The Brazosport Facts from Freeport, Texas • Page 2

mUEST EDITORIAL Mountain out of a molehill THE BRAZOSPORT FACTS WE HAVE SEEN over the past few days the creation of something new In chess, the Fischer gambit this is where you threaten to hold your breath until you turn blue and-or pick up your chess board and go home unless you can have your own way. A true inspiration to the youth of America, Bobby Fischer has shown us that these tactics work in this greed- smudged real world. FISCHER'S PERFORMANCE, the prelude to the world chess championship match in Iceland, should not have surprised us. He has, after all, never said he was sensitive, poised, considerate, modest, generous, admirable or intelligent He. has said only (though many, many times) that he is the best chess player around, in Brooklyn, the United States, the world and presumably, the universe.

Let us assume that he is right. The next question is, so what? Fischer seems to be operating under the belief that because we pay our athletes and entertainers outrageously large sums of money, we should do the same for chess players. From his point of view this is reasonable, of course. But from else's it is super- arrogant nonsense. That we are foolish enough to sanction paying Tom Scaver $125,000 a year to throw baseballs is no Justification for our being foolish enough to sanction paying Bobby Fischer $200,000 for shoving a bunch of toys around for a month.

FOR ONE THING, there is the two- wrongs-don't-make-a-right theory. For another, there is the fact that chess is not, either historically or intrinsically, an interesting spectator sport. Such vicarious enjoyment as chess games provide comes from leisurely study of the move-by-move account, not from watching Fischer knit his brow in thought or lick his chops in fiendish anticipation of crushing an opponent's ego. Maybe at some future time there will be enough fans around to support chess in the fashion to which Fiscljer would like to be accustomed. But right now there are not.

And no exploiting capitalist is getting rich on Fischer's talent. This makes it doubly unfortunate that London investment banker James D. Slater sow fit to add $125,000 to the world championship purse. For Fischer's threats to quit the match bordered on extortion and his bluff should have been called. This would have been painful for costly preparations for the match Fischer held hostage.

But it would have put Fischer, a fatuous, graceless man, in his proper place, that of someone who happens to be a at a trivial pastime. Now, though, we have the confrontation. FISCHER HAS AT TIMES tried to make his match with defending world champion Boris Spassky a Cold War kind of crusade, good old American versus godless Russian Communist. But he was not so dedicated to the crusade that he was willing to wage it for a mere $100,000. He was not so proud that he would not apologize to the Russians to save the match and his money.

And he was not smart enough to realize that if he had just quietly won the championship, he would have earned the respect and probably, the financial rewards he demanded so prematurely. Go. Boris. (The Galveston Dally News) JIM BISHOP: REPORTER The sounds and smiles of summer Summer in. A blue lake in the palm of a mountain, the icing melted.

A teen-age girl staring into a mirror, stunned by new freckles. A skinny old man standing on the edge of water, stooping to scoop handfuls for ancient shoulders. A bronze sun in the west, reluctant to set. Middle-aged America dressing to the nines for one night of cocktails and cha-cha at the country club. infant in diapers fighting round after round against the heat of night.

Human lemmings, from Illinois to India, from Topeka 1 Tokyo, making the annual pilgrimage to the edge of the The whispering roar of air conditioners. The daily countdown to vacation time. Big baking cities with children playing in the bottom of the ovens. Bearded hippies, in the park prepared to solve the ills of the world without a medical license. Liberated women who are tired of being sex objects wearing as little as possible to maintain their status as sex objects.

The hour before dawn, when moist diamonds sparkle on the lawn. A boy with a bamboo -pole and a stubborn ex- pression walking across fields to a dark and cool running stream. The industrious sound of bees. Small green apples hanging in an orchard, impatient to grow up and acquire a complexion. The lottery of leaves, spinning heads and tails, from bright side to dark, at the mercy of gambling breeze.

Hot iron faces in a steel bus. A handful of bright confetti thrown into the night sky. An old lady rocking on the front porch with wool and needles, missing nothing that passes, never dropping a stitch. Birds staking a claim to a branch office. Trees in a valley reaching for the sun.

Fireflies winking at jet planes, which wink back. A white ship on a blue horizon, QUICK QUIZ What is fumed oak? Oak given a weathered appearance by exposure to fumes of ammonia from un- corked cans, being first giv- en a coat of filler. How many eggs does on alligator lay at a time? Alligators grow to 19 feet, live about 50 years and lay as many as 80 eggs at a time. From what two direc- tions do the trade wmds blow? i A '-Southeast and north- creating its own breeze. The irresistible urge for a late afternoon nap.

Cold cuts and a salad for dinner. A hardhat perspiring as he watches a cold beer perspire down the outside of a glass. The oil burner in cardiac arrest-. The shocked expression of children who are asked to help with housework. The sweet smell of grass after it gets a butch haircut.

The slides, the swings, the money bars, the sedate trot of carousel horses. Ice cream cones, popsicles, little ruining feet wearing out where in God's name do they -get the energy? A mother duck ordering eight frightened babies into the water, or else. Roses on a fence pouting pink lips for a kiss. Corn in orderly regiments waving their arms for attention. Climbing up a rocky hill looking for wild raspberries and blackberries.

Cool craggy mountains looking high toward eternity. A gushing Tire hydrant, the Coney Island of the ghetto. Seegulls complaining about their stomachs as they stand still in a pale sky. The sunny shadowless world of 1 p.m. Young lovers hand-in-hand; he, dreaming of tonight; she, of tomorrow.

A swift brook polishing round stones. A rainbow trout shattering the smooth pane of glass on top of a lake. A boa constrictor of traffic slithering on four-lane concrete. Golf balls arcing everywhere, a summer hail storm. A rusting snow shovel in the back of the garage.

A little girl in Mary Janes, white sox, pink starched dress, cool and aloof to barefoot boys, who wouldn't play with her in any case. Rheumy eyes in homes for the aged, incredulous at seeing one more summer. Personal loans, an opportunity to pay for a two- week vacation in one year. The rare summer sound, through lilting curtains, of someone practicing scales on a piano. A commuter train, panting at a station.

Off to the picnic grounds at dawn, where mother learns that everybody is hungry at 10 a.m. The sun suddenly closing dark lids over its eyes and the hush of birds as the wind vacuums the gutters and big drops of rain play the drums on rooftops and weep down windows. Executives leaving the office early "to beat the rush." Iced tea. The dark cool of a tavern. Shuffleboard.

Horse races. Sleeping in pajama bottoms. Cleaning a small cut knee, not forgetting the antiseptic kisses. Tennis. The silent farm furrow of a canoe.

Pale plus burn equals tan. Summer. MENT'-A NEW PIKE SOfcY RKHf rV BRUCE BIOSSAT For Humphrey, an 'obituary 7 MIAMI BEACH (NBA) Thirteen years ago, I sal with Hubert Humphrey one evening in a New York hotel room as he gazed eagerly upon the prospect of the presidency for the first time. He would not admit to powerful ambition. He said he was being propelled toward the high quest by liberal friends.

They were investing great hope in him, hope born from his celebrated eight-hour Kremlin talk with then Soviet Premier Khrushchev in that spring of 1959. The talk caught the world's attention. On a steamy July in Miami Beach, that long, long quest finally flickered out. With a sad face and a tear, Humphrey spoke the words of withdrawal from the 1972 presidential race. There will rsec it a vnit of which tcienee? equal lypf flrt A-nrlt 4s aptriftpg ffhj bjjfM by jMtftfers the most graceful of any FOUNDED IN I'll 'HE BRAZOSPORT FACTS DEDICATED TO THE GROWTH AND PROGRESi OF BRAZORIA COUNTY James S.

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Editorial sjbsJU be always todepewtwl. QWspo never be another try. HU thanks to friends for their loyalty "these many years" had the sound of true finality. His last moments on the big stage had the grace and dignity that unhappily were missing to often in recent days as he was making his desperate, climactic lunge for the office that had eluded him for almost a decade and a half. I am just one among many reporters who saw Hubert through the whole course.

We all liked him at personal range. He was decent, genuinely committed to his causes, zestful, and funny. Since his purposes were high and his labors prodigious, Humphrey by 1960 had come to feel he was fit for the White House. But, almost from those first steps 1 on that first mile, he began to believe he was dogged by ill fortune. It was a conviction which grew with time, and nearly engulfed him at the end.

It was his poor luck to make his initial try against the late, glamorous John F. Kennedy. By mid-May that year, Kennedy had crushed him in West Virginia and he was out of the race. Two months earlier, on a brutally cold morning in Wisconsin, I first saw him give way to that feeling of being dogged by fate. He thought he was the victim of an unfair news story.

He was enraged. He muttered for hours about the handicaps of a poor South Dakota boy running against the wealthy, lionized Kennedys. "All I've got is Humphrey's drug he said. He really was never his best self again in that I960 campaign. His anger triggered some demagogic impulse, and he often spoke recklessly in the fruitless ahead.

Once beaten, be shook off that mood, The Kennedys by showiflg him warm the njgijt of. Ms West Virginia defeat. Thereafter, his course was up again. He advanced to authority in the Senate, and fought more good fights. HU self-confessed flaws were still there.

He talked too much, proposed too much, claimed too much. "It must be something in my glands," he said. Then, in 1964, with Kennedy gone and Lyndon Johnson president, his new chance for the presidency took shape. It came to the full in 1968 when he won the Democratic nomination. Yet, once more, fate burdened Humphrey.

He was linked tightly that time to an unpopular Johnson and a controversial war. Emerging from the bitterness of Chicago, he battled valiantly but lost narrowly to Richard Nixon. It was that feeling of having been done in by the fates that led him to try in 1972. He would not believe his lime was past. Thinking himself free of old burdens, he was sure he could win and believed he had earned victory.

In December, 1971, he told me: "This is my show." Here in Miami Beach half a year later, he sadly saw that wasn't. PANTS I IK 7-I2L Tutor'! fVMMY wr "liiiajr" it. Tofer'i Wmi FreejMrt, Monday, July 17, lit Fifes ANDERSON MfKRY-GO-KOUND He won nomination in O'Brien's suite By JACK ANDERSON MIAMI BEACH-George McGovern won the presidential nomination In the Fon- talnebtoau suite ot Democratic National Chairman Larry O'Brien before the convention opened. McGovern needed a favorable ruling from O'Brien on two key procedural If O'Brien had ruled him, McCovem would have been short of the volet he needed to win the crucial California credentials fight He was accompanied to O'Brien's suite by Connecticut's astute Sen. Abraham Rlbicoff, a key member of McGovern's political bra Intrust.

They urged the beleaguered chairman, for the sake of party unity, to rule for McGovern. Choosing their word) they reminded O'Brien that McCovern's supporters were essentially the same people who had been shut out by the IMS Democratic convention. They had worked long and hard for the nomination in 1872 If they should feel that they had been cheated again by a parliamentary ruling, they might split the party apart. McCovern and Ribkoff were careful to make no threats but mrrrly to describe the mood of their tea lout followers. O'Brien said be didn't intend to continue as party chairman He hu served without salary and be must get back to earning a living, he said.

McGovern and Ribteoff suggested pointedly that O'Brien shouldn't want to leave a splintered party as his legacy. The chairman got the message and later ruled UcGovern's way. One ruling gave McGovern 130 California delegates but denied opponents the remaining 151 delegates for the crucial vote on settling the California delegation The other ruling permuted the issue to be settled by a majority of eligible to vote, rather than a majority of the full convention. This was worth another 70 votes for McGovern. O'BHIKN INTIMIDATED? Representatives of all the presidential candidates were summoned to a secret meeting where party counsel Califano and parliamentarian James O'Hara announced O'Brien's decision.

Mai Kampelman. representing Hubert blurted angrily: "I Just want you to communicate a message to the chairman from the Humphrey campaign committee. HU rullngi aw appalling. We can see no legal basis for them. We must consider them to be acts of hostility." Kampelnutfl suggested that O'Brien had favored McOovern because he knew the Humphrey forces would remain loyal lo the party but feared the McOovern forces might boll.

The only explanation for rulings, snapped Karapelroan. was "thai the chairman has submitted to of Intimidation. Califano denied thai there had been any "Intimidation." The final roll call on (he California seating confirmed that O'Brien's rulings had beta essential lo McGovern. Without them, he would have been II votes short. Thea the Slop McGovern forces would haw won and the McGovern bandwagon would started to break down.

GOLDBRICK PAY The four Democratic senators who were the prime contenders for their party's presidential nomlnallon-McGovero, Humphrey, Muskie and Jackson-are now In debt to the taxpayers for more than This to the amounl of senatorial salary which they hare Improperly collected wbOe they were away from the Senate campaigning in presidential primaries Federal law provides that, "the the Senate. shall deduct from the monthly payments of each member amount of his salary for each day that he has beta absent from Uw Senate unless wen member as the rwuon the sidUNW ol himself or some member ot hts family Based on information supplied by sides lo the four men. McCovem was for days. Humphrey sad Jackson Yet. during the periods of thru MttUvum.

they collected about from the US. Treasury The art MX to It Udt. however The Secretary of (he Its elected by the Senate and tt about rough on absentees trusnl offkcr would be he wvre appointed by school children The present secretary. Frtocfei uyt he has been gelling a number of demanding to know why he dotsn'l enforce the law Vsleo has a ready explanation "The Uw." he says, "ha.w'1 enforced for vrtt century." Besides, he adds, just how a SsjMlor should reMponsJtUlly lo the Conslilutiott and the people bewt judged by the Senator and the THE WORRY CLINIC Kids get calloused to parents' fights By GEORGE W. CRANK M.D.

CASK U-U7: Danny Land- aged 24, is the only child of Karolyn and Conrad. HU parents realized they often got irritable and might scold Danny unduly. So they made a rule that when Daddy came home from the office, tired and short- tempered, then Mamma would play with Danny and look after him. But If Mamma were tense and irate from her heavy day's work, then Daddy would take over. But one night both Daddy and Mamma were unduly irritable.

So Danny picked up hU little 3-legged stool; took it over to Mamma's chair and placed it at her feel. Then he sat down and looked up at her, wonderingly. "What's your problem?" he asked her. Well, both Mamma and Daddy had lo smile at his assumption of the psychiatrist's role, to the tension was instantly broken. They both played with Danny (ill lime to tuck him in to bed.

But I mention this case to show that kiddies very early can surmise tension in their adult environment. While I was directing our psychology laboratory at Northwestern University, I was a guest of one of Chicago's leading surgeons. Since he had spent a heavy day al Wesley Hospital, performing four major operations, he was tired. So be "barked" at his 12- year-old son a couple of One of his son's school pals was visiting in the borne at that moment. "What's wrong with your dad?" he furtively inquired.

"Oh, he's just in one of his moods," replied the son. "Tomorrow he'll bo all right aiked me what I thought about delaying a divorce where both parents were feuding and quarreling "Dr. Crane," he inquired, "does it do more harm lo the youngsters lo kl them live in such a home than to (rani a divorce lo the parents?" So I agreed to make a survey of a number of children in homes where divorce was imminent. And almost without exception the children voted against having their parents separate! When I aiked for their specific reasons, they said they didn't want their classmates lo know that "Daddy doesn't live with us any more." Besides, children, even in the best homes, will feud and quarrel and even resort lo fUt fights almost every day. Youngsters thus are ac- nnlomcd 0 among Ihemirtvet to they apparently become acclimated to tuch feuding between their Some klddim whose had already obtained a divorce, then loW me "We Invite the other kids lo come over lo play wtlh us during the daytime "Bui we don't want them here al night, for then they'd wonder why Daddy doesn't live with us anymore!" Grammar schoolers thus sre (till quite sensitive lo Midi social attitudes of their To reduce parental quarreU, Mnd for my 'Teats for Parents," enclosing a long stamped, return envelope, plus 25 cents Many PTA and PTO groups use them for a monthly discussion clink! A Chicago Domestic Court Judge once A BERRY'S WORLD.