St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 66

The 'EitherOr' Of Railroads ST.LOUIS POST-DISPATCH hy JOSEPH PULITZER Dtccmbtr 12, Jg7l mm. I SPrNNMSU MAIN x. MmmmmB 'That's Right, Me Hearty It's The Map To The Tourists' Treasure' Flying The Mail In A Jenny Second Air Mail Route In U.S. Was Between St. Louis and Chicago public ownership should be investigated.

Such an investigation is all the more desirable in the light of the decline almost to the vanishing point of railroad passenger service. When an industry whose largest company fails in times like these is unable or unwilling to render an essential part of its traditional service, then the question must be asked whether public ownership is the proper alternative. Bailing out the railroads by Mr. Volpe's plan is not going to do anything whatever about restoring essential passenger service. Indeed, Congress now has before it other legislation providing Government subsidies for passenger lines which the railroads want to get rid of.

If the Government must not only guarantee the railroads' credit but on top of that pay them to run passenger trains, it is time to find out precisely what could be achieved and what the economic results would be of public ownership. Exploring that ground is a task Congress should set itself. Could the principle of ownership and management by a public corporation like the Tennessee Valley Authority be applied to regional railroad systems? What revenues and costs could be expected under such a system? How much passenger service could be rescued by it? How would the owners of railroad securities be compensated? Could a publicly-owned system in one region where private ownership had failed co-exist with private ownership elsewhere which had been successful? What would be the effects on othei modes of transportation? Such questions as these need asking and they deserve answers. Nearly every other country in the world today has publicly-owned rail-. roads, and the time has come to face squarely the possibility that fundamental changes may be needed in the United States.

No Confidence Now he blandly announces that the South Vietnamese will stay, after all, and that American air power will stay as well. He also intends to "support" fighting in Cambodia by third-nation troops, evidently the Thais; and if that means financial support, he will be in direct conflict with the Cooper-Church amendment which bars the financing of mercenaries. All this eliminates any question that, despite Mr. Nixon's disclaimers, the Indochina war has been expanded by the Invasion of Cambodia. Our own conviction is that the sanctuaries will be found to have been broadened and strengthened rather than otherwise, that the invasion has united the Cambodian people and the Communist guerrillas, that the ultimate result will be to slow down if not halt altogether American troop withdrawals from Vietnam.

And that is why we hope the Senate now presses on to adopt the McGovern-Hatfield amendment, setting specific deadlines for final and complete withdrawal. extent to which the Russian-backed conservatives are trying to carry their purge is a measure of the popular following Mr. Dubcek enjoyed. It is small comfort to him and to oppressed Czechs to reflect that the spirit of freedom he represents will inevitably rise again. Next time, one hopes, it will not be put down.

Canada's 1970s The white paper on Canadian foreign policy in the 1970s issued the other day in Ottawa reflects the continuing concern of Canada over the possible loss of independence and cultural identity to the United States. So the government said Canada must stress trade expansion, collective security and cultural, scientific and technical exchanges, and closer ties with Latin America and underdeveloped nations. Canada and the United States have enjoyed a relationship that is probably unique in international affairs, and It should be In the interest of the United States as well as Canada to support Canadian aspirations. Canada's world outlook is often broader than that of the United States; there is more than a little we can learn from our less powerful neighbor. A Mess The Aldermen Made The Aldermen's vote to override Mayor Cervantes's veto of the firemen's pay bill perpetuates and compounds a serious policy error.

And so in this leadership vacuum produced by men who should have known better, It now falls to the taxpayers, at the unnecessary Sept. 15 special election, to head off the firemen's raid on the treasury as the Mayor and the Aldermen should have done weeks ago. The firemen originally turned on the initiative machinery in the City Charter to submit a Charter amendment tying their salaries to those of policemen, whose wages are set by the Missouri Legislature. The Missouri Supreme Court in two cases has interpreted the State Constitution as prohibiting use of the initiative to submit a compensation plan, so the firemen's approach was subject to serious legal challenge; and we presume that the Cervantes Administration would have challenged it, when the time came. Under the initiative procedure, the Aldermen are first given an opportunity to adopt a proposal initiated by citizens.

If the Aldermen refuse to adopt the measure, then the Election Board is required to take steps to put It on the ballot. Had the Aldermen declined to accommodate the firemen had they done nothing then the city could have sued to prohibit the Election Board from acting on the grounds the initiative proposal was Illegal. But there is no constitutional prohibition against a law-making body like the Aldermen submitting a compensation plan on its own hook, which Is what the Aldermen did. Unless the people now say No to the firemen at the polls, state legislators in St. Louis County and outstate over whom St.

Louisans have no control will set firemen's salaries. Transportation Secretary Volpe says Congress must adopt the Administration's bill for $750,000,000 in loan guarantees to Penn Central and other railroads, or face the alternative of nationalization. As nationalization is supposed to be a scare word, Mr. Volpe was evidently trying to send such shivers up his hearers' spines that they would immediately choose the alternative of Government underwriting and subsidy. We think it would not hurt to look at the matter the other way around.

If the alternatives are indeed those Mr. Volpe presents, we believe Congress ought to explore public ownership carefully, calmly and without preconceptions before plunging Into a program of loan guarantees for the railroads. What is at issue here are not the principles of free enterprise, but two methods of modifying free enterprise. By classical capitalist standards the Government ought to do nothing whatever about Penn Central. The bankruptcy proceedings should be allowed to proceed, investors and bankers should be required to lose money, new managers and owners should take over the property which, after going through the wringer, would presumably operate at a profit.

Mr. Volpe proposes to modify this order of things by throwing the Government's financial resources into the breach on behalf of the present ownership and management. But what is the public interest in bailing out the present owners and creditors who allowed the railroad to come to grief? The public interest rather lies in retaining and improving the service Penn Central renders, and it is just possible that this interest can be better served by taking full public control of the system than by bailing it out. If private enterprise in railroading is to be modified at all, the prospects and possibilities of modifying it through A Senate Vote Of The Senate gave the best answer to President Nixon's self-serving apologia for the Cambodian invasion by adopting the Cooper-Church amendment to restrict further American operations there without congressional consent. True, Administration forces had succeeded in stalling a vote until Mr.

Nixon could withdraw our ground combat troops as promised. But this does not deprive the amendment of its significance. For it expresses a widespread skepticism toward Mr. Nixon's rationalizations of the invasion, and a determination that the war shall not be expanded again if the Senate can prevent it. In a parliamentary system the vote would be seen as one of no-confidence.

The skepticism is justified by Mr. Nixon's amazing effort to convince the American people that he has kept his promise to them by withdrawing American ground combat troops. What he promised was to withdraw not only American troops but South Vietnamese as well, along with their American air support. The OAS And Kidnapings At an earlier time kidnaping would have seemed a strange topic for an international gathering, yet it is a leading issue before the Organization of American States in Washington. In recent months terrorists have kidnaped and killed the West German ambassador to Guatemala and have kidnaped but set free both the American and West German envoys to Brazil in return for freedom for political prisoners.

The OAS has reached an agreement to condemn kidnapings but has referred the question of what to do about them to its juridical committee. Most of the republics simply would not agree to proposals for action, and with good reason. Brazil dropped a United States-backed plan to declare political kidnapings a threat to hemispheric peace and security, which might have allowed use of collective armed force. Argentina earlier suggested limiting the right of asylum for political prisoners ransomed to free kidnaped diplomats. Mexico, Chile and other major Latin governments rejected such ideas because they would interfere with national sovereignty and self-determination.

The right of political asylum is traditional and the prospect of using some sort of international force in retaliation for kidnapings is ridiculous. About all foreign nations can do is to withhold their diplomats from nations in which kidnapings take place, and few wish to do that. From a practical standpoint the crime of kidnaping has to be dealt with as it has been, by the governments and police where the crime occurs. And the problem would be more easily answered, or perhaps would not so easily arise, if these countries did not beget terrorism by practicing repression. It hardly seems coincidental that kidnaping as a political measure has occurred in Guatemala, Brazil and Argentina, rather than in republics with more representative governments.

Aborted Spring The disgraceful treatment being accorded Alexander Dubcek by the dominant ultracon-servatives of the Czechoslovak Communist party leaves one question unanswered: how far will it go? Mr. Dubcek, leader of the "Prague spring" of 1968, has now been dismissed from his post as Ambassador to Turkey and expelled from the party. He is said to have suffered a breakdown and to be undergoing medical treatment in a Prague hospital. Mr. Dubcek's crime was that he was trying to lead his people to a modicum of freedom, freedom that Czechoslovakia's Russian masters feared to permit.

So now Mr. Dubcek is being made a horrible example for any like-minded Czechs. It appears likely he will be forced to submit to a public trial, possibly with other reform leaders, as part of a country-wide purge aimed at reducing membership in the Communist party by about a half and at weeding out moderates from the government, unions and academic and other institutions. The THE POSTDJSPATCH PLATFORM I KNOW THAT MY RETIREMENT WILL MAKE NO DIFFERENCE IN ITS CARDINAL PRINCIPLES, THAT. IT WILL ALWAYS FIGHT FOR PROGRESS AND REFORM, NEVER TOLERATE INJUSTICE OR CORRUPTION, ALWAYS FIGHT DEMAGOGUES OF ALL PARTIES, NEVER BELONG TO ANY PARTY, ALWAYS OPPOSE PRIVILEGED CLASSES AND PUBLIC PLUNDERERS, NEVER LACK -SYMPATHY WITH THE POOR, ALWAYS REMAIN DEVOTED TO THE PUBLIC WELFARE, NEVER BE SATISFIED WITH MERELY PRINTING NEWS, ALWAYS BE DRASTICALLY INDEPENDENT, NEVER BE AFRAID TO ATTACK WRONG.

WHETHER BY PREDATORY PLUTOCRACY OR PREDATORY POVERTY. JOSEPH PULITZER AH 10. 1907 Wednesday, July 1, 1970 Letters From The People Exporting Growth Your editorial on i 1 quotas was pure generalization and theory. How about the shoe Industry? Do you know that the United States shoe industry produced 585,000,000 pairs of shoes in 1969, compared to 595,000,000 pairs in 1959? There have been variations in production in the last 10 years but it is obvious that there has been absolutely no growth in the shoe industry. In the meantime the population of this country has Increased.

Per capita consumption of shoes has increased. The gross national product has grown but not the shoe industry. Are you prepared to snap your fingers and write off the American shoe worker? Uncontrolled free trade will do just that. I fail to see the logic of simply standing by, i the death throes of an American industry and doing nothing merely to avoid offending some foreign power; or worse, for fear of retaliation. The Mills Bill, HR16920 will not freeze imports.

It is an "orderly marketing" act which would control the imports of shoes or of any product. In 1969, in addition to the 585,000,000 pairs produced here, there were 195,000,000 pairs imported; it is estimated that there will be 225,000,000 pairs imported in 1970. This is the growth in the shoe industry increased consumption has gone to imports. Is it illogical to ask that the shoe industry in this country share a in the increased consumption? That's what orderly marketing means; let the imports continue to come into this country but in an orderly way as the market increases let the imports increase proportionately. Unless we get some kind of orderly controls, the shoe industry will disappear as did the baseball glove industry.

Then, you will be able to count the closed shoe factories as monuments to "free trade." But, after shoes and textiles, what next? John Mara General President, Secretary-Treasurer Boot Shoe Workers' Union Boston Smoke On The Bus Bi-State bus drivers, relieved now of re-sponsibilityto customers in making-change for fares, are abandoning another responsibility a rd these customers. The driver smokes. During the past two weeks I have observed this half a dozen times on my way to and from work. The riders now are following his example. Without a by-your-leave and in complete disregard of the "no smoking" sign, they light up and puff the pollution out into the confining closeness of the bus.

Weary eye-sore workers must either suffer the imposition, or else create friction. The driver says nothing. With such flagrant violation of the rules by grownups, why reprove youngsters for throwing rocks at the vehicle? Why protect drivers from one possibility of crime in the streets when they turn right around and promote crime with others? A Weary Worker President In St. Louis I want to express my unbounded appreciation, as well as surprise, for the right decent coverage and editorial comment you gave on our President's visit to St. Louis.

I have written several quite vitriolic expressions of my feelings about your usual comments on the President and his refusal to just bow out and surrender in Vietnam; so, now, in all honesty I must say that your latest journalistic stance toward our nation's leader Is quite in keeping with good Americanism. Marvin H. Clark Valley Park Accept The Arahs' Count I was very gratified to learn that our government plans to sell planes to Israel on a replacement basis. Naturally, to be fair, the U.S. should take the count given by the Arabs for planes downed.

(And who should know Of course, the only difficulty I foresee is that Israel may encounter great problems in raising all the cash necessary to buy the largest standing airforce in the whole world! University City Earl Harris Name and adirett must accompany tvery Utter, but on request will not be published. Lttcr not exceeding 200 teordjt will receive preference. Park. It was admittedly a stunt, the product of Maj. Albert Bond Lambert's lively imagination.

Walter Brookings, a noted flyer of that day, made several daily trips, actually with mai In 1926 the new Robertson Aircraft Corp. was awarded the first contract air mail route in the United States. The Robertson brothers, "Major Bill," and Frank bought four surplus Army DH-4 biplanes and hired pilots. Charles A. Lindbergh became chief pilot.

His crew was composed of Philip R. Love, Thomas Nelson, C. Ray Wassell, Harlan (Bud) Gurney and Dan Robertson, youngest of the flying Robertsons. The E. Hamilton Lee Mr.

Lee Was The Pilot Of The First Airplane In Regular Mail Service To Make The Run From Chicago To St. Louis. route was St. Louis to Chicago, through rain, snow and zero weather in open-cockpit planes. Lindbergh was forced twice to jump for his life in impossible weather.

His pilots more than once spent a night in an Illinois farm home after a forced landing. The Robertsons sold their contract to the old Universal Airlines, which later became part of American Airlines, operator of multiple schedules between the two original points. American jets now whisk passengers and mail between St. Louis and Chicago in 53 minutes, the same route that Pilot Lee pioneered with the first air mail 50 years ago except it took him almost four hours. National Park The National Park Service proposed the park as early as 1964.

It gave the plan added urgency in 1968, saying: "The growth of various commercial activities in this area in recent years makes it clear that the opportunity to preserve these nationally significant lands and waters as a many-faceted public park is rapidly passing and, if not acted upon soon, may be lost entirely." The principal criticism has come from timber companies, which own land in the area, and from resort owners operating there. The Administration's endorsement of the project came in a letter from Interior Secretary Walter Hickel to two congressional committees studying the plan. Representative John A. Baltnik of Minnesota, chief sponsor of the park, predicts passage of the park bill this year, and we hope the Congressman is right. This attractive plan for the first national park In the Midwest area deserves approval.

What Makes America Great IX The Congressional Record Representative Miller of Ohio: Mr. Speaker, today we should take note of America's great accomplishments and in so doing renew our faith and confidence in ourselves as individuals and as a nation. The United States is the world's largest producer of margarine. In 1966 the United States produced 2,401,000 metric tons of margarine. Theodore P.

Wagner In St. Louis Commerce The golden anniversary of St. Louis's first regular air mail service Chicago to St. Louis Will be observed this summer. On the morning of Aug.

16, 1920, Pilot E. Hamilton Lee left Chicago at 8: 30 o'clock with 150 pounds of mail in his JN-4 biplane. He stopped 12 minutes at Chanute Field, 111., for fuel, and landed In St. Louis's For-The Mirror est Park at 12:25 p.m., 25 minutes ahead of schedule. Of Eager postal employes dis patched the mail downtown Public Opinion before an official welcoming party, including the Postmaster, arrived at the field.

The route, the second authorized by the Government, operated only until the following May, when it was terminated due to lack of funds. After the novelty of mail being transported by air wore off, business firms ceased using the service. The city and the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce raised $25,000 to build the metal hangar In Forest Park that is now used as a shelter for Park Department mowing machines. The former landing field is now a series of baseball diamonds bordering the Express Highway opposite Forest Park Community College.

It was no fault of the early pilots and mechanics that the air mail service was short-lived. With an average elapsed time of three hours, 50 minutes for the 270-mile Chicago-St. Louis flight, the Jennys beat the mail trains by four hours. The service had the highest efficiency rating possible, earning all employes a monthly bonus. The high efficiency rating was accomplished despite several forced landings, with minor damage to the sturdy Jennys.

The pilots, besides Lee, were Russell G. Jones, Ralph A. Reed, Earl F. Baskey, L. H.

Garrison, and H. C. Brown. The local field manager was William G. Witzell.

Pilot Jones held the record for the trip to Chicago, twice making the flight in two hours, 57 minutes, at an average speed of 91 miles an hour. Baskey made the fastest southbound trip, three hours and 2 minutes. All of the pilots had learned to fly In World War I. Lee had a farm in South Dakota and took time out to gather his crops that autumn. What became of the air mail crew after the washout was not recorded.

The Forest Park field, which was used briefly by the Robertson brothers for sight-seeing flights after the air mail service was discontinued, had a large searchlight for night landings. There also was a direct telegraph line between the two terminals. There had been an earlier "air mail" operation, from Kinloch Field in north county to Fairground Voyageurs From The Des Moines Register The Nixon Administration has given a needed boost to pending legislation to establish a Voyageurs National Park in Northern Minnesota. The park would be centered on the Kabetogama peninsula just east of International Falls. This wild network of waterways, lakes and forests was the lifeline of the fur trade of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

French-Canadian canoemen "voyageurs" carried pelts from the far northwest through these waterways to Montreal. The proposed park would include about 100,000 acres of land and 60,000 acres of water. It could grow by 35,000 acres if the Crane Lake recreation area were transferred from the Superior National Forest into the proposed park. The Voyageurs site is northwest of the Superior National Forest and Boundary Waters Canoe Area, where attempts to prospect for minerals still pose a serious threat to a unique wilderness area. Under the park plan, tourist resorts would be established in designated areas and leased to private operators, as in other national parks.

Most of the transportation within the proposed park would be by boat. The Interior Department estimated the cost of buying private land in the park at $20,300,000 and development costs at $19,200,000. These figures are higher than earlier estimates. 2E -i i-i r- L.n -i -1.