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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
June 19, 1969     Shelton Mason County Journal
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June 19, 1969
 
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What's your attitude? Le.er box- o,t.erec e00com World needs help munity attitude survey conducted by the Shelton Jaycees show that re.idents are aware of the city's urgent needs and a goodly percentage are willing to pay to supply them. The three items heading the problem list are schools, recreation, and streets and side- walks. Storm drainage and sewers came in fourth. The school and street deficiencies are on the way to correction. The school district's long- range building plan has, so far, won the approval of voters and will provide Shelton with adequat educational facilities when it is completed. A massive LID (mpaign is currently underway to improve several miles of the city's streets and the Plan of Progress organization is developing workable plans for the entire street network, plus the storm drains needcul before streets cm be decently surfaced. Nothing new is being done about recreation, a subject which creates paradoxes whenever it is discussed. Although recreation is listed in the survey as the second most-wanted item, the voters twice last year turned down proposals to include an athletic plant a.t the new intermediate school site on Mt. View. May veers aPim, rently thought the ath- letic complex would be an expensive layout used by a limited number of students -- football lflay - ers and track men -- when it: a('tually would be used by all students for physical education pur- po;s and non-sch(ml recreation. A request for' recreational opportunities for all age groups, but predominantly teenagers, probably constituted the majority of comments penned on the survey forms, yet when meetings are held to discuss teen centers and such, turnouts are not large and enthusiasm dies quickly. The recreation lmZZh needs an answer, and we susiwt it will involve a small group of per- sons willing to work their heads ot'f until the job is done. The complete results of the survey are con- tained in a special section of this week's Journal. They make interesting reading. For those who were not included in the questioning, a survey . form is printed in the section, so they can com- pare their attitudes vt the. 6 oT tI/eir higfilSbrs, Shelton's Jaycees deserve the thanks of the entire community for a tMious job well done. On-the-job straining The Washington State Personnel Board is apparently hustling business for the medical profession. A 50-year-old Bremerton woman has been fired from lier job in a state liquor store because she couldn't lift a box containing a 45-lmund chunk of concrete 54 inches in the air n times in one minute, a performance test required by the personnel bmrd for b(mzc clerks. "I got it up six times the first time and eight times the second time I tried," said the sacked Lady, "but Fin all through trying to take the test." We attempt to keel:) abreast of current trends in the business world here at the Journal, so took a mental inventory of employts with the thought that maybe this performance test would improve the physical condition of the journalism troops. (You will remember that George Wash- ington made his troops spend a winter in Valley Forge to prow his m,'txim: "Strong bodies, alert minds.") After milch cogitating, we determined that the test would result in three hernias, one slipped disc, an aggravated case of hives, 13 smashed toes, four resignations and two fist fights. Since the two fist fights and one hernia involved the publisher, we abandoned the idea in favor of a performance test which calls for lifting a Imncil to chin level ten times in one hour. If the personnel board intends to continue its search for perfection it should, in fairness, extend performance tests to all persons involved in state government. We humbly suggest two: Liquor board members should be able to imbibe ten drinks during a two-hour luncheon without falling face-first into the sour cream, in ease the need ever arises (luring a meal paid for by a distillery representative. As a requirement to hold the office, the governor should be able to lift a personnel board member (holding a box containing a 45-pound chunk of concrete) over" his head and heave him into the job market, Page4 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, June "Boy! I can.see it all now -- broken pop bottles, ice cream cartons, transistor radios . . ." Capitol dome: Cities, counties blame legislators for lack of loot By ROBERT C. (1MMINGS [l Without actually joining for- ces, the state's two largest en- tities of local government, the cities and counties, are blaming the 1969 Legislature for their fin- ancial woes. ' This tack first was adoffted by',:; Seattle cib' counc.ilmen hs they laced a serious deficit in budget- ing for the coming year. It was echoed by Tacoma city officials and then others in various parts of the tate. The problem was that they had anticipated a state grant much larger than they received two years ago, commensurate with rising costs and increasing t)rol)lems. When they didn't get it, they fl:,und themst, lves neck deel) in red ink. NOT SEEKING HANDOUT Now the staff of the Washing- ton State Association of County Commissioners, through the or- ganization's official publican[ion, "The County News Advocate," has joined the cry. The staff, headed by Jack Rog- ers, former legislator and more recently a former county com- missioner, charged the 41st Leg- is]ature did "virtually nothin K to held lee&l, government, parttculnr- ly counties, "administering the bulk of services to both people and property." "No direct handout or shared revenue was sought," the staff members said, "though such an approach would not have been unreasonable considering the dis- tribution of tax revenues in this state." Tim counties had sought a self- help program through local op- tional taxing authority, specifical- ly he right to levy an additiomd excise tax on real estate such as the 1 per cent now collected for school districts. "Except for local-option sales tax with numerous built-in faults, the Legislature proved unwilling to grant any local optional tax- ing authority," they said. "Placing the local sales tax in the governor's jealously-guard- ed tax package assured the veto it rec.eived." They did have kind words "for a number of courageotks legisla- tors" who attempted to solve the counties' problems, and for the tIouse of Representatives, which passed the association's excise tax proposal. The bill died in the Senate. WILI, SUPI'ORT TAX REFORM Editorially, the staff said "the much-touted tax reform package is not an cquitable distribution of either tax burdens or tax re- venues, "but added that the as- sociation will still support the progTam." "The tax reform lmckagc des contain the return of 2 mills to the county current expense fund, accomplisbing in 1972 or '73 what Initiative 244 would have done in 1969. For these 2 mills the counties Let's talk books: It happened, caro mio, in Rome By IJA)YD A. ODOK ]l Many novels are no d:ubt hsed on a writer's life, things seen and done, people well known, places familiar, but few books are admittedly so. William Murray in "The Americano" (NAL-World, 1968 is an excep- tion to this rule. Murray's mother was Italian, his father American. ttis grand- mother, who did much to shape his life, is buried on a hill over "the Rome she loved so deeply all her life." los early childhood was spent in Italy to which, af- ter college and military service, he returned to study opera. He sang as a professional in both Italy and the U. S. before tak- ing up writing as a career. This is his sixth novel. "Americano" follows somewhat the above story line. I was so taken by the tale, so involved with Bill and Claudia, that I did not sense, until late my failure t() pick up the bonus offered readers as they move along. The bonus is the view of Rome and Italy denied aliens, notably tour. ista on a tour. Sights they see - the American Express, Rome's seven hills, the Coloseum, Bay of Naples, Capri, St. Mark's at Venice - are there, of course, but they are not the Roma the author writes ab::ut. It would be fun to dwell on this if one could avoid saying at the end: "Well, go there, be there, see and learn." Bill met Claudia and Ian her husband at the Press Club bar in Rome and, some weeks later, has drinks with them at their lflac.e near the Spanish Steps. Rill is a lyric tenor, studying 1969 opera under the G. I. Bill, and a stringer for Time-Life. Ian writes movie scripts, though with no'success. Claudia is no strik- ing beauty yet would d,'aw at- tention anywhere. As we get to know her, she is quite a case. . Erratic, tempermental, self-cen- tered, with a yen for sex. "You know what I am," she said to Bill, "I can't help being myself." After Ian makes his first sale, he goes on location out cf town to rework the script and Claudia begins regular visits to Bill's place. She would come to live but she has a baby at home, baby's nurse, a cook, a maid. Ive making is intense yet never enough for either of them. Ian, one to take his pleasures where he finds them, arrives home and the break is made clean. He gets a job in London and takes the child with him. Bill and Claudia go away for two weeks to Capri, then settle into his attic flat, with its leaky walls and roof. All along Bill is meeting people who appeal to him. There was the old man on the liner New York to Naples who, after 47 years of labor in the States, was returning to his village in the Abruzzi. Bill's cousin, Ruggero, a socialist, and, when he got into business, a capitalist who shot himself after gambling a- way a large sum. There was Pietro, a revolutionist, hired to fix the leaky roof. On any party with girls, he was the one to s h o u t : "Avanti, Am ricano! Avanti!" Best of all, there was ,Max, another voice student on the G. I., and his battle with the Turks. Max, new in Rome, found a large flat, cheap if he could get a friend or two to move in and share the costs, except that one room housed two stubborn Turks. They had lived there for years, paid a ridiculous rent due to the prewar value of the lira, could not be charged more or evicted under Italian law. Max worried not at all about this. What he and Bill (lid was to round up musical friends, invite them to come and practice. One, who could do E flat over ttigh C, st¢>d at the piano, struck a chord and went up the scale. "Not there," Max said. "Out in the hallway, where they can get the full benefit." It did not take many days and nights until the Turks came charging out, mad as hornets, bags pack- ed, never to return. Bill and Claudia quarrel and then break up, anti she becomes a fashion model. Bill goes on with singing lessons and his de- but, when it comes, is not much of a success. He sings for agents, trying to get cast, but ends as a performer in a nightclub. In deslmir, he moves on to Milan where he tries out for a musical show. Accepted at less than a living wage, he sings "Go Down, Moses" in an Hawaiian skit. Claudia has said time and again that he could not make grand opera and, believing it at last, he quits his job and takes a boat to New York. Since the novel is autobiograph- ical, I like in particular the way the author writes about himself. No false note, no immodest pride, no effort to cover up obvious shortcomings. One can assume that, in New York, be began the career for which his talents suited him and went on to be- come a success. are lfledged to suppot reform of the taxing structure - and this association will actively fulfill that promise." Initiative 24.1 was sponsored by the county commissioners' as- sociation in 1968, but because it .was filed late, it failed o get the 100,000 valid si.natures needed to qualify for balh)t. ,... PARKS PROGRAM UNDER PIRE Many legal authorities concede there is merit in a school direc- tor official's contention that sehtx)l resources are t)eing "se- riously eroded" by the practice of leasing 15,321 acres of prime school hinds to the Pai'ks and Recreation Commission for $28,000 a year. In a letter t(, the State Board of Natural Resources, Elmer W. Stanley, executive secretary of the Washington State School Dir- ectors Association, said these lands are worth at least $16 mil- lion. If sold to the parks commis- sion for this price, he said, it would yield $744,000 a year which could be used for pay-as-you-go school construction, or to amor- tize bonds. Tbe state's emtbling act deed- ed the lands to the public schools as a resource, and nuxnerous legal experts agree with Stanley that the enabling act has the legal status of a treaty or con- venant, superior to law, and can't be altered excel)t by mu- rural agreement of the Legisla- ture and the U. S. Congress. When the law authorizing lease of state lands to the parks com- mission was enacted, numerous legislators conceded it would be on shaky ground if challenged. COULI) BE LONG WAIT It would lxe some time before there is a Supreme Court de- cision on Atty. Gen. Slade Gor- ton's opinion that pinball ma- chines without automatic pay- offs are illegal gambling devices. A King County Superior Court judge has dismissed the first charge filed under this opinion. The prosecutor plans to file oth- ers, but if other Superior Court judges follow the lead of the first judge, nothing can be done. The state doesn't have .the right of appeal in criminal cas- es. Only a conviction in the low- er court could land the issue in the Supreme Court. It might be done by man- damus proceedings, but this would require the cooperation of a prosecutor who would refuse to prosecute on the basis of Got- toffs opinion, and of somebody who would sue for the wirt. TELEPHONE RATES GOING UP There doesn't seem to be any question that a telephone rate in- crease will result from current hearings before the State Utilit- ies and Transportation Commis- sion. The only question is how much. Pacific Northwest Bell has asked for rates which would bring in a rate of return of 8.5 per cent on Its investment, Editor, The Journal: Does Mr. Grinnell realize what he was asking us to do in his speech at the commencement exercises last week? Does he really want us to bury ourselves under a stack of books at col- lege and never DO anything? As I see it, this world needs some improvements and it will take a lot of concerned persons a long time to accomplish it. Certainly we won't be helping anyone by sitting around twid- (lling our thumbs for four years! I agree that sometimes a few (very few) of the students go a little overboard. I do not like the idea of violence on campus any better than Mr. Grinneli does. That does not mean, however, that every student wishing a change in colhge or worhi af- fairs is a communist or danger- ous radical ! I'm afraid that I lost a great deal of respect for Mr. Grin- nell when be involved gory of bent on (The truth is, my tongue to shut up.) Everyone generation all its to take care something changed I'll can within the to change it. sort to constitution waccably I'm very nell that does. I mindedneSs. ly against opinions I erintendent Fight them Reds Editor, The Journal: emotionally I have read the speeches giv- No wondc en at the Shelton Graduation - committee those printed on pages 14 anti sch,fl systen 19 of The Journal (June 12 issue), sed by the . Boy. this younger generation dent: leadersl P' has it all over the insecure, I find frightened oMer generation, does- speeches qt n't it? trast. The I've also been privileged to their way to hear the speeches at Elma, Sil- v(irdale, and North Mason. These our wagons young people go right to the , fight off thcra point - no smoke screen and The other Jackson Editor, The Journal: With the objective of furthering public support of the administra- tion's ABM program, Sen. Henry M. Jackson, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has been warning of the strides made by the Soviet Union in its stra- tegic offensive and defensive ndl- itary strength. Personally, I should rather lis- ten to the remarks by the same (?) Henry Jackson made October 12. 1949 before the Hmse Foreign Affairs Committee when he was Rep. Henry Jackson. He announc- ed at the beginning of his speech, "We now know that Russia has the atomic bomb." Anti what was he then suggest- ing that the U. S. do? Accelerate an arms race with the Soviet Union? Demonstrate military su- periority in conventional and nu- clear weapons? No that her Henry Jackson, a member of the Joint Commit- tee on Atomic Energy! Quite the contrary, In the face of President Tru- man's sudden anouncement of Russia's possession of the bomb, Rep. Jackson declared that this knowledge "should drive home the fact that the world can no longer afford fundamental dia- greement - at least when it comes to controlling the forces of physi- cal destruction." He was urging consideration of House Concurrent Resolution No. 64 which sought leadership of the U. S. in the development of the UN into a world federation as the surest way of permanently controlling the forces of mass de- struction. The purpose in doing so, he explained, would be "to preserve gression interl)r(at i0n world laW." "As I see "all we the people exercise : the right to into battle ject the possibly JacksOn a moral vorhl into ar limitl poWC effective felt that fective co ttx) much Nations. "/ks I seC essary that all sul)mit to matters steal force. ventional use of NoW Se' President in his mcMified growing ,' gon's I111 any ace, race. It looks Jackson fight. If of twent ership he said, noble lievc has the Beautiful and Editor, The Journal: How many of you readers saw the display in Clifton's window during the Forest Festival? If you didn't see it you have really missed something rare, beauti- ful and unusual. What I don't understand Is the classification it was under. Mr. Irvin McArthur, the artist, was awarded first place in Pop Art. Don't get me wrong, now. He deserves first place. But my un- derstanding of Pop Art is an object or things put together but their meaning known only to the artist. ThiS diS and art that gination, tarianisra Aren't have a ing the Hope to works of And to it, rush still there. and welded us much. Founded 1886 by Grant C. Mailing Address: Box 430, Shelton, Wash. Published at Shelton, Mason County, Entered as Second-Class Matter at the Member of National Editorial Member of Washington Newspaper SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $5.00 per vance  Outside Mason "EDrrOR AND PUBLISHER  Henry G. GaY PLANT SUPERINTENDENT -- Jim Shrt OFFICE MANAGER -- Lodema JohnSon NEWS EDITOR  Alan Ford OFFICE ASSISTANT  Mary Kent JLDGR'I8IG MANAGER  Don Ad01f"