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

2fl)t Wtc (Stm Page Of Opinion 28R Drawing A Tax Line CITY OP" LA CROSSE property owners have their mill rate established now for their 1969 tax bills, and city departments and the La Crosse District Schools know what their budgets are. The city budget no longer faces a mayoral veto, and the Common Council and the Fiscal Control Board didn't back away from the Finance Committee recommendations on the school budget. And School Supt. Edsel Vergin made the proper move in assuring the council and the community that will educate students regardless of the funds provided.1' IT IS up to the school board and the administrators now to see whether all the cuts made up a week ago to meet the demand for a $707.000 reduction are in the right places. No one will envy them their task.

There is a rather wide feeling that what is left for new textbooks, for example, is too little. Chopping off bus transportation for city high school students will stir a storm, though board members have logic on their side when they say that the money can be better used on instruction. WITH ALL THAT said, there is the view of city officials to be considered: that a one-year increase in school costs of far beyond a million dollars simply was too much to allow. City and county budgets are up. Both business and wage earners have been hit by the federal surtax, and a Social Security increase is just ahead.

Higher state taxes next year are virtually certain. A $3.75 a $1,000 tax increase this year is about all the traffic will bear. Eibow Room For LCU IP' ALL GOES WELL the next few weeks, La Crosse State University will get badly needed expansion room. Plans now in the works with the city and with Oak Grove Cemetery would, in fact, almost double LCU's land space. Not that in the long run it will be the cheapest land.

But it is adjacent to the present campus. And since it is in the marsh there be more available when the need arises. The first use will be athletics, but the new space also may be the site for a service and stores building. Within a decade, the marsh area probably will house academic buildings, FEW LA CROSSE residents realize how little space the state university here has to work with: 53 acres. La Crosse State is in the mid-range of the nine state schools in enrollment, but has less than one-fourth the land of the smallest (Superior1.

Eau Claire State has 290 acres: Oshkosh State, with the highest enrollment in the system, has 181 acres. Several schools, including Superior and Eau Claire, have made trade-offs with the city or state to get usable space. And the trend on new campuses is to avoid earlier mistakes by starting with enough open space for future growth. A new branch campus at Rice Lake is 145 acres, twice the size of its parent. Stout State; Richland Center has 133 acres.

LA CROSSE PLANNERS have known for 30 years that our future growth had to include reclamation and wise use of our marsh land. But nothing happened. At long last, the Army Corps of Engineers has floodplams studies under wav here, but a final report is a few years away. Meantime, engineers say construction in the marsh is feasible if the land is raised eight to 10 feet and other tests met. The present Memorial Field, shared by the university and city high schools, must go into academic buildings before many more years.

Planning for new athletic facilities, which could be shared by La Crosse State and the city, is not starting a moment too soon. aqml jhihjjuuL TWENTY YEARS AGO-1948 Long awaited off street parking lot at 8th and Main Streets completed and ready for use. A11 Southern California rocked by severe earthquake, with main force concentrated near Palm Springs and Mt. San Jacinto. 70 miles east.

Steel production 10 million tons short: government contemplates building new plants. President Truman pushes for national health insurance own project." Margaret Truman still trying for opera role despite increasing and fuss" of being the president's daughter. THIRTY YEARS AGO-1948 Supreme Court rules labor relations board has supervision over a company operating in one state, but selling its goods in other states. Julius Heil to create new position of director of purchases within the office, and indicates appointment will go to August Frey. Jimmy Roosevelt, the president's son.

begins work as movie official under Samuel Goldwyn in Hollywood. Wisconsin Federation of Teachers and farm groups support move to improve the services of rural school districts. Fifth anniversary of prohibition repeal finds volume of bootleg liquor declining, Washington reports. Wenzel (Pete) Wais, La Crosse, fighting a bad cold, wins Milwaukee Journal state match bowling tournament to become champion in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. FORTY YEARS AGO-1928 Common Council adopts budget at 30 mill tax rate; $10,000 payment due on airport placed in current expense fund, the airport" for time being.

Station WKBII, La Crosse, designated by Department of Commerce as weather reporting station contacting airmail planes on Twdn City-La Crosse-Chicago route. La Crosse Motor Club not affected by ouster of five state motor clubs for failure to maintain standard service. Mr. and Mrs. Halvor E.

Strand, celebrating 60th wedding anniversary, recall time when La Crosse was described as few shacks on the National committee on aeronautics says aviation made progress" in 1928 since start of flying. FIFTY YEARS AGO-1913 George E. Mariner, 67, pioneer druggist and businessman in city for 40 years, dies from injuries when struck by streetcar at 8th and Main Streets. Gen. John J.

Pershing, commander of U.S. Expeditionary Force in France, pays tribute to his troops; Excerpt: deeds are immortal and they have earned the eternal gratitude of our country." More than 300,000 U.S. citizens have died from influenza since Sept. 15, Public Health Service announces. Family Fights? Nixon And Republicans Have Golden Opportunity By JOSEPH KRAFT (Last of a Three-Part Series) DESPITE ALL the talk of a non-election and an un-mandate, Richard Nixon will come to the presidency with a glowing opportunity.

For between what he needs to do in governing and what he needs to do to extend his majority there is an almost perfect correspondence. The main question is whether his own party will let him succeed. The first clear obligation in governing is to achieve peace in Vietnam. And all the better if, as Nixon seems to want, the Vietnam settlement is achieved within the context of a general detente with the Communist world, including new and better arms-control arrangements with the Soviet Union. The second obligation is to restore order to the cities.

That mainly depends on showing concern for the black a large slice of luck. But at least the Nixon program for lax credits to rebuild the cities, particularly if not rejected by a Democratic Congress first time around, would probably not do much harm. The political gains to be won from peace abroad and in the cities are staggering. Peace abroad, in the context of detente, would win back to the Republican standard, perhaps for years to come, two large groups that have been flirting with the Democrats. The growing number of high- lv educated upper-income voters, specially sensitive to Vietnam because of their special concern for their own children would be brought back into camp.

So would the plains states with their long suspi- It 'Soles Wild' i In Uneasy World By LEON DENNEN Foreign News Analyst) NEW are in the news again. The current series of espionage cases and epidemic of mysterious murders and suicides in West Germany is another reminder that Russia's net of secret agents has grown to mammoth proportions. Technology has created unprecedented possibilities for espionage. But even in the age Leon Denncn of electronics, computers and spy-satellites, no replacement has yet been found for the man who. for idealistic or purely mercenary reasons, continues to ply the hazardous cloak-and-dagger trade.

In fact, like tax evasion, espionage is almost becoming a gentleman's crime. Col. Wennerstrom. who spied for Moscow, and Col. Oleg Penkovsky.

who performed similar chores for the United States, were highly respected officers and members of their elite. But none was more respected than West Germany's Rear Adm. Herman Luedke. who was found shot to death on Oct. 8.

Until a month before his mysterious murder he was deputy chief of logistics at supreme military headquarters in Europe. Luedke knew the secret location of 16.000 nuclear warheads. He not only knew but largely decided the location of NATO's food and ammunition dumps, spare parts and other logistical resources that would back up the forces in war. Since there is hardly any doubt that the admiral was a Soviet spy, there is not much about the military layout of the Western defense system that the Russians do not know LUEDKE'S murder was preceded and followed by the suicide of five West German federal employes, including the deputy chief of Bonn's intelligence service. Ever since a member of Czechoslovak senior intelligence officers escaped to the West, not a day has passed in the Bonn Federal Republic without disclosures of espionage cases.

It is the Czechoslovakian defectors, embittered by Russia's invasion of their country, who are mainly responsible for the current intensified hunt for the secret agents in the West. Some of the spy incidents are bizzare with comic opera overtones. Such was the revelation by the Bonn authorities that they had at last solved the mysterious disappearance of the American missile from a NATO depot in West Germany. Stolen about a year ago, the 165-pound missile, it turns out, was simply loaded by three men on a wheelbarrow, mantled in a passenger car and shipped to Moscow by air freight. After the disclosure, a West German cartoonist depicted Soviet intelligence agents in Moscow, opening up an air freight crate and discovering Bonn's defense minister.

Gerhard Schroeder. inside. CLOAK AND -DAGGERS have existed even before Joshua sent his agents into Jericho. The current spy scare is -weeping not only West Germany but Italy. France.

Britain. Austria and the United Nations as well. Nor is spying a one-way street. For each spy who works for the Russians, there is at least one or more who spies for the West. No doubt, divided Germany is a particularly happy hunting ground for Communist spies.

East and West Germans speak the same language and are generally undistinguishable. About 20 million West Germans have relatives in the east and some of them are blackmailed into spying for Russia. It is estimated that the Communists have about 5.000 agents operating in the Bonn Federal Republic. But, after Britain's traitor. Kim Philby, it is no use pointing a finger at West Germany alone.

There are undetected and highly placed spies in every defense organization in the world. Everybody, it seems, knows about everybody else. This, in effect, is what Russia's deposed Premier Khrushchev once told Allen when he was chief of the American CIA. Sihln sl And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous 2:46. cion of overseas involvement.

AS TO THE program for rebuilding the cities, it would almost certainly not be enough to win over the black community to the Republican party particularly if it did not get past the Congress. But if violence is diminished, large parts of the South and some segments of the white working class could probably be brought to complete the transition they have already begun out of the Democratic and into the Republican party. If that happened, the Republicans be in position to become the majority party in the country. The rub is that, in order to achieve the policy objectives required for the majority, Nixon would have to stand athwart important sections of his own party. To begin with, even to put together a program for peace in Vietnam and rebuilding the cities.

Nixon will need help, far more help than he has so far shown himself capable of getting, from the sophisticated thinkers of the universities. He will need, in other words, to fill his administration with a large influx of what George Wallace calls liberals." Moreover, to make peace, and then go on to detente the Does Anyone Know Republican party would have r. 0 ---------series of conces- JlSter WhereODOUTS murdering him. Well 'Maybe if we put it in a great big iHmjdeAA- ther King's murder, as civil rights were violated by to make a sions and handshakes that would have the effect of yielding up the diehard, hysterical anti-Communist position. Lastly.

in proposing a change in the tax system to accommodate the needs of the cities, the Republicans would have to go against the old-fashioned fiscal orthodoxy which refuses to use the tax system for social purposes Fortunately for Nixon, the worst Republican opposition to this kind of program was leveled in the election. Such extreme rightwingers as Max Rafferty of California and George Hansen of Idaho were beaten in their bids for the Senate. STILL there remains a hard nut of ideological right-wing conservatism inside the Republican party, hostile to filling the administration with liberals." to deal with the Communis s. and to fiddling with the tax structure. Several senators who played important parts in helping Nixon be nominated and Thurmond of South Carolina, John Tower of Texas.

Roman Hruska of Nebraska. Everett Dirksen of Illinois fit into that category. Thus to make the Republicans into a majority, Nixon will have to take on some of his most stalwart cohorts. In these circumstances, the odds that he ill succeed completely are not high. And probably the best guess for the lea-t in the absence of some striking event which precipitates opinions for decades to that American politics is entering upon a lull.

It will be an interim period of marking time, while both parties go through the travail of reshaping themselves to accommodate the majority that is waiting to be born. also was 1904) and Fern Sum- Editor, The anyone know the whereabouts of my sister? She was born June 20, 1900. Her father was Amos Summerfield; her mother. Daisy A. Summerfield.

My birthplace was Wyo cena. Columbia County. Wis. and her name is Anna Summerfield. My birthplace Wyocer.a 4 my name is Viole merfield.

I do not know what name she might have, or if she was adopted from the same place as I war. My name was changed to Elsie Violet. I was adopted from the American Home Finding Association of La Crosse on June 3, 1905 by Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Williams.

Later I lived with a Mr. and Mrs Edward Berry Both families were in the La Crosse vicinity. I th.nk. I have tried many times, many different years, to find my sister but so far I haven't had any luck If any relative of the Williams or Berrv familv read this and can tell me anything about my sister. I surely would appreciate Elsie V.

Eiswald, R. 1. Bertha Minn. 56437. Murderer Violated Rights, Too Editor, The Our has another tragedy to face: a young defenseless woman shot.

And that press release on the front page 2) really fascinates me So the FBI become involved in this hideous crime. Was this young La Crosse woman of the wrong color or race that the FBI involve itself9 They involved themselves extensively in Dr Martin Lu- this La Crosse woman's rights also Scibor- 1923 Weston La Crosse. Dentist Is Sorry The Campaign Failed Editor, The Children. my apology for our apparent inability to con- vmce your parents and grandparent: that fluoridation of the public ater supply of the City of La Crosse is extremely valuable. We know it is essential in decreasing tooth decay and in producing better bone structure.

The Javcees did a commendable job but the illogical tactics of the opponents were more convincing to your parents and grandparents. My hope for the future is that the concerned will msi-t on fluoriciat on for the people of La T. Cina, IES 112K Seiler Lane. La Crosse. Too Many People -In Wrong Places IN imp A i 1 HARRIS ALL the discussion and oversy about what has to be known as the ulation explosion," we erious 1 neglected an 11 disturbing a.soec4 of population )sinn.

ion" is a burst- is has been happening les since inw up arithmetically, the need for welfare and service goes up five times, or 10 times, as the cities are simply not equipped to cope with the masses of uneducated. untrained, jobless families who substandard dwellings and subsist on welfare payments or marginal ai the to American end World War II Not on has on- population grown by ns of millions, but it has also shift ed to the urban complexes at a rate we did not anticipate and cannot handle The is now. for the first time, a predominantly ur.c.n society. Some 60 per cent of our peoDle live in or around cities, and the trend shows no slackening off Moreover, many of these peo pie came directly from rural areas with no training for urban life. AN IMPLOSION of this magnitude increases social problems at a geometrical ratio.

While the population goes Whs crim Sydney J. Harris iselv refer to Trouble For State Debt. Too? School-Bond Casually Rate Rises By JOHN WYNGAARD MADISON Several national surveys recently have shown an abrupt shift to conservatism by the electorate on the issue of long-term bonding for public improvements and services. Now comes the State Department of Public Instruction. in a memorandum to local school men which suggests its urgency by the bold-face type in which it is composed.

J1 laments about similar reactions in representative Wisconsin localities lately on issues that never before had much trouble getting approval: bonds for school construction. rather pessimistic outlook has settled over the subject of school bond issues lately as a of the statistical results of bonding ref- Isn't It The Truth! Going Too Far Back in Washington from a nice, long vacation, Vice President Humphrey said he holds no grudges, not even against his fellow Minnesotan, Sen. Eugene McCarthy. we are bound to forgive an enemy, we are not bound to trust Fuller in 1732 (By Carl Riblet Jr.) John Wyngaard erendums." the organ of Supt. Wilham C.

Kahl of the state school department relates glumly. It then offers some telling examples of Wisconsin bond voting results recently. In the first half of this year there were 42 such propositions offered; 22 passed, and 20 failed, which the school message says in a fine example of understatement is a than pleasing percentage." Nor does the agency find it consoling that the dollar volume of the issues approved amounted to more than $40 million, while the rejected amount to about $25 million. WHAT such events mean is subject to differing interpretations. As the superintendent notes, sometimes bond Issues are revived, scaled down, and then approved.

Sometimes they can be salvaged with good public information campaigns. When the need is clear and demonstrated, the people of Wisconsin are not likely to oppose school facilities. Yet it is this reporter's guess that the American taxpayer is getting restless, that he has his doubts about the ambitious scope of some of the public service programs for which his purse is being tapped, and that he is using the only avenue directly available to tell his political representatives of his displeasure. A bond referendum is the purest form of democracy. It is the only time that the average citizen has an opportunity to express himself unequivocally on a proposed public expenditure.

Everything else is managed for him indirectly, through elected officials who frequently are more responsive to the organized and professionally led pressure groups than the unorganized writers of tax cheeks who find the taxed share of their earnings rising year by year. Gov. Warren Knowles shrewdly recognized the political value of his new taxes" second term budget, even as Democrats even now cannot refrain from chortling in public about the inevitability of substantial new taxes in the third Knowles term, and the near certainty that popular reaction will be to their advantage in the in 1970. next election result of this condition more than any other: a social more than a moral problem. Mere density of numbers accounts largely for the disturbances we have witnessed in American cities An increase in density, without room for expansion, builds up anxieties, tensions, frustrations and, finally, blind revolt.

1 am not speaking here only of blacks, but of whites as feel their a I threatened by this implosion, and who are just as much the victims of unplanned urban growth and a shockingly faulty educational svstem. IT WAS suggested in this space a few years ago that those legislators who are talking about an advisory referendum on the proposed $200 million borrowing program for a state outdoors recreation program expansion and water protection programs suspect the resistance of the voters to more borrowing. If they are guessing correctly, the fate of the long campaign to regularize state borrowing by the elimination of the building corporations may also hang in the balance. As matters now stand, the legislature has approved a bonding amendment to the Constitution for the first time. The presumption has been that it will give it the required second approval early in 1969, so as to put it up to a referendum next April.

--------------------------------------------Yet the signs are that it will jr be difficult to communicate tTnblUtf the fact that this is not a proposal to put the state into debt. That has already been done. It is a proposal for a more democratic, open and economical method of handling necessary borrowing. Even so, if surveys of the popular mood mean anything, the bonding amendment will be in trouble. OUR POPULATION must not merely be reduced, it must be dispersed.

Small towns must be made more economically viable; suburbs must be developed on a rational basis, not as a form of flight out of fear. The city alone cannot assume the dreadful burden of making a better life for its people; it is already buck ng at the seams, fiscally as well as physically, politically, and morally. As all history shows us, when cities crumble, the civilization collapses. A building cannot stand when its weight and density are too concentrated in one area. We need social architects more than policemen.

W. T. BURGESS, Publisher SANFORD GOLTZ, Editor Published every afternoon and Sunday mornirg in the La Crosse Tribune 4th and Cass La Crosse, Wis. 54601. The La Crosse Tribune Is a member of Lee Enterprises, and of the Associated Press.

The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for repub- licatlon of all local news pr nted in this newspaper as well as all AP news dispatches. Second Class postage paid at La Crosse, Wisconsin, Rates: Single copy, 10c; Carrier delivered, $1.25 every two weeks. Where carrier service not available, mail rales will be given upon application..