Beckley Post-Herald The Raleigh Register from Beckley, West Virginia • Page 4

Register BECKLEY POST-HERALD Thinking It Over R.SIDCRIM EDITORIAL PAGE WALTER C. MASSET JR. JIM WOOD LYELL B. CLAY JOHN F. McGEE Page Four Saturday Morning, November 12, 1977 Deck-Stacking Assume that you are watching a football game on television.

It's a hard fought game, and the home team trails by a touchdown going into the final minutes. Time out is called while the captain of the home team consults with a referee. Then, as play resumes, the announcement is made: "Because it looks as though the visitors may win, an extra quarter has been added to the game." Anyone rooting for the visitors could rightly feel betrayed by those whose duty it is to make sure that the game is played fairly. This analogy leads into a discussion of a similar role change that proponents of the Equal Rights Amendment are trying to make. Rep.

Elizabeth Holtzman. N.Y., has introduced a bill in Congress to extend the period for ratification of a proposed constitutional amendment from seven years to fourteen years. The ERA was swiftly and overwhelmingly approved by Congress in March. 1972. A number of states vied with each other to be leaders in ratification of the amendment.

Then fervor for the ERA dwindled. As it stands, 35 states have voted for the amendment, three short of the needed three fourths. Of those 35, three Idaho, Nebraska and Tennessee have voted to rescind ratification. No Easy Task Amtrak is having its troubles. It has told Congress that it must cancel train services worth $60 million within six months or risk having to shut down the entire system next summer.

Amtrak is the public corporation set up to preserve passenger rail senlce. It was sold as having the potential to return passenger service to former days of glory. It was widely assumed that the reason the number of passengers oa railroad had declined was that the private railroads just didn't want them, preferring more profitable freight It turns out that it isn't as easy for the government to run a railroad as some thought it was. With lofty motivation and a guaranteed subsidy. Amtrak is still having trouble making a go of it.

Maybe Amtrak is an idea whose time has passed. Yesterday And Today By SHIRLEY DONNELLY There's an area ghost story that will not down a bit more than that of Banquo's ghost It is the oft told tale that was but recently printed in a Charleston publication known as "The Moonlighter," the brain child of a brace of fellows down Kanawha River way. It has been told time and again in the Beckley Post Herald. So, listen my children, and you shall hear anew some of the story of the ghost of Mrs. Zona Heaster Shue.

the ill fated gir! of Livesay's Mill, a little settlement in Meadow Bluff District in Greenhrier Countv. LTVESAY gets its name from William Livesay. Edward Shue. an ex convict, former resident of Pocahontas County, came to Livesay to work in the blacksmith shop of James Crookshank. There was some talk about Shue but it was a bit subdued.

He was reported to be a widower and a great believer in marriage. Reports said be had married twice before coming to Livesay and that one of his wives had accidentally died on purpose. His first wife was said to have borne Shue a child. One night the first wife found a razor under Shue's pillow and left him. One report I've read has her coming back to him.

It went on to say that she was helping Shue stack hay and was killed when Shue jerked her from the stack, the fall breaking her neck. But this report I've never confirmed. Shue's second wife was killed when Shue dropped a rock from his perch on a chimney his wife was helping him build, the rock crushing her skull. ES 1896, Shue and Zona Heaster were married his third mate in the old Methodist Church at Livesay. Zona's mother lived 14 miles away on the other side of Big SewelL He and his bride took up housekeeping in the snail two story house that had been the residence of William G.

Livesay. Trouble broke out in that house. One evening when the smithy came home from shop he quarrelled with his wife Zona because there was no meat on the supper table. Result was that he grabbed his wife's face in his strong hands, twisted her neck, killing her! NEXT MORNING, Shue went to the home of "Aunt Martha" Jones, a woman of color, and asked her to send her boy Anderson Jones up to the Shue house to chop some wood for Mrs. Shue.

That was on Saturday, Jan. 22, 1897. When the boy reached the Shue house he came upon me body of the dead woman. Excitement followed excitement and soon the neighborhood was in an uproar. Shue prepared his wife's body for burial amidst circumstances that aroused suspicion.

Dr. J. M. Knapp had examined the dead woman and from his cursory examination decided she bad died from heart failure. They buried the dead woman in the family cemetery neai where the woman's mother lived the little family burial ground high on the mountain side.

FOUR TIMES the ghost of the dead girl appeared to her mother, Mrs. Heaster. After reporting to county authorities at Lewisburg what Mrs. Heaster said the apparition had told her that Shue had killed her daughter the body was ordered exhumed. This was done and the autopsy proved the girl's neck had been broken! Shue was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to the State Penitentiary at Moundsville for the rest of his life.

died there in 1905. A MOB FORMED with the intention of lynching Shue after he had been jailed at Lewisburg. With a new rope and a hangman's knot or noose readied, the mob assembled at Brushy Ridge, George W. Harrah learned of this effort and hurried the news to Sheriff Hfll NickeU at Meadow Blaff. Harrah and Nickell passed the mob on their way to Lewisburg to protect Shue, the prisoner.

Leaders of the mob went with the Sheriff to the nearby home of D. A. Dwyer where Sheriff Nickell talked the mob out of their lynching plan. That new rope was given over to the shierff. On the way to Lewisburg the sheriff and Mr.

Harrah were overtaken by the mob and held at the point of pistols. Sheriff Nickell drew his gun and was about to fire on the mob leaders whom he recognized. Moral persuasion won out when the sheriff told the mob if they lynched Shue they would regret it the rest of their lives. ANDERSON Jones who found the dead Mrs. Shue served as janitor of Mt Tabor Baptist Church at Lewisburg until he died.

I knew Anderson's brother, Reuben Edward Jones, who told me of the Shue affair. R. E. Jones died Dec. 17,1962, in the Veterans Administration hospital, Becklev.

Sunday Ends Toy Pickup The Justice Department has ruled that a state may not withdraw its vote for ratification once its Legislature has approved a proposed amendment. But under that ruling, a state may vote against ratification any number of times and still may be counted among those having ratified it if ERA forces can muster a positive vote. So the rules of the game already favor ratification of ERA. But extending the time in which the proposed amendment may be considered another seven years carries the deck stacking a bit too far. As it is, the states have until March 22.1979 to ratify.

The seven year limit has been upheld by the Supreme Court as a "reasonable time." The Supreme Court has also held that ratification must be ficiently contemporaneous" to reflect the wishes of the states "at relatively the same period." Fourteen years for ratification is by any objective appraisal too long to be "contemporaneous." No ratification has yet taken even as long as four years. The average time has been 19 months. Not permitting states to rescind a ratification is unfair in itself. Doubling the length of the game in order to" win it should seem unfair to anyone, regardless of her or his persuasion regarding the ERA. By WALTER MASSEY Editor Many of us tend to put off until the last minute.

But most things have an end. and the end of me Used Toy Roundup for Mac's Memorial Toy Fund is Hearing. So if you haven't gotten around to getting those used bicycles or dolls out of the basement and giving us a cali now is she time to get down to business. Tomorrow is the last Sunday of the Used Toy Roundup. Vounteers from the Mountain State Citizens Band Radio Club annually give tneir time to rounding up the used toys.

The Toy Fund needs good used wheel toys and dolls. Of course, we would nb to get toys and dolls in mint condition. But Toy Fund volunteers can make repairs. Ted England is in charge of Sunday's pickup. The number to call Sunday'to have toys picked up at your borne is 252 6276.

If you will not be at home Sunday or if a pickup then won't be convenient, persons wishing to donate toys may Ted England next week at 252 -1179. CB Club volunteers say that things have picked up in the last few days. More calls have been corning in from persons wishing to donate toys. But ice Toy Fund has been concerned that, overall, the number of dolls and wheel toys coming ia this year seem to be substantially less than last year. We are hoping that Sunday and nest week will be a very busy time for our pickup volunteers and that the Used Toy Roundup will end with at least as many toys and dolls as we collected last year.

By the wcy. the pickup Sunday will begin at noon and will go until 5:30 p.m. 0 CONTRIBUTIONS continue to come Our Readers Speak Flame Retardants Necessary We would like to take this opportunity to "set the record straight" concerning a recent editorial about flame retardant childrens' clothing. Your article "Creating Hazards" was inaccurate, misleading, and. in our opinion, editorially irresponsible.

We agree that the government should not require that children's clothing be treated with chemicals that have been proven carcinogenic. However, your editorial has done a great dis service to your reading public by implying that all flame retardant sleepwear is treated with cancer causing chemicals. Your article also obscures and overwhelms the importance of flame retardant childrens' clothing. The regulation concerning childrens' sleepwear flamniabiliry is a performance standard. In other words, no certain treatment is specified as implied in your editorial.

'Certain sleepwear fabrics require no chemical treatment. It is up to the manufacturer to select a safe way of meeting these standards. You also stated that this regulation subjected more children to the danger of cancer than would have been endangered by fire." As of this date, not one case of cancer in humans has been attributed to TRIS. The hazard of TRIS established thus far is that large doses have proven carcinogenic in rats. The hazard to humans is estimated.

The hazard of fire, however, is well established. Each and every child is a potential fire victim. More than 3.000 Americans die annually after then- clothing catches on fire, and more than 150,000 are injured from this cause. One out of four whose clothing catches fire is a child under 10. The burning of people has reached epidemic proportions in America.

Polio alarmed the nation until it was stamped out. Yet. burns kill and cripple twice as many victims as polio did at it's peak. Each year more children under 14 years of age'die from fire than from leukemia, rheumatic fever, diseases of the heart, and polio combined. We are apalled at your statement of" the government has created hazards where none existed If you are not thus far convinced of the absurdity of this statement, then we invite you to review "The Report of the National Commission on Fire Prevention and more aptly known as "American Burning." Flame retardant clothing is an important part of the fight against fire in this country.

England has cut a burn epidemic in half by taking all flammable sleepwear for children off the market and requiring flame retardant fabrics. Controlling fabric flammability will mean fewer tragic child burns in the U. S. We should make every effort to remove as many hazards irom our environment as humanly possible fire and cancer included- ROBERT W. WESTFALL.

Chief, Bureau of Fire Prevention City of Beckley Korean Student Wants Pen Pal I am a girl, fifteen years old, presently attending a high school in Seoul Korea. In my country we are taught the English language from the first year of junior high school as the most "important required subject To improve our English, we practice not only in the regular class but also through our English Club of which I am now the leader. My English teacher told me that letter writing would be a great help for improving our. English and suggested that I write to you on behalf of the bo3 and girls in my DAM-DANG JA school. Many of them would like to exchange letters with boys and girls from your country.

Therefore, we would very much appreciate your putting this letter into your newspaper. Through the letters we hope to learn more about your customs, student life, and many other things, too. Of course, we will have the pleasure of introducing our ways as well, while improving our English skills. So if you can print our request in your paper, we shall eagerly look forward to receiving letters from your country and will answer them promptly. Thank you for your attention.

DAM-DANG JA, P.O. Box 100, Jung-Ang, Seoul, 100 Korea. Miner's Work Hazardous I am writing this letter in hope that you and the public will have a better understanding of the coal miners. It seems to me that the public is told too little by the news media about the coal miners, except that they like to "wild cat" strike. There are those who say we should not complain because they say that, after all, no one forces us to mine coal, and if we are not satisfied with the conditions under which we work, we can leave the mines.

An attitude or observation such as this contains little or no intelligence. Someone has to dig the coal: coal is indispensable to the life of this nation. If there were no voluntary coal miners, the government would be forced to draft men to mine coal the same as men are drafted to fight the nation's wars. The coal miners work in the depths of the earth where the only way of escape may be a shaft miles away. It is an extremely dangerous job.

The very air he breathes depends on an artificial current of air created by a fan located on the surface. This air is contaminated by dust and gases liberated by the coal strata. Perhaps some of you know all this; and if you don't, you take it for granted, but this does not make it any easier for the coal miner or his loved ones. He and his family has to daily face the possibility of death or injury. The public only becomes aware of the perils of coal mining when they read the news media's dramatic accounts of major mine disasters.

But there are ten times more miners killed, maimed, and crippled in the less sensational accidents than in the major disasters. These go unnoticed by the public, as does the suffering and deaths of our miners afflicted with the dreaded "Black Lung" disease. I will not describe the maiming and multilation a miner's body undergoes in a death by name explosion or fire. But picture, if you can, a funeral procession with 100,000 hearses and you will have some idea of the hell coal miners' families have faced over the years. Picture, if you can, working in a city which depends on an artificial supply of air to breath, with a sky five feet high and sometimes less.

Imagine a city in which the very air is polluted with coal dust and gas which could, if a mistake is made, explode and kill all the inhabitants. That is the city in which my brothers work day after day to provide you and our country with a high standard of living. The coal miners sweat, and too often his blood, means a better life to this nation. Without the coal miner, you would have no coal; without coal, you would have no steel, no bridges, no cars, trains or electricity. Nor would you have the by products of medicines, dyes and chemicals made from coal.

It is not the coal operator who provides these benefits. Without the coal miner you would have no modern civilization. BILL LAMB, International Executive Board Member, United Mine Workers of America. in to the Toy Fund, even though the campaign won begin until next week. We received a contribution from A.

Alien Buss, M.D., for $10 and a gift from E.T. Miller for 33. That brings the total so far to $412. PEOPLE I meet always seem to have a kind word to say about Mac's Toy Fund. This undertaking has a ripple effect throughout the community, touching many people.

When you consider ail the people who pick up the used toys, all the people who make monetary- contributions to buy new toys, all the people who volunteer to dress dolls, all the people who help set up the Christmas party each year and all the people who provide equipment needed for the party, you're talking about a sizeable group of people. The efforts that are being made by so many pay off on the day of the party when 1.800 to 2,000 children walk away with a toy of which they can be proud, some candy and fruit and some Christmas warmth in their hearts. The Toy Fund is people caring about kids who might not otherwise have much to be merry about at Christmas. All who have a part in it are richly rewarded, the givers and those who receive. Andrew Tully ILO Left Principles Behind WASHINGTON The International Labor Organization was a good idea.

It was founded in the hopeful year 1919, when people still talked of permanent peace and the word dictatorship was not in common use. The only cloud on the optimistic horizon was the new Bolshevism in Russia, which was not given long to live. In that atmosphere, the ILO seemed to promise a new day for the laboring man. Its function, under the ill fated League of Nations, was to promote labor standards in all countries and collect statistics on labor issues. Pretty sound stuff.

But dictatorships are almost everywhere one looks today. Under authoritarian governments in the Soviet Union. Communist China, Latin America and much of the Third World, the working man's rights have dwindled to one: the right to behave himself. The ILO became another political mischief maker among many in the United Nations, AND SO THE other day President Carter withdrew the United States from membership in the ILO. In a statement read by Labor Secretary Ray Marshall, Carter said "the United States remains ready to return whenever the ILO is again true to its proper principles and procedures." Predictably, UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim called the withdrawal a "retrogressive step from the principle of collective'responsibility and from the goal of universality in United Nations Poor Waldheim could hardly say anything else.

But as one of his staffers remarked, "The United States' move was It was inevitable because the ILO has ceased to have any meaning to the democratic community. Its members spent most of their time moonlighting as political hatchetmen for their dictatorial regimes back home. THE MOST glaring example of this illicit meddling came in 1974, when an Arab and Communist coalition pushed through a resolution condemning Israel for "racism" and occupying Arab lands. The ILO had no more right to do that than the governor of Idaho has a right to sever diplomatic relations with Great Britian. Promptiy, then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger announced that the U.

S. would withdraw within two years unless the ILO stopped being political and returned to its original purpose of monitoring labor conditions. And the ILO kept right on ignoring complaints of labor conditions in Communist countries and assorted other dictatorships. Indeed, only last June the annual ILO convention managed to pigeon hold a report condemning labor practices in the Soviet Union and certain Third World countries. Some deletes had the gall to announce that while the report was accurate, the subject was none of ILO's business.

The vote of this curious organization which had condemned Israel on a purely political matter concluded that the report was "not within the ILO's area of respon- sibilitv." GIVEN THE fetid atmosphere of the HO, it was curious that some of Jimmy Carter's foreign policy advisers argued against withdrawal on the grounds it would weaken democratic forces within the organization. Inere are no effective democratic forces within the organization. There are no effective democratic forces in ILO. As in so many UN organizations, the ILO is controlled by the Communists and a horde of shoeless governments in the Third World. One African diplomat in Washington called the withdrawal "stupid." From his viewpoint and that of other UN free loaders, it is certainly unfortunate.

As of last Saturday, the American contribution of $20 million a year one fourth of the ILO's budget was cut off. Pass the hat in Moscow and Peking and Uganda, boys..