New Castle News from New Castle, Pennsylvania • Page 4

NEW CASTLE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1971 Our editorial opinion Hey! Look at this one! Legend of The Fox THERE IS among us a select group wanted to impress another man with his dog's extraordinary ability so he took him hunting. He shot a duck and the dog walked on the water and brought it back. No comment from the friend. The proud dog owner then shot another duck and the dog repeated the feat. No comment from the friend.

Hey," he said. "Don't you notice anything unusual about my dog?" The friend commented, "'Yah, he can't swim." OFF THE ROAD Elia Skinner, who manages the Pulaski flea market, says many tourists visit the grounds just north of Pulaski on Pa. 551. She said visitors come from all parts of the country on Thursdays Will wonders never cease? Jim Cox of Volant, a dedicated trout fisherman, is planning a trip to fish for bass If you want a good argument some time, ask a couple of East Siders where the East Side boundaries are The water in Lake Arthur was so clear one day last week it looked like you could drink it Men who've caught monstrous fish realize that -the biggest ones in the world are tiny bluegills reeled in by their kids When a man brags about a big fish he caught, it's nice to have a bigger one in the freezer Victor Litterini of Crowe St. in Shenango Township, retired from Blair Strip Steel, has taken up bike-riding for fun and exercise.

He's pretty good at changing flat tires too It's a pleasure to know a local mechanic who fixes a car as if it were his own. It makes you feel good when you're moving down the turnpike. Don Bodnar watching. Start taking machine apart. 1:00 Big shot leaves.

1:10 Get into argument over high taxes. 1:25 Hit finger with hammer while looking at sweater girl. 1:30 Decide to find out who sweater girl is. Walkover. See foreman coming.

1 :45 Keep wondering who sweater girl is. Ask six guys. All want to know. 1:47 Assistant foreman coming. Start to study blueprint intently.

2:00 Go for smoke. Ask nine guys for cigarette. No smoke. 2:10 Go to machine. Some smart alec put grease on all handles.

2:15 Tell foreman this job hurts my back. Want job where I can sit down. 2:25 Knock over full can of rivets. Spend 10 minutes picking them up. 2:30 Go to get drink in other department.

3.00 Start cleaning up. Put tools away, put tie on. 3:20 Watch out for foreman. Watch out for assistant foreman. Watch out.

3:26 Take apron off. Put coat on. Put apron back on with strings untied. 3:30 Whistle: ZIP! Went home dead tired. HOPE MR.

ANTTILA doesn't mind the fact that I used some liberty with the words written by the author, whoever he may be. Mr. AntiUa, who's on the executive board of the Lawrence County Labor Council, received the piece from his son, who bears the same name and is in the Navy. Then there's the one about the duck hunter who was proud of his dog, who could walk on the water to retrieve the birds. He I'M ALWAYS suspicious when a man smiles, hands me a sheet of paper and at the same lime says, "Hey, look at this." It happened the other day.

when ran into two fellow East Siders, Pat Cappatt and William Anttila. After we were done bragging about our families, Mr. Anttila pulled out the sheet of paper and waited for a reaction. All 1 could do was laugh. "You mind if I use this in my column?" I asked.

"No." he replied. "OK to use your name?" I asked. "Sure, go ahead," he said. guys in management tike it too." Here it is: Employe's time and motion study. 7:00 Punched clock just as whistle blew.

7: 10 Made round of gum machines. No gum. Lost seven cents. 7:30 Start looking for tools left by night shift. 7:40 Find pliers.

Grind name off. Put in my own tool box. 7:55 Fellow in other room motions for me to come over. Gives me some gum. 8:05 Go to tool crib to tell attendant story.

He tells me an old one. 8:25 See foreman coming. Pick up hammer and start pounding. 8:35 Argued politics with eight other guys. 8:55 Looked at lunch box to see what wife had packed.

Ate banana. 9:00 Match coins with milkman. Drank pint of milk and ate two sandwiches. 15 Went to restroom. 9:20 Drilled hole in piece of metal.

Hole too large. Weld hole and start again. 9:25 Go for smoke. Write name on wall. 9:30 Walk across room to see what fellows are laughing about.

9:32 Begin to realize that guy gave me a laxative gum. 9:33 Sleep 15 minutes. 9:50 Plotting to- get even with other guy- 9:55 Don't need drink, but go for one anyway. 10:00 Look for place to hide part made the wrong way. 10:03 Can't find place; toss under partner's bench.

10:07 Look under my bench. Find part made wrong way by night shift. Go to foreman and say to him, "Look what some guy left under my bench." 10:15 See new female employe: Go over and kid with her for 15 minutes. See foreman watching. Pick up 45 pound piece of steel and walk away.

10:32 See freight train go by. Count the cars. Bring the steel back. Realize its almost time for lunch. Look in lunch box, remember all eaten except two meatballs.

11:00 Fix place to sleep on bench. 11:30 Whistle blows. Draw whiskers on picture on wall. 11:40 Pricked finger on piece of steel. 11:42 One guy helps me to first aid room.

Wait in line while nurse takes care of 76 females suffering from old age. Nurse looks at my finger and gives me a vitamin pill. 12:10 Go to beverage machine for Coke. Contact 11 guys for change. Cooler empty.

12:45 Go to my machine. See big shot and field. The first three teams he coached here went undefeated and not until his eighth season did one of his clubs lose more than one game. He scored victories over most of the powerhouse schools of that day including the unforgettable 1937 triumph over Massillon. Ohio, coached by the one and only Paul Brown.

HE WAS a taskmaster and a disciplinarian Gruff, hard-boiled and unyielding, he was known more than once to apply the toe of his shoe to the seat of someone's pants or to bump one head against another to get his point across. Those tactics would probably draw howls of indignation today from youngsters and parents alike, but in those days it was a part of making the team and making the team was what counted most to a large majority of New Castle's young men. Although they probably grumbled at the time and maybe even cursed under their breath, it is these same men who delight today in recalling that they were once one of those who Bridey booted or clouted or bellowed at. They're proud of that today and they are certain he had more than a small part in molding their futures. For that reason, as many of them as possible will take this opportunity to say thanks.

Much of what will take place has been kept secret, but it is sufficient to say that after tomorrow night future generations will be easily reminded of the deeds and accomplishments of the of men who achieve sufficient success while they are still living so that they become legends in their own time. One of these is Phillip H. Bridenbaugh, who will be paid tribute tomorrow night in a long-overdue gathering at The Castle Arms Motor Hotel. At the age of 81. Mr.

Bridenbaugh's activities today are limited 10 a round of golf, a bit of fishing or a seat in the stands at a New Castle High School football or basketball game. But there was a time when the name Bridenbaugh and New Castle were synonomous. and for 34 years it was that way. A native of Martinsburg. Bridenbaugh arrived in New Castle in L922 as New Castle High School football coach and long before he retired in 1956 he had made the Red Hurricane a name to be feared and respected on the gridiron, the basketball court and the cinder tracks throughout Pennsylvania and several surrounding states.

He was acclaimed without hesitation in his day as the foremost high school football coach in Pennsylvania and one of the finest in the nation. His records border on the unbelievable. HIS NE-CA-HI football teams won 273 games, lost only 63 and tied 26. His basketball teams won 319 and lost just 159. He marched through 11 unbeaten seasons in football and captured seven WPIAL Class AA championships, more than any other coach by far.

To this he added two WPIAL basketball titles, plus numerous championships in track Bottled in bond man they called The Fox. Anti-drug crusade imperative IN ONE OF THE best-known soliloquies in literature. Hamlet rejected "the sleep of death" because he found the unknown too fearful: he elected instead to bear the ills he knew. Today, multitudes of Americans have deceived themselves into believing that they have discovered an alternative between reality and death. They think that in narcotics they have found at last the nirvana that Hamlet and others like him have sought through the ages.

Actually, of course, they are stumbling into the very sleep of death from which Hamlet recoiled. The optimum THERE MIGHT BE a lesson for our economy a nd our society i the maxim of a racing driver. Stirling Moss once made a paradoxical comment on the way to win a race: "It consists in driving as slowly as you can." What did he mean by this strange remark? He meant that the racing driver tries to win by the smallest possible margin: that he goes only as fast as is consistent with edging out the other drivers; if he tries to go the limit and beat other drivers by a large margin, he will almost surely crack up and lose. Moss was making the distinction so often forgotten by the rest of us in other fields between the "maximum" and the "optimum." It is an important distinction in every kind of race, and understanding it may mark the difference between success and failure. THE "MAXIMUM" MEANS simply the most, taken as an absolute in itself.

The "optimum" means the greatest degree or best result obtainable under specific conditions. For instance, the maximum speed of a racing car may be 200 miles an hour: but the optimum speed what is needed to win without cracking up may be only 160 miles an hour. At anything above that, the risk is greater than the possible reward. Our economy heretofore has always aimed at "maximization" at maximizing profits, at maximizing production, at maximizing income, and all the other indices of "affluence." Our motto has been "The more the better and therefore, the most the best." But suppose that "optimization" is what we should now aim for not the "biggest" but the "best" result in terms of the specific conditions of life on earth? This would imply changing our scale of values so that drug addiction focuses primarily on young people. The President's proposed four-point strategy against narcotics is divided between prevention and cure.

HE WOULD WORK to cut off drug sources, including those abroad, and crack down on pushers. For drug victims, he would offer expanded programs of rehabilitation. Finally, he suggests a massive educational program on drug perils. Most significantly, at a time when many voices are urging legalization of drugs simply because of their widespread use. the President sees no social or moral justification whatever for legalizing marijuana." He says, Tt would simply encourage more and more of our young people to start down the long, dismal road that leads to hard drugs and eventually self-destruction." The President's strong stand finds solid scientific support.

A typical example. Dr. Harold Kolansky, a Philadelphia psychiatrist, compares marijuana addiction to "playing chemical Russian roulette." MEDICAL AUTHORITIES now report alarming deterioration by users of marijuana once considered a mild drug. These include apathy. 7 jSr The newest attempt at a tax The growing use of various forms of narcotics is one of the tragic phenomena of a disordered age.

As President Nixon observed recently. NEW CASTLE NEWS disorientation, and confusion a toxic effect on the brain and nervous system. While not all marijuana users graduate into hard drugs such as LSD and heroin, ail evidence indicates that users of the latter almost invariably started with marijuana. In short, smoking pot a few times a week is not the harmless "turning on" that popular folklore has proclaimed it to be. The magnitude of the drug problem means that the President's anti-drug offensive must be enacted and enforced if the nation is to be purged of this vast evil.

Copley Newspapers the long-term "social costs of our economic efforts are taken into consideration, as they have not been in the past. FOR IT SEEMS CLEAR that we have to choose today between quantity and quality. It is the sheer quantity of our production beyond a certain amount that reduces the quality of our lives; the two. unfortunately, do not rise together into infinity, but at some point must be held in a sophisticated balance. The task before us now is to learn how to "optimize" our society, so that we reach our goals without cracking up.

This might mean lowering our standard of private living, so that our public needs can be met. It might mean decreasing the use of energy to maintain environmental health. Whatever measures we take, if we keep firmly in mind that the "maximum" may be the enemy of the "optimum." our track record might be as impressive as Stirling Moss'. Sydney J. Harris personal property tax on securities of Pennsylvania corporations.

Offhand this sounds rather innocuous and not too critical but a closer look reveals some interesting points. For example, under the legislation, political subdivisions throughout the state (and this includes school districts) would be able to impose an additional four-mill tax on personal property such as stocks, bonds, mortgages, debentures, which would be in addition to the existing personal property tax area not now covered by these current exemptions. THIS ELIMINATION of the state ban on taxing Pennsylvania corporation securities has been a key point in the plan for Philadelphia to "bail itself out of its fiscal morass but under the legislation, for example, counties would be permitted to collect a four-mill tax on the market value of Pennsylvania corporations, and in addition, permit various school districts to levy another four mills, for a total of eight mills. An upstate banker in a letter to this column explained how the legislation would affect bank shareholders (and there are many pensioners and fixed income senior citizens in this category For example, if bank stock were currently selling for $30 a share and paying dividends of $1.40 a share, then on the basis of 100 shares, the tax on the $3,000 market value would be $24. Of course the dividends would amount to $140 but equating the tax to the dividends paid would give a tax rate of approximately 17 per cent! IN EFFECT, while the legislation might help bail out Philadelphia and its debt-plagued school district, it could become a loophole through which other political subdivisions throughout the state might well leap if the current tax exemption schedule is eliminated via the pending legislation.

Or. as our supstate banker friend commented regarding the legislation: "It is unjust for one reason in that it is primarily directed at those individuals, who because of their own industry have acquired some securities to help provide for their retirement years and for the financial welfare of their families. It is a tax measure that would strike at senior citizens, widows and orphans, among others." Let Philadelphia solve its own woes as the rest of the state has to do but not constantly at the expense of we "poor wretches in the upstate provinces" Mason Denison THE CITY of Brotherly Love (perhaps more familiarly known as Philadelphia) almost seems obsessed with the idea of feathering its own nest at the expense of the rest of the state. Latest in a somewhat long and irritating line of forays in this area centers around a half-dozen bills introduced in the Legislature (by Quaker City lawmakers, of course) designed to produce some S45 million in new revenue for the financially-pressed village along the swamps of the Delaware and the equally hard-pressed village school system. The great effort wouldn't be worth smouldering over insofar as upstate Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia is concerned if the proposal affected only Philadelphia.

This isn't the way it would work out however for while the revenue-raising legislation is designed primarily to help bail out Philadelphia, it would also apply to the rest of the state. Among those who would be hardest hit would be senior citizens on retirement, those who count on investment dividends for at least a part of their income, etc. IN ESSENCE what the legislation would do is eliminate the present exemption of PublisimJ F. tn Ei mint Kicrpt Sopdai Sfffmd-CUss pmlajr pjidat Nfw CiSlIr. Pj.

1SI51 The Castlr. ri iwhlKhpijMnrljoiHiidicjtfdjnd local columns provide readers ur.h differrnl'pomis ofir. Rxadtn par wilh letters to The People Wrile. Rjrturd L. Renti.

President and Pohlber J. Frrd Rent! SwrfLmTcnml VtaaKr Eleanor TrradVtil Pai-on SetTflirx Iniurd T. Knlasinski Maoapnf Kdjlo'r Jack IS Rartholic wnsiB( and Credit Manjfer Ml Telephone iPmaie Kxrhjnpe. sy, Vds 6iS-jl1 Home deliver. Tar werUv (infjr pnrr 1 sr On jurem-e Counlv K'i rmmtth; Sis 00 mi imiplhs: KSM snnoalh All other arm in M.

monihl. UT tor To the point- TODAY'S mistakes tomorrow's regrets. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. Luke 5: 3. A city at the mercy of ive men NEW YORK CITY, whic cannot pay its own bills, apparently wants to become a city-state.

Mayor John Lindsay has come around to the idea first offered by William Randolph Hearst and in the last municipal election by mayoral candidate Norman Mailer, the impertinent author fellow. However. Lindsay had better be careful iest President Richard Nixon. Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and probably 96 U.S. Senators take him up.

One can sympathize with (he mayor In a world that seemingly thinks that public employes have a right to strike without regard to the safely and health of the community, he has no control over events. But if New York City were a Free Stale, would he be any better off? He'd still be at the mercy of just about five men who cannot Meanwhile, the sanitation men let gallons of raw sewage be dumped into New York City's waters while they conducted a parallel walkout. The strike of the municipal workers was aimed at Albany in hopes of forcing the State Legislature to accept a city pension plan. The stoppage in New York was no skin off the noses of legislators from the boondocks, some of whom couldn't care less about the Big Town. The air in the Adirondacks.

and the Hudson River water above Peekskill, remained unaffected by-one of the most misdirected strikes in history, although it must be said that Long Island waters were dirtied. IF GOTBAUM still hopes to get the young on his side. I'd like to show him a letter from a youthful non-admirer of this be touched bv the voters. THE SACRED FIVE arc John DeLury. president of the Uniformed Samtatinnmen's Association: Victor Gotbaum.

executive director of District 37 of the American Federation of Slate, County and Municipal Employees: Matthew Guinan. successor to Mike Quill in the Transport Workers Union; Edward Kiernan. president of the Policemen's Benevolent Association: and Michael .1. Maye of the Uniformed Fire Fighters Association. In the prevailing atmosphere any one of these men can stop the works at his pleasure, and it is hard to believe that Lindsay, if he were Governor of the Free City of New York, would have any more actual power in extremity to gel the garbage moved or the sewage treated or the policemen out to their beats, than he has now.

THE SACRED FIVE consider themselves honorable men who arc protecting the rights of their unionist rank-and-filers. and they are right in terms of current liberal opinion which makes no distinction between public and private employment. Just the other day. on the op. ed.

page of the New York Times, District Victor Gotbaum spoke of the need for a new labor idealism that would attract the young. In doing so he mentioned favorable "those who struggle for the defense of our environment." So. in defense of the environment, he had his bridge-tenders open the drawbridges to Manhattan on a hot day. cutting off essential motor traffic and befouling the atmosphere with the fumes of choked and idling cars. governed a free state (Washington would still be cleaning the taxpayers out), and he would have the same public employe labor bosses on his neck in any case.

At that, he could do better even with his current resources if he only would. I have on my desk a most sumptuous publication called "Plan for New York City," put out by the City Planning Commission. The book measures two feet by two feet, and contains scores of beautiful pictures and maps. It must have cost thousands of dollars to produce, yet, as former Commissioner Beverly Moss Spatt says in a dissenting addendum, it is supposedly just a "discussion draft." As such it might as well have been mimeographed on butcher paper and the savings devoted to some real need of the city's poor. John Chamberlain columnist who asks, "Why not aim your venomous pen at the flabby laziness of labor unions, symptomatic of the lack of pride shown by your generation?" The kid is right about the unions tt not about me: a less flabby bit of thinking would have taken the union men to Albany, to picket the legislature instead of conducting a protest in New York City that only served to foul the municipal employees' own nest and hit a lot of innocent bystanders who have no power to act on the unions' pension demands.

Query: why aren't citizens' damage suits against unions more practicable? Beset by his own arbitrary' municipal labor leaders from within, and unable to get money from without. Mayor Lindsay seems a pitiable figure. But he wouldn't necessarily have any more money if he.