Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 14

How Ripe Can It Get? Of Many Things Retorts Courteous Established 1764 The Oldenl Stwsfper of Continuous Publication in Amtr'c4 Published at 285 Broad Street, Hartford 1, Connecticut Wednesday Morning, March 11, 1953 By Thomas E. Murphy Leave Any Charter Changes To the Charter's Friends was slightly on the dull side. A program like that needs as master of ceremonies somebody ho is quick with the pun or gag. A lively master of ceremonies, such as Clifton Fadi-man used to be on Information Please, kicks things around and thus develops an atmosphere of informal fun. Nearly everybody has heard that cliche that the nice thing about the newspaper business is that you meet so many interesting people.

People in other lines get paid off in money, but it is fairly stimulating meet people who are doing constructive things with their lives. During the past two months I have been unusually u-nate in the people I have met. STATEHOOD WW) "1 i iii li I jf vu dves A couple of venerable gentlemen of about my own vintage stopped to chat in the news room the other day. It was a desultory conversation about nothing in particular until one of them said, in answer to a request to repeat. "I don't sell my cabbage twice a day." That will mean little to youngsters.

But old-timers may, by dredging deeply in memory, come up with the recollection of it as one of the bon mots of a particularly naive era in repartee. A companion to this scintillating remark was, "Why doesn't your mother keep ducks?" A little later it was considered rather witty to say, "Yes, we have no bananas." This was considered to be on the same intellectual level as, "Ah, your mudder's mustache." In those innocent days, a fellow who said. "It's none of your beeswax," meaning it's none of your business, was considered quite a card. If he was really the life of the party most likely he sported a large pin or badge bearing the legend. "Chicken Inspector." There were other signs too, like "I love my wife, but oh you kid." I don't know the origin of it but another expression that had quite a vogue was "23 skiddoo," which emerged at a still later date in the terse admonition "scram." All these convulsively funny remarks had currency just about the time "six for a nickel" candy was dying out.

I have often marveled at the tenacious patience of grocers in days. They would hover over candy cases as grimy urchins, nose pressed against the case, made their choice. When it was "six for a nickel." a fellow could spend a good ten minutes making up his mind. As I recall it you would get two old-fashioned chocolates for one cent, two peppermint chocolates, or one hunky dory, one good sized peanut bar, one bolster and one tootsic roll all coming to five cents. I would estimate that today the cost would be approximately twenty five cents, or perhaps 30, It seems to me that candy tasted better then, but I realize of course that my taste buds were fresher.

Enough of reminiscing. I was talking to George Malcolm Smith a few days ago and I congratulated him on his television performance last week. I just happened into the middle of a quiz show in which he was a participant. As I told him quite frankly, he is not as pretty as Faye Emerson but he is just as smart if not smarter. And it was not his fault that the show The People's Forum Perhaps the time has come to consider chances In Hartford' Charter.

It is now more than five years old. And it is no tablet handed down from a latter-day Mt. Sinai in a form fixed for all time. The only trouble is, of course, that the Charter's enemies, who fought it and were beaten, have been seeking to chip and chisel at its foundations since the moment it took effect. And the passage of time has given seeming strength to their complaint that they will "never get anywhere" by proposing changes through the Charter's own home-rule method.

Therefore, they say, they have to seek relief in the General Assembly. Hartford doesn't seem to realize it, but it now has a government looked upon as a model all over the country. The only way to keep it so is to make sure that, if any changes are made, they are made by the Charter's friends and not its foes. There-fore it is well that Mayor Cronin plans to appoint, a. commission to this end.

"Let's find out what, if any, changes we need in the city Charter," he says. And that "if any" is as important as the possibility of change. The floodgates to change must not be let down. Otherwise self-interested politicians, who want to buy political support for themselves with other people's money by increasing pensions, will undermine the city's financial soundness. Or those who want to monkey with the present virtually foolproof voting system, by having partisan elections or by having councilmen elected from districts, will wreck the Charter.

Some changes might be desirable. For example, there are the fiscal proposals of the City Treasurer, George H. Gabb. Some of them appear to have merit, such as making more flexible the system of issuing bonds so as to avoid what happened when the parking facility was held up in court, and principal and interest installments had to be paid from tax funds rather than from earnings of the facility. Others, such as borrowing by resolution rather than by the more formal and deliberate ordinance, as now, are doubtful.

And still more doubtful is the proposal that the Council may issue notes in amounts as large as $200,000, and renew them for three years. That could undermine fiscal integrity. Whatever the merits of any particular proposal, the guiding principle must be to preserve the purpose and the ideals of council-manager government. This can be done by appointing a revision-study commission, of a stature equal to that of the commission that drafted the Charter in the first place. Should changes be desirable, such a group could be relied upon to recommend them.

It could also be relied upon to fend off any political attempts to undermine the Charter. Above all Jet us avoid any sleepers or jokers in the General Assembly. The Charter provides for home-rule amendment. That method will work if the need is real enough. Let that be the way changes are made if after examination it turns out that they are needed.

Joe Gerber, the young fellow who was picked as one of the outstanding young men by the Junior Chambers, was one. Frances Roth of New'Haven was another. Joe has invented the variable scale, which has been called the rubber ruler. And it is not stretching things to say that what he has done is merely a beginning. Joe is capable of creative thinking, one of the rarest types of intellectation.

It is the kind of thinking that only the real pioneers of science are capable of. The ordinary layman may have difficulty in seeing the value of the variable scale, but engineers and scientists hail it as the greatest ihing since the slide rule was invenled. Frances Roth is the woman attorney who took over a school for cooks and chefs in New Haven, and in a few years has transformed it into a nationally famous, nonprofit training school. She is proof of the fact that a good, trained mind can move into a wholly new field and think rings around those who have been in it for years. Mrs.

Roth is very much interested in the domestic relations cases in our courts. She helped organize the local courts in New Haven, and has definite views on how the crowded calendar in our. Superior Courts can be relieved. And may I report to the inventive genius who made an attachment for my hand loom: It works fine. Makes the loom much more adaptable.

Incidentally, I have my first hand-loomed jacket, and I wouldn't sell it for the wealth of the Indies. The Face of the Enemy By Joseph and Stewart Alsop The Right to Know In Connecticut Washington To the leaders of the West, Gcorgi Malenkov, the inheritor of Joseph Stalin's vast power, is the man nobody knows. No American official has had any real contact whatsoever with this shadowy figure, who now holds the fate of the world in his hands. Yet ihere is one man who has had the experience probably unique in the Western World of observing the new Russian ruler at close range, and for several hours at a stretch. This man is a short, roly-poly, perceptive, brave, and hignJy Intelligent Czech, Dr.

Arnhost Heidrich. Dr. been taken, the veil of mystery would not have fallen around her. The fingerprinting project in the schools will be another test of citizen cooperation. It will show whether the public is closer to accepting civil defense voluntarily or having such protective measures made obligatory by law.

Uncertainty about sudden enemy attack grows daily. President Eisenhower has stressed preparedness at home and his intention to get civil defense out of the doldrums. Fingerprinting is part of it. Joe Martin Takes Over The Western Reserve Fellow rode into Washington the other day, doing a stunt to commemorate Ohio's 150th year of being. He was greeted by Speaker Joe Martin, who said the usual things and ended by expressing jocular hope that perhaps Ohio "might be persuaded to cede the Western Reserve back to Massachusetts." We hope, Joseph, that you were misquoted.

Or perhaps you are confusing the province of Maine, formerly a part of the Bay State, with the Western Reserve. The latter was a section of land west of Pennsylvania, reserved by Connecticut in 1786 when it ceded its western lands to the Federal Government. In 1793, three million acres were sold to the Connecticut Land Company. In 1800 an agreement between Connecticut and the Federal Government provided for the transfer of the Western Reserve to the Ohio territory. So you see, Joe, if there's any reverting to be done it will be a reversion to Connecticut, not.

Massachusetts. We have viewed with alarm 'n recent years the tendency of New England states to poach on one another. Last year there were several flagrant cases of one state stealing the photographic scenery of another, to wit, Vermont. That is why we feel it necessary to put the foot down immediately when the eminent Mr. Martin tries to lift a bit of Connecticut history.

There's plenty back where he came from, without trying to edge into the Western Reserve. Mr. Speaker, please set the record straight! Katharine Ludington Miss Katharine Ludington's long life, which came to a close at 83 in her home in Old Lyme, will long be remembered with pride by the women of Connecticut. Indeed all women owe much to her leadership in the movement that fought its way to the goal of women's suffrage, and then onward to shaping the tremendous influence of women in civic affairs through the League of Women Voters. Though born in New York City Miss Ludington takes her place in the gallery of Connecticut's illustrious women.

Moving to Old Lyme after the turn of the century she immediately became associated with the civic affairs of that town, to which she was bound by early family ties. And Connecticut has always had reason to be proud of Miss Ludington's career, because she exemplified the qualities of wisdom combined with courage in her determination to advance the status of women. The passing of Miss Ludington brings into a vivid perspective the phenomenal progress that has changed the relationship of women to community life during a single lifetime. We are reminded of how great was the contribution of this farsfchted woman who perhaps could envision, where others could not, the tremendous alteration of our social system that would follow what, in the early days of the suffrage movement, was referred to as the emancipation of women. From 1912, WhVn she first became associated with the suffrage movement.

Miss Ludington continually widened the scope of her work and influence. She became president of the Connecticut Women's Suffrage Association. In 1920 she was one of the founders of the National League of Women Voters, and became first director of the New England region. The next year the Connecticut League of Women Voters was formed under her leadership. The spirit and vitality of this League is due in part to the solid foundation built during the 12 years of Miss Ludington's oresidency.

From the careen of Miss Ludington those in the forefront of women's participation in public affairs today must take new inspiration. She believed in women's rights, opposed as they were by men's prejudices and those of some women. Once exercised, she believed these rights would he a mighty force for betterment of the tone of Amori-enn life. She lived to see evidence that her belief was very well founded. Stalin vs.

Prokoficff A lot of men who thought they had made an imperishable mark on history would be surprised now to find how completely they are forgotten. Cast quickly back in your mind and see how many tyrants you can remember. When 'you have done this, think of the great poets, composers and writers whose names are remembered and whose works are living things. Tyrants, when they die, die completely. Their names, while they may be written in history alongside Herod, Caligula, and the other bloody monsters, stand for nothing important.

But those who have created something good, beautiful, or useful have projected themselves into the future. Two important Russians died last week. Joseph Stalin's death stirred up more national mourning in his native land than any recent death. The other, Sergei Prokofieff, died quietly. The event was almost completely eclipsed by the national hoopla over Stalin's end.

Yet it is interesting to wonder whether generations to come will be more impressed by Joseph Stalin's record or by Prokofieff's symphonies. The pomp and circumstance of a tyrant's death are no guarantee of immortality. It is worth recalling the perceptive words of Shelley: I met a traveler from an antique land Who said "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone "Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, "Half sunk, a shattered visage lies. "And on the pedestal, these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; 'Look on my works, ye Mighty, and "Nothing beside remains.

Round the decay "Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare "The lone and level sands stretch far away." It could be that Prokofieff and Shelley, too will still be alive in the minds and hearts of men, when the colossal 20th century Ozymandias is only a name in a history book. New radar devices are said to eliminate the antiaircraft gunner, and guided missiles may do away with the pilot, but still nothing, we sadly report, to eliminate the Draft Board. History Writes Finis For a Sorry Record To the Editor of The Courant: History might be compared to a whole tome, in which each is granted a page upon which to write his record. Some, and thank God, the vast majority, write indelibly a record that, even as the pages are closed, radiate an aura of good will and love and deeds well done that time can never eradicate. Others trace upon their pages deeds whifh were first brewed in the cauldron of His Satanic Majesty.

Their record shows an ego twisted and distorted with hate, and whose hands drip with the blood of the innocents. But, death closes the pages of their lives and they are no more. For us to cast a balance upon their lives, or for that matter on the life of anvone, is presumptuous. But it is for God to judge, not man. It is for history to record, to strive to evaluate the past in order to learn to avoid in the future the mistakes of the past.

So. while we breathe a sigh of relief that a certain man has passed into the beyond, let us carefully and alertly watch the future, and endeavor to undo the evil that has been done, by patience, prayer, and hope that now that the shackles have been broken the people of Russia may reforge the chain of life to conform to the high standards of Christian living, and unity, and peace with all mankind. M. E. Clark Bristol Clear, Sensible and Charitable Editorials To the Editor of The Courant: Your editorials one on the front page of The Courant, March 5, and the March 6 comment on Premier Stalin's death are masterpieces.

Your editorial page is a daily must in my life. Even if I do not have time to glance through the rest of the paper, I save the editorial page and catch up with it sooner or later in the week. Many thanks for your clear, sensible and charitable approach to today's problems. We need that attitude today to help us chart a course through the rough times ahead. Mrs.

R. A. Maier West Hartford Hearing on HB-292 for Emotionally III Children To the Editor of The Courant: Because of public indifference, 732 children with critical emotional illnesses are denied the treatment they must have if they are to get well. There is no place now where these children can he adequately treated; and without treatment they continue to grow up to become "problem citizens." A promise was made to these children in 1949, when the General Assembly authorized establishment of a Child Study and Treatment Home. Money was appropriated to buy a tract of land near New Haven, but no funds have yet been appropriated for a building to house this vitally needed institution.

It's as though Connecticut had passed an act to provide food for starving children, but without voting the money to buy the food. Many of them are presently in mental hospitals growing up with psychotic adults for companions. Others are in reformatories and other institutions not equipped to deal with the special needs of children. Some are at home where they threaten the welfare of others, and in public schools where their behavior disrupts Heidnch was tne Secretary General of the' Czech Foreign Office, until he escaped from Czechoslovakia after the Communist rape of his country. Dr.

Heidrich now leads the dusty, weary life of a refugee in Washington, but be the normal education of normal children. Isn't it about time that we gave these children a break? We can do it by seeing to it that the General Assembly's promise of 4 years ago is kept. We can attend the public hearing next Thursday. March 12, at 1:30 p.m. at the State Capitol and register in favor of House Bill 292, the bill before the present sessions of the General Assembly to' appropriate $1,000,000 for a home where treatment facilities can be provided for these children.

Mrs. Bernard L. White, Secretary Hartford Society for Mental Health Hartford Hartford Needs An East-West Highway To the Editor of The Courant: Having just returned, from a trip to and through Florida, I was much impressed with the fine roads we found everywhere, except for a short stretch in Georgia north of the Florida line. Every city and large town had, entering it and leaving it. a four-lane road, or an excellent road by-passing it.

I couldn't help but unconsciously compare this situation with that, existing in and around Hartford. We now have an excellent approach to Hartford from the south and east via the Wilbur Cross Highway: also from New London now that the cut-off through Glastonbury is done; a good approach to the north by way of the new highway along the dike, but the entrance to Hartford from the west is still inadequate, unsatisfactory, and in my humble opinion dangerous. A great deal of through traffic comes in to Hartford from the west and the commuter traffic from and to the west is heavy. We have absolutely no adequate road to take care of it. The motorist coming in from the west must now plow through West Hartford, at least part of Farming-ton Avenue, or must enter by the way of Albany Avenue, which is certainly terribly congested east of Prospect Avenue.

While I have a great deal of respect for Dr. G. Albert Hill, our Highway Commissioner, I cannot understand why he has not settled on a route for the east-west highway long ago and is still apparently doing nothing about it, at least as far as starting to build it. While I realize that both the Bulkeley Bridge and the Charter Oak Bridge are overcrowded at the present time, it seems to me not just because I live in Farmington, that an east-west highway should take precedence over a third bridge across the Connecticut River. Leonard W.

Frisbie Farmington Reycrofl Is Tainted With McCarthyism? To the Editor of The Courant: Letter-writer Harlan Reycroft would serve us all better if he would content himself with fact rather than of fancy. To charge two American Presidents, Roosevelt and Truman, and an American Chief of Staff, Marshall, as double-dealers, weak-kneed and stupid, is not only absurd but irresponsible and childish. Reycroft also called Alger Hiss an arch traitor. He has apparently taken unto himself the function of judge and jury with evidence at his disposal not yet made public. Hiss has never been convicted of treason.

Reycroft would do well to acquaint himself with political and diplomatic processes. When you are confronted with an accomplished fact, you bargain for what you can get. When Roosevelt went to Yalta, Russia already occupied Poland and Manchuria and we were still at war with Japan. It is possible to accuse (but not prove) FDR of being a poor bargainer, but to hurl charges of double-dealing is quite another matter. Reycroft's suggestion that we repudiate all agreements secret or otherwise, made at Cairo, Quebec, Teheran, Yalta, Potsdam, and San Francisco, is only irresponsible immorality.

This is the defeatism of. MacCarthyism. which says you have to act like and think like a dictatorship in order to save yourself from one. Finally, Reycroft talks about 100 per cent Americans. I suggest he define 100 per cent Americanism.

I hope his definition will include the right of dissent and protection from guilt by association. It is high time free men stopped being afraid of being free. Silas B. Weeks Storrs layer of fat over his face acts like a mask, concealing all expression. Only the eyes are alive in the fat.

still, mask-like face, and these, Heidrich says, "are small, very black, very very cunning, and very, very, very Malenkov is "obviously not a man from the intelligentsia." Molotov, and Beria even more, impressed Heidrich as men of extraordinary intelligence. As for Stalin. Heidrich listened to him for nours at a time on two missions to Moscow, and he rates Stalin as an authentic genius, a man of towering intelligence, although also "a cruel and vy cowardly man." Malenkov. Heidrich sensed during his hours at his side, is shrewd and crafty rather than intelligent. But Malenkov, he also instantly recognized, has something which Stalin had, and which Molotov and Beria lack.

Molotov and Beria are machine-like men; they are not drivers of the machine. By contrast, as soon as Heidrich met Malenkov, he said to himself," This man has power." He sensed in Malenkov a tremendous inner force and assurance, although he calls Malenkov a "retiring man," meaning one who exercises his power secretly, in the shadows. Heidrich is sure that the machine-men. Molotov and Beria, cannot seriously challenge Malenkov's power. Such a challenge, he thinks, can come only from the Generals.

This, then, is the new face of the enemy, as it appeared to a brilliant trained observer over a period of some hours. With the smooth, soft skin and the cruel eyes, it is not a reassuring face. For what consolation it may provide, Heidrich believ es that his Kremlin dinner partner shares the cautions of his old master, and that he will hot knowingly start a war with the West. But he adds a warning "Malenkov will not start a war. unless he reaches the conclusion that he can hit you very hard, and you cannot hit him back very hard." It seems wise to make sure that the fat man with the eunuchoid face, who now rules a third of the world, should never reach this conclusion.

Copyright, 1953, New York Herald Tribune, Charmed Life By Christopher Billopp A charmed life is led by a person who, when everybody else is laid low, escapes "the bug." Such a life is not a happy one. If the person is at work, by marking' the location of each colleague stricken, he can plot the line the bug is taking. He does not feel reassured when it appears he must inevitably be the next one to succumb. When the bug hits his family as well as the office force there seems little hope of escape. He does not dare plan for the days ahead.

He pictures himself in bed running a fever. He works overtime to get essential tasks done before he collapses. As the days go by, he is convinced his luck cannot hold -much longer. Fearful that the bug is around, he shuns human companionship. He makes excuses to colleagues so as to go to lunch alone.

As time passes his imagination will get the better him. He will begin to feel feverish. His head will feel heavy. His eyes will be bloodshot. He will lack energy.

He will suffer aches and pains. He will be nervous and jumpy. In brief, he will experience all the sensations of a stricken person. Since he is suffering all the discomforts of illness, what a shame he rannot also enjoy its advantages by going ahead and getting the bug. Making up your mind about politics is tough enough.

Making it up when you don't know the facts, because you have no chance to see public records bearing on your decision, is even worse. Right now, as a Connecticut citizen, you don't have the right to look at public records unless you can justify your request to see them to the satisfaction of the man who keeps them. In that man's discretion rests your right to knowledge. That is the, effect of the Connecticut law relating to access to public records. It is a law that ought to be changed.

This law came to public attention some time ago when a Board of Education in Connecticut began withholding its records from Ihe press. A determined newspaperman took the case to court. He got from the court the acknowledgment that, the press, within the law, is a pen-on "qualified" to look at public records. Thus a reporter can find1 out some of what is being done with your money, and with your government, if he can qualify as such. But you must establish your right to look at the records as an individual, by showing why you want to look at them.

There may also be some reason why a presumptuous government official would want to keep them from you. And the two reasons might be the same. With those circumstances in mind, a measure has been introduced in the Legislature to give the people of this state access to public records. Such access can often explain why certain decisions are leing made, instead of merely confronting the public with the fact that they have been made. The proposed law has been sponsored by the editors of this state in the belief that the people have a right to know who is doing what in their government, and why.

It will be given a public hearing this afternoon at 2 p.m. by the Jucficiary Committee. In the interest of gaining for Connecticut citizens the rights enjoyed by other states, you ought to speak up for it. Schools Need Help in Fingerprinting Children The Board of Education is undertaking a project quite in keeping with other preparations for civil defense. On April 1 fingerprinting of the schoolchildren of 1he city will begin.

It will be a diversion for most of the youngsters, but it also has a serious aspect for them and their families. Letters will be sent to all parents explaining the fingerprinting project has no element of compulsion in it, end that the prints will be used only for civil defense purposes. No child is to be fingerprinted until written permission is received from a parent or guardian. The Board" of Education will find parents cooperating though there will probably be the usual exceptions. If there is lack of cooperation, it may be viewed as part of the inertia that civil defense workers are running into all the time.

There are numerous situations one avoids contemplating that nevertheless do sometimes happen. And there are occasions when fingerprints could be the only means of establishing identity or blood relationship. Little Miss 1565, unknown victim of the circus fire, comes to mind. Scarcely touched by the flames that seared many other victims, this girl, so appealing, eerie almost in her detachment from all the ties of family and friends, was buried unclaimed, unidentified, though her pathetic picture was published far and wide. If her fingerprints had fore his escape, he was rated a brilliant diplomat, and he is still a brilliant man.

To hear him describe his meeting with Malenkov, in his heavy Czech accent, is to catch a vivid glimpse of the strange figure who has emerged from the shadows to rule the great Soviet empire. The time was July, 1947. A Czech mission, including President Klement Gottwald, Foreign Minister Jan Mas-aryk (who killed himself soon afterwards), and Dr. Heidrich. had been summoned to Moscow.

The Czechs were bluntly warned by Stalin that Czechoslovakia must under no circumstances join the Marshall Plan. Having felt the crack of Stalin's whip, the Czechs were bidden to partake of Stalin's lavish hospitality, at a dinner in the magnificent state dining hall of the Kremlin. At the head of the table sat the great Stalin himself, smoking incessantly "If I cannot smoke. I cannot eat," Stalin remarked to his guests. Heidrich sat a few places away from Stalin.

On one side of him was Andrei Vishinsky, nervous and obsequious, his arrogance all muted in the presence of his master. On his other side was the man who now rules Russia, Georgi Malenkov. The party lasted from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m., and for most of this time Heidrich and Malenkov sat side by side, while Malenkov ate ravenously. Heidrich makes no claim that his conversation with Milenkov during that long evening was particularly significant "Malenkov told me no secrets." he says with a smile.

Yet Heidrich carried away with him an unforgettable impression of the strange flavor of Malenkov's person-ality. "When you first ee Malenkov at a little distance," Heidrich recalled, "you think he looks very strong and muscular like a porter. Then, when he is close to you. vou see that what seemed to be muscle is really fat. He does not look like a porter at all.

He looks like a eunuch yes. exactly like a Turkish eunuch." The skin of Malenkov's face, He'drich says, is peculiar pallid, waxy and remarkably smooth. The cheeks are very fat and puffy, especially under the eyes, but the skin is not wrinkled or fallen it is held firm by a thick layer of fat. The hands, like the face, are fat and smooth and hairless. This layer of smooth, soft fat covers the man's whole body, giving at a little distance a false impression of great physical strength Malenkov, says Heidi ich.

is "a-very unpleasant man to speak to." The Laughing Matter rpri "I didn't EXPECT you to that I was just warming up.".