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About The Plattsmouth journal. (Plattsmouth, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 1953)
V - - w HE PLATTSMOUTH. NEBRASKA, SEMI-WCKLY JOimtfS' AGE FOUR " Monday, July 20, 1953 ED 17 0 Rl ALS Furses Fresh Flashes Capitol News - - t mm. m DRiVERS AND EYESIGHT In a recent test involving over eight thousand motorists, in greater New York, checkers were surprised to learn that more than twenty per cent of the drivers tested had sight delects. This is a poor commen tary on driver qualification laws in that area, but it is probably equally true else where. The two defects found most among those tested was poor vision and slow re flexes. Those whose vision had dropped below 20-40 safety minimum often scored no better than 20-60 in tests. Many re lied almost completely on one eye (the better one) for visual aid in driving. Offi cial examiners say this distorts depth per ception, and could cause serious misjudge ments on the part of the driver involved. Those whose reflexes were found to be especially slow were often unaware of the toll exacted by advancing years in this field. Many were so slow they demon strated their inability to cope with a sud den highway crisis requiring reasonable quick applications with hands and feet on the controls. Yet they were unaware of the fact that their reaction was dangerous ly slow. There is little room for sentiment in this sort of business. Those drivers with physical defects which make them high way hazards must be removed from be hind the wheel. ir CONGRESS BACKTRACKS Just a few months ago everyone on Capitol Hill (it seemed) was talking about cutting the nation's deficit by reducing the amount of money spent on foreign aid pro grams. Most of the talk came from Re 'publican members of both houses but Southern Democrats also said the same thing. On almost every interview on the sub ject or every radio program, Senators and Congressmen would estimate that as much as two billion dollars could be whacked from the five billion plus program of the year before. " From Majority Leader Robert Taft on down there was big talk about big econo my in this field. And yet today, Presi dent Dwight D. Eisenhower has reduced this sentiment to a minimum. Ike has managed to .win over some of his own party's legislators by working quietly and consistently to build up har mony behind the White House viewpoint on the government's foreign aid program. He has made progress, and with the help of men like Senator Alexander Wiley, Wis consin Republican, he has been able to as sure himself of a good . split among itev. publicans. (At one time it looked as if Ike would get beaten badly in the voting division in his own party on the hill, on this issue). -t- JARRY TRUMAN, CITIZEN la Whatever faults former President Har ry S. Truman might have, one of them is not being unhuman. Perhaps as much as any other President, the Missourian likes to play the role as an average American, enjoying the everyday pleasures of life like most other Americans. HJigh office, the thrill of making his tory and the drama of international crises and affairs, all of which Mr. Truman ex perienced, have not dimmed his enthusi asm for the ordinary experiences of daily life. This is a good demonstration of a man little affected by the high office he has so recently held. While there was much in Mr. Tru man's philosophy and programs with which we did not agree, we have always admitted that he is, first of all, a human being and a patriotic American. And there is little doubt that he has a genuine THOUGH! FOR TODAY Conduct thyself towards thy parents as thou woitldst wish thy children to conduct themselves tozvards thee. Isocratcs The Plallsmoulh Journal Official County and City Paper ESTABLISHED IN 1881 Fublishod yein!-'ee k.ly, Mondays and Thursdays, at 410 Main Street, Plattsmouth Cass County, Nebr. Three Times Winner Ak-Sar-Ben Plaques for "OUTSTANDING COMMUNITY SERVICE" 1949 1951 1952 Presented Nebraska Press Association "GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD" Second in 1951 First in 1952 (In Cities Over 2000 Population) Youthful automobile drivers should learn that it is better to be "chicken" than a dead duck. What has become of the annual row over women's skirts? One thing about the poor they can tell their creditors they are flat broke without lying about it. , . A scientist says the world is held to gether by protons, photons, electrons and neutrons. He forgot to mention morons. It was a lot safer driving back in those good old days when horse power was con fined to horses. We're about the worst public -speaker in the country, but it's nice to know that we excel at something. The trouble with most wives is they would rather mend your ways than your sox. ic Flipper Fanny, our dainty little con tour twister, tells us that her freckles would make a nice suntan if they would only get together. See they are having a lot of trouble with Carter Lake seems the lake is get ting too far away from the shore. RONALD R. FURSE Publisher HARRY J. CANE Editor FRANK H. SMITH News Reporter ALBERT E. BACK Advertising Mgr. SOPHIA M. WOLEVER Society Editoi ma irhe&L ws&ocifiTton f j A i 1 MAJ10X.U IMTOAIAt Assoaxnc Entered at the Post Office at Plattsmouth. Nebraska, is second class mail matter in accordance with the Kct of Congress of March 3, 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATE: $3.50 per year in Cas3 and adjoining counties; $4.00 per year elsewhere. In advance, by mail outside the city of Platts mouth. By carrier in Plattsmouth. 20 cents or wo weeks "THAT SETTLES IT FOR US." THE WALLS ARE ENTIRE TOO THIN summer, Harold Stassen, the taroens we sent over Czechoslo- present Mutual Security Admin istrator, C D. Jackson, now Ike's psychological warfare expert, and I were on the German bor der sending propaganda bal loons into Czechoslovakia. Large weather ballocrts, about LINCOLN-The State Board of Jqualization this week began weeding through all the inlor mation given It by most ct In? 93 counties at assessment hear ings, seeking the answers. to tnis year' equalization effort. Its decisions to raise valu ations in many counties and pos sibly lower in a.few caces wUl have a far reaching effect. It wil' mark the first time a State Board has taken so much action since the depressxn years when assessments in some counties vsrs cut. The nearest to it was ! last year's action which raised valu?.t:rn of farmlands in 19 I wHcrn Nebraska counties. m Tvt at. the end of the hear by the counties and before ,3 State Board went into clos ed sesion to consider urhat to i do. Gov. Robert Crosby said: i "We must get the assessments ! of all the counties even as a tabletop. These six days of hear ings have proved that beyond a doubt." Crosby, chairman of the State Board, said hearing testimony from most of the 93 counties had convinced him of three things. 1. Degrees of inequality of as isesment exist between the coun ties, proving the indication of this lron computions !by the state tax commisioner's office. 2. Many counties had their assessments below the 5 percent vakia carried three and a half pounds. A 10-12 foot balloon can carry 10 pounds. CARE, which has done a fine job of feeding a good part of Europe, mark called for by the new law, already has several tons of pack- even though a majority of the ages in West Berlin. Further- affection for the little man, featuring him self as the little man's friend. While there is some controversy on this, from a political viewpoint, it is obvious that Mr. Truman enjoys life as Harry Truman, citizen, and that he expects little in the way of special j treatment now that he has moved away from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Perhaps the former President will gain more friends and a more general populari ty in the years to come than he did while in the White House. That, of course, de pends on how much he says about the new Administration, and how he says it. But, as of right now, Mr. Truman seems to be enjoying life and full of en thusiasm as an ordinary taxpayer. He has set an example for high dignataries retiring from public life, which is some thing of an accomplishment. tAt four feet in diameter, stuffed ! Pore ttnev arfe already wrapped with 3,000 leaflets each, were,11 waterproof material .such as filled with hydrogen in a wheat housewives use in their deep field three miles from the bor- j lre-es- ' . , der and floated up and into . These packages sent over the Czechoslovakia. The winds - er inJo East Germany by which in the upper altitudes al- balloon at the rate of LOGO a; t,i ,nt.f nieht. each balloon containing i WaJ5 uiuw liuixi vcou lu ia.ot 1 . . we had timed in advance to drop the balloons into the chief cities of Prague and Pilsen be tween 6 a. m. and 8 a. m., when people were going to work. By picking our nights and working most of the night with a message, not irom tne u. a. government, but from the Amer ican people, would have a tre mendous effect on people be hind the Iron Curtain. Friendship Messages Imagine what would happen Down Memory Lane nJ YEARS AGO v Miss Ida Reynolds of Union and Dr. Carl F. Schmidtmann of Omaha were mar ried June 30 at the Dundee Presbyterian church at Omaha . . . Lovisa Albert, Mar garet Albert and Marjorie Arn of Platts mouth are attending summer school at Peru State Teachers College . . . Nehawka quar ries reopened this morning with two shifts of workmen back on the job . . . John Not tleman, farmer at Rock Bluffs, narrowly escaped injury this morning when his car was sideswiped Joy a hit and run cattle truck ... Miss Marjorie Freeman and Cecil Nickles were married at Rock Port, Mo., on July 4 . . . Mrs. M. M. Tucker has been named chairman of the Nehawka school board. John H. Steffens is secre tary and George C. Sheldon treasurer . . . Good progress is reported on the new school building at Murrav. ic A YEARS AGO IV Mrs. Leonard Fitch was elected pres ident of the Legion Auxiliary, succeeding Mrs. Mary Nelson. Mrs. W. L. Eckles was named vice president, and Mrs. J-oe Abrams was elected secretary . . . Mr. and Mrs. P. F. Rihn, residents of Union for many years, have moved to Plattsmouth . . . First Presbyterian church was the setting July 19 for the marriage of Miss Macel Kathryn Dunfee and Don Olson . . . Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Payton are the parents of a son born July 21 . . . Robert Yelick, son of Mr. and Mrs. James Yelick, is going to Hawaii where he'll be employed in de fense work . . . Judy Sikora. daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walt Sikora, fractured her arm in a fall . . . Lt. John Gayer, son of Mr.- and Mrs. H. L. Gayer, has graduated from signal school at Camn Murphy, Flori da .. . Rev. and Mrs. Willard Sherman, pastor of St. Paul's Evangelical and Re formed church, are movine: to Bellevue. German civilian crews inflating J if you were living in seme East the balloons, we were able to launch about 2,000 balloons a night; and over a two-week pe riod we put about 11,000,000 leaf lets into Czechoslovakia. The leaflets carried merely, a message of friendship. They told the Czechoslovak people that the people of the Western world had not forgotten them and expressed the hope that eventually they might be free. Preventing1 War This was purely an experi ment, and some officials in the state department frowned on it. For over three years I had been urging that we get behind the German village from which most of the food had been re moved by Communist collecti vization, and a balloon were found in the street some morn ing carrying 10 pounds of food with a message of friendship from the Lions' Club of Detroit or the Kiwanis Club of Bakers field, Calif., or the Rotary Club of Charleston, W. Va. You would not only jump with joy but you would have a mighty kindly feeling toward these thoughtful Lions in Detroit or those generous Kiwanians in Bakersfield or the Rotarians in Charleston. And you would have exactly the reverse feel- sia who had removed your food. Some people joke about the Rotarians, the Lions, and the Kiwanians. But I who saw what they did when they rolled up their sleeves for the Friendship Train, have an exactly opposite idea. People in Europe are a little suspicious of governments, but they . appreciate people-to-people friendship. The food which CARE already has in Berlin, plus the $15,000, 000 surplus food which Secretary of Agriculture Benson is send ing, could be delivered to in terior East Germany in part by balloon with messages from groups of Americans. The mes sages, cost of ballooning, wrap ping, etc., should of course be paid for by these Americans, since Ike is trying to balance the budget and since no gesture of friendship is worth anything unless it costs some time and effort. The . important thing to re member in the European pic ture is that now may be the pe riod wre have been waiting for when one of the top Soviet lead ers has been purged and when the great Soviet empire is be ginning to crack at the seams. But in all international situ ations, the wave of restlessness must be ridden on its crest, it must not be allowed to subside. This is about the only way even tual war can be prevented. The Washington Merry -Go-Round (Copyright, 1952, By the Bell Syndicate, Inc.) DREW PEARSON SAYS: BALLOONS COULD! CARRY FOOD TO EAST BERLIN; FRIEND- SHIP MESSAGES COULD ACCOM-PA-NY FOOD PACKAGES; WE . SHOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE S OF MOSCOW'S PROBLEMS. (Editor's note Drew Pearson, who one month ago urged President Eisenhow er to send surplus food to East Germany and who called the turn on Communist reaction, today comes up with another idea for winning the cold war). , WASHINGTON Two years ago this Iron (furtain with this type of ing toward the officials in Rus- propananaa. ine oniy way we could -avoid war with Russia, ' I said, was to make sure of the people behind the Iron Curtain were our friends. If enough of them realized we were friendly, it would be difficult for them to fight in the first place and, in the second place, would cause trouble for the Red army even if war did finally come. General Omar Bradley heart ily agreed. But several state department officials, with the exception of Ed Barrett, then assistant secretary of state in charge of propaganda, were op posed. They argued that we should not encourage restless ness behind the Iron Curtain ' until we were absolutely ready to free the people. However, the Czechoslovak experiment seemed to hit pay dirt. The American embassy reported that the freedom friendship leaflets were tacked up on telegraph poles, put in the baggage racks of passenger trains, mimeographed, even surreptitiously placed on Com munist bulletin boards. They swept over Czechoslovakia to such an extent that Premier An tonin Zapotocky made a speech on the floor of parliament de nouncing them, and the offi cial Communist newspaper, Tor ba, carried a front-page car toon showing Harry Truman re leasing -balloons. Of course, Harry Truman had nothing to do with them. But the best way for the Commu nists to combat the balloons was to claim that they came from the U. S. government, not from private Americans, as was the case. f ood Balloons I have no way of knowing whether the trial of Vice-Premier Rudolf Slansky and other Czech leaders, the riots in Pil sen, and the general restlessness in Czechoslovakia were encour aged by our freedom balloons or not. But I am convinced that now is the time to repeat the experiment in a different way in East Germany, perhaps later in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and other countries. It has already been demon strated that President Eisen hower's offer of food has had terrific repercussions behind the Iron Curtain. We were a little slow in acting on this sugges tion, but even so, Communist leaders behind the Iron Curtain have been boiling with rage ever since the offer was made. And East Berliner?; have been crossing into WTest Berlin, as I predicted they would, to get even the food sold them at cheap prices by suburban Mayor Willy Krassmann. " However, it seems to me the time has come to go one step further and send food packages into East Germany by balloon. Many part of East Germany are, of course, some distance frcm Berlin. Furthermore, the ef fect would be electrifying. Food balloons are not too dif- i ' ficult to launch. The four-foot I Cass County's Greatest Newspaper The Plattsmouth Journal counties this year insisted on calling their last year's valu ations 5 per cent this year. 3. In a majority of counties owner sf farmland have been paying taxes on a higher per cent of the value of their pro pedty than have people in town This, too, had been indicated by tax commissioner's comput ations. The tax commisioner's figures which are based on a compar ison of sales figures to the as sessed value of the properties old-were under heavy attack by the representatives of many counties. But Crosby said the hearings had convinced him that they make a "sound approach" for comparing counties and for com paring town with country real estate. He has used averages of sales of the past five years for comparison purposes, tout in sisted that these would not nec essarily be the final value-fixing basis. Parade It was a fascinating parade of counties, beginning with Sioux County in the far north west catle country to Richard son in the southeastern corn belt. The varieties of the Ne braska economy, its folk, and its county officials were all am ply presented in the six days of hearings. One of the first speakers, Sen. Monroe Bixler of Harrison, sug gested Crosby call a special ses sion of the Legislature to make a new method of figuring values. Crosby told reporters it was "obviously too late" and Bixler's felow-legislators felt the same way wen newsmen telephoned them. But that same critiicism of the present , method of deter mining values-by sales prices was to be made again and a gain. The Supreme Court has said this is the basis for fixing val ues and that the remedy must await legislative action. County officials from the cattle country stoutly maintain ed that land prices there are pegged to the price of cattle and since this has slipped dis astrously in the past year, their land is worthless now. They es timated a 20 per cent decline in the price of land from March, to the 1953 assessment time in March. Many of these counties ac cording to the tax commission er's chart would need a big raise to pull them into lm with other counties and with the 50 per cent remark. Crosby, iwhosa home countiy of Lincoln is in the west .end, shook his head at week's end and estimated there would have to be some "drastic re-adjustment in some of those counties." Also cue for a raise were town lots and-lmprovemente in many eastern counties where farm real estate in many cases has INTELHG1AM Check the correct word. 1. Man has (32) (28) teeth. t 2. (South American) (Afro-Asian) monkeys have prehensile tails. 3. Water (expands) (contracts) when frozen.1 4. (Nixon) (Knowland) is vice president. 5. Russia rules (East) (West) Berlin. 6. Black (is) (isn't) a color. 7. (Wellington) (Auckland) is New Zealand s capital. - - -y 8. (Barlholdi) (Michelangelo) madethe Statue of Liberty. ' . ( 9. Joe Louis v&s boxing champion (8) (11) years." 10. Pluto is (visible) (invisible) without a tele-, scope. '' " Check your answers, scoring yourself 10 points for each , correct choice., A score of 0-20 is poor; 30-60, average;, 70-80, superior; 90-100, very superior. borne twice as much of its share of the tax load as town real estate has. From a number of counties, such as Boone, Hall, Sherman, Richardson, and Otoe far organizations appeared to ask the State ' Board to hike town real estate in their coun ties since their own county boards of equalization didn't do the job. Some assessors had sharp words for the way merchants and industry owners in the big ger towns turn in their business inventories. Outstate assessors charge that Lincoln and Omaha businesses don't caryy their fair share of the state tax load be cause full returns of property aren't made. And Buffalo Coun ty Assessor Wilttur Houtchens of Kearney, described by State Tax Commissioner Norris Ander son as "one of Nebraska's out standing assessors," 3aid that a spot check of business inven tory returns in his county a gainst the federal income tax returns for those same business had Convinced him "about 50 per cent are cheating by not listing full returns." Crosby said he was at a loss as to what to do about the whole question of personal pro perty returns. A blanket raise of some personal property cat egories such as household goods would only penalize the person who was honest and still leave scot-free the citizen who didn't turn in what he should have. The governor said this was something he intended to study strongly, however. Neighbors The counties came in by dis-tricts-which had the value of allowing officials to hear vhat their neighors were contending. The counties left all their Chamber of Commerce propag ganda behind and mostly spent their time moaning about a de cline in prices, insisting that the East five years were special oom times in thei'r tcounties and shouldn't be used for com parison purposes, and in gener al tried to prove their counties were unque. Counties which had done nothing to comply with the new law spent much time either at tacking th tax commissioner's comparison or trying to defend their own lack of action. A familiar argument was that the county was still in the pro cess of equalization and the State Board should leave it a lone to work out its problems. But Crosby said, "just because a county has been a little slow at equalizing within itself seems to me no excuse for us as a State Board to do nothing" He added. "We can't permit counties which have done the job to be damaged just because they did the law." And ultimately those were the most compellinfg reasons for equalization by the Board. Crosby warmly praised efforts in Deuel, Logan, Box Butte, Buf falo, Harlan, Webster, Antelope, Dixon, Dakota, Thurston, Cum ing, Keya Paha. Stanton, Mad ison, Colfax, Dodge, Burt, Washington,- Adams, Hamilton, Polk, Butler, and Sarpy. He com mended efforts made by num erous other counties, even though the 50 per cent mark wasn't reached. The governor said he was hap py to note htat "the full effort" was made by at least one county in every area of the state. He added he didn't intend to leave them "high and dry." Legislative SIDELIGHTS.. by BERNIE CAMP Information Director Nebraska Farm B.ureau Federation FARM SAFTY WEEK While officallly by Presidenti al Proclamation, July 19 to 25 is Farm Safety Week, every week should be Trnctor Safety Week. Accidents studies Indicate that the farm tractor is a major con tributor to form machinery sta tistics. A 22-year study in Kan sas shows over 50 percent of farm machinery accidents in volve tractors. Kansas credited with 86 percent of all farm ma chinery accidents in 1951; and 36 percent of the total farm fatalities. During a two year period (1950-51) Minnesota stu dies credit 72 percent of farm machinery fatalities to tractors. For the same period, Iowa re ported 80 percent; Ohio, 82 per cent; Illinoish, 70 percent; and Wisconsin, 63 percent. Overturning account for over half of the fatal tractor acci dents. Figures in come states run as high as 70 percent. Sideways and backwards over turns are about equally divided in most studies made of this type of accident, with a loss of control due to excess speed the main reason for the side tipping Other causes listed are: oper ation across .steep .slopes and too close to ditches. Forcing tractors out of ditches or other snots where rear wheels become "lodged" contributes to most backward tipping accidents. Pul ling heavy loads with imprcner hitches or up steeo slopss also r.nf-riv,utes to backward tipping fatalities. More than one-third of th? Tora, ar)ri Minnesota, tractor fa talities from 1949 throueh 1931 occured on highways. This, be cause of the relatively minor operation of tractors on high ways, indicates that accident fa talitv rates on highways arc much higher than in regular farm work. Slow-moving vehic les merging with high-soced traffic, operating tractors at ex cessive speed and ignoring rules of the road are principal reasons for high tractor acci dent rates on highways. In tractor - automobile col lisions, the tractor operator is most likely to experience the most severe personal injuries md stands the greater risk of death. Tractors in the United Stat'- are beingg sold faster than safe tractor operation. SKEPTICISM 'via have emphasized their skep ticism of Soviet "peace' move by officially reaffirming their treaty of friendship and mili- .1CANJT NEGLECT . . . , L 5 i i - .'xi i i i w ill bi i t s i ' -i mi m yfflpg Mjl wjL: pfi IIW frij BfIp I Mv pw THE5E VO-3 I I X 3 OX CNE V0U OD? VvW I I YCU THE fy 3 HE DID BETTER YFT' T OlHW5HEeS K OHA FOe ONLY ) KIND OF D16H- TWO BUCK. VvA9 j 1 HE PIDNT PAY ANYTHING ) tfi NICE, BUT I . TW? ,VSKEe DID y?U R2E.THE J v THE LICENSE VI THEYE Sq DUNNO.' POUAKSM 6ET R7B THAT ? HIvGE K EXPENSIVE.' -7 LICENSE! L.S 1 rCT-rr-jrr