The Mail-Journal, Volume 9, Number 15, Milford, Kosciusko County, 10 May 1972 — Page 9

*Jic Hail PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY The Milford Mail (Eet 1888) Syracuee-Wawaoee Journal (Eat 1907) Consolidated Into The Mail*Journal Feb. 15, 1952 DEMOCRATIC ’ ARCHIBALD E. BAUMGARTNER, Editor and Publisher DELLA BAUMGARTNER, Business Manager Box 8 Syracuse, Ind., — 48587

Genesis Os Press Freedom

Stanford Smith, president and general manager of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, put freedom of the press in proper perspective when he said: “. . . History teaches us many lessons if we will but learn. The genesis of freedom of the press under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution is an example. The important point which is sometimes ignored today is that the original demand for a guarantee of press freedom came not from those who were then engaged in the business of

Free Market Spark Plug

Many years ago, California placed a special punitive tax on chain stores that imposed higher rates on the more successful companies as they opened more outlets. As a regressive tax, it had few equals since it tended to retard mass distribution. Fortunately it failed in its purpose and the philosophy of mass distribution, which is simply to sell in high volume at minimum prices, spread through the entire merchandising industry. It seems that California is still a sort of seedbed for repressive tax proposals. The latest instance is an effort to impose a sales tax on trading stamps. Again, the effect would be to discourage the efficiency of mass

TV And Iti Critics

Seventeen current TV shows will be missing next fall when the networks open another season. But TV addicts need not despair, more of the same is in store, in many cases with little more than the names and faces changed. Nothing infuriates critics more than the banal situation comedies (complete with canned laughter), horse operas, stock detective shows and quiz games that dominate network TV. And it is admittedly easy to see how anyone of intellectual sensitivity would be put off by a steady dose of such uninspired fare. But the blame, if that is the proper word, probably lies less with the three major networks than with the public. As Journal TV reporter James MacGregor wrote recently, “Dismaying as it might be to a TV critic, the response of the American public over the last two decades has constituted an overwhelming endorsement of television just the way it is.” It has always been thus. A dozen years ago critic Leo Rosten, writing in the Journal, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, observed that most people who criticize mass communications media cannot bring themselves to accept the fact that when the public is free to choose among various products, it chooses, time after time, those which intellectuals abhor. They seem unable to reconcile themselves to the fact that their hunger for more news, better plays, more serious debate, is not a hunger characteristic of man. “They cannot believe,” wrote

Mother's Day

Mother’s Day, this year on the 14th, is a peculiarly American observance, begun in Philadelphia in 1907. After Miss Anna Jarvis sold her idea to one of Philadelphia’s churches the custom caught on all over the country so rapidly that by 1911 it was observed in every state. The custom has now spread to many other countries of the world, as has the tradition of wearing a red flower if one’s mother is living and a white if she is deceased. The traditional role of the mother has unfortunately been somewhat

EDITORIALS

publishing newspapers or other types of publications. The demand came from persons in all walks of life who knew from recent experience the threat to all individual liberties if there is not freedom of the press and no freedom of speech. “We need to emphasize that point continually. Freedom of the press is embodied in our Constitution for the benefit of all the people and not as an exclusive prerogative of those who are engaged in the business of news dissemination ...”

distribution by penalizing a basic promotional practice that stimulates high volume sales. Fortunately, the California proposal has been rejected in a court action. During the chronic inflationary era in which we are now living, there is no more elementary factor in the perpetuation of a high living standard in the U.S. than the economies of a continuing mass flow of goods to Promotion and advertisipg are instrumental in keeping mass production and mass distribution running in hijgh gear. Any measure that penalizes a legitimate function of the marketplace is patently antagonistic to the best interests of consumers and taxpayers.

Rosten, “that the subjects dear to their hearts bore or repel or overtax the capacities of their fellow citizens.” And we should probably count our blessings that most Americans do not eternally agonize over affairs of state. As Edmund Burke once shrewdly noted, when the general populace is inclined to engage in extensive theorizing, that is a sure symptom of an ill-conducted state. While a society needs a spectrum of intellectual concern, in short, it ?is probably as unhealthy for the bulk of its citizens to be forever uptight about such matters as for them to be preoccupied with what Juvenal, the Roman satirists, described as bread and circuses. Persistent critics frequently claim that the , antidote to inferior programming is public TV, which is insulted from worry about profit-and-loss and the scramble for ratings, and thus is free to serve “highbrow” tastes. But from what we have seen so far, public TV’s fare is often as uninspired and tunnel-visioned as that of the commercial networks, although, of course, in different directions. By all means, critics should continue to nudge the networks toward providing cultural and intellectual leadership, rather than concentrating so heavily on mass tastes. But it is important that America’s intellectual and cultural elite, which so frequently is out of touch with the political and social concerns of the majority of Americans, refrain from portraying its particular esthetic values as the only ones worth holding. — Wall Street Journal

forgotten in the mad rush for material gain in American society in recent decades. No other calling on earth is a greater challenge, or a greater privilege, than that of being a good mother, homemaker and wife. And the most respected and admired women the world over are the mothers of successful, loving families — who have produced in many the great qualities and humanitarian gifts which benefit the world and which hold together the family, the fundamental unit of society and morality.

I I MH p|rACe

Know Your Indiana Law By JOHN J. DILLON Attorney at Law

This is a public service article explaining provisions of Indiana law in general terms.

Res Ipso Loquitur

This ancient Latin phrase, res ipsa loquitur, is as viable today in court proceedings as it was at the time of its ancient origin. Literally translated the phrase means “the thing speaks for itself.” Far more important than this simple translation, however, is the procedure in law whereby this principal is used to fix responsibility upon a negligent defendant. In an action to hold a defendant responsible this doctrine raises a presumption that a defendant was negligent upon proof that the instrumentality causing the injury was in the defendant's exclusive control, and that the accident was one which probably would not have happened in the absence of some negligence on the part of the defendant. Since in practically all civil proceedings for damages for injuries received in an accident, the burden is upon the plaintiff to prove the defendant negligent, the importance of

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— Special Report from Washington — NIXON EDITS’ ABRAMS; THE GERMAN CONNECTION; KENNEDY CENTER SCANDAL By Jack Anderson 1972 Pulitzer Prize Winner for National Reporting

WASHINGTON — Once again. President Nixon is publicizing only favorable excerpts from the secret papers on his desk. He quoted General Creighton Abrams, the U.S. commander in Vietnam, as reporting how “courageously and well’* the South Vietnamese were fighting. It’s quite true that Abrams mentioned in a secret message that the South Vietnamese were fighting well. But the President took Abrams’ statement out of context. All along, the general had reported that the South Vietnamese lacked the military leadership and battle skills to stop a North Vietnamese assault. He was surprised and pleased at how well the South Vietnamese held off phase one of the Communist offensive. Thus Abrams* statement, taken in context, meant only that the South Vietnamese were fighting better than he had expected. Abrams sent a number of other secret messages to Washington that the President did not release. These warned that the key officers, defending the central highlands, were selected for their political connections more than their military ability.

this doctrine becomes readily evident. As our society has grown more complicated and accidents causing injuries to persons more frequent, the type of accident bringing into play the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur are occurring more frequently. For example an explosion case in which persons are in a building exclusively in control of another person are likely candidates fa* this type of law-suit. The cause of the explosion or why it happened is no doubt unknown to the injured persons. It may be sometime after the occurrence that a person injured will find himself in the hospital having been injured in an explosion. It is this type of case which raises the presumption that the defendant in control of such premises was negligent in not controlling or preventing the escape of gas. In such a lawsuit the defendant is required to come forward with explanatory

U.S. intelligence has been reporting since last October that the Communists were building up forces for a major offensive in the central highlands. The attack has been openly forecast since last January'. Yet the South Vietnamese were still wholly unprepared for it. . Abrams* critical reports still remain top secret. Apparently, the public will have to wait until a new version of the Pentagon Papers is leaked out before they will find out what is now really happening in Vietnam. GERMAN CONNECTION Most of the illicit drugs that are nourishing the crime wave in this country come from Turkish opium. It is smuggled directly to France where it is processed into heroin and then shipped to the United States. The French middlemen are the so-called “French connections” made famous by the academy award-winning motion picture. The international crackdown on narcotics smuggling, however, has forced the drug traffickers to alter their routines. The new developments are outlined in' a confidential Central Intelligence Agency' study completed la?t December.

evidence rebutting the presumption that he is responsible for plaintiff s injuries. It is not sufficient for a plaintiff to envoke this doctrine by merely showing that an accident has happened or that he has sustained injury. It must be under circumstances which would lead a reasonable person to believe that the party in exclusive control of the instrumentality which caused the injury was negligent. Another aspect of this doctrine which is extremely important is in injury cases involving extremely young children who are unable because of their tender years to fix the responsibility of negligent conduct upon the defendant who is in exclusive control of an instrumentality which injured the child. As a matter of justice many recoveries for injuries received are obtainable uniter the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur which would not otherwise be available to an injured person in our practice in Indiana. Copy right 1972 by John J. Dillon Social Security Q — At 65 can I draw out all the money I contributed to Social Security rather than take it in monthly benefits? A — No. But you may collect more in monthly benefits when you retire than you contributed if you live a normal life span.

Among the countries emerging as major stopovers in the narcotics pipeline is West Germany. Here is how the CIA puts it: “A striking development in recent years is the emergence of West Germany as a major narcotics storage and staging area. The entry of large numbers of Turkish and other Near Eastern workers into the West German labor force in recent years has facilitated the development. “These workers,” the CIA report continues, “as well as certain German nationals, have become important links in the narcotics chain connecting suppliers of raw materials with the processors of the finished product.” Most of the dope that enters West Germany remains only as long as it takes the German middleman to make his French connections. But not all of the drugs leave Germany. According to the CIA study, Germany’s own addict population is also mushrooming. KENNEDY CENTER SCANDAL A favorite stop for Washington tourists is the glittering Kennedy’ Center for the performing arts. But behind the facade of red carpet, crystal chandeliers and marble walls, a scandal is brewing that could threaten the Center’s future. The Center is flat broke, and it has now turned to Congress for financial help. It has tried to justify its request for funds partly with complaints of widespread vandalism and theft. Center offcials have reported that bathroom furnishings and lighting fixtures have been carried out of the building in broad daylight by lightfingered tourists. But one congressional committee looking into the problem found that the Center actually had no way of knowing whether the items

Things-To-Do List Worth *25,000

By REV. W. LEE TRUMAN Copley News Service Lee A. Davis was the wrong man for an executive placement agency to treat offhandedly when he went looking for a new job some years back. By so doing they created their own competition. Today he is the president of his own placement service and the executive in a construction management firm. After I had spoken at a Rotary Service Club meeting, Mr. Davis, at the close of the meeting, sought me out and told me his story. I asked him what was the single most important thing he had learned in his full life, being a man who had started at the bottom and had not yet arrived at the top of his ladder. He said, “That's easy. It’s a story about Charles Schwab, one of the presidents of Bethlehem Steel Company, who asked of an efficiency expert by the name of Ivy Lee: Isn’t there something to pep us up to do the things we know we ought to do? I’ll gladly pay you anything within reason you ask.’ “'Fine.' he responded. ‘I can give you something in twenty minutes that will step up your achievement by at least 50 per cent.’ “‘O.K.,’ said Schwab. Let’s have it.’ “Lee handed Schwab a blank pieci of note paper, and said. Write down the six most important tasks you have to do tomorrow and number them in order of their importance. Now put this paper in your pocket and the first thing tomorrow

CONCEIVED IN LIBERTY

Revolution and Evolution The Bicentennial Year May 28 through June 3 1772 — Three delegates from Georgia were to sign the Declaration of Independence. They were Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall and George Walton. Their signatures, grouped separately at the left of the document, have perhaps greater visibility than any except that of the first signer, John Hancock, and also appear immediately following Hancock’s in the printed version. Gwinnett thus is regarded as the second member of the Continental Congress tb sign the Declaration and his autographs, as otherwise available, are so rare as to have attained high value as collector’s items. 1822 — In Paris, Victor (Marie) Hugo, as a young man of 20, published a volume of poems that sold well and also impressed King Louis XVIII, who granted him a pension. By 1830 he had attained both fame and fortune through his writing, and these increased

had been stolen or simply had never been installed by the building contractor. What’s more, the Center’s accounting system is such a mess no one can make an official estimate of the value of the missing goods. Even more shocking, government auditors have learned that the Center actually sold all the seats and carpets in the building in its desperate quest for operating cash. Then the seats and rugs were leased back from their new owner, an arrangement that will cost much more in the long run. The Kennedy Center deserves public funds to keep it going. But the danger now is that Congress will say no because of the sloppy way the Center has been managed. FOLLOW INTELLIGENCE BRIEFS Secret intelligence reports charge that the Cuban embassy in Chile is stirring up guerrilla activities in Argentina and Uruguay. The guerrillas have suddenly become more active, both in the cities and the countryside. Our CIA claims they are receiving both financial and technical support through the Cuban embassy in Santiago. The Rumanian Foreign Minister. Corneliu Manescu.has tipped off Israeli Premier Golda Meir that the Egyptian attitude has changed toward the Arab-Israeli conflict. President Sadat has made public threats to resume the war. But in private, according to the Rumanian, Sadat is still eager to work out a settlement. Nguyen Cao Ky, the former South Vietnamese vice president and bitter rival of President Thieu f requested to return to duty after the North Vietnamese offensive. The President, however, turned down his request.

morning look at item “number 1,” and start working on that until it's finished. Then tackle item “number 2” in the same way; then item 3, and so on. Do this until quitting time. “'Don’t be concerned if you have finished only one or two. You will be working on the most important items on your agenda. The others can wait. If you can’t finish them all with this method, you could not have finished them with any other method either. Without some system you will probably not even have decided which were the most important. Do this every working day. After you have convinced yourself of the value of this system, have your men try it. Try it as long as you wish, then send me a check for what you think it’s worth.’ “A few weeks later, Schwab sent Lee a check for $25,000 with a letter saying that the lesson was the most profitable he had ever learned for himself or his management staff. In five years this plan was largely responsible for turning the unknown Bethlehem Steel Company into the biggest independent steel producer in the world. It helped to make Charles Schwab a hundred-mil-lion-dollars and the best known steel man in the world.” Lee Davis reached in his pocket, pulled out a list of items that were numbered, crossed off the item of our appointment, and left. I made a list of the important items I was to do the next day, numbered them, and thought about the $25,000 lesson in making the most out of life.

through the years until his death in 1885, at 83. ... In Greece, revolutionists seeking freedom from the Ottoman Empire, stormed the Acropolis, in Athens. Turkish forces also were defeated in the Morea, or Peloponnesus. The Greek forces benefitted by advice from veterans of the French army of Napoleon, regarded as the most knowledgeable military strategists in Europe, even after the French defeat at Waterloo in 1815. 1872 — James Gordon Bennett Sr., Scottish-born founder of the New York Herald in 1835, and its editor until his retirement in 1866, dies in New York, aged 76. His son, James Gordon Bennett Jr., editor and publisher since 1866, is to continue to direct the paper until his own death in 1918. In the 83 years of their joint control the Herald, despite some faults, pioneered in vigorous and useful news-gathering enterprise, locally, nationally and internationally. —Robert Desmond