The La Crosse Tribune from La Crosse, Wisconsin • Page 6

1 Page Of pinion Page 6 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 1966 Safety Standards AMERICA'S romance with the automobile is of too long a duration for everyone suddenly to begin believing that everything is wrong with everything about leading product. Recent attacks on the industry have had a telling effect on the public, however. Doubtless anyone who has ever owned a car has been reminded of instances when he paid good money for a vehicle which exhibited something less than care and craftsmanship in its design and construction. THUS IT IS gratifying to see the four major manufacturers abandoning a pose of outraged innocence and the plea that they be allowed to police themselves and to come out with positive support of national safety standards. The industry wants a primary role in the writing of these standards, which seems reasonable enough.

It wants the 50 states to have a voice, which does not seem quite so reasonable. It also wants to water down the power that the bill would give to the secretary of commerce to set safety standards, which seems unreasonable pending further clarification. BUT AT LEAST recognition has been given to the fact that American automobiles are not as safe as they could be. With continued candor and cooperation between Detroit and Washington, there is no reason why the engineers and lawmakers cannot conjointly arrive with all due speed at a safety formula which will eliminate some of the tragedy which too long has been associated with the great American love affair. Less Than Champs IF AMERICANS were the big spenders abroad that the real have us believe, then this balance of payments deficit would indeed be imposing.

According to figures assembled by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, however, only 10 per cent of the money spent on travel by Americans is in international tourism. This compares with 40 per cent for the Netherlands, 50 per cent for Argentina and nearly 80 per cent for Belgium. WHEN PLOTTED against the population, the total overseas expenditures by U.S. citizens comes to only Sll a year per capita. The figure for West Germans is exactly double this, while Canadians and Swiss both average $29.

NEWS OF YEARS PAST TWENTY YEARS AGO-1946 State probes picketing violence at Milwaukee Allis-Chalmers plant. Local A-C management claims two staff trainees being barred from entering local plant. Dr. S. S.

Whitbeck, prominent Caledonia, veterinarian, dies at 76. OPA, astounded at word, investigating report price of suits are rising. Josephine Hintgen, guidance director of La Crosse public schools, on summer faculty staff at University of Wisconsin. Management and union sign contract at Electric Auto-Lite. THIRTY YEARS AGO-1936 Haille Selassie flees country as Ethiopian palace is pillaged in Italian advance.

Former State Sen. Bernhard Gettelman, Milwaukee, named chairman of GOP delegation to Republican convention in Cleveland. Otto H. Sill named chairman of VFW Poppy Day sale in city. Frohsinn Singing Society gives program at Pioneer Hall tonight, to be followed by a dance.

FORTY YEARS AGO-1926 General strike negotiations break down in England; nation faces greatest domestic Dominican Issue Widens LBJ-Bobby Kennedy Split 'Well, get in or get ROMNEY SHOOTING HIGH Reporter Finds Other States With Same Political Problems crisis in history. Nearly million and a half workers supporting striking miners. Postmaster C. C. Looney holding 500 letters for mailing on first flight of new Chicago- Milwaukee-La i Cities airmail route.

La Crosse being considered as site for new process brick manufacturing plant. FIFTY YEARS AGO-1916 Leisurely burglars raid pantries and carry off silverware valued at more than $1,000 from homes of Col. F. A. Copeland, 1327 Cass and Mrs.

Jessie Holway, 1419 Cass St. no says Chief John B. Webber. La Crosse Board of Trade, the and Club and the Retail Merchants Association move to unite activities under the La Crosse Commerce Club. A.

L. Goetzman and George W. Burton, prominent local businessmen, among citizens publicly denouncing Common Council for failure to repair bridge on La Crescent pike. City disclaims any responsibility for bridge. an new Commerce Club says.

American expeditionary forces to remain in Mexico by new agreement. By JOHN WYNGAARD is good for the statehouse reporter to take a respite from his usual work at intervals. There is the risk of becoming jaded. New perspectives are instructive, as I have often told the editors. But what happens when the old statehouse hand periodically deserts his desk for a leisurely trip to Washington As befits his occupation, he is an inveterate reader of newspapers.

And when he spends a couple of pleasant spring days driving toward the national capital he learns that political developments in the intervening states are nearly identical with those at home. In Michigan, Republican Gov. George Romney is engaged in a struggle with the Democrats, who control one house of the legislature. This sounds like home cooking. If there is a difference for the Wisconsin statehouse hand familiar with the operations of a divided state government in Madison, it lies in the realization that the Michigan executive is seriously preparing himself for a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968.

That fact perhaps makes him a more inviting target for the political foe than is Gov. Warren P. Knowles of Wisconsin. a MR. ROMNEY is shooting high.

The Michigan press indicates that all that is lacking is an acknowledgement of his intentions. A brief observation of current events of Indiana state government provides a reminder of the sameness of other issues. The new Indiana University state budget is higher than the expenditures of last year by a dramatic margin. The university president explains and justifies it in words that could have come from Fred John Wyngaard H. Harrington of the University of Wisconsin, and doubtless will when he presents his own new appropriations request next fall.

Enrollment growth is explosive, explained President Stahr. His school must compete with others for faculty, and so salaries must rise. His new salary program will permit him to raid the University of Wisconsin, perhaps. Then President Harrington will persuade the Wisconsin governor and Legislature to permit him to retaliate. Meanwhile, college teachers everywhere are in a market, and no doubt are happy about the circumstances.

IN ANOTHER respect the University of Indiana provides 7 hibunsL tfkadsAA, Stuf: WASHINGTON NOTES VIET NAM FLASHES- Chester Roning, veteran China expert, is on an unannounced mission in Viet Nam. The 71-year-old retired diplomat, who headed the Canadian delegation at the Geneva conference on Laos in 1961-62, is reputedly seeking to bring about a cease fire through the International Control Commission. He is said to be sounding out Saigon and Hanoi on letting Canada, India and Po- Ha aribunr W. T. BUHGESS.

SANFOBD GOLTZ, Published every afternoon and Sunday morning In the La Crosse Tribune 4th and Cass La Crosse, Wis. 54601 The La Crosse Tribune Is a member of Lee Enterprises, and the Associated Press. The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for repib- ricatlon of all Igcal news printed In this newspaper as well as all AP news dispatches. Second Class postage paid at La Crosse. Wisconsin.

Rates: Single copy 10c; Carrier delivered 60c per week. Where carrier not available, mall rates will be gtvee upon application. land (the three commission members) reconvene the 1954 conference as a forum for cease-fire talks. Under proposal, the three countries and representatives of the South and North Vietnamese governments would conduct the discussions and invite Laos, Cambodia, the U.S., Russia, Red China and the British to attend. The U.S.

is quietly supporting undertaking, although President Johnson reportedly believe it will get anywhere. He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, teach us to pray, as John taught his 11:1. Suggests A Way To Help India Editor, The Tribune: For years, now, the U.S. has been engaged in shipping India huge amounts of wheat to alleviate its food shortage. Recently, these shipments have grown in volume and yet food shortage problem is outstripping our aid at a rapid pace.

India is now being threatened by its worst food famine in two decades. Obviously, solving the food shortage problem with wheat shipments from the U.S., until India can develop a self-supporting agricultural system, is going to be a long and painful process for both India and the U.S. The crux of the problem is that exploding population will soon make our aid in wheat shipments ineffective, while, as a consequence, goal of a self-supporting agricultural system will continue to become more remote. This is why I think that food shipments alone are not a concrete solution to the problem. I think that a much more practical solution would be the combination of food shipments and the initiation of an expansive birth-control program in India.

It would be a simple task for the U.S. government to mass produce permanent birth control devices for women at a few cents apiece. Along with the wheat shipments, these devices could then be sent to India where India or American medical teams could administer them. Under this type or any type of birth-control program, I think that possibilities of future in the deaths of tens of millions of be altogether averted. Does our present aid program show indications of approaching this Hundt, Bangor, Wis.

echoes of Wisconsin development. It is expanding some of its two-year instruction centers into third and four year institutions, even as is Wis- I consin under the pressure of enrollments and the demand for decentralization of higher learning opportunity. In Ohio candidates for state office are making solemn declarations about the deplorable conditions of the rivers and pledging strong new legislation to control and prevent surface water pollution. A leading candidate for the state legislature in Cleveland sounds so much like Lt. Gov.

Pat Lucey in that regard as to make the reader wonder if they are getting their ideas from the same book. IN PENNSYLVANIA as we were passing through an officer of the State Highway Department was issuing an indignant press release about the cost of cleaning up roadside litter. Last year he spent more than $800,000 to clean up trash and garbage and miscellaneous strewn along the roads of 13 rural counties by thoughtless motorists. What made the announcement catching was his calculation that the roadside sanitation budget cost more than those 13 counties produced in vehicle registration fees. This is reminiscent of Wis- consin situations also, although our highway officials have not yet spoken out so 1 angrily.

The precipitate rise in the cost of road maintenance, including trash pickup as a conspicuous item, is one of the reasons why there is now a crisis in Wisconsin budgeting with regard to necessary road building. It would be useful for the state and county highway departments to calculate how many miles of new road could be built with the savings that would result if the motorists were as considerate of the public roadsides as they are about their front lawns. By ROBERT S. ALLEN and PAUL SCOTT WASHINGTON The highly volatile presidential election in the Dominican Republic is the latest arena of sharp differences between Senator Robert Kennedy and President Johnson. On top of their clashing over Viet Nam and Latin American policies, Kennedy is apparently deliberately expanding their rift by seeking to muster support in official and unofficial U.

S. quarters for ex-President Juan Bosch. In direct contrast Johnson is keeping strict hands off the The President has sternly ordered all administration officials to maintain absolute neutrality as between Bosch and Joaquin Belaguer, conservative candidate who privately is the personal preference. THIS LATEST backstage Kennedy-Johnson split is expected to be aired in a few weeks when Kennedy makes his long-expected speech on Latin America. It has been known for some time that he is working on a expression of on this subject, and has been conferring with a number of academic and other authorities on it.

The President personally referred to this latest rift between him and Kennedy during a White House conference with Democratic congressional leaders. In discussing the tense situation prevailing in Santo Domingo, the President complained that Kennedy was my policy of by urging officials in the State Department and influential publications to Bosch as much help as While making it clear that he was irked, the President said he was at a loss over what to do about procession of pro-Bosch Kennedy is helping to send to the Dominican pro-Bosch and anti- Belaguer President complained, beginning to appear in U.S. publications and to be reprinted in the Dominican Republic for use in the election There was no indication the President is considering taking direct action against Kennedy. He emphasized to the legislative leaders that he had directed Secretary Rusk to make certain all U.S. officials in the Dominican Republic remain neutral as between Bosch and Belaguer, and that no State Department help be given Kennedy in his forthcoming speech.

MAKING IT Senate colleagues who have seen preliminary drafts of speech say he will challenge the Latin American policy on a number of counts, and call for stronger support for left-of- center governments. Working closely with Kennedy on the address is former White House assistant Richard Goodwin, who is known to be critical of administration methods of providing aid to Latin American countries and the use of armed force to bar Communist takeovers, as occurred in the Dominican Republic. In discussing that controversial action with the congressional leaders, the President said emphatically that if he had to, he would do it over again, with one difference, By SYDNEY J. HARRIS WHEN SOCRATES was invited to escape prison by his friends, who had bribed a jailer, he refused to leave. have lived all my life under the laws and the protection of he said, even though I feel I was unjustly sentenced to death, I must stay and accept my Most Americans do not understand what is meant by and many dissenters do not understand it, either.

In this time of turmoil, it is important that we recognize the rights, and the limits, of civil disobedience. If a citizen feels that a law is unjust, or that it violates some higher law of conscience or religion, he has a right to resist it, if he does so with two qualifications first, he must not injure anvone in doing so, and second, he must not try to evade punishment for it. A criminal is one who breaks the law. injures others, and tries to escape punishment. A dissenter which includes a long and glorious line all the way from tes down to perfectly willing to suffer the penalties for his non-compliance with the law.

WHEN THOREAU refused to pay his road tax, and was sent to jail, he objected when friends of his paid his fine and obtained his release. He did not want his conscience nought off so cheaply. If a democracy is to have any real meaning, it must respect the right of dissenters to resist the law in a non-violent manner, so long as the dissenters are willing to face the legal consequences. Else, in time of war or other crisis, a democracy can turn as vicious as a tyranny. What is called the is, the body of laws promulgated by a specific government has no moral force unless it is Sydney Harris grounded in the For instance, the laws against the kulaks under Stalin against the Jews under Hitler, were inhuman perversions of the natural law, and deserved to be resisted, however they were.

In such countries, was impossible dissenters would have been summarily and therefore only revolutionary activity was effective. This is why only repressive governments suffer revolutions; they leave no other way for disagreement. IN A DEMOCRACY, however, it is still possible that dissenters may change the law through popular opinion, as long as free elections are available. To deny them the right to influence opinion through marches, demonstrations, any kind of non-violent opposition to create an underground, and truly subversive, movement in a country. We must allow dissenters such freedom, not for their sake, but for ours.

Repression, in the end, hurts the majority much more than it injures the minority. would move harder and fast- er in using Senator Kennedy has publicly declared that he would have moved slower and not at MYSTERY PUBLICATION of the mysteries of the Dominican campaign is source of money that is financing the publication of a widely circulated pro-Bosch pictorial weekly. Printed in Miami and flown to the Dominican Republic, the magazine is filled with reprints of U.S. articles favorable to Bosch and pronouncements. The expensive publication carries only a few ads, most of them from businesses operated by the provisional government of President Hector Garcia-Godoy.

U. S. intelligence reports these ads do not even pay for the glossy paper in the magazine. The publication, in addition to being sold at newsstands, is given away free by Bosch supporters. Belaguer partisans are charging the magazine Is providing Bosch with a major campaign media that they are unable to match.

Caribbean fallout Russia is again sending large numbers of technicians to Cuba. Navy intelligence estimates that 2,600 Soviet specialists have arrived since January 1. Of that number 1,400 are listed as military technicians and 1,200 civilians. U. S.

authorities are frankly puzzled as to their function. At least half of the military technicians are naval personnel. A report by the Organization of American States estimates that more than 8,000 weapons are still in the hands of Dominican Two Puerto Rican Juabe and Laura Meneses de Albizu are on the diplomatic staff of the Castro delegation at the United Nations. They have been reporting contacting Puerto Ricans in New York, and doing considerable traveling about the U.S. Soviet-Rome Talks Significant Advance The Limit To Civil Disobedience By DAVID LAWRENCE WASHINGTON Every now and then people get tired of the constant flow of unpleasant news and say, there something good There certainly were two interesting developments last week which belong on the favorable side of human events.

For the first time since the Communists took over the government in Moscow, the foreign minister of the Soviet Union had a conference with the head of the Roman Catholic Church at Rome. Very little was disclosed as to the conversation, and only a brief communique was issued which officially described the conference as agreeing that must work for the one goal of peace no matter what their political feelings or This is a significant advance. Religion and ideology have been in conflict inside Russia and, while token recognition is given to the worship of the Christian and other religions, basically Communism is opposed to such beliefs. IT MIGHT well be wondered just why the Soviet government sanctioned Foreign Minister mission to Pope Paul VI. But even in Moscow, there is an awareness of the tremendous influence wielded by the Vatican and the importance of making friends with the Roman Catholic Church, which has such a powerful impact on Latin America as well as other areas where most of the people are of the Roman Catholic faith.

It is a tactical move in diplomacy for the Communists to get closer to the Catholic hierarchy everywhere. The question still is unanswered, however, as to what the ultimate purpose of the strategy really is. Certainly the Communist parties in Italy, France and other European countries recognize that the chief source of opposition to them is to be found in the political parties in which Catholics predominate. Mr. Gromyko is calling for a of European governments, and to achieve this, it becomes necessary for the Soviet government at least to be on friendly terms with the Vatican.

There have been some rumors that behind it all is a move on the part of the Moscow government to find a way to wind up the war in Viet Nam. The Pope has been active in peace efforts for several months now, and it is conceivable that the Russians have made some suggestions which might bring about another peace move. THE GOOD NEWS is not, however, just in the international effort towards peace. There is something happening inside the United States which is also encouraging. The city of Washington particularly has seen many in recent months, but the one scheduled here this week at Constitution Hall is different from all the others.

It brings from across the United States 160 young men and women who say they have come to speak up and stand up for what they believe America stands for. They put on a musical show which is called Out It is sponsored by 158 members of the Congress of the United States, as well as by members of the diplomatic corps. The musical grew out of the rearmament demonstration for modernizing which was held at Mackinac Island, last summer. These young people are singing that free, got to pay a price, got to pay a sacrifice for your THIS TYPE of has been duplicated across America on 312 college and high-school at 20 military bases, and in many city coliseums during the last six months. Two weeks ago, the cadets at the U.S.

Military Academy at West Point stood up shouting and cheering for the perform- ahce, and the acting brigade commander of the cadets, speaking to the cast, said, are creating a spirit that makes the sacrifice of our lives, if we have to, After appearing at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis later this week, the cast flies to Germany at the invitation of Chancellor Erhard for a tour throughout the country. The entire group will (Publishers Newspaper Syndicate) ON BRIDGE NORTH 4 A 8 3 VQ 6 5 4 3 4 10 9 6 4 WEST EAST 4 10 9 4 7 4 2 10 94 3 A 8 6 5 2 10 7 2 8 4J2 473 SOUTH (D) 4KQ65 7 A A 4 AKQ85 East-West vulnerable West North East South 1 4 Pass 3 4 4 T. Pass 5 Pass 6 4 Pass Pass Pass Opening 10 No-Trump Bid Lost Match A recent team match was decided by hand. At one table the North South pair reached three no-trump.

West was unkind enough to make his normal lead of a heart and the defense had the i first five tricks. The bidding in the box took place at the other table. North- South were using limit raises and North gave a limit raise in preference to showing his diamond suit. South took command and bid the slam after checking for aces. East won the opening heart lead with his ace and led a trump.

South drew trumps with two leads and was then able to spread his hand because he had two trumps in dummy to take care of his second heart and fourth spade. How would South have played the hand against a 3-1 trump break? He would have played the third round of trumps and then gone after diamonds. Since diamonds broke 4-2 he would have been able to set up fifth diamond for a discard of one spade and last trump would have ruffed the second heart. The club slam was certainly a good one to bid and limit raises made it easy to get there but we feel strongly that the other North South pair should have avoided the three no-trump trap. Their actual bidding with no interferrence by East and West proceeded via one-club, one-diamond, two spades, three clubs, three no- trump, pass.

We feel that South should have bid four clubs rather than three no-trump. He had nothing that looked like a heart stopper. This four club bid would surely have produced a successful game contract and might well have led to the same club slam..