National Reports

...That was dramatically evident in the voting against Russia on Hungary...

...I recognize that there are many places, in cities or in the midst of industrial developments, where billboards may not seem out of place...

...The Assembly, he thought, would need to set up a smaller executive group to administer the force, and would need to exercise great wisdom in its use...

...The arrangement can bring only benefit to the states that accept it, and it will in no way infringe their rights...

...I believe that state governments which reject the advantages of this proposal will be under strong pressure from the many American citizens who feel that billboards and scenery don't mix...

...Since the introduction of my bill in the 85th Congress, letters have poured in from all over the nation supporting my proposal...

...All children attend the public high school...

...The Conference as a whole firmly rejected the view, which some critics of President Eisenhower have charged him with holding, that the UN is a sort of UNIVAC into which the United States can feed problems and anticipate receiving the answers without further effort on its part...

...Consequently, the only major alteration in Chicago's transportation system since World War I has been the substitution of buses for most of the trolley lines...

...Obviously, the CTA's riders-pay-all approach cannot work...

...Finally, municipal and state authorities decided how much of the public treasury would be paid out for the wreck...

...This is for the Secretary of Commerce to determine by the standards he may establish under my bill...

...He was not fearful of enhanced Assembly authority on the score of "bloc voting...

...Here direct Federal protection is possible to insure that these beautiful landscapes are not violated by the crass intrusion of advertising signboards...

...Chicago voters and the Illinois Supreme Court eventually approved the arrangement, which the bond-holders accepted as - the best available...

...Space does not permit reporting the section meetings on economic development and the ratification of international conventions, in which there were wide areas of agreement, or the meeting on "A Positive Solution for the Middle East," at which no agreement was reached...

...He felt it urgent to take advantage of this mood to insure that the UN will have a peace force in being...

...Opportunities in UN By David C. Williams Washington Is the United Nations a blind alley or is it the high road to world peace and justice...

...The Reverend Harvey F. Ammer-man of Augusta's Old Parish Congregational Church called the drive part of a nationwide plan to gain public aid for church-operated schools...

...friend and foe alike...

...He noted that the General Assembly debate on Algeria led the French to bring the Assembly "a substantial outline and promise for reform, not only in Algeria but in all her African possessions...

...But many contended that the vote did not show a true cross-section of opinion because so many of the 21,000 citizens failed to vote...

...Incidentally, if one moves a foot across the street line into Evanston another dime is added to the present 20-cent fare...

...From the ensuing discussion two areas of general agreement emerged: First, in spite of the new responsibilities of the Assembly, the new members, and the old voting system, there was a common belief that the United States should continue to make the UN the cornerstone of its foreign policy, that it should act within the UN as much as possible, and that diplomatic negotiations outside the UN should, in the main, be used to underpin the efforts of the UN itself...

...that U.S...

...As a result, the trains here are actually death traps—a fact the public is keenly aware of...

...From the detailed and useful discussions of disarmament, the most general and even vehement agreement which emerged was that the Administration should give much greater attention to it...

...The outcome was a referendum, which had no legal status, put on the December 10 municipal ballot to test local feeling...

...Thousands of citizens' groups across the nation are now organizing to prevent the destruction of the scenic values of our new interstate highway system...

...It is my hope that Congress will recognize this growing public resentment at obscuring the natural beauty of our landscape and enact legislation which will assist the Federal Government and the states to prevent our new highways from becoming advertising galleries for commercial artists...

...influence today is as strong as, if not stronger than, it was a year ago—before 20 new nations were admitted...

...The major interest of the Conference, as indicated both by the attendance at the meeting devoted to it and by the liveliness of the discussion, was in the developing role of the General Assembly...

...National Parley Discusses U.S...

...With respect to the veto power, he declared his own belief that it should be modified by Charter amendments so that it would not apply to non-military intercessions or inquiries between disputing states...

...Proposed Transit Fare Rise Stirs Chicago Storm By Irving Pflaum Chicago The Chicago Transit Authority's decision to seek a five-cent fare increase, which would raise the price of a ride within the city limits to 25 cents, has led the Illinois House of Representatives to demand a legislative investigation of the steadily deteriorating transportation system here...

...Noting that the UN had put troops into Egypt but not into Hungary, he admitted the obvious injustice, but suggested that it would not really have been better if the UN had refrained from such action in both cases, or if there had been no UN at all...

...Pervading all the discussions of this admittedly partisan gathering was a very real conviction that the United Nations had grown in authority during the past year, and that the United States should play a vigorous and responsible role in making it a more eflective instrument for world peace and justice...

...Parochial Schools Seek City Buses in Maine By Ralph W Porter Augusta, Maine The demand that parochial-school children be permitted to ride in public-school buses, an issue which has rocked this normally placid manufacturing city on the Kennebec River, appears headed for the state courts for decision...

...Billboard control legislation has interested me before—first in the state of Oregon when I served as a member of the State Senate, and then in the 84th Congress, when I worked with Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee to amend the original Interstate Highway Act to regulate billboards...

...The provisions of my bill are short and simple...

...Responsibility...

...This total lack of billboards probably assisted rather than hindered the campaign...

...Second, the UN should have in being at least the nucleus of a peace force which could aid in achieving peaceful settlements, not as a fighting force, but as a moral symbol of world opinion...

...This opportunity, if lost, will not soon come again...

...The Mayor's action followed the unanimous vote of the Board of Aldermen and a 13-2 vote by the City Council to appropriate ?100 toward transporting parochial-school children...

...No delegates were comfortable even in abstaining on that vote...

...Federal funds financed some fancy speedways, and borrowed money is responsible for some new electric elevated trains, but many old wooden cars still have to be used...

...Hoyt argued that the question of when a dispute ceases to be one of "domestic concern" and, instead, threatens the peace of the world is a legitimate matter for inquiry and debate within the UN...

...Representative on the UN Collective Measures Committee, declared that Korea and the Middle East crisis have created a rather general receptivity to the taking of collective enforcement action...

...But this is such a tiny fraction of the municipal system, so inconsequential to the rider, and so slightly local in origin because of the heavy contribution of Federal funds, that it can be omitted...

...Two methods are available: (1) use of Federal funds to purchase advertising rights held by adjoining landowners, and (2) stipulation that old signs be removed following a specified amortization period...

...The House then adopted a resolution calling for a House-Senate committee to look into the situation and report back by April 30...

...threatened to enroll their children in the already crowded public schools if the regular school buses did not transport their children to parochial schools...

...The Mayor, however, stated that the public schools already were overcrowded...

...In one area, the prohibition against billboards along the interstate highways would be absolute under my bill —on lands wholly within Federal control, mostly in our Western states...

...parochial-school children, led by William H. Bean, Augusta mill hand and father of six...

...Only through some sort of government aid—municipal, state or Federal—can even a start on improvements be made...

...The surface lines had set aside some $50 million for rehabilitation before the public agency moved in, and it was estimated that the CTA would be able to add another $180 million to this from fare profits during its first decade of operation...

...He held that the United States must help to apply UN Charier principles with equal justice for all...

...These standards will apply directly wherever the inter-tate system crosses Federal public lands...

...The public schools have some 3,300 pupils, the parochial 944...

...To suggest that the UN failed in its responsibility or compromised its morality by not imposing sanctions upon the Soviet Union misreads the realities of both world politics and world economics...

...The private owners of the public utilities, with the help of City Hall and even some union bosses, milked them dry...

...Louis Post-Dispatch, and Scripps-Howard newspapers, have given it strong endorsement...

...Meanwhile...

...The construction of thousands of miles of new highways gives us once more the opportunity to preserve the esthetic—as well as the merely economic—-values of motor travel through America...

...With respect to the sharing of financial burdens, Hoyt noted that, on the basis of comparative wealth, the United States might be expected to contribute 40 per cent rather than the current 33 per cent of the UN budget...

...One of the first steps in each community has been to get public support for parochial schools," he said...

...Spokesmen for the parochial-school parents argue that parochial schools are saving Augusta $200,000 annually and that bus service for their pupils would cost only about 15,300 a year...

...This amendment was removed on the floor of the Senate...

...Nor would my bill apply to signs in commercial areas alongside the interstate highway where a business or related activity takes place...

...He suggested a permanent nucleus force made up of small national units and a unit of volunteers individually recruited...

...It merely creates standards which the states may accept if they desire to beautify their highways at little financial cost...

...We are told by members of the billboard industry that billboards provide a public service by preventing "highway hypnosis" and thus reducing accidents...

...Maine's Legislature several times has refused to pass laws expressly permitting public-school buses to carry parochial-school children, although it is done in some Maine communities...

...My bill would in no way interfere with traditional state control over highways and land use...

...This did not perturb the CTA's enthusiastic supporters, however, even though it was set up on a riders-pay-all basis...

...Acknowledging that bloc voting raised problems, Hoyt insisted that "the record shows that the United States has continued to command support on all important votes...

...Of course, there is the State Street subway...

...In opening the meeting, Professor Arthur Hol-combe, Chairman of the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace, pointed out that the very success of the General Assembly in dealing with issues on which the Security Council has failed has created a new challenge to the Assembly — and new problems...

...Harding Bancroft, former U.S...

...Taxes paid by motorists will finance this vast highway network...

...Frank Graham then listed, as the major problems threatening world peace, exploitation, colonialism, racism, the arms race, and absolute national sovereignty...

...Public School Superintendent, issued a statement welcoming all parochial pupils to the public schools, lie said he had found 15 teachers to care for them and the influx would require double sessions in only two grade schools...

...The time to protect these roads from defacement by commercial signs is now...

...Without the highway, billboards would be worthless...

...Some recent el smashes and breakdowns led to a momentary campaign to "do something" not long ago, but, like most such outbursts of public indignation, it petered out against the concrete wall of bankruptcy...

...NATIONAL REPORTS Banning Billboards On Public Highways By Richard L. Neuberger U. S. Senator, Oregon IN a few short years, Americans will he driving the 41,000 miles of modern limited-access highways planned under the $25-billion, 13-year interstate road program enacted by Congress last year...

...The long-simmering dispute over bus transportation came to a head March 5. A group of parents of 944...

...Despite the Mayor's appeal that all concerned await a court decision, one group of parents drove ahead with their plan to enroll children in the public schools...

...Mayor H. Lloyd Care) started action to provide a test case on the legality of spending city funds for such a purpose...

...The fare then was eight cents...

...On other lands, the Federal Government will pay 90 per cent of the cost of buying up advertising rights along the 500-foot adjoining strip beside the highways whenever any state wishes to join cooperatively in such a project...

...Bus transportation . . . has been the opening wedge...

...Governor William G. Stratton urged that the idea be dropped on the ground that it was useless, but he was overruled by a 94-59 vote...

...These were to be operated by a seven-man transit-authority board—four to be named by the Mayor and three by the Governor—each of whom would receive $15,000 per year...

...One of the principal speeches at the Conference, that of Palmer Hoyt, the publisher of the Denver Post, was devoted to answering these criticisms, in each of which he frankly acknowledged some validity...

...Thus, the CTA went into business with a creaking el, an outmoded, screeching trolley-car system, and an almost antique bus line...

...Such a taboo already exists in certain areas, in national parks and forests...

...Judging from the way stores there are investing in suburban branches, though, things did not quite work out this way...

...Like Senator Knowland, Hoyt deplored the double standard of morality, but noted that its practice "shows up soon enough in the glaring publicity that centers on the delegates of 80 nations in New York...

...it helped persuade thousands of conservationists and outdoor enthusiasts of my sincerity when I spoke against the desecration of scenic beauty...

...The tremendous task it faced can be seen from a report in Mass Transportation magazine for April 1945, when the transit lines were in receivership awaiting public bail...

...5. The unwillingness of many of the 80 members equitably to share the monetary costs and other obligations of the UN and its related activities, while insisting upon a full and equal voice in the making of decisions, the burden of which must be assumed by others...

...I believe the traveler on these future highways should be able to see the beauty of our nation's landscapes without the garish distractions of commercial advertising—whether the road takes him past the symmetry of cultivated fields, the light and shadows of evergreen forests, or serene and limitless miles of desert...

...There is little that is any more pernicious or extraordinary about the Bandung or the Asian-African bloc in the UN General Assembly than there is in the Southern bloc, or the semi-arid Western bloc, or the New England bloc in the United States Senate...

...From rather close to the downtown Loop (serviced by the el) on both north and south, two single-track tunnels slope down below the surface for a few stations and miles—including, naturally, the mile or so of stores on the downtown part of the street...

...He thought that the Assembly should set up a special body to study the question, which would consider the size and composition of the force, and its training, cost and functions...

...Americans have indicated that they are distressed by increased "fencing" of our highways by billboard advertising...

...Unless we give thought to the question of what the traveler is to see as he drives across our country, we know that he will see what he sees today: Signs and billboards designed to hammer home the virtues of a cigarette or a whiskey...

...The Reverend Shirley B. Goodwin of Portland, president of the Maine Council of Churches, cautioned that if the Government starts taking care of transportation, books and other things will be next...

...But this reasoning failed to reckon with the vicious circle that was to develop in the course of day-to-day operation: Rising labor costs, the high expense of maintaining antique equipment, numerous accidents and rider resistance to bad service led to increased fares, which heightened rider resistance, which again led to increased fares until they have reached the point of no return...

...Will motorists travel these swift, economic highways with an unlimited view of the scenic grandeur of the American countryside...

...They asserted that the city's move to test the legality of the appropriation was not sufficient, and declared that, unless bus transportation was provided immediately, the children would be enrolled...

...And should one want speed—16 miles in 35 minutes—he pays 20 plus 10 plus 10...

...I practiced what I preached as a candidate for the Senate in 1954...

...Last fall, 300 citizens stormed a meeting of the former City Council asking that public-school buses transport parochial children...

...This traditionally Republican town, which now has a Democratic Mayor, has had two school systems since the 1890s...

...The vole, as emphasized by several Protestant aldermen and ropeated by Mayor Carey, a Roman Catholic, was only to provide the test case...

...Adrian Fisher, former legal adviser to the State Department, raised some pertinent questions about such a UN force...

...If the command of the force were under the UN Secretariat, would all nations have confidence in its impartiality—particularly since the Secretariat staff might include citizens of countries which were parties to the dispute or ideologically in sympathy with them...

...Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel J. Feeney, leader of Maine's Catholics, has declined through a spokesman to enter the controversy...

...The deal consummated called for $75 million to be paid for the surface lines and $12 million for the el...

...These new highways, once built, will not be relocated in this generation...

...But as long as Chicagoans suffer in silence little is likely to change...

...Unfortunately, this provides little cause for optimism among the millions of Chicagoans and those living in surrounding areas who have to rely on the transit system to get to and from work...

...On the contrary, the stated theme of the gathering was "Major Issues Before the UN: U.S...

...Votes cast showed that 3,915 favored public bus rides for parochial pupils, while 2,470 were against...

...4. An expanding tendency to interfere in the domestic affairs of member nations...

...Does not the motoring public have a right to enjoy a road free from commercial signs and similar blemishes...

...For that reason, I have introduced in the Senate a bill which will make it possible to avoid the construction along the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways of the artificial thickets of billboards and signs which many have come to take for granted along our present roads...

...The controversy is the climax of several years of growing agitation for all-school bus service...

...There was, of course, never any doubt about the answer of the annual "Conference of National Organizations" held here early in March under the auspices of the American Association for the United Nations, a tireless crusader for the UN in season and out...

...Not one single billboard was purchased in behalf of my candidacy...

...It was hoped that the subway, some gigantic public-built Loop parking garages, and traffic improvements would keep Chicagoans shopping on their central State Street...

...The Assembly, he declared, was too unwieldy a body to administer it...

...Once this was accomplished, the system was left to rot...

...But the tourist, instead of seeing stirring vistas of mountains and rivers, is confronted by blatant demands that he buy a particular brand of liquor, soap or chewing gum...

...I have been asked what would happen to signboards now located on sections of the interstate system which will be reconstructed rather than built from scratch...

...Yet a large American oil company recently announced that it was canceling all its billboard advertising, in part because of "the traffic hazard which a great many experts have indicated billboards tend to increase...

...He said the city was using one school built in 1869 and condemned for main years, in addition to using converted basement space and a one-room "country" school...

...Claude J. Bourget, City Solicitor, had quoted the opinion of a jurist that the court would not consider the issue unless a formal vote was taken and at least a token amount appropriated...

...2. A growing "double standard" of international morality...

...Such a nucleus, he thought, could be appropriately expanded to meet specific needs for its services when they arose...

...Nevertheless, the Conference was marked by the serious and respectful attention it gave to criticisms of the UN, in particular to the five defects recently listed by Senator William F. Knowland: 1. The abuse of the veto power by the Soviet Union...

...In the past, executive, legislative, judicial, state, Federal and press investigations of the Windy City's decrepit rolling stock have taken place, but none of these has halted the fare spiral or improved service...

...It becomes] part of the record upon which delegates and their countries must stand...

...It directs the Secretary of Commerce to prepare a set of standards for control and limitation of billboards within 500 feet of the right-of-way on either side of interstate highways...

...America's highways could be scenic corridors through Lhe beauty and the variety of our hind, uninterrupted by unsightly billboards...

...Perry F. Shibles...

...But he added: "Does anyone really believe that the United States would, or should, surrender its veto power in the Council's commitment of the military forces of this country...

...Or will our new transportation arteries become monotonous corridors walled with commercial signboards...

...Surely Senator Knowland does not so believe...

...The city would get only 500 good vehicles when it took over, the magazine said, and it would take $237 million over 10 years to rehabilitate the elevated and surface lines...

...Following a five-hour public meeting March 6 that was filled with pleas for a peaceable solution...

...What is the answer to the Windy City's transportation dilemma...

...The representation of the world's 2.5 billion people, a majority of whom are non-white, had in his view made the General Assembly the most essential organ of the UN...

...Dozens of influential newspapers, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the St...

...The events that led to the current miserable transit conditions are not difficult to trace...

...3. The increasing tendency to bloc voting...

...Likewise, the greater universality of UN membership has resulted in fresh problems arising from the increase in the number of nations taking part in Assembly debates and votes...