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"EDITORIAL
AEC out of hand
[1 The AEC has gone too far.
With planning talks now going on regionally re-
garding a fast breeder type nuclear reactor to be
built on the upper Susquehanna River, it might be
well to first consider the economics of the situa-
tion.
There is little question. that more power is
going to be needed in coming years. But is that
point to outweigh all others regarding the installa-
tion of these type facilities, other than the trivia
about safety?
The theory of the Atomic Energy Commission
some years back was that if a nuclear power plant
could be built, even at taxpayers’ expense, and
though costly, the second one would be cheaper.
The third one should be even more economical,
they figured, and so on. But that theory has not
proven true.
The first plant was built almost completely
with government money. Then the second, the third
and fourth, all heavily subsidized by Uncle Sam.
Now, however, we've come to a rude awakening.
Everytime we build one, it is more costly than the
last, with the consumer and taxpayer taking the
gouging, if not through high power rates, as is"
usually the case, then certainly through tax dollars
going into electric power subsidies.
Now the whole situation is out of control.
The AEC, to maintain its very existence, has
insisted that nuclear power plants are the thing
to have around. Little or no consideration is given
to the idea of direct conversion of coal to elec-
tricity, or the use of the vast oil shale deposits, or
even the prospects of geothermal steam. Nuclear
~ power is the only way to fly, the money-grubbing
~ power boys tell us.
We are in a bind to produce enough electricity
to meet future demands partly because the power
. companies have failed in past years to spend any
substantial amounts on research and development.
‘But no one seems to care as long as Uncle Sam
continues to pick up the tab.
Milton Shaw, AEC’s reactor development direc-
~ tor, has said that the government has already spent
~ $400 million on the new-type fast breeder reactor,
with an additional $2 billion yet to go into research
and development before these reactors are
¢ perfected.
: Thus shouldn’t some discussion be prompted
" to ask just how much those first batch of kilo-
watts from the Susquehanna reactor are going to
cost?
. . . and a uranium trespass
[J Meanwhile, out on the vast open stretches of
* public domain on the Colorado Plateau, a gigantic
uranium steal is being perpetrated against the
American people.
Thousands of acres of uranium rich land, still
in public ownership, and under the administration of
the U.S. Interior Department, are in jeopardy or
have already been lost to a group of powerful
private interests. ;
Some years ago when the uranium boom began
~ to create havoc in the West, many phony and illegal
mineral claims were staked by speculators on lands
which had been withdrawn from mineral entry with
AEC sanction.
Later, however, various mineral corporations,
including Union Carbide and Chemical, Vadium
Corporation of America and American Metals
Climaz, acquired some of these old phony claims,
and began extracting the rich uranium ore from
Mother Earth, in an obvious trespass. The situation
still exists today.
Thus far at least $20 million worth of the rare
material has been extracted, in obvious violation
~ of the law. And some of the uranium has been sold
right back to Uncle Sam. But the problem is that
Interior is hampered in getting the Justice Depart-
- ment to bring legal action against the companies,
when the AEC opposes such a move, and continues
to condone such a trespass while hiding behind the
hue and cry of national defense.
Our entire economy and the American way of
life, it seems, is based upon waste and obsolescence.
This will have to be changed in the years ahead to
assure a quality environment, with emphasis on
protection of the public interests. Re
Toe SDALLASCPoST
A non-partisan, liberal, and progressive newspaper published every Thursday morn-
ing by Northeastern Newspapers Inc. from 41 Lehman Ave., Dallas, Pa. 18612.
Entered as second class matter at the post office at Dallas, Pa., under the Act of
March 3, 1869. Subscription within county, $5 a year. Out-of-county subscriptions,
$5.50 a year. Call 675-5211 for subscriptions.
The officers of Northeastern Newspapers Inc. are Henry H. Null 4th, president and
publisher: John L. Allen, vice president, advertising; J. R. Freeman, vice presi-
dent, news.
© Editor emeritus, Mrs. T. M. B. Hicks; managing editor, Doris R. Mallin; editor of
the editorial page, Shawn Murphy; advertising manager, Annabell Selingo.
Lyndon Johnson was about to
break his year’s silence and
we all sat or squatted in the
Columbia TV studio for the
advance showing, 30 or more,
and most of us had journeyed
with LBJ to the wars.
Some liked him and some
loathed him, but all now had
equisite curiosity.
* The larger-than-life figure
appeared with Walter Cronkite
and from our group came gasps
and ejaculations and simple,
stunned silence.
He had never wanted to be
president? He knew he was unfit
for the job? It was funny, really
to watch this special, strangled
audience.
Then the next broadcast about
the Vietnam decision, and peev-
_ish attacks at critics and sneers
at advisers! The final seance
with Cronkite comes May 2, on
the Dallas assassination. Hea-
ven help us.
And so I fished out my notes
of five years ago, jotted as
Johnson pleaded for a voting
rights bill to a joint night ses-
sion of Congress, March 15,
1965.
Yes, here is where I toted up
applause, with a stroke for each
interruption and a cross-bar for
five, 40 times in all.
He was making a tremendous
moral appeal and his fervor pro-
jected to the audience and the
- country. It was magnificent.
‘And these enemies, t00,”’ he
said, ‘‘Poverty, disease and
ignorance—weshallovercome.”’
History, remember that. High-
thissa 'n thatta:
Until recently, it was easily
seen and generally conceded
that the growth and prosperity
of the American people was
largely attributable to the utili-
zation of our natural resources
by industry in the form of
large corporations working
under the capitalistic system.
This system, frankly using the
profit motive, developed the
tools and technology which pro-
duced the goods and services
‘that have made every class of
our society, better off than any
comparable class in history.
The kings and emperors of
ancient history held more
power than today’s rulers, but
they didn’t have air condition-
ing, zippers, rapid transporta-
tion, good sanitation and in-
sect control or even thermal
underwear. If they got sick,
the best medical men avail-
able couldn’t cure the gout or a
lot of other minor ills that
made life miserable. Communi-
cation was slow and not very
realiable, which most of the
time was a blessing as people
couldn’t know what each other
were doing, so couldn’t get
worked up about anything but
local problems. It made govern-
ing easier.
The middle classes were far
less well off and as for the
slaves, we don’t even have them
in present day America.
So what has the public shown
American industry in the way
of gratitude for all the good
things they have brought us?
I'll answer my own question
by pointing out that industry
has been blamed for everything
from the war in Vietnam to an
empty beer can along the high-
way.
A particularly good example
of this is at our own doorstep.
The coal mining industry, which
' converted a practically empty
valley into beautiful buildings, a
comfortable living for millions
and better public services for
the citizens is now attainted
for annoyance from surface sub-
_'DON'T WORRY —THIS TIM
THE DALLAS POST, MARCH 19, 1970
from Washington
ho! Somehow we had thought
that he might come out of his
years silence simpler and
quieter, to be perhaps a moral
factor. It is long since the
nation had a politically-con-
scious ex-president capable of
moving crowds; there was
Harry Truman for a while, and
the books tell of Teddy.
This one, too, had attributes
of greatness.
And here, over the tube, was
a man living in the embittered
past, seeking only self-justifi-
cation.
The crowd of reporters came
out into the night hardly know-
ing what to say. But being
journalists they covered it with
a veil of jokes and cynicism.
So we must come to terms with
what we have—the Nixon Ad-
‘ministration. Mr. Nixon isn’t
going before Congress to make
an emotional appeal for civil
rights. He fancies himself on
foreign affairs and that may be
his dish; though probably his
reputation will not rest on the
40,000 words of platitudes and
tapioca of his first ‘‘State of the
World” message.
Mr. Nixon is one of the most
solitary and self-analytical of
our presidents. His wooing of the
South led him to nominate two
crashing nonentities to the high
court.
Louis Pollak, dean of the
Yale Law School, testified that
Judge Carswell had ‘‘more slen-
der credentials than any nom-
inee for the Supreme Court put
forth in this century.”
sidence, pollution of the atmos-
phere, for unclean streams, for
a general loss of natural beauty
and for other shortcomings,
many of which were in no sense
the fault of the mining industry.
These ills were foreseeable
and bothered people very little
when coal was king because the
benefits from coal extraction
plainly outweighed the evils
attendant.
Now that the anthracite in-
dustry is not of much economic
importance, the bad effects are
still with us and serve petty
politicians as a bloody shirt to
wave in front of the voters who
do not remember or never knew
the prosperity which initially
provided the money and means
for their own rise in the
world.
This hue and cry is not only
ungrateful, but unfair; so un-
fair that there is manifest an
effort to put the mine operators
out of business entirely.
The means being used is to
demand that the coal compan-
ies stop polluting the state’s
streams by allowing mine water
(untreated mine water, to be
exact) to enter them. This
sounds very simple and would
be, except that it is impossible
to do it and still stay in busi-
ness.
Actually, it is impossible in
any case, because if a coal
mine shuts down, the mine
water will rise inside the mines
until it runs over and into the
streams and no power on earth
can make a bankrupt coal op-
erator produce millions of
dollars to construct and oper-
ate a mine water treatment
plant. Possibly the state could
afford it because the state pos-
sesses the legal power to take
every last dime from the rest
of us to spend for anything the
fanatical conservationists are
screaming for. :
The latest objective of the
anti-pollution lobby is the
Wanamie Colliery near Nanti-
E WE
‘RE GOING TO DO |
And on school desegregation
its enemies have taken another
scalp, Leon Panetta, resigned
head of HEW’s Office of Civil
Rights, the enforcement sec-
tion.
An odd strain runs through
Mr. Nixon’slongpoliticalcareer.
We were reminded of it the
other day in a letter to The
Washington Post by William
Rehnquist, assistant Attorney
General, replying to two anti-
Carswell editorials.
Rehnquist asked if The Post
‘wanted a restoration of the
Warren Court’s ‘‘liberal major-
ity’’ with “further expansion of
the constitutional rights of crim-
inal defendants, of pornog-
raphers and of demonstrators.”
An attack on Carswell, you
see, implied that you favored
pornographers. Rather far-
fetched, of course, but with
practice you get the trick.
It traces back a long way.
Find the thing the public hates
most and then associate your
opponent with it.
The technique was instituted
by Murray Chotiner, who man-
aged Mr. Nixon's Senate cam-
paign in 1950 and created the
“Pink Sheet” that linked the
Democrat to Communism.
Mr, Chotiner, whose private
lobbying for two clients in 1956
brought a Senate investigation,
is back in the picture again,
a $36,000-a-year government
lawyer, who traveled to San
Clemente recently, and is one of
Mr. Nixon’s few intimates.
Mr. Nixon used the technique
by THE GAFFER
coke, which employs about
600 men and has been pro-
ducing wealth in the form of
wages and taxes. This mine has
been directed to stop pumping
mine water into the Susque-
hanna or shut down. It has not
yet done so as it will have its
day in court to protest. What it
is really protesting is confisca-
tion of its property without due
compensation, because that is
what it amounts to. :
When the commonwealth
takes land by the right of emi-
| sharpened
RE
SS
e—
From Sati
- Pillar
Pretty nice, having the Li-
brary open on Mondays, as well
as Tuesday, Wednesday, Thurs-
day, Friday and Saturday.
Longer hours too, starting at
9:30 instead of 12:30, with of
course open house on Tuesday
and Thursday evenings.
Newcomers to the area can-
not be expected to understand
the giant step forward which
this new schedule signifies,
for they have not taken part
in the struggle, twenty-five
years ago, to get a library
started in an area which had
none, where book lovers had
to go to Kingston or Wilkes- -
Barre to borrow books.
There was the most tremen-
dous enthusiasm when the
Library, through the pages of
the Dallas Post, was first pro-
posed. It had been the goal
of a growing community for a
number of years before it be-
came a reality. Residents real-
ized that a library would add
status to the area, real estate
dealers: hailed it as one more
talking point in the sale of
building lots and homes in the
_ hills, school systems were en-
on various platforms; against
Adlai Stevenson (‘‘a Ph. D.
all right, from the Acheson
college of Cowardly Communist |
Containment’’); or Truman
(“When the Eisenhower Ad-
ministration came to Washing-
ton we found in the files a blue-
print for socializing America.’’)
War opponents, intellectuals, |
Eastern Establishment, NY
Times, young people, authors
of “dirty movies,” permissive
parents, “supercilious sophisti-
cates,” colleges that give quota °
admissions to blacks, anyone
different from you and me, and
particularly me. Deepening un-
employment may stoke the hate.
again?
A column reprinting edi-
torialsfromother weekly
newspapersin the world.
(From Vineyard Gazatte,-Mar- -
tha’s Vineyard, Mass.)
One reads in the city news-
papers now about happenings,
and: the sword apparently :de-
scribes one more phase of the
negativism of the new farout
cult that has succeeded the pre-
vious far-out cults. A happening
is really a non-event out of
which some non-importance is
strung on a thin thread of cir-
cumstance. ;
A happening of much interest
to us this past week has been
the blooming of the buttercups.
In the context of modern life
and pre-occupation this might
be classed as a non-event, but
nature’s progression will not be
So easily dismissed. Apparently
the technologically oriented and
interests of most
| people have gone beyond the
‘ evolutionary stage at which
buttercups couldbeappreciated.
To face the matter squarely,
all of us are in some respects or
in some degree far out,—even
|
| children.
Show the average
; child a buttercup and he knows
. already that
, anything.
nent domain for the purpose .
of building roads or govern-
ment buildings, it has to pay a
just compensation for the
seizure and it seems to me
that when it takes a coal
mine, it should be under the
same obligation.
Nothing that I write is to be
interpreted as saying that all
corporations and mines are
always perfect. Of course they
aren’t. Being directed by
human beings it is impossible
and I don’t think that even the
angels could please everybody ;
still, I spent most of my life
working for big mining com-
panies and have always felt
that the injustices were greatly
outweighed by the acts of jus-
tice and kindness and being as
I said, managed by "people,
very often showed signs of hav-
ing a heart.
Criticizing the acts of a cor-
poration that has the top obli-
gation of making a profit in
order to stay in business is a
very easy matter. The critics:
should weigh things a little
bit and after weighing the fact
that the alternative to our cor-
porations is state ownership,
treat the producers of our wealth
with a little more fairness.
State ownership of business
is the keystone of the com-
munist countries. Not only
doesn’t it work well, but cri-
tics within those countries have
to speak in a whisper and only
to close friends.
‘were, especially if cows stand
it really isn’t
But it really is something.
Long gone is the simple time
when, every June, it was tra- -
ditional to hold buttercups under
the chin of some companion to
observe the reflected glow that
would mean he or she liked
butter. We would not press for a
revival of this practice, but the
buttercups in the uncut fields
are as decorative as they always
knee deep among them.
To some passers-by these
fields communicate as always,
conveying the warmth and the
familiar greeting of early sum-
mer. To others they should at
least suggest a glowing irre-
sponsibility, and here there may
be a link to those more modern
happenings which have the irre-
sponsibility without the gold.
. (From the Plaindealer,
Sparta, I11.)
HIGH COST OF
PAPERWORK
A recent survey has indicated
that it costs businessmen some
$1,750,000 per year to do the
paperwork required by govern-
ment. As an example, the aver-
age time required for filling
out forms for federal reports :
alone was found to be 33 min-
utes per month per employe.
State forms required 24 minutes.
Red tape is the inevitable re-
sult of big government. There
seems to, be some thought that
we may be getting more govern-
ment than we have time for or
can afford.
. thusiastic.
Almost at once the borough
school seized upon the oppor-
tunity to instill during the
early years of education the
habit of going to the Library,
of looking it up in the diction-
ary, of laying the foundations
for broader cultural horizons.
Children visited the new library
in classroom groups, were per-
mitted to take home books, en-
. joyed the thrill of having their -
names entered as borrowers,
learned how to take care of
reading matter, returned to
their classrooms after an en-
joyable hour. They call it
| enrichment these days. /
Who will bring us togéther |
There were a great many
i one-room schools twenty-five
years ago. These were not ne-
glected. All over the country-
side children were on the look-
out for the ‘Library Lady,”
and when Miss Lathrop’s car
drew up outside, there was a
concerted rush for the books,
big boys battling for the honor
of carrying in the heavy boxes
to a beaming teacher. The
- books were almost literally
devoured, passing from hand to
- hand before the next visit. The
books came back to the library
in a weak and run-down condi-
tion, but Miss Lathrop, now as-
sisted by volunteer helpers,
patched them up and readied
them for a trip to another
school out in the hinterlands.
It took a great deal of plan-
ning for proper selection of
books for the one-room schools
embraced all elementary
grades, and children ranged
in age from six years up to the
late teens, before the day of the
consolidated schools. So . . .
story books, tales of history,
- science, a balanced diet for
the children. It was a labor of
love. Miss Lathrop could have
remained in the library build-
ing, waiting for the children to
come to her, but she pre-
ferred to go to them, and build
up, on their own home grounds,
a love of books.
The Story Hour flourished.
On Saturday mornings the li-
brary was crowded with child-
ren. Dusty was a frequent vis-
itor. Dusty was the huge St.
Bernard dog, a dilapidated
creature, but loving. His pic-'
ture appeared periodically in :
the paper, lying at the feet of :
the small children in the front
row. Every time he appeared i
in print, some child, now in
high school, would dash in
breathlessly to say she’d seen
FORTY YEARS AGO
Frank Morris was displaying °
a giant egg measuring 91 by
TY inches. The egg had been
laid by a hen belonging to
Kirk McCarthy.
Thirty irate citizens of Noxen
and Beaumont, enraged by
road conditions in their areas
were protesting to Wyoming
County authorities.
THIRTY YEARS AGO
Grocery prices were lovely:
chuck roast cost 15 cents per
‘Ib.; lettuce cost 15 cents for .
two heads, and butter was
two pounds for 63 cents. i
‘Woven in the Sky,” a book
of poetry written by Sister
Miriam of the English depart-
ment at College Misericordia,
was published.
TWENTY YEARS AGO
Excavation was begun for a
new restaurant adjacent to the
To Post
' Dusty, and wasn’t it fun, those
story hours, and could she
ever have been so small, sit-
ting there in the picture with
her feet hanging?
A good many of the child-
ren of Dallas grew » in the
library, regarding’ i¢ as a
second home. Those children
are now bringing their own
children to the Library. Dusty
is long gone, and his picture
no longer appears, but children,
even grown-up children, have
long memories, and they re-
member.
The Library grew up, just
as the children did, and it ex-
panded into two buildings in-
stead of one. But it kept its
atmosphere, a warm welcome,
no tiptoeing, no classic tight-
lipped librarian with a finger
raised in admonition. This is
a library where a child or an
adult can feel completely at
home, whether selec®%g a pic-
ture book or accumulating ma-
terial for the term paper, hunt-
ing up a quotation, oigjatching
up on the latest 7%Ssue of
Life. ,
With the new system of inter-
library loans, Mrs. Davern is
now able to order anything
from participating libraries.
If it isn’t on hand, she can get
it with the minimum of delay.
There are tables where volumes
- can be spread out and a stu-
dent can work at leisure.
There is no longer the neces-
sity for carting books to rural
schools, The one-room schools
have disappeared, and yellow
school buses take the children
to consolidated schools. But
all schools of the Back Moun-
tain can still call upon the
Back Mountain Memorial Li-
brary for additional books.
“It must be marvelous to
have the kind of a job where
you just sit at a d Pk and
hand out books,” a ‘thought
frequently expressed by the
thoughtless, is a familiar myth.
There is more to it than meets
the eye. Who mends the books,
who selects the books, who puts
the books back on thefikhelves
in the correct placé? Who
looks up quotations when some
harried soul calls on the
telephone? .
“I've gotta book, what do I
want with a library?” is a
though that is less frequently
voiced these days, but it used
to be standard.
A good library is the corner-
stone of a good community. It
is an institution to be jealously
guarded and cherished. And
supported.
It takes money to run a
library, not all of it for books.
‘There are salaries to be con-
sidered, maintenance, fuel,
utilities. The annual Auction
has been the mainstay ever
since it was launched as a
trial balloon in the mid¥rties,
but it can no longer carry
the load. The municipalities
must now assume part of the
burden, and this means mill-
age. A very modest millage
is all that is asked. T@} com-
munity must now face facts
and responsibilities. 3
ig
CO
SL
3
new Acme store in central Dal-
las. When completed, it would
be occupied by Bowmangs Res-
taurant, now located o¥?Main
Street. A knotty-pine interior
would carry out the Early
American theme.
Thirty local people took civil
service examinations at Dallas
Borough High School, seeking
appointment as enumerators
for the 1950 census.
Mrs. Joseph Schmerer was
appointed by the Book Club to
head Library Auction solicita-
tion.
TEN YEARS AGO
Lee Tracy, an actor with
relations living in the Back
Mountain, .opened in ‘Best
Man,” a play by Gore Vidal.
According to The Post, reviews
of the drama were “Exciting.”
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