibilities
as chief executive. The presi
dential job is politics and if
there is no politicking the job
is not being done.
So it is Uiat President John
son lias been the busiest man
in Washington in the past two
weeks politicking with labor
leaders, Negro spokesmen, con
gressional leaders and such.
Some Republicans are becom
ing unhappy as Johnson's ac
tivity is publicized and their
own activity is submerged.
They know better, however,
than to break the truce. So
they await during t!ie decent
interval, honing their weapons
tlie while for blood-letting when
tlie ' secondsession convenes in
January.
It was on Nov. 22 that Nagy
was tricked from the Yugoslav
Embassy and June 17. 1958.
that his executioners announced
his death.
There were other far - reach
ing results. India, quick to con
demn the Israeli - Anglo
French invasion of Egypt, final
ly came to realize tlie brutal
ity of the Soviet attack on Him
gary. President Tito of Yugo
slavia condemned the Soviet
action as a "mistake" and a
new period of coolness resulted
between the Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia.
But more important, the
heroism of the Hungarian free
dom fighters frightened the
Soviet leaders and did gain a
relaxation of sorts for all of Uie
Soviet European satellites.
. BERRY'S WORLD
"Step on it yea guys, J'e got to get back to the
ofYct Chrhtmos party!"
By PETER EDSON
Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON INEA) - The
way all tlie pressure groups are
climbing aboard the Lyndon
B. Johnson ranch wagon often
for conflicting reasons is the
political phenomenon of (tie age.
At first there were some pre
dictions (hat President Johnson
would have heavy opposition
from the liberals who in 1980
didn't even want the tall Texan
for vice president.
Just two months ago this sen
timent was so strong that there
was much speculation L.B.J,
might be dropped as vice presi
dential candidate on the 1964
Democratic ticket. It took a de
nial from President Kennedy to
stop the rumors.
After Johnson became Presi
dent, almost his first endorse
ments came from American
Federation of Labor-Congress of
Industrial Organizations, Amer
icans for Democratic Action and
the 80-organization Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights.
That ended the liberal revolt
against Johnson-.
Since that time many special
interest groups of all varieties
have issued voluntary state
ments supporting Johnson. Some
of these testimonials even come
from opposing camps.
For instance, the Citizens For
eign Aid Committee which is
against it says that since John
son had pledged strict econ
omy, he will "seize the golden
opportunity" to curtail govern
ment foreign spending.
Supporters of AID, the gov
ernment's Agency for Interna
tional Development, however,
cite a speech Johnson made
just before he became Presi
dent, in w hich he said, "The
foreign aid program has been
a success. . . . We must turn
away from those who counsel
that the works of peace rep
resent failure."
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
President Edwin P. N e i 1 a n
wrote Johnson that the cham
ber w as heartened by the Pres
ident's emphasis on the need
for a tax cut "to stimulate job
creating investments."
But no v comes James B. Ca
rey of the AFL-CIO Industrial
Unions with a satement that,
"the recently reported 5.9 per
cent unemployment rate empha
sizes the need for immediate
passage of consumer-oriented
tax legislation."
Weather Effect On Jets
Demands Careful Study
By BRUCE BIOSSAT
With the crash of the big U.S.
jet in Maryland, Uie time may
be at hand for a sweeping gen
eral study of the effects of se
vere weather turbulence on all
of this nation's major jet mod
els. .
The three principal categories
are Uie Douglas DC-8, the Boe
ing 707 and related models, and
the Convair 880 lor 990).
All of these are swept-wing
aircraft, and questions are aris
ing about the relation between
this design element and violent
drafts of air.
The Elktnn, Md., crash in
volved a 707 and put a r a r e
blemish on Pan American, a
pioneer U.S. overseas airline
w ith an incredibly good safety
record.
Federal investigations may
lake months, if not longer, to
sift the cause of this accident,
as they so often do. But they
are immediately skeptical of
eyewitness accounts suggesting
the jet was destroyed by light
nine. With the possible cxreption of
If the ne President can sat
isfy both !nagement and la
bor on a tax bill, he will in
deed have to live up to his bill
ing as the greatest compromis
er and fixer of all times.
Tlie curious thing about John
son's support for fast action on
civil rights reform is that it has
not yet met serious opposition
from the South.
"There." as one poliUcal
leader puts K. "they recognize
that Johnson is 'a wheeler and a
dealer." They'll let him make
civil rights speeches to the
northerners to win votes. But
southerners expect Johnson to
soften the blow as it will affect
them."
This penchant for wanting to
make the new President "our
boy" characterizes many en
dorsements the lobbies now put
out.
Thus the American Public
Power Association, and the Co
operative League of the USA,
supporting rural electrification
and public power, claim John
son as theirs.
So do the National Education
Association, supporting federal
aid for schools and teachers'
salaries, the National Council
of Senior Citizens supporting
medical care for Uie aged un
der Social Security, the Nation
al Farmers Union, Committee
for a National Trade Policy,
AFL-CIO Committee on Politi
cal Education, National Associ-,
ation of Home Builders support-,
ing private housing industry
and others. But there are a few
exceptions.
National Right-To-Work Com
mittee has told its members
that Johnson is clearly commit
ted to repeal of section 14 ' b of
the Taft-Hartley Act. This rec
ognizes the right of the states
to enact and enforce local right-to-work
laws, which Uie torn
mittee wants retained.
And Rep. Jerry Ford
R-Mich., while endorsing John
son's promises to defend free
dom from communism from
Berlin to Vict Nam, declares:
"On the other hand, it should
be noticed that the new Presi
dent endorsed all of the feder
al spending policies ... I re
senvc tlie right to oppose
where conscience dictates."
These are but first straws in
the winter winds to indicate
that the honeymoon isn't going
to last forever.
a freakish accident to a TWA
piston-engine Constellation over
'Milan, Italy, there is no known
case of lightning having serious
ly damaged a metal-skin air
craft. hi investigators' minds, t h e
turbulence accompanying a hea
vy rainstorm over Maryland is
a likelier beginning explanation.
This could have produced struc
tural failure, with fire and ex
plosion a consequence not a
cause. iMost reports of mid-air
explosions, given by ground eye
witnesses, prove totally errone
ous. But now and then such
bursts do follow a plane's break
up in flight.
What should lead investigators
in the Civil Aeronautics Board
to mount a more general re
view of jet safety is the fact
that several of Uie big planes
seem to have been drastically
affected by violent weather.
The CAB report is still not
complete, but it is known that
weather is a prime suspect in
the crash -last February of a
Boeing TM (a modified 7071 in
the Florida Everglades. Heavy
thunderstorms were reported in
Ihe area.
There have been several in
stances where U.S. jets have
been caught in tremendous
downdrafts which nearly pro
duced major tragedies. The
most recent occurred near Hou
ston. An Eastern Air Lines
DC-8 plunged thousands of feet
before being pulled up-and lost
a jet engine in the process.
Some aviation specialists are
wondering about Uiese encount
ers. They say swept-wing planes
sometimes are buffeted into
stalling position by severe drafts
and wrenched out of control.
Structural failure may follow
extreme pilot effort to restore
control.
But in all this there is too
much guesswork. Recent jet
history is sufficiently perplex
ing to justify Uie most thorough
going uiquiry into this clearly
vital satety matter.
BARBS
With Lttle kids running
around the best thin; to try on
your piano now and then is fur
niture polish.
The latest shock from a drv
cell is the report that a boot
legger was running his busi
ness from prkon.