St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 17

paign financing. Surely Americans care enough about integrity to finance candidates for public office Instead of having campaign funds raised just as prizes are provided for TV shows. ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH rtfuiii by JOSEPH PUUTZtK Dtembct 12, 1871 Pvbiiihtd by Tfo Puliiwr fVbtiihMf Co. 1111 OUv Stl)MAi Mill Vi-i r-i i UNION FEATHER-BED THE POST-DIJFATCH PLATFORM I KNOW THAT MY MmiMINT vnx MAM NO DtmUNCt IN ITS CMDtNAl MIHCiniS.

THAT IT Will ALWAYS FIOHT FOR PROGRESS AND MrORM, KEV TOLERATE INJUSTICJ OR COR-RUrriON, ALWAYS fICHT PEMACOCUES OF ALL PARTIES, KEVER RILONO TO ANY PARTY. ALWAYS OPPOSE PRiyilEOED CLASSES AND PUBLIC PLUNDERERS. KEVER IA SYMPATHY WITH THE POOR. ALWAYS REMAIN DEVOTED TO THE PUBLIC WELFARE. KEVER IE SATIS.

PIED WITH MERELY PRINT1NO NEWS. ALWAYS It DRASTICALLY INDEPENDENT. KEVER IE AFRAID TO ATTACK WRONO, WHETHER IY PREDATORY PLUTOCRACY OR PREDATORY POVERTY. ml i i i 1 1 1 jit JOSEPH PUUTZfR 10. J907 Wednesday, Nov.

11, 19S9 Letter from the People De Gaulle's Summit Terms No summit meeting until April at the earliest that seems to be the upshot of President De Gaulle's news conference Tuesday at which he finally expressed himself publicly on the subject. De Gaulle lists as one of three conditions for the conference a prior meeting between himself and Premier Khrushchev, now set for mid-March in Paris. Thus the summit is postponed at least for five months, and President Eisenhower, the nominal leader of the Western alliance, apparently will have to like it or lump it. The other conditions set by De Gaulle reveal such a sharp divergence from the British-American-Soviet conception of the summit conference that they could amount to an even more drastic postponement. The President, Prime Minister Macmillan and Premier Khrushchev have been working toward a chiefs-of-state meeting which would seek agreement on a few limited problems, such as an interim arrangement for Berlin and perhaps a nuclear testing pact.

De Gaulle speaks of the conference as an "Areopagus," after the eminence on which the highest Athenian tribunal sat, pursuing a grand settlement of all the major issues before the whole world, including the "destiny" of Germany, the arms race, aid to underdeveloped countries and the Far Eastern problem. For such a meeting, he says, there must first be an easing of world tensions, and a prior agreement among the Western powers on a common position to be taken on each issue. Thus France's leader appears to be saying that before the chiefs of state meet at the summit, the way must be open for the solution of all, the basic problems of the postwar era, whereas Messrs. Eisenhower, Macmillan and Khrushchev have been urging a meeting for the more modest purpose of opening the way to some solutions. Instead of a summit conference to ease world tensions, De Gaulle is talking about a conference that would result from the easing of tensions.

Such a final, conclusive, areopagitic meeting to tidy up all the corners of world diplomacy would be welcome but there is very little realistic prospect that it could be held in the spring of 1960. And If the world is not ready for a grand settlement, does it follow that the world is not ready for any settlements at all? That appears to be the implication of the De Gaulle position. Reserving the summit for the final settlement is way of rejecting it for those limited agreements which hitherto have been accepted as a necessary preliminary. It may be that De Gaulle is merely enveloping in a cloud of rhetoric his reluctant willingness to attend a summit conference next spring. But if his words mean what they say, he is throwing sand, on behalf of himself and Chancellor Adenauer, in the gears of summit negotiations.

Should this interpretation be borne out by events, his course will pose a critical challenge to President Eisenhower's leadership of the Western alliance. If the President, having set out on the path to the summit, can be turned back by De Gaulle and Adenauer, his position and prestige will have been seriously compromised. sdP5 ill i i Hospitals by Plan Some St. Louis hospitals have been running more than 94 per cent occupied, to the impairment of their efficiency, which Is generally recognized as highest at about 85 per cent occupancy. At the same time, other hospitals in the city have been only 43 per cent occupied, wasting beds which are costing them on the average $8000 a year.

Economy and efficiency are best served when one central hospital provides the more complex and rarely-used services for a number of general hospitals in the area around it. For lack of a community approach and over-all planning, this rule has not been observed. General hospitals in the St. Louis metropolitan area have developed their relationships competitively rather than cooperatively, every one attempting a full and costly range of services. The foregoing facts were gathered by.

a committee of the Health and Welfare Council of Metropolitan St. Louis, headed by Dr. David Littauer. These and other findings led the committee strongjy to support the recommendations of the American Public Health Association that a metropolitan hospital planning and research unit should be created to develop a master plan and serve as a clearing house for the construction and program development of individual hospitals. The -single-institution approach has left important areas of hospitalization inadequately cared for.

Mental treatment and chronic care are notable examples. From now on, furthermore, it appears inescapable that a combined-institutions approach is going to be even more essential to a thorough job than it has been in the past. Not only is the population growing, but its needs are changing. As middle and upper income groups have continuously moved out -to the county, the city has increasingly been left with those least able to pay for services. An increasing proportion of total hospital services is being demanded on the periphery of the city, since people like to go to hospitals near their homes.

While the population of the City of St. Louis in the past three decades was increasing only 5 per cent, the number of persons over 65 nearly doubled in the city and nearly tripled in St. Louis county. All these developments call for a pooling of resources through co-operative planning. The pressure toward working together is accentuated by the doubling of personnel and the quadrupling of costs since 1930, mostly since 1945.

The Health and Welfare Council has, we believe, performed a valuable service for the hospitals, the medical profession and the community at large by its constructive interest in this vital part of community planning. We should like to see such a planning and research organization as the American Public Health Association envisioned become a useful and influential part in the life of this metropolitan community. wr fey Li Pi 'BOY, HAVE YOU GOT IT SOFT!" Unrest in the Canal Zone U.S. Ought to Review Panama Policy to Remove Constant Sore Spot in Latin Relations United States troops, ships and planes in the area are more than sufficient to maintain control. In addition, the personnel Involved In the maintenance and operation of the canal are, for the most part, either United States citizens or persons of West Indian descent, and It is unlikely that their places could be taken by nationals.

Panamanians are disadvantaged, also, in that they have no monopoly over interoceanic routes. According to a 1947 report by the Governor of the Panama Canal, there are 30 possible routes for a waterway from the Atlantic to the Pa- --2r-w cific, soma of A Fact for Ignoring Santa Claus used to arrive just in the nick of time to fill the stockings at the hearth. Now he is all set to greet Veterans day shoppers. So he is bound to be tired and bit seedy by Dec. 24.

With a straight face his loyal friends will blame his appearance on a dirty flue and go right on reciting "The Night Before Christmas." which are located in Nicaragua, Mexico and Colombia. Nicaraguans have lobbied hard Sbiil for the former. Old Issue on the Isthmus Before the United States surrendered its "right" to intervene in Panama in 1936, American troops frequently moved into the little Republic, wearing battle helmets to ward off flower pots tossed from balconies. But as recent events show, it is more natural now for Panamanians to invade the Canal Zone in riotous demonstrations. Panama does not regard this as intervention; instead, the National Assembly has just voted for efforts to get Panama's flag flying "over our territory." The United States has as steadfastly denied Panama's claims to sovereignty over the Canal Zone.

So the canal remains a sore spot festered further by Panama's poverty and American discriminatory practices described in today's Mirror of Public Opinion. In the long run there is only one sure way to settle the irritations between the two nations, and that is to internationalize the Panama Canal. The best way to resolve this old issue of sovereignty is to provide for international sovereignty. Under the original 1903 treaty the canal was built for international commerce. Meanwhile it has outlived much of its usefulness to United States defense, while Panama's demands on the canal are purely nationalistic.

How much longer must the canal situation feed anti-American sentiment and threaten serious trouble before the United States offers a secure solution? But the fact that the United States Government can Schools Without Classics I read "Back to the Classics" in Sunday's Mirror of Public Opinion, and I must say I couldn't agree more. In the hands of modern edu- cators classics have become virtually extinct In order to qualify myself as a critic and not as a crank, it is nec- essary to state that I taught school for 12 years at all levels, from a one-room school to high school. It was my experience that one just didn't use the classics as a teaching tool. There are a number of reading I texts on the market, but each series follows the same basic pattern. The characters almost invariably consist of a little boy, his sister, and a very small brother or sister, usually called "Baby." The boy has a dog, the girl a kitten.

Baby Is petless. During the first grade, this goody-goody trio have all sorts of Jolly adventures such as going to the firehouse to see the fire trucks, and meeting the mailman. Father (a minor character) comes home from the office, carrying his briefcase, in time to take the kiddies to see Grandma and Grandpa, who live on a farm. This leads to all three of them getting to ride the pony, and Baby gets chased by a setting hen. It might be added at this point that the reading texts are keyed to the area which the first-graders are supposed to be learning about In Social Studies, "Our hood Helpers." This accounts for the preponderance of firemen, mailmen and milkmen.

Through the third and often the fourth grade children who wish to read must put up with these brats and their sugary activities. And if a child learns to read well, he is rewarded by being given an "enrichment program." And what is this enrichment program? Why, naturally, reading a text in another series, featuring the same moppets, somewhat disguised. About the fifth grade the powers-that-be decree that pupils are ready for stronger stuff, hence the reading texts now feature stories taken from children's magazines, and the trio with whom they have lived for so many years vanish unlamented from their lives. In their stead, now, is a parade of boys and girls doing all sorts of heroic things, such as saving towns from fire and flood, or flying the mail when the regular pilot gets sick. Sometimes, indeed, there is rewrite of a classic, but so changed that those from a somewhat older generation would never recognize it.

If a child goes to the school or public library in hope of finding meatier fare, he is doomed to disappointment. "Little Black Sambo" has been scrubbed by educators andor social reformers so that he now appears as "Little Brave Sambo." Hansel and Gretel have developed a social conscience and no longer bake the witch to gingerbread in her own oven. Instead they reform her and she spends the rest of her life baking ordinary cookies for boys and girls. To cry "Back to the classics!" is useless. The classics are dead.

They were killed by educational leaders and social reformers who decreed that all stories must have a Purpose, and that the Purpose must be to teach brotherhood, or how we get our milk, or morals, or who puts out our fires. Equally guilty are the publishers who, in order to make a profit, must each year sell a predetermined "number of new texts with a controlled vocabulary. They will remain dead so long as these groups have the numerical strength to dictate what shall be taught, and how, in our schools. Neal Plantz Blight by Transit The mass transportation report which everyone is praising sq loudly seems to me to be just a recommendation of the status quo. In the built-up downtown section the highway would shut out all light and fresh air it would blight the stores it was built to serve.

David Stanhnpe 'A Decent Cross-Section' I must take exception to Gretchen Hemm's letter regarding the West-roads exhibit. By and large this was a fine showing (there were several unbelievably horrible things, for the most part "realistic" works.) From reports on the show, I was under the impression there was absolutely nothing recognizable in the whole business. This Is certainly untrue. There was more objective work than could be expected. The show was a decent cross-section.

Rollln E. Smith '4? fi55- -f-c Continue to run the United States personnel on the Zone copied little of the local habits, and few bothered to learn the Spanish language. The Spanish-speaking merchant or laborer, however, had to learn English. In the early years, there were separate pay lines; the United States personnel received gold for their services, while native and West Indian laborers were paid in silver. The "Gold" and "Silver" classifications were used to identify the separate housing areas, theaters, swimming pools, cafes and clubhouses provided for each group.

Although the terms have been replaced by "national" and "local," their effect remains the same. Segregation is enforced, in employment and in other spheres of Zonian society. This infuriates Latins, who describe themselves as "second-class citizens in our own country." Nationalists in Panama want a self-sufficient nation, whose politics and customs cannot be influenced by outside wealth. But native capital still flows to the land and with good reason, in view of the demonstrated ineptitude of Panamanian business men. Much of the best land is held by urban Panamanians who never use it fully.

The country as a whole has no transportation system excepting that provided by the backs of humans and animals, and the rivers. But Panamanians do not blame themselves for their troubles. As they view it, the lack of progress in industrialization and in agriculture Is due to the canal, which drains off native labor and raises wages to a point where local producers cannot make profit. They might cry, with Arias, "Let the Americans take away the canal," except for the pertinent fact that over 50 per cent of the country's national income derives from, its operation. The Panama Government has argued since 1922 that it did not in7 any of the treaties relinquish sovereignty over the Canal Zone, and its legal position in this respect is certainly no worse than Egypt's was with respect to the Suez.

But it is unlikely that any Panamanian Government would be able to take over the canal as Nasser did. canal and to ex-ercise sovereignty over the little Panamanian nation Equality at Least There is a two-fold reason for the United States to join Soviet Russia in co-operation on informational matters concerning outer space. First, the successful carrying out of such a plan would be a step in the direction of peace. Second, Russia is definitely first in the field of space and would have more to offer than any other nation. A month ago, the Soviet Union sounded out the United States and Britain at the United Nations on what kind of agreement might be possible.

Although spokesmen for both nations replied favorably to the bid, nothing has yet been done. The stumbling block is the inability of the United States and Soviet Russia to agree on the number of seats to be allowed the Communist nations on a permanent U.N. committee dealing with the peaceful uses of outer space. Last year the Assembly set up a temporary committee which has been analyzing space problems and determining the order in which they would be Moscow has boycotted this committee in an effort to gain equal representation on the committee with the West. This boycott has not interfered seriously with the committee's work but the absence of Soviet Russia from the proposed permanent committee, which would attempt to solve the problems, would probably nullify the committee.

Thus far there has been no indication of what loss to the United States and its allies might be Incurred in allowing Soviet Russia and its allies to have equal representation with the West. While this struggle over representation goes on, the study and exploration of outer space continues at a swift pace. Considering that the Russians are presently No. 1 in that enterprise, the graceful thing for the West to do is to concede them an equal voice on the U.N. committee.

On the basis of achievement, they might be able to claim the majority the West has been insisting on. does not mean that it should do so. Certainly it is vital to protect the canal but not, perhaps, in a way which will continually feed anti-United States feeling in Latin America. As illustrated by the British-French debacle on the Suez, the security of the Panama Canal is as much dependent on a continuation of inter-American cooperation as it is upon the United States military forces stationed In Central America. A proposal by the United States Government to internationalize or at least to Americanize the Panama Canal might be helpful In bolstering this government's lagging prestige In South America.

And the Panama Canal may be much safer as an international waterway than as a vestige of United States imperialism. Don F. Hadwlger, Associate Professor of Political Science, Southwest Missouri State College Springfield, Mo. A Letter to the Post-Dispatch The current violence in Panama has rattled a skeleton in the closet of United States diplomacy. It raises anew the question as to what should finally be done about the Panama Canal, gained during the era of United States imperialism.

The canal is owned and operated by the United States Government, and this fact is more important in Panama than the race issue in the Mississippi Delta. Any Panama politician who The Mirror hopes to be President of that little of country must es-' tablish himself Public Opinion as clearly and Irrevocably anti-Yankee. Panamanians have had to live with the popular foreign conception of their country as a United States canal surrounded by jungle, and with the taunts of other Latins that Tanama is a "colony of the United States." Anti-United States sentiment has also been prompted by the actions and measures of United States officials. It drew strength from statements like Teddy Roosevelt's: "I took the Isthmus." Anti-imperialism in Panama blossomed in 1921, when President Harding resolved a boundary dispute between Panama and Costa Rica by threatening to unload a battalion of marines in Panama. Presidents Harding and Coolidge fanned flames all over Latin America with policies of the "Big Stick" and "Dollar Diplomacy," and with remarks about the "insignificant peoples" in our "vest pocket republics." Behind the Friction But the feeling against the United States has come mainly from differences over the operation of the canal.

The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, first to define the rights of the two countries with respect to the canal, was negotiated under pressure. The United States was given the right to intervene in Panamanian affairs In order to "maintain the independence of the Republic of Panama." As one native statesman put it, "By this treaty we gave up the right to kill ourselves." The United States was also granted "in perpetuity" the right to use the Canal Zone and other lands and waters "which may be necessary and convenient for the construction and protection of the said canal." In short, the right to appropriate land without limit. Under this provision, the United States often took property without compensating the Panamanian-Government. During World War large areas were expropriated for "defense bases." The provision allowing United States intervention was a sore spot with Panamanian nationalists for many years. In 1936, Franklin Roosevelt and his Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, expounded the principle of "absolute non-intervention" for all of Latin America, and incorporated it in a treaty with Panama.

By and large, Latin Americans responded warmly to this apparent change of heart by the "Colossus of the North." But Panamanians have continued, to doubt United Slates good faith. Another side of Panamanian nationalism is presented by the Nacionsl-ista and Hispanidad parties in that country. The appeal of these parties is to cultural pride, which has suffered a number of indignities at the hands of residents from the North. Between Book Ends Near-East Dawn among others, keeps the day of sacrifice from being a special occasion. Robert Friedman Small Gifts in Big Campaigns "In politics as in almost everything else in this age of illusion, money and appearance count.

The 'packaged candidate' with his 'packaged baloney' is here to stay." So James Reston complained of "the unbalancing effects of big money and public relations tricks" even on the selection of a President. It' is impossible to disagree that some aspirants have more money 'than others and so can make a more impressive bid for office. One hesitates to agree, however, that the effect of money cannot be somewhat "evened out," made less decisive. That is what political parties are supposed to do. Yet all too often most of their money comes from only a few contributors.

A wealthy candidate can be independent. Those who depend on big contributions may lose much of their independence since they know that big contributors are likely to be interested in privilege, favors and contracts. That is why Senator Paul Douglas again has suggested an income tax deduction for campaign contributions up to $100. This ought to promote small gifts from many contributors, thus making it less necessary to look for big ones from a few givers. Since the cost of electing a public official really is part of the cost of government, campaigns actually might be conducted largely at public expense.

This is done in the European democracies. Yet one hardly expects such a reform from a Congress which session after session e-' fuses to act even on proposals as moderate as Senator Thomas Hennings' plan for reducing the high cost of public office. Nevertheless, the idea of a large number of small gifts, motivated byievotion to principle rather than to special interests, is slowly gaining ground. Stiffer ceilings on contributions, full publicity for gifts however made, and a small income tax deduction might make such mass support the chief source of cam THE DAY OF SACRIFICE, by Ferri-doun Eflfandiary. (McDowell, Obo-lensky, 241 $3.95.) Novelist Esfandiary's "Day of Sacrifice" has a Near-East dawn.

It describes a time when fanatical Iranian secret societies engage in violent anti-government terrorism. The book is more distinguished by Esfandiary's analysis of such violence than- by its specific plot. The embitterment of the people against the authorities, he says, does not arise out of government corruption but rather out of "the impossible repressions of our religious and cultural traditions, the morbid mysticism, the holy superstitions, the autocracy of well-intentioned but ignorant parents and teachers." Whether Western delinquency arises in the same manner, we leave for others to consider. Esfandiary's hero, KiaNoush, suffers the common embitterment, but sometimes understands why. Only in his less rational moments, does he allow himself to become personally involved.

The considerable rift between Near-East ethical and cultural behavior and our own is so vast that certain passages of the book convey humor where none is intended. This shortcoming, SURGEON AT ARMS, by Diniel Piul (with John St. John). (Norton, 227 $3.95.) This is the real-life account of Daniel Paul, a young Jewish surgeon. During World War II, Paul was dropped by parachute at Arnhem along with the ill-fated British First Airborne Division.

Paul fights the war with scalpel and splint until he is Interned in a German prison camp. The bulk of the account then considers his efforts to escape, and the Dutch citizenry's efforts to help him. There follow desperate bicycle rides through the dusk, dangerous and improvised concealments, and some bloodshed. An escape from behind enemy lines suggests a brilliant idea executed with precisioti and daring. "Surgeon at Arms" makes one realize they more often involve an infinite expenditure of energy and patience and many futile attempts.

Real-life escape stories are about two-for-a-dime. This one, however, conveys a feeling of authenticity. No Geography of Talent It is almost second nature for Americans to measure things quantitatively rather than qualitatively. So it was only natural that the convention of land grant colleges most of which are west of the Appalachians should be told that "six of the nation's 10 largest producers of doctors of philosophy are in the Midwest." But does this mean much? What is important is not the hood but the learning which it is supposed to represent. A large number of degrees might mean that relatively little learning was demanded of those who received them.

It is not the purpose of our schools, least of all the land grant schools, to be exclusive. They were founded to educate the many, not merely a few. But they cannot claim to have met this obligation by citing merely quantitative arguments. Education is always a matter of quality. 2B.