Newspaper Page Text
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VENIN VF
By Quimby Melton
Press conferences, to the
right of them, Press conferen
> ces to the left of them; Press
conferences to the front of them
—Lord Alfred Tennyson lived
before the day and time when
Press conferences were the ex
cepted mode used by the great,
the would-be-great, the never
would-be-great, not to mention
the quack and the crack-pot,
would use a Press confefence to
put over their pet schemes and
grab free publicity, and “p r o
ject” their “image” Into the pub
lic eye.
But Lord Alfred Tennyson’s
“Charge of the Light Brigade”
can be easily paraphrased to sub
stituting “Frees conference” for
“cannon.”
Frankly this old time news
gatherer is getting rather fed
up on Press conferences. (Not
that anyone else may give a
hang how he feels about it.) But
the day and time when a repor
ter had to dig for the news is
long gone. Instead of a nose for
news, that enabled one to scent
and dig out a story, all the star
reporter of today needs be is a
stenograprer who can take down
what is said at a Press confer
ence, ana he does not even have
to be able to take down the
“news” in shorthand, because
the chances are the man who is
holding the conference usually
has some "associate” hand out
“news releases.”
The fact that there are two
press conferences scheduled for
today is not responsible f n r this
column on press conferences.
One of them will be when Nel
son Rockefeller, the coy gover
nor of New York will announce
he's “willin’ ” to be his party
nominee for the greatest elec
tive office in the world; the oth-
I er will be held in Atlanta, at the
| airport, with Senator Robert F.
Kennedy, of New York, ♦elllng
reporters just why he thinks
I he should move into the White
House following the election this
If fall.
I The real reason we are devot
ing space to Press conferences
is that for a long time we have
j been irked at tre tendency of
the press — newspapers, maga
zines, T-V and radio — to rush to
s any Press conference, called by
anyone. America certainly does
’ ! not need censorship — but if
f I there is any excuse for one it
I ■ would be a censorship that wou
ld place a ban on Joe Doakes,
or some other dope like him
i holding one.
■ As Good Evening wrote this
H column he thought about the
® days when a reporter had to dig
H for the news, and he remember-
M ed an assignment given repor
|| ter “Fuzzy” Woodruff. Fuzzy
H primarily wrote about sports,
H but whenever there was a story
M the city editor wanted and no
H one else could get he’d borrow
|| Fuzzy from the Sports Depart
-9 ment and turn him loose.
■' Way back when Grand Opera
■ was in its heyday in Atlanta,
9 with all "society” suddenly de-
M veloping a love for the opera,
U one of the stars was the great
J] Italian tenor Enrico Caruso.
9 There were many bright stars
B anj most of them gladly gave
H interviews to reporters. But En
-9 rico would not open his mouth,
|| except to sing, and to eat at the
9 lavish banquets held for the
9 stars by doting society matrons.
B The Georgian Terrace Hotel
9 was where the stars lived. So
9 Fuzzy was sent there to “get a
9 story” from the great Caruso.
H Arriving he found the* tenor sit
|| ting in a rocking chair on the
9 terrace of the hotel. Going up to
9 him Fuzzy introduced himself,
9 saying what he wanted, “Just a
|H little story about how fine you
| think Atlanta is.”
SJ Caruso’s reply? “No speka de
| English.”
Fuzzy had been polite to the
H distinguished visitor to Atlanta,
U but sensing that such would not
,| get the story, he turned and said
| over his shoulder “O.K. you Wop
ll' So-and-So, I’ll just write and
® say you told me you thought At-
H lanta was a hick town and you
U' couldn’t wait to get back to New
I York.”
Caruso jumped from his chair
■I laid his hand on Fuzzy’s shoul
||| der and said "Oh no, I luv At-
W lanta; Please say I said a lot
||] of nice things about this fine
9| town.”
B Fuzzy got his story, on page
|| one, with a by-line.
INSIDE TODAY
Viet War. Page 2.
Politics. Page 2.
Editorials. Page 4.
Television. Page 4.
Billy Graham. Page 4.
Cary Grant. Page 5.
Sweden Blames. Page 5.
Woman’s News. Pages 6,7.
Sports. Pages 8-10.
Ray Cromley. Page 11.
School Columns. Page 12.
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(Griffin Daily News Staff Photo)
World Fashions
An Extravaganza International Fashion Show was held at the Federated Garden
Clubs of Griffin and Spalding County annual luncheon Tuesday at the Elks Club.
Mrs. Bill Autry, Federation president, talks with models (I-r) Mrs. Taylor Wynne,
Switzerland; Mrs. Jack Landham, James Landham and Mrs. Hugh Hunt, Ger
many. (Other pictures and story on Page 16.)
Vinson Has
Eye Operation
MACON, Ga. (UPI) — Carl
Vinson, who retired in 1964 af
more than 50 years in Congress,
was recovering in Macon Hos
pital today following surgery to
remove cataracts from his eyes.
A spokesman said Vinson, 84,
was “doing very nicely.”
Vinson, chairman of the pow
erful House Armed Services
Committee for 14 years, has
made few public appearances
recently, although he attended
rollout ceremonies at Marietta
last month for the Air Force’s
giant CSA transport.
West Point Gets
Renewal Money
WASHINGTON (UPI) — The
Department of Housing and Ur
ban Development has author
ized an $872,450 grant for West
Point, Ga., for the city’s Pitt
man-lOth St. urban renewal pro
ject.
Rep. John J. Flynt, D - Ga.,
said HUD set aside an addi
tional $50,000 to help relocate
about 137 families in the area.
Country Parson
< MISHKA
“Being right won’t win an
argument — but that’s no
reason for not being right.”
GRIFFIN
DAILY NEWS
Doily Since 1872
Pike Students. Page 13.
Hospital. Page 14.
Stork Club. Page 14.
Funerals. Page 14.
Georgia News. Page 15.
Demo Loyalty. Page 15.
Fashions. Page 16.
Comics. Page 17.
Want Ads. Pages 18, 19.
Military. Page 20.
College News. Page 20.
Income Tax Rate
Changes Suggested
WASHINGTON (UPI) — Key
congressional taxwriters are
calling privately today for a
change in Income tax rates as a
fresh approach to higher taxes,
instead of the administration’s
10 per cent surtax formula.
In the Senate Finance Com
mittee and House Ways and
Means Committee, lawmakers
say the surtax not
been understood by the public
and stands little chance of
gaining acceptance.
As one alternative, the
lawmakers, who asked not to be
identified, said that a basic
change in income tax rates may
stand a better chance of
winning approval than the
Forest Fires
Burn 70 Acres
A woods and grass fire, near
Meansville, burned approxima
tely 70 acres, 30 acres ■ being
woods, Wednesday afternoon.
The Spalding County Forestry
Commission answered the first
call at 1:54 p.m.
Three units from Spalding,
two units from Upson County
and a spotter plane were used
to bring the fire under control
at 4:15 p.m. The fire broke out
again at 6:50 p.m. and one unit
was called. Rangers estimated
three quarters of an acre of
woods was destroyed the second
time.
A grass fire in Pike County
was reported to have burned ab
out a half acre. This call was
answered at 2 p.m.
Dublin Gets
Housing Money
WASHINGTON (UPI) — The
Department of Housing and Ur
ban Development has approved
a $147,465 grant Increase to
Dublin, Ga., for the city’s Glen
wood Avenue renewal project.
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Thursday, March 21, 1968
Fighting Erupts
Across Suez Canal
surtax, which has gone nowhere
since it was introduced last
August.
In a related development,
there were reports in the Ways
and Means committee that the
administration would have to
reduce spending by more than
the $4 billion reportedly suggest
ed by President Johnson to
spring loose higher taxes.
One member of the Ways and
Means, Rep. Charles A. Vanik,
D-Ohio, announced, “I cannot
support a tax increase to
expand or escalate the war in
South Vietnam.”
Johnson proposed the 10 per
cent surtax last August but the
Ways and Means committee has
taken no action. Under the
President’s plan, taxpayers
would pay an extra 10 per cent
charge on top of whatever
income tax they owed. A SI,OOO
tax bill would total $l,lOO, for
example.
Although key members of the
House committee would not
commit themselves, they said a
basic change in tax rates could
produce as much revenue if
taxes are needed. One sugges
tion has been that part of the 20
per cent tax reduction Congress
approved in 1964 be restored.
One member of the panel was
reported to have suggested this
to Johnson two weeks ago,
coupled with a proposal for a
big government spending reduc
tion. The suggestion was that
Johnson reduce spending by
about $7 billion in return for a
major tax hike of up to sl4
billion. There was no indication
as to Johnson’s reply.
Since then, Johnson has
suggested a program of "nation
al austerity.” Although details
were lacking, the programs
included the 10 per cent surtax
to produce sl2 billion in revenue
and some congressional spend
ing reductions in cooperation
with the White House.
150 Arabs Killed
In Punitive Raid
By WALTER LOGAN
United Press International
Israeli tanks and troops
struck across the cease-fire line
into Jordan today and killed at
least 150 Arab terrorists in a
punitive raid, Israeli Premier
Levi Eshkol announced. Soon
afterward, Israeli and Egyptian
artillery exchanged fire across
the Suez Canal.
The Israeli tanks and ar
mored cars backed by Israeli
Mystere jet fighters struck at
at least six points along a 100-
mile line extending from the
plains below the Dead Sea to
the Jordan River valley from
which the Al Fatah Arab
guerrilla organization has hit
Israel repeatedly.
Eshkol told parliament the
attack was mounted after the
government received informa
tion the Al Fatah group planned
a new wave of terror which
would have worsened the
security situation in Israel. He
said Israel had “no alterna
tive.”
The Jordanians reported hea
vy fighting along the Jordan
River and house-to-house fight
ing in some refugee centers and
said in a military communique
late today the Israelis were in
flight-with Jordanian tanks and
artillery fire shelling the
Israelis.
I
Reports Losses
Eshkol said only the Israeli
forces would withdraw when
they had punished the infiltra
tors. He put Israeli losses at 11
men killed and about 50
wounded with one jet shot down
in Israeli territory. Jordan
reported 25 Israeli tanks
destroyed, 200 Israelis killed
and three Mystere jets shot
down.
The fighting appeared to be
dying down across the cease
fire line itself but tonight an
Israeli military communique
said Egyptians opened fire
across the Suez Canal near Ber-
Suwar and “our forces returned
the fire.” The fight lasted 20
minutes.
The attack into Jordan
aroused alarm throughout the
Arab world and Jordan called
for an immediate meeting of
the United Nations Security
Council. Several Arab states
UN Is Called
Into Session
UNITED NATIONS (UPI) —,
The Security Council was called
into special session at noon EST
today to consider Jordan’s
complaint against Israel’s puni
tive attack across the cease-fire
line.
Jordan's ambassador Muham
mad H. El-farra called on
President Ousmane Soce Diop
of Senegal just after 10 a.m.
and Diop called the meeting for
two hours later.
El-farra told Diop in a letter
that he had issued a warning
two days ago that Israeli
authorities were contemplating
a mass armed attack against
Jordan and that the attack
came today.
Weather:
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN
AREA — Increasing cloudiness
with chance of scattered show
ers tonight and Friday. Colder
Friday.
LOCAL WEATHER — Maxi
mum today 80, minimum today
54, maximum Wednesday 83,
minimum Wednesday 55, sunrise
Friday 6:42, sunset Friday 6:53.
Vol. 96 No. 69
went on an alert and Arab
ambassadors met in urgent
conference in Cairo.
Eshkol said the Israeli
attacks were directed at two
principal areas—at Al Karamah
and at three police stations at
Dahal, Sisi and Saafi on the
plain below the Dead Sea. Al
Karamah, 21£ miles from the
cease-fire line, is only 18 miles
from Amman.
UPI correspondent John Law
ton reported from Amman that
the sound of firing could be
heard in the Jordanian capital.
The Soviet Union reacted
angrily to the Israeli attack.
Moscow Radio called the
punitive raid a “criminal act”
and accused the United States
of standing behind the action. It
said the consequences of today’s
fighting “might be extremely
great.”
The Israeli ground and air
strikes were aided by paratroo
pers and helicopter-borne as
sault troops.
Hot Line
Israeli Defense Minister
Moshe Dayan, who suffered two
broken ribs and a cracked
vertebra Wednesday while dig
ging for Biblical relics, over
ruled his doctors’ objections
today and demanded a special
hot line be installed at his
hospital bedside. He conferred
with army headquarters and
with his chief of staff in the
area of the fighting.
Pickup sth pgh: Israel had
Rocky
Won’t
Offer
NEW YORK (UPI)—Gov.
Nelson A. Rockefeller an
nounced today that he has
decided not to seek the
Republican party’s nomination
for president.
The 59-year-old governor’s
announcement at a nationally
televised news conference came
aft-r weeks of agonizing over
the decision. By dropping out of
the running, Rockefeller left the
GOP nomination wide open to
his old rival, former Vice
President Richard M. Nixon.
He said he had weighed his
decision “gravely and thought
fully” and had “spent the last
week talking it over with
Republican officials from coast
to coast.” He said he had
weighed the matter “with all
mind and all conscience.”
Laos City Hit
VIENTIANE, Laos (UPI)—
The Defense Ministry said
today the important province
capital of Attopeu was under
heavy Communist mortar and
rocket attack. A spokesman
said North Vietnamese and
Pathet Lao forces had occupied
two nearby villages controlling
the main highway to the city.
Heart Transplant Possible
For Three - Year - Old Georgian
LAWRENCEVILLE (DPI) —
A hopeful young mother says
she would willingly agree to a
heart transplant operation on
her 3 - year -old son if the
child survives delicate surgery
scheduled for May.
The child, Tim Wages, has al
ready undergone surgery three
times on his heart, which had
two holes in its upper chamber
and another on the lower
chamber at birth. One problem
is that the pulmonary artery
around Tim’s heart has not de
veloped. Doctors hope to solve
this in May by grafting arteries
Mb - WaUt?
Ik.
? Bl IBk 4
JB |||
Transplant
HEARTY LAUGHS are enjoyed by Dr. Philip Blai
berg and his wife, Eileen, as they leave Groote Schuur
Hospital in Capt Town, South Africa. Dr. Blaiberg,
the world’s only living human heart transplant recip
ient, said he felt well two and a half months after re
ceiving the heart of a factory worker.
Georgian’s Daughter
Tells About Trap’
FRANKFURT, Germany (UPI)
— An American girl reporter
told today how she and her edi
tor were lured into a trap baited
by U. S. Army deserters in
Sweden.
The trap, involving reporter
Patton Lindsley and Bill Rus
sell, European editor of the pri
vately owned Army Times news
paper, was sprung Sunday in
a Stockholm student dormitory.
Miss Lindsley said in a story
in the newspaper that she and
Russell “were pulled into a
shrewdly laid trap involving
diplomats, police, secret agents,
and American deserters.”
She said she and the editor
went to Stockholm “to seek out
the complete story on American
deserters in Sweden.” Russell
had just returned from the
Swedish capital with the first GI
deserter to turn himself in to
U. S. Army authorities in Ger
many.
Miss Lindsley said they also
privately hoped to help any
other soldiers who wished to re
trun, but who were “afraid be
cause of misinformation and
misunderstanding about their
status in Sweden.”
Russell, 52, a long-time resi
dent in Europe, is from Tunica,
Miss. Miss Lindsley, 24, is the
daughter of A. P. Lindsley of
Gainesville, Ga.
Through a series of telephone
calls with a man identified as
John Armfield, a Fulbright
scholar traveling in Europe, she
wrote, a meeting was set up with
two deserers, Edward B. Mur
ray of Woodbury, N. J., and
E”".is Dotson of Ballinger, Tex.
Merle Arp, the embassy con
sul, met Russell and Miss Lind
sley with the necessary docu
mens at a student dormitory
in the capital.
Dotson was there, smoking
from his right arm around the
heart.
The mother, Mrs. Betty
Wages, recalled Wednesday that
doctors told her when her son
was worn "That two weeks
would be a long life for Tim.
He turned blue and was put in
an oxygen tent.” She said doc
tors have now expressed sur
prise that he has lived so long.
Mrs. Wages said doctors told
her last November that Tim
might be a candidate for a
heart transplant should the May
operation succeed. She said no
definite plans have been made
for the transplant, however, al-
nervously, Miss Lindsley said.
The group waited for Murray
to arrive.
“Suddenly the door burst open
and four men rushed in,” Miss
Lindsley said. One was a pho
tographer and two were desert
ers the American journalists
had met the previous day at a
news conference but whose
identities they did not know.
“Stand next to he girl, Dot
son,” one of the men ordered,
“and get a picture of him next
to Russell and Arp.” The group
was pushed into the positions
the unknown man wanted.
The two journalists and Arp
were told to “read all about it
in the papers” when they asked
what was going on, Miss Lind
sley said. “One man grabbed
Arp’s official papers from him
and wrested the phone from
Russell when he tried to phone
the police."
The American journalists and
Arp were then told to “get out
of here,” Miss Lindsley said.
They were followed down the
hall and photographed entering
the elevator.
“The men followed us out to
our cab and photographed us
getting in and driving away.
We were shaken. Nobody knew
what had happened, except that
we had been shrewdly lured in
to a clever trap,” Miss Lind
sley said.
“We did not fully understand
how the men planned to use
such photographs and what
propaganda value they could
possibly have,” she said. “But
we knew they would try to dis
credit the American embassy,
prove that William Russell and
Patton Lindsley were CIA
agents and create a deeper
sympathy for the American de
serters committee in Sweden.”
though the donor would have to
be about the same aise and age
as Tim.
She said she would willingly
agree to the transplant, since
Tim’s life has been far from
normal. An only child, he must
live in an air conditioned room
where he plays on a bouncing
horse and watches color tele
vision.
"They (the doctors) told me
that I must be taking excellent
care of him,” said Mrs. Wages.
"When he was very young, the
doctors told me not to let him
cry because he might get too
excited.”