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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
January 9, 1969     Shelton Mason County Journal
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January 9, 1969
 
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Editorials: ' The Flapdoodler: L egMators impressed The date was eight days early and the place was sixty miles off, but the forty-first session of the Washington State Legislature opened with a sparkling ceremony. One hundred of the state's elected representatives were on hand for the gala opening in Seattle's Olympic Hotel Sunday night when lobbyists for the food and bever- age industry delivered the first gift in the biennial seduc- tion session for legislators. The wheel-greasers for the hotel, motel, restaurant and cocktail lounge interests picked up the $150-per.couple tab for the group of statesmen, headed by the state's num- ber one Boy Scout, Governor Dan Evans. A spokesman for the lobbyists explained that the $15,000 was spent because "we want to put our best foot forward just before the legislature meets. Anybody would be nuts to think we would entertain all those legislators if we were not trying to impress them. "Obviously you don't buy anybody with a dinner, but hopefully the dinner will impress some legislators." We thought that "impress" was a carefully chosen suphemism until we found that Mr. Webster's latest vol. ume defines it thusly: "to use pressure on so as to leave a mark." That spokesman was a learned man. He was right, of course. You don't buy anybody with a dinner, and we doubt there would even be a tiny, lingering memory of the reception, the gourmet dinner, the choice wines, the dancing and the free hotel accommodations if legislation affecting the booze and food industry is intro- duced during the coming session. The lobbyists are just a bunch of public-spirited good guys who spent $15,000 to put their best foot forward. They certainly didn't put pressure on to leave a mark in case some legislator tries to mess with the 18 percent dis- count cocktail bars receive when buying liquor from state stores, or tries to raise the minimum wage for waitresses. The main thing the gala opening accomplished was to downgrade the offerings of the rest of the lobbyists who will descend on Olympia when the official session opens Monday. These poor souls will again proffer a bottle here, a dinner there, to help the statesmen through the trying days of the session. But nothing will equal that opening extravaganza for pure, unmotivated impression. A conservative start President-elect Richard Nixon will launch his consera- tire administration with a modesty and parsimoniousness that would warm the cockles of his Quaker forebearers' hearts. As a first step toward returning to fiscal responsibility and lightening the taxpayers' load, he will spend $2.000.000 on his inauguration. Allowing four hours for sleep, this one-day coronation of our new conservative king will cost the peasants $100,000 an hour. The law of the land requires a new chief executive to raise his hand and take the oath of office. On January 20 it will cost $2.000.000 to lift Richard Nixon's hand from his pocket to a position alongside his right ear. For those who like statistics, that's $400.000 a finger. The new president will also be the first to strike a blow in the new administration's battle against the spiral- ing wage-price inflation which he abhors. On the day he takes the oath, he will receive a wage boost of $100,000 a year over that of his predecessor, old What's-his-name from Texas. Congress has decided, in a bold move to establish wages, that the president should get $200,000 a year. The House has voted the increase and favor;tble action by the Senate is considered routine. The increase was recommended by a group commis- sioned by the Congress to study federal salaries. To every- one's surprise, the commission came up with suggested salary increases totalling about three billion dollars a year. If President Johnson recommends the increases in his budget request later this month, they will go into effect automatically 30 days later unless Congress votes to change or alter them. The oddsmaker= in Las Vegas, who will make book on anything, including the exact starting time of Armageddon, have refused to set the odds against Con- gress turning down the proposal. The commission recommended increasing the pay of congressmen from $30,000 to $50,000 a year; the chief justice from $40,000 to $75,000; associate justices from $39,500 to $65,000, cabinet officers from $35,000 to $60,000, and Mr. Nixon's expert on urban problems Spire T. Agnew, from $43,000 to $75,000. Now that the first step has been taken to control wages, we can hardly wait to Ne what our glorious leaders come up with concerning prices. A good start might be to raise the price of steel one hundred dollars a ton. Founded 1886 by Grant C. Angle Mailing Addreu: Box 480, Shelton, Wash. 98584 Phone 426-4412 Published at Shelton. Mason County,, Washington, every Thursday. Entered as Second-Claae Matter at the Postoffiee, Shelton, Wash. Member of National Editorial Association Member of Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $5.00 per year in Mason County, in ad- vance -- Outside Mason County $8.00 Page 4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, January 9, 1969 "I hear he's a freshman legislator who tried to pay for his own drinks," Capitol dome: 1969 Legislature to work from same old script By ROBERT C. CUMMINGS I There will be numerous chang- es in the cast, but the script will be pretty much the same when the curtain rises on the 41st Leg- islature next Monday. The big- gest issues will include tax re- form, governmental r)rganiza- tion and unemployment compen- sation; the same as two years ago. All three were the victims of legislative deadlocks in 1967, and all three face a degree of trouble this time. TAX REFORM LOOK SBETTER Tax reform appears to have a better chance than it did two years ago, but it dcesn't have to be m much better position to have that, There are indications, however, that there have been changes of heart among some of the opponents of tax reform. Al- so, some new faces in the two houses may have some effect, along with some new leadership. One change in the script also may be of help. Guy. Dan Evans plans to sub- mit a balanced budget to the law-makers to carry the state through the first year of the be- t nnlum, until he calls legislators back into special session next year. If they don't have to squab- ble over an immediate tax pro- blem, they will have more time to concentrate on tax reform. GOVERNOR IN THE SADDLE The tax reform program's chances rest chiefly, however, on the fact that this time Governor Evans wants it so badly. Being in the governor's chair in this case is better than being the dealer in a blackjack game. The chief executive can keep calling the law-makers back into special session until they agree upon a tax reform program to his liking. That's what he did in 1965 to get a redistricting bill that suited him, from a Legislature in which Democrats held control of both houses. He lives here, and is in much better position to ride out a deadlock than legislators who can't stay away from their busi- nesses and jobs indefinitely. Some changes in the leader- ship should sooth things out some- what in the House, where the Republicans hold a 56-43 major- ity. The new majority leader, Stewart Bledsoe, Ellensburg, pro- bably can go farther in getting the necessary bipartisan support from the Democrats than could his predecess or, Blade Gorton, who left the Legislature to be- come attorney general. Rap. John O'Brien, Seattle, re- mains the Democratic floor lead- er. He is a stalwart opponent Let's talk books: at all times, but if the Repub- licans can't soften h!s opposition, they may be able to work around him. Rep. Robert Charette, Aber- deen Democrat, has risen to a position of virtually equal power. SENATE OUTLOOK The leadership is substantially the same in the Senate, where the Democrats hold a 27-22 con- tr>l, but Sen, Robert R. Greive, Seattle, the majority leader, sup- ported the governor's tax reform program last time, Another key Democrat support- ing the governor's program is Sen. Frank Foley, Vancouver, who is a member of the Governor's Tax Advisory Council. The gov- ernor's chief troubles in the Se- nate could come from three or four of the Republican members. While the Senate majority leadership remains unchanged, the Democrats did considerable reshuffling of committee assign- ments, especially among the chairmanships. Having suffered a net loss of two seats in the last election, the Democrats re- duced the number of standing committees by two, to keep Dame. crats as chairmen of each, and still avoid having Democrats who are members of the powerful Rules Committee serving, also, as chairman of some other com- mittee. Are grizzlies man killers? smells, and then wander off into the wilderness to continue the courtship. In successive chapters, there are sharp word and camera pic- tures of grizzlies (and other an- mals) as they go about bear business - their feeding habits (ants and blueberries top the menu), mating practices, hiber. nation, disciplining the young and training them to hunt, swearing at one another, fighting at times to the death. Through it all there runs the theme of the bok - bears and men in contact, bears and men competing for llfe room but as yet unable to work out a peace pact which will ensure their mu- tual survival and wellbeing. There is, in the writing, both technical and historical detail but not enough to slow up the fast pace of the tale. For example, a controversial question : How many species of bears are there in North America? The author states, without an if, or, and or maybe, that there are only two major kinds of bears, the black and the grizzly. Thus if a great Alaska brown {male) meets a lady of grizzly extraction on the edge of his cons. tal feeding ground they may mate and the cubs will not be sterile. IlllHHflOlHillllllflmllfllflllllflllfllmflllfllfllllflHmlllflflH Editor's Note: Dr. Lloyd .4. Cook, rat/rod, was graduate dean and vlee pawsident of Wayne/State University. The Journal will limb hls book reviews  week. Lette fTom readers are Invited. By LLOYD A. COOK I have been reading about bears most of my life, starting as  youngster in Indiana with Charles Major "The Bears of Blue River." The Blue River, near my home, was a favorite fishing place and it was not hard to imagine the Fire Bear prowl- ing its tangled shores, chasing small boys up trees. The best bear book I have read is the recent one by Andy Rus- sell "Grizzly Country" (Knopf, 1967). The author, a hunter, guide, naturalist and photographer, was born and lives on a ranch in southwest Alberta. He has ranged the mountains of that province, British Columbia. and Alaska for the past fifty years. His experi- ences with grizzlies, told matter of factly, along with his insights into their attitudes and mental precesses, make this book more rewarding than any work of fic- tion, any contrived adventure. Russell begins with grizzly country - mostly mountains high and wild and rugged, often rainy and foggy or snow covered and 4cy, for here is where the great bears have been pushed in their struggle to survive. Big silvertips, huge ces, move on and off the scene: for instance, an old shag- gy boar who on topping out a saddle, sees a young female that happens to be coming into heat. As the big fellow approaches, Biondle lets out a warning growl. She swings away on the run, then pivots into a flashing charge and, at the last moment, skids to an all-point stop. The two bears rub noses and swap If this same salmon-eating brown climbs the summit of the Alaska Range and gets himself shot, the venerable Boone and Crockett Club will, classify him a grizzly. This does not make sense to Russell, a view that puts him with the "lumpers" as op- posed to the "hair splitters." Some' of the latter find as many as 80 kinds of North American bears. ' To the author and naturalist, old silvertip's most deadly ene- mY, one more lethal than men and guns, is the bulldozer, with all that follows in its wake. Con- servationists would get a lift just to explore the reasoning on this point. Are grizzlies man killers? Hunt- ing magazines feature stories of this sort, bloody encounters where humans get badly mauled'or even killed. Notices are posted in nat- ional parks, warning hikers not to wander off protected trails. The author's view is: Not often, not usually, and only under pre- dictable circumstances. A hunter may meet up with a mother and cubs, or all but stumble over a grizzly in the bush or behind a blowdown, or pursue a wounded animal, or use poor judgement in reading bear danger signals. And yet the writer, being an honest man (and a brave one) war that silvertip did not come by his name of "urstm horribi- lls" for nothing. Bears, llke peo- ple, are different, at times quite unpredictable, and so the only sane advice ls to watch out! Watch out and, above all, learn "bear protocol," especially if one wants to take pictures. Tentatively, it has been decided to consolidate three committees into one. These are the Commit- tee in Banking, Financial Insti- tutions and Insurance; Committee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Licensing, and Committee on Pub- lic Utilities. It will have 19 mem- bers, and tentatively will be head- ed by Sen. August Mardesich, Everett Democrat who chaired the Public Utilities Committee two years ago. , parks hs bee n taken out of '[.,,iCoromtttee on Natual'e- sources, Fisheries and Came Fish, and consolidated into a committee with capitol grounds and veterans's affairs. Bruce Wil- son, a freshman Senator from Okanogan, will be its chairman. IN FATHER'S FOOTSTEPS Hubert Donohue, Dayton, who succeeds his father, Dewey, in the Senate, also will succeed his father as chairman of the Com- mittee on Agriculture and Horti- culture. Joe Stortini, freshman from Tacoma, will head the Com- mittee on Labor and Social Se- curity, formerly chaired by A. L. Rasmussen. Gordon Wallgren, Bremerton, who moves up to the Senate from the House, will head the Liquor Control Committee. Frank Conner, Seattle, relinquished this chairmanship to become a mem- ber of Rules Committee. Another House member moving into the Senate, William S. Day, Spokane chiropractor, will be chairman of the Committee on Medicine, Dentistry, Public Health, Air and Water Pollution. ' A freshman from Onalaska, Gary Odegaard, will be the new chairman of the Committee on Public Institutions. UNCHANGED Other standing committees will have the same chairmen as last time. All Democrats, they in- clude: Cities, Towns and Coun- ties, Gordon Herr, Seattle; Edu- cation, Robert Ridder, Seattle; Constitution, Elections and Leg- islative Processes, John T. Me- Cutcheon, Steilacoom; Higher Edu cation and Libraries, Gordon Sandison, Port Angeles; High- ways, Nat Washington, Ephrata; Judiciary, Wes Uhlman, Seattle; Natural Resources, Fisheries and Game F i s h, Lowell Peterson, Concrete; State Government, Al Henry, White Salmon; Ways and Means, Martin J. Durkan, Issa. quah, with Fred Dora, Seattle, chairman of subcommittee on ap- propriations, and Mike MeCor- mack, Rlchland, chairman of sub. committee on Revenue and tax- ation. As reported previously, the Democrats had originally plan- ned to reduce the size of Rules Committee to keep off a Repub. lican they didn't want, but could- n't agree on whom to snub, so kept it the same size. As a re- sult, there will be four new Re- publicans and one new Democrat oll the committee wldeh has power of life and death over all bills. New Republican members are Sam Guess, Spokane, and Ted Paterson, John Stander and Wal- ter Williams, all Seattle, Frank Conner, Seattle is the new Demo- cratic member. Superchicken and son conquer Turnel" Hill By STEVE ERICKSON At first, Keith was reluctant to accompany me dew snowy Turner Hill on the family Flexible Flyer. He sagely pointed out that the hill was long, ste and dangerous, particularly dangerous to a father wb hadn't been on a sled since he himself was a boy. Whenever that was. "Listen, small fry," I began, because when you're get i ring a little lip from a five-year-old, you've got to tak00 charge or forever hold your peace. i He listened. "Sure, Turner Hill is steep," I admitted, "And it' long, too. But it's not dangerous. Why, Keith, I've seen g(r: your size on Turner Hill. And they loved it." ::i ' "Girls are dumb," he said. :I I put a protective, fatherly arm around his shoulder: "Come on, son," I said, picking up the Flexible Fl "Let's go sleddin'." Wife and the two girls drove us to the snowy slot in the family station wagon and deposited us at the crett And darned if it didn't look pretty steep, at that. Very steep, in fact. And a little dangerous, too. i chic:'eWnel'utK,e,;t:u"s:rY;:'u gwl:':gt:!mo ::r::w°,i:hhTs • He eyed the hill speculatively. Yeah, dad, he excitement in his voice.  "Well .... all right, then," I said. Excitement was my voice, too, if you consider panic a form of exciteme;i We climbed on and started down Turner Hill, which il discovered later has an alias. Dead Man's Run. That's wi we older folks call it. ,: From the very first we hurtled. Hurtling has alwai disturbed me. ! Keith was yelling something in my ear. "What?" I yelled back. "C'mon, dad," he hollered plaintively, "quit draggt your feet." "Oh," I said, ashamed that he'd noticed. We shot around, between, and something right throu other sledders who were making the ascent, pulling sl behind them. Once we clipped a teenage girls' ArrowJ, and she screamed. So did I. ii: Then Keith joined in, misinterpreting my cry of ter "Yayyyy," he yelled at top lung. "Yipeee!W At length we made it, intact, to the bottom of Del Man's Run. Wife was there, in the wagon, waiting to us up for another run down. Andl ! feared, another. All another, and another, etc. "You look pale," she remarked as we climbed in. :'i I looked at Keith. "Oh no," I said, "He's fine." il "1 know he's fine," she said. "1 meant you. You ha i that stricken look." =:' "Not the kid." I said. To bolster my bluff I took Keith down again, this time wife made us walk back up, "To get in the sp of things." ,t We walked. And lo, Turner Hill, alias Dead Ma Run, had suddenly became Cardiac Ridge. il Huffing, I said, "Keith, you're right. This hill is Iongi "Yeah, dad." :' Puffing, I added, "And it/s steep." "Great, isn't it?" he said as we reached the "Near-great, maybe," I allowed. "But that's as far t I'll go." This time I was too numb from the climb to notl[ that we were risking instant death on the descent.  And there, like a mirage come true, at the bott waited wife and the girls in the tH- ,,-, aratefull in, pulling a reluctant Keith behind me. yII!! I climbed "That's all for today," I panted.  "Aw," he protested. "Well, can we go again then ?" "Sorry, son," I said with crocodile remoras. work tomorrow." Da2n. I "Dilly, did you show aunt Ela that new check you 'learned?"