Milford chronicle., 1956-09-07
NEITHER ALL HERO NOR ALL VILLAIN

nomination of candidates at both the nation
al political conventions. Each nominee for
Office, no matter how obscure or what his
record, is made to appear an incredible COM
bination of every virtue, without a single
fault or vice. Thousands of lush words are
spent in over-gilding each lily.
Then, when candidates are finally chos-
en-, these successful ones are extolled in even
more extreme terms The opposition is often
characterized, at least in effect, as consist
ing of fools, knaves, or a combination of
both.
Many people have come to believe that
this technique is basic political necessity.
But past history contains examples of an
entirely different kind. For instance, pres
idential candidate who was to have very
great future was given a nominating speech
of exactly 27 unadorned words. Here is the
speech in full 81 desire on behalf of the
delegation from Illinois to put in nomination
as a candidate for the president of the Uni
ted States, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois"
During the coming months we will be
barraged from all sides by the claims and
arguments of aspirants for office. 1t will be
good indeed if reasonable number of these
speeches are based on logic and reason in
stead of blatant emotion-and if the fact is
recognized that neither party nor any man
is all hero, nor all villain AS Herbert Hoo
yer said at San Francisco: From the day of
its founding, men and women of the Repub-
lican Party have led our country to safety in
many great crises of freedom. Men and wo-
men of the Democratic Party, too, many
times in that party's long history have serv-
ed freedom to the full"
S.e&S
FALLOUT WARNING
Another scientist has joined the ranks
of those who have publicly expressed concern
about the potential dangers of radioactive
fall out from atomic weapons tests. DR.. John
Wolfe, whose position as an Atomic Energy
Commission staff scientist lends special
weight to his opinion, thinks the Acc has
taken an "unjustifably optimistic view"o
the possible hazard.
Wolfe is an ecologist; that is, one who
studies the relationships between living or
gansms-including man-and their phySi-
cal environment. AS such, he takes special
interest in what happens when radioactive
strontium in fallout from nuclear blasts gets
into air. soil and water. This element tends
to be retained In the bone structure and
might cause bone cancer if enough were
present in the body.
-Four members of the five-man Acc re-
Gently issued a statement saying that "at the
present level of weapons testing" the amount
of deadly strontium 90 added to the world
Geology would not be significant. Dr. Wolfe
believes this view is too optimistic because
it is based on records of average fallout
throughout the world. "What we need to
know" he told the American Institute of
Biological Sciences, "are the extremes in
local areas, resulting from accumulation and
redistribution on slopes, bottomland, and in
the organic debris of pond, lake and stream"
1t is a good point, one that calls for thor
ough investigation. With both the United
States and Russia exploding test bombs, and
with further tests in prospect, society needs
to know all that can be known about the haz-
ards of fallout
WORTH THE EFFORT
When a freeway is planned to run
through city, announcing the route is like
stirring up the well-known hornets nest.
The people whose homes will be removed
don't like it. The people little farther away
who can't sell their property to the city say
they don't like it.
Practically everybody thinks it should
have cut through few blocks in one direc-
ton or another, or at slightly different
angle-and isn't it terrible that the engi-
neers don't have any more sense than that?
But once a freeway is built, everybody
loves it. 1t provides pleasant painless way
to drive through the city. 1t eases traffic
clogs in other parts of town. 1t adds to the
attractiveness and efficiency of the city, and
visitors are generous with their praise. The
few people who had to move get comfortably
setfled elsewhere and nearby DrODerty VAL