York Daily Record from York, Pennsylvania • Page 12

12 York Daily Record, Monday, January 12, 1976 Comment Robed Magistrates ducted his business in a hat store. Now the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court has taken the district magistrates on another step in what all should hope is a move for the better administration of justice. The court has ordered the magistrates to wear black gowns when they are conducting hearings. Some magistrates think that the gowns are a bit pretentious, and they may be. But if they impress the majesty of the law upon the magistrates and all the persons who appear before them the move will be a good one for the commonwealth.

Then the offices of justices of the peace and aldermen were abolished and the offices of district magistrates were established. There are fewer of these than there were justices of the peace and aldermen and the district magistrates are paid a salary. It was a good step forward. Another improvement was providing offices for district magistrates. Their predecessors had their offices any place at all.

Some worked from makeshift offices in the parlors of their homes. Others had more elaborate offices in the basement of homes or business places. One York alderman con Not too many years ago the system of minor magistrates in Pennsylvania was a public disgrace. Most of the notoriety was caused by the fact that the justices of the peace and aldermen were more politicians than they were magistrates and because they worked under a system whereby the fees they received depending largely upon the amount of guilty rulings they turned in. Which meant, of course, that policemen stretched the law as much as they could to file a charge against alleged lawbreakers with magistrates who were almost certain to rule against the defendant no matter what the evidence was.

This is the year for a J. Edgar Hoover's Subtle Blackmail Tactics Jack Anderson knew their secrets. Inevitably, the word filtered through Washington that Hoover had a dossier on every influential figure in town. This whispered word had the effect of blackmail, without Hoover having to resort to the ugly practice. There were few important personages in Washington who didn't wonder nervously how much the FBI chief knew about them.

We spoke to former aides, for example, of every President since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Without exception, even the Presidents themselves were convinced that Hoover had files on them. The reaction of the late John F. Kennedy was typical.

He was reviewing some FBI reports in the Oval office one day. Suddenly, he looked up from his reading and remarked to an assistant: "I'd sure like to see the file the FBI has on me." Hoover also used gossip from his files to entertain a few key figures, whose support he sought to cultivate. In his private conversations with them, he might drop some intimate details about their contemporaries. Or if those he courted showed an interest, he might furnish them with actual samplings from the files. President Truman made it clear, with appropriate profanity, that he had no interest in the FBI's turgid prose, his former aides recall.

President Eisenhower, on the other hand, got an occasional chuckle from his FBI reading, a former associate President Kennedy's ex-aides insist that he didn't care to read about the sex lives and drinking habits of the high and mighty. But Washington Post editor Benjamin C. Bradlee, a close personal friend of the late President, has quoted Kennedy as telling him: "Boy, the dirt (Hoover) has on those Senators. You wouldn't believe it." According to Bradlee, Hoover once brought Kennedy a picture of a prostitute who was cavorting on Capitol Hill. This was hardly a matter of great national gravity.

President Johnson was an avid reader of Hoover's titillating tidbits, which were submitted to the White House in secret memos for his bedtime reading. Johnson had a fine appreciation, his erstwhile aides agree, for a story about some big muckamuck's extracurricular love life. Sources close to President Nixon tell us that he sometimes asked Hoover for derogatory details about his enemies. On at least one occasion, he personally phoned Hoover and solicited dirt about us from FBI files. The tapes of Nixon's private White House conversations also indicate he appreciated Hoover's potential for blackmail.

"He's got files on everybody, damn it," Nixon once remarked admiringly. This was followed on the tape by an appreciative laugh from aide John Dean. The truth is now out. Hoover's agents followed the affairs, sex WASHINGTON We have established beyond reasonable doubt that the late J. Edgar Hoover kept blackmail files on prominent people, including Presidents John F.

Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. These raw files contained gleanings from FBI offices around the country. Hoover's minions, knowing he liked derogatory information about people in power, kept him well supplied.

His agents spent a great deal of time, for example, observing and reporting on the sexual adventures of celebrities. The choice tidbits, ranging from pure gossip to vicious slander, were into fattening folders. The late FBI chief kept the most sensitive folders in his personal custody. They were removed after his death, according to our sources, by his faithful factotum, Clyde Tolson. These files could have had no possible purpose except blackmail.

Their existence is disturbing evidence that Hoover had turned the FBI into a political police force whose snooping practices had become all too similar to those of Adolf Hitler's Gestapo and Joseph Stalin's KGB. Hoover was not an overt blackmailer. His power depended for hail' a century on the good will of the nation's elected leaders, whose favor he curried. He. therefore, posed as their friend who wanted only to protect them from the whispers their enemies might spread.

By this approach, he made them aware subtly that he, too. ual and political, of the nation's leaders The FBI also spied on other famous personalities who had committed no crimes. This was an abuse of power that should be outlawed by Congress. Mobil's Jaws: In an advertisement appropriately titled "Jaws," Mobil Oil's business sharks charged we had "jawed" them by listing the company's profits at $3.6 billion. Mobil caught us in a clerical error, which we are happy to correct.

We mistakenly called the $3.6 billion "profits" instead of "income." But the point of our report is still the same: Mobil paid only 1.6 per cent in federal taxes on this whopping $3.6 billion income. The 1.6 percentage figure comes from a tax study released by Sen. Henry Jackson, D-Wash. Since tax studies can differ, we checked other studies. The most favorable one for Mobil, conducted by the respected Tax Analysts and Advocates, gave the company the benefit of a 16 percentage rate.

The difference is hardly enough to brag about. The oil barons contend these tax studies don't reflect the "taxes" they pay to foreign governments, for which they receive credit from the U.S. Treasury. But virtually every tax expert agrees that these foreign payments aren't really taxes but royalties paid for the right to pump oil. Overlooking Kennedy's Abuse Of FBI Files John D.

Lofton Jr. As Bradlee explains it, he saw the opportunity to write about the hate sheets spreading the anti-Kennedy gossip txit he needed "solid FBI documentation" to nail those who were doing this, and those financing them. Bradlee put his pnpisal to Kennedy press aide Pierre Salinger and tells the sequence of events in his book "A couple of days later. Salinger called me ith the following proposition: If I agreed to show the President the finished story, and if I got my fail up to Newport (R.I.i where he was vacationing, he would deliver a package of relevant FBI documents to a Newport motel and let me have them for a period not to exceed 24 hours It was specifically understood that I was not to Xerox anything in the FBI files that in case of a lawsuit. I would not bo given access to these files a second "I got on the next plane to Newport via Providence, and went ight to the motel.

The FBI files arrived soon afterwards, late in the afternoon, and we stayed up all night long, first reading WASHINGTON There have been allegations that in their investigation of U.S. intelligence activities, Sen. Frank Church and his I Ymocrat-controlled committee have been less diligent in ferreting out abuses committed while the Democrats were in power than when the (K)P was in the White House These charges are hotly denied by those so accused. But one incident lends credence to the allegation. One of the most widely read and talked-about books in this city last year was the best-seller "Conversations With Kennedy." ritten by Benjamin Bradlee, executive editor of the Washing-ion Post.

In his book a personal remembrance of his close relationship with the late President John F. Kennedy Bradlee tells how when he was a reporter for Newsweek magazine in 1162. he was given access to FBI files to write a story knocking down some other stories winch had appeared in several fringe group publications. These stones alleged that Kennedy had lieen previously married and divorced. everything in the files, then writing the story President Kennedy cleared the story and it appeared in Newsweek's press section on Sept 24.

1962 Since this seems to be an obvious abuse of FBI material and I did not see tins iastance listed in the Church Committee's report on political misuses of the Bureau --1 sent a Xerox of this chapter from the Bradlee book to die Committee and asked about it. Had Mr. Bradlee been interviewed by any Committee investigators'' Had Mr. Salinger been interrogated? No. responded Spencer Davis, the Committee's official press spokesman, they had not.

As a matter of fact, I was told, I was the first person to call this matter to the Committee's attention. None of the Committee's staff knew of this incident even though it was published in a best -selling bcxik, he explained. He said thev now planned to check this out with the FBI There is an interesting footnote to this episode. Not only had the Church Committee not heard of the Bradlee-FBI files storv. but those reporters covering the FBI story for the Washington Post Mr.

Brad lee's paper say they do not recollect this portion of their boss' book either. Reporter Walter Pincus says he read the Bradlee book prior to its publication but does not remember the part about the FBI files; reporter Laurence Stern says he also read the book but does not remember this section. John Goshko. who recently completed a four-part series for the Post about the FBI. says he read the Bradlee bwk but the part about the FBI files was not relevant to his stories since he was writing about the Bureau now.

and where it is going in the future. The Washington Post early last vear ran spwral excerpts from Bradlee book, but not the chapter detailing his use of confidential FBI files. Letters From Our Readers folder showing Charles Stein Jr. and William McKinley riding along on the top of a wagon of money and it urged the people not to vote for such men as county commissioners. Considering the enormous responsibilities of that office, it would be very foolish to put someone in that office who has not operated a successful business.

Since the York County Commissioners offices existed, there was never an instance of corruption in that office, but we were always lucky to have high caliber men of integrity in those offices, that is before the Democratic leadership tried to pin another label on these men. The result was that the President of the County Commissioners Charles Stein as pushed out of officel like one moves a checker on a checker board. The York Area Chamber of Commerce awarded Stein a framed tribute for Stein's encouragement and support of a sound business-like operation in county government and for his integrity, diligence and devotion to duty. The people of York should demand of City Council a public apology' for these sordid attacks upon these public servants, but maybe the sordidness is so deep that the apology will not be made. How can this coming year be a better year if cheap political tricks is the strategy of elected persons ho are supposed to be public servants.

Robert A. Simmons York 150,000 Romanians; 1,200,000 North Vietnamese, 300,000 Serbs, 100,000 Macedonians; 900,000 Croations; 1,000,000 Tibetans; 50,000 Albanians; 5,000 Bulgarians; 15,000 Czechs; 1,750,000 Germans; 150.000 Koreans; 400,000 Spaniards and on and on. Solzhenitsyn, Mindszenty, Wurmbrand, Granovsky, Shifrin and many others have tried to warn and alert us to hat is going on in the Communist countries. It seems that the only thing which continues to get cheaper in this world is the worth of a human life. Rick Eugene Knaub Windsor LAKE MARBURG HELPED To The Editor: This letter is in response to Elweltra S.

Sowers' letter to the editor of The York Daily Record concerning Lake Marburg in Codorus State Park. You should recognize that Lake Marburg provides a damper or storage for flood waters when the pool level is at elevation 623.0, which is the normal recreation level. The fact of the matter is that, at the time of the flood, the lake level was down three and one-half feet and, therefore, did store water as you suggested. If this had not been the case, there would have been a more severe flooding problem downstream. The important fact is that the Lake Marburg dam actually impounded water during the flood.

Another item of importance is that the confluence of the Codorus Creek Branches is downstream of Lake Marburg and, therefore, the flow downstream is an To Letter Writers The Daily Record encourages letters from its readers but will not publish them without the signatures of the writers. Because of space limitation, letters should be brief. Please limit them to 500 words. TALES OF TORTURE To The Editor: The recent claim, by a British doctor, of torture at the hands of Chilean police brought banner headlines in your paper. Assuming that the news media has finally become concerned about crimes against humanity, I wonder how long it will be before I read headlines detailing the acts of terror committed by the Communist nations.

If the press really wants to expose tales of torture, why fool around ith a little country in South America where such practice is common) when crimes of unbelievable proportions are going on daily in the Soviet Union. Or would such revelations about our "ally" be bad for Reliable sources estimate the number of victims who have died at the hands of the Suv'iet Communists as exceeding thirty-five million. Not to be out done, Mao Tse-tung has sent more than sixty million of his countrymen to their graves. Numerous oppressive campaigns by the Soviets have resulted in the brutal deaths of 100.000 Armenians. 5 million Byelorussians, 7 million Cossacks, 100.000 Crimean tartars, one and a half million North Caucasians, 1 million Turco Tartars, 200,000 Georgians.

500.000 Kalmuks and assorted others. According to an Associated Press report, Kissinger's friends in Russia are liow holding between one and five million people in concentration camps. Such Soviet camps number in the thousands. The conditions there of starvation and ser-v itude are worse than in the days of Stalin. There is continued forced labor, outdoors, at 40 degrees below zero, cruel medical experiments, stories of prisoner clothing infested with lice, hundreds of women being crushed by tanks, of nuns stripped and dragged through the freezing snow for the "crime" of praying in the camps.

Does it mean nothing that since World War II, the Communists have been responsible for the murders of 100.000 Hungarians: 300, Lithuanians; Latvians and Estonians; 1.200.000 Poles; The really ironic part is that recently I stood by a loved one who is 15 years of age. She was raped by seven men. After summoning courage enough to try to bring action against these men, she was humiliated, degraded, cheapened and made to feel as though she had committed the crime by some of the same people who are concerned about our safety. The charges against three of these men have been dropped by the Commonwealth, and the other four are walking around while waiting to be brought to justice. Think about this when your wives and daughters leave your home and travel about our city.

Shocked'' I sure hope so. Barbara A. Shumaker York DEMAND FOR APOLOGY To The Editor: I think that we should take our little black book and mark in it for remembrance to use on the next election day of the sordid political trickery of York City Council in accusing Mayor Krout and Congressman William F. Goodling for inaction to keep the York Post Office in York Cuty. In rebuttal.

Mayor Krout presented a list of 17 contacts he made to retain it; and also, that he did not catch the postal authorities in a lie or double talk as the council also contended. My personal opinion of Mayor Krout is that he is continually and sincerely working to make our city a better and a stronger city. In rebuttal. Congressman Goodling remarked that he was extremely hurt and disappointed that he was so charged; he listed 20 different times between late February and the week of Dec. 15 he met with city.

Chamber of Commerce, local postal union and federal authorities on the issue. Goodling has representative offices all over his district to get citizens views on the issues and to discover their problems and needs. I think that Congressman Goodling merits an extra high rating in political leadership. As a registered Democrat, before the election. I received a dirty, mudslinging accumulation of flow from both branches of the West Branch with still further downstream flow from the South Branch of Codorus Creek.

We are certainly sympathetic to your loss, however, the loss was diminished by Lake Marburg, not increased. JauriceK.Goddard Secretary of Environmental Resources Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania YORKERS CARE To The Editor: One of the most rewarding truths which we, the staff at Rest Haven Nursing Home, can carry into the new year is the knowledge that Yorkers care about older people. During the holiday season our nursing home teemed with people who were eager to bring cheer to our residents, and so many boxes of gifts were dropped off, it was impossible for us to know who the generous donors were. I would like to give my personal thanks to the many individuals and groups who helped to make the holiday season a joyous one for the residents at Rest Haven. Janet Ramsay, Recreational Director Rest Haven Nursing Home REPEAL OF SMOKING BAN To The Editor: Each pack of cigarettes contains the following message Waring: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health." In light of this warning it is difficult to understand the recent action of York City Council when they recently repealed the five-month-old smoking ban in the council chamber by a 4-1 vote.

Voting for repeal of the ban were councilmen Roy O. Borom. James R. Vogelsong, James S. A.

Bentzel and Edward J. Hamme. The only negative vote came from Council President Elizabeth N.Marshall. Was the vote to repeal the ban a lack of common sense? Too often a lack of common sense is found in the actions of elected officials. Was it politically motivated'' I wonder if those who voted to repeal the ban, after further thought, will have the courage to change their minds and put the ban in effect again.

I wonder. Their action certainly was in opposition to the slogan "Life Is Precious Death To Pollution" adopted over five years ago by York Chapter 67, Izaak Walton League of America. Joseph C. Wilt Member, York Chapter 67, Izaak Walton League Of America APOLOGY To The Editor: The Atomic Energy Commission has been changed to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I must apologize for this misrepresentation in my recent letter, though all concern is still apparent.

Cindy Blouse Dallastown TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS To The Editor: I just finished reading the article entitled "Release Of Convicted Rapist Protested." I never cease to be amazed at the stupidity of our illustrious "city leaders." I too would not like to walk the streets with a convicted rapist on the loose. But I present this letter as my protest against our outdated penal system and our very outdated laws. As far as I'm concerned, the man has committed one of the most vile crimes known to man. I don not condone his actions but ask where are our police when these things are happening on our streets. We are surrounded by uncaring people who don't want to get involved when crimes are happening right under our noses.

We say he's sick, then we put him in a cage, treat him like an animal for number of years, while completely dehumanizing him. Then he is released and expected to act like a good citizen. This is rehabilitation'' For God's sake, if he's sick, as we say. then let him and other criminals be treated at a center, making our streets safer for everybody. Yar.

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