The Gazette and Daily from York, Pennsylvania • Page 18

Jg The Gazette and Daily, York, EDITORIAL Thursday Morning, September 26, 1957 The Gazette and Daily Prew Pearson Reports: Food For Thought U. S. Navy Bigger Than Ever Published daily except Sunday at 31-35 E. King York, by YORK GAZETTE CO. CHARLES M.

GITT, President; J. W. GITT, Editor and Treasurer; M. B. REBERT, Secrc tary; JAMES HIGGINS, Assistant Editor; EDWARD K.

SCHAEBERLE, Managing Editor. MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all the local news printed in this newspaper as well as all AP news dispatches. SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Carrier Per Week 25c Yearly, in advance $12.00 By Mail York County, yearly in advance 7.50 Outside of York County, yearly in advance $12.00 Readers of The Gazette and Daily will confer a favor if they will promptly report to this office any failure on the part of an advertiser to make good any representa-tion contained in an advertisement which appeared in The Gazette and Daily. Thursday, September 26, 1957 Sixth Fleet. Just why she keeps it bottled in the Black Sea remains a mystery.

Janes "Fighting Ships" also lists Russia as having twenty cruisers of the Swerdlov class, all newer than the Salem, plus seven heavy cruisers, plus excellent new destroyers' and over five hundred submarines, mostly" new. For the first time since the war, Russian ships have been venturing from the Baltic and Black Seas and cruising in. the Mediterranean and Atlantic. In brief, the Russian Navy is now breaking out of its cocoon. In Saros Bay, therefore, a strategic neck of old Europe not far from the Russian Black Sea fleet, eight thousand Marines and seventy-five U.

S. vessels will stage the first full helicopter amphibious landing ever seen in Europe. At Tarawa in World War II, two hundred Marines were lost in rough seas. Heavy shelling by Japanese shore batteries at Iwo Jima caused more Marines to be lost in a desperate hand-to-hand struggle for the beachhead. But in this operation, helicopters will fly one thousand Marines, eight men per helicopter, over the heads of the enemy to attack from the rear, while other Marines attack from landing boats.

Turkish army support will be given, from land. The maneuver will be watched by NATO allies, and unofficially but probably with greater curiosity by Russians from a distanjee of the Black Sea. People-To-People Friendship Keeping our NATO allies happy and cooperative requires understanding on the part of naval personnel and wisdom on the part of the commander. Fortunately, Adm. Charles R.

Brown, Commander Sixth Fleet, has these qualities. He's operating not only a fighting force but a floating embassy of goodwill. His policy is to encourage European newsmen to come aboard and see how the Sixth Fleet is defending Europe. Every crew before going ashore is reminded that a sailor is the individual representative of his country. Result unpleasant incidents have been almost nil, pleasant incidents many.

When crippled children from the Pipka orphanage came aboard from Athens last week, the ship's crew not only gave them ice cream and cake, but, without saying a word to Capt. Francis T. Williamson, skipper of the Salem, the crew dipped into their pockets and collected $450. They did this just at a time a sailor appreciates money most when he is about to get shore liberty. When Captain Williamson was about to discard worn mattresses he consulted the Greek Red Cross, which was glad to get four hundred of them.

Here is part of a directive which Admiral Brown sent to the fleet regarding the importance of people-to-people friendship: "In port our mission is to promote international friendship Peace is marked by such things as goodwill, understanding, cooperation From my observations, the Admiral's directive is being so carefully followed that the Sixth Fleet has become as effective an arm for peace now as it could be for the war it's prepared to fight but may help to prevent. (Copyright, 1957, by the Bell Syndicate, Aboard the USS Salem, Flagship Sixth Fleet, Sept. 25. There was a day, shortly after the first Bikini bomb' test, when the strategists figured that navies were outdated and that Uncle Sam's fleet would sail the seven seas no more. Today the opposite is true.

With Moscow well ahead of the British as the second navy in the world and with a submarine fleet far bigger than ours, the U. S. Navy has become more important than ever. Flying over the Sixth Fleet, fanned out in the blue waters of the Mediterranean, watching both fighters and bombers take off from the deck of the Franklin Roosevelt every few minutes in practice maneuvers toward satellite countries, you get a sense of security and can understand why our Mediterranean allies appreciate its presence. Various Greek, Turkish and Israeli officials expressed to me their satisfaction over the Sixth Fleet.

The governor of Rhodes even remarked that two visits rer year by part of the fleet balanced the island's economy. In Athens, I noted that the arrival of seven American ships was greeted enthusiastically. Marines By Helicopter To see how the fleet really operates, however, I flew first aboard the carrier Roosevelt, then the flagship USS Salem, cruiser which juts up out of the Mediterranean like a traveling rock of Gibraltar. The fleet's personnel were busy preparing for a unique and highly important NATO maneuver on the Turkish coast namely, the marine landing by both helicopter and small boat. For this maneuver, NATO commanders picked Saros Bay, a thin finger 'of water in European Turkey just a few miles from Greece.

This is one of the most strategic spots in the world. Directly across to the south is the Dardanelles, whose beaches still bear the bleached bones of British ships, remnants of Churchill's and Lord Kitchener's tragic Gallipoli landing where thou-v sands of British troops lost their lives trying to storm Turkey in World War I. A few miles away to the north, Alexander the Great marched his legions to conquer the Persians. Further south the Crusaders from France and England stormed Moslem shores in a 100-year effort to take the holy places of Christ away from the infidels. This is the crossroads of east and west.

It is the crossroads which Russia must take to dominate the Mediterranean, which the Czars coveted for a hundred years and which present rulers of the Kremlin not only covet but seem determined to dominate. Already the Soviet has three potential submarine bases Alabama. Egypt, and Syria and the fleet recently sighted a Russian cruiser-destroyer force en route from Albania to Syria. When hailed by the Salem, the Russian ships didn't return the courtesy of the sea. Three Russian subs, attached to the Egyptian fleet, are one more than the ubs in the Sixth Fleet.

Further north, in the Black Sea, Russia has three times the navel strength of the As We Understand it a code or set of rules for conduct of city police court sessions has been prepared by the city solicitor and is about to go into effect. As we write this, we have not seen the code for police court and don't wish to see it until after setting down our own thoughts. For, we have had for years our own ideas of what police court procedure should entail in order to promote the most possible justice and equity for all persons who unfortunately have to appear there. The New Procedure adopted last week by Magistrate Fickes on the advice of City Solicitor Heller and praised in yesterday's column is one of the things that needed doing for many years. It answers the need that existed for clearly and definitely informing a defendant as to the charges against him and the portions of the city ordinance or state law upon which the charges are based.

The Most Crying Need in police court now is that defendants be represented by legal counsel. The ideal goal in this respect would be for all defendants to be required to have legal counsel. This, surely, would take some working out as far as details are concerned and may also take a little time. However, we believe that the goal of true justice can only be gained if every defendant in police court is represented by legal counsel and thus given every opportunity to present his story or defense. It is Our Opinion That a system could be worked out to get him capable legal counsel before a man gets into police court, but if such a thing is not possible or will not work, then we believe that a defendant should be granted the chance of a temporary adjournment of his case until he can obtain legal counsel, if he so desires.

In other words, we don't think any police court defendant should be made to stand trial until reasonable opportunity has been given him to "obtain legal counsel, if he desires it. As Far as the Ideal situation goes, every man ought to be required by police court procedure to have legal counsel before he is given a hearing. We believe that in most regular courts this is a standing rule, and when a man is unable financially to employ legal counsel the court sees that he gets it anyway. Something of the sort would be fine for police court. A Code of Procedure for police court to try to insure fair play and as much justice as possible should ban for all time the discussion of a case or any part of it between the magistrate and the police before it is heard.

Also, such a code should ban for all time testimony from either party which is irrelevant or immaterial to the case and the charge. Also any testimony which is not known to be a fact by the testifier himself should be banned. This means that supposed evidence or information gotten second hand should be completely forbidden. To Promote True Justice and fair play in city police court, defendants should be required to be in a sober and truly conscious condition. They certainly should not be tried while they are still under the effects of intoxication or sickness, etc.

They should, in other words, be in a condition to know and to understand exactly what is going on. Defendants in city police court as well as prosecutors should be given the right to cross examine the other parties including witnesses if there are any. Both Sides Should Have the right to call witnesses and both sides should be given full opportunity to say what they want to say before judgment is rendered as long as the statements are relative, pertinent to the case and don't entail information gotten second hand. This is not all. we have to say on the subject -ut it is all we have space for today.

M. GITT Of Past EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS One of the dodges of public bodies for avoiding full and complete disclosure of their deliberations is the device of the so-called executive session. This is a fancy name for keeping the public in the dark about opinions, problems, attitudes and so forth which enter into the discussion of public policy by elected or appointed officials. Here, of course, is where the real questions of importance come up; and where officials demonstrate their competence and degree of acquaintance with the" issues, as well as the motivations which lead them to take one position or another. After all this is over and done with, the formal vote, recorded in open session, is just about that a formality.

The fact that the vote by law must be taken in public has really not much significance. If newspapermen, who traditionally represent the public in attendance for reporting purposes at public meetings, are merely called in to observe a vote on a matter decided in secret executive session, the entire principle of transacting public business in the public eye has been ignored. This is just plain bad public business. And we are afraid that all too many officials do not grasp the distinction between operating a private business and operating a public business, such as a school district, a city, a county or the development of parking lots or plans for an airport. Absolutely nothing of these enterprises or projects should be withheld from the public.

Every last detail ought to be out in the open. This is so simply because the officials are not acting for private interests but for everybody. And what they do and think as representatives of the public is everybody's business. When elected or appointed officials take it upon themselves to discuss and decide things in executive session, they have only themselves to blame if the public gets suspicious. There may be no skullduggery or unsavory maneuvering going on the officials concerned may be of the best character and have the highest motives.

But if they engage in secret executive sessions they are by that very fact alone casting reflections upon themselves and their work. They are creating suspicion, which can be dispelled only by open meetings where all the cards are put on the table for the public to see. Episcopal Church at the annual conference, held at Harrisburg. The enlarged chapel of Trinity Reformed church, Hanover, was dedicated. Congressman Harry L.

Haines, of Red Lion, was the speaker. Clinton Lau, William Rohrbaugh and Stuart Grove were busily cutting wood on the Lau farm, near Glen Rock, when they observed a collision between an airplane and a buzzard. The former survived. The Hanover High football team defeated Hagerstown, 14-0, in the opening football game of the season for both teams, played at Young Athletic field, Hanover. Mary Anderson, director of the women's bureau of the U.

S. Department of Labor, declared that employers the nation over were "strangling their own industries" with indiscriminate wage cutting and reductions of labor forces. Arthur W. Ferguson, Fiffppn superintendent of York riuccri CUy schoolS( reporte(j Years Ago that every school public, private and parochial in the Greater York area was scheduled to participate in a scrap drive for the war program. York county commissioners authorized the purchase of an 83-acre farm from John C.

Miller for $20,000. The farm adjoined lands of the county institution district in the western portion of Spring-ettsbury township. Christian L. Seibert, chief river survey engineer of the state Department of Health, reported that two canning factories in lower York county were polluting the south branch of the "inky stinky" Codorus creek. Warren C.

Bulette, president-general manager of the Brandt-Warner Manufacturing company, York, and president of the State Chamber of Commerce, was recognized by the York Chamber at a meeting at the Country Club of York. He was presented with a certificate of esteem. Mrs. S. Nevin Hench, Fiftv pioneer kindergarten or- ganizer for Sunday Years Aqo schools of York, announced a "Baby Day" would be observed at Grace Reformed church.

"No mother need hesitate to bring her baby for fear he or she will cry. They are expected to cry and crying will be the order of the day," Mrs. Hench said. A flock of sheep owned by -J. Fred Fischer, the South George street butcher, made a dash for Penn common.

Several of them were found wading in the pool surrounding the electrical fountain. D. E. Greenwalt, York inventor, received his eighth patent in connection with a cylindrical merchandise and file holder he had invented. The charter of the Robert L.

Jones Slate Manufacturing company was recorded at York. Directors of the company were listed as Emma E. Smith, Hayden Jones and Isabelle Jones, Peach Bottom township; E. H. Keyser, Bridgeton, and Arthur L.

Jones, Delta. Charles Gable, West Princess street, resigned as a conductor for the York Street railway and announced he planned to move to California. Henry Gordon Thunder, new director of the Schubert choir of York, gave an organ recital at Trinity First Reformed church. Harry Price, of Codorus TwentV-f ive Furnace suffered a slight cut on his wrist when the Years Ago Ford Model-T truck in which he was riding collided with a freight train near Saginaw. Annetta Meek, daughter of Dr.

and Mrs. Allan S. Meek, 119 South Duke street, was elected song leader of the junior class at Cedar Crest college. Mrs. J.

Charles Heiges, 246 East Philadelphia street, was renamed diocesan president of the Girls' Friendly society of the.