JACK ANDERSON
THE JOURNAL EDITORIAL PAGE
PAGE 14 - THURSDAY AUGUST 5,1971 - THE JOURNAL
Good News On Urban Renewal
We were very favorably impressed with the presentation which
Mr. Brendan Geraghty of the New York State Urban Development
Corp. made yesterday to the DOERS and others vitally interested
in urban renewal. We felt that at very long last urban development is moving in Ogdensburg. We have thought this at certain
times before and we hope we are not disappointed again this time,
but we don't believe we will be.
Urban Renewal is a complicated thing to understand. The
Federal Government is responsible for buying property in the
area designated for urban renewal and demolishing it. There they
stop as they did in Watertown some years ago and an expanse of
vacant lots was all there was to show for the program in the heart
of downtown Watertown.
The State of New York runs the Urban Development Corp.
(UDC) which Mr. Geraghty represents. It is the job of UDC to find
a "developer" to build new stores or office buildings on the empty
lots left by the Urban Renewal Agency and find tenants to occupy
them and eventually pay off the investment in the rents they pay.
The UDC was an idea of Gov. Rockefeller who saw the snail-like
progress of the Federal urban renewal programs in New York
State cities, large and small, and generally the absence of any
progress at- all. Gov. Rockefeller and Senator Douglas Barclay
worked out the program for UDC and Senator Barclay drafted the
legislation and guided it through the Legislature. Gov.
Rockefeller secured the services of'Edward Logue, to head up
UDC. Logue had made a great reputation directing urban renewal
in New Haven, Conn, and Boston and was recognized as the outstanding national authoritv in this field.
Geraghty said yesterday that UDC has three qualified
developers for the Ogdensburg renewal area which extends from
Isabella Street west to the Oswegatchie and north to the St.
Lawrence. These three developers have to be passed on by the
attorney general of the State for financial responsibility,
professional reputation and their ability to deliver on their contract, if they should be awarded it. The three prospective
developers are Fort Orange Realty, Albany; Weger Construction
Co., Watertown; McConville Inc., Ogdensburg.
Geraghty said that once the three contractors are cleared by the
attorney general he and Logue will select the one which they
believe is best equipped to do the job in Ogdensburg. He promised
that the name ot me one selected would be announced by next
Monday.
,
Geraghty said that UDC has a time table for the Ogdensburg
program. The area in which UDC is to build must be acquired by
the Urban Renewal Agency and the buildings demolished and the
area cleared by next April. UDC will then start construction on the
new retail area and have it completed by the following fall or well
on its way to completion.
UDC is financing the developer so there should not be any
delays on hold-ups in obtaining financing. It looks as if the decks
are finally cleared and as if UDC is ready, able and willing to do
its part if the Urban Renewal Agency does its part by acquiring
the property, demolishing it, clearing it and selling it to the
developer to start construction next spring. Maybe after years of
frustration, delay, interminable study, endless "planning",
surveys, appraisals, backing and filling urban renewal is on its
way in Ogdensburg.
We are very favorably impressed with Geraghty and we believe
he will make this thing go after all these years of our spinning our
wheels and getting nowhere. If he does, Ogdensburg will be
started on a new and better era and he can take a lot of the credit
for it.
FRL
Published Daily Except Saturday and Sunday by Northern New
York Publishing Co. Inc. 308-314 Isabella St., Ogdensburg, N. Y.,
Telephones 393-1000, 1002, 1003. E'ranklin R. Little, President and
Editor; Charles W. Kelly, General Manager. The Associated
Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all
,news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited to this
paper.
^OM^Y
© 1971 by NEA,
In spite of the benefits, Lord Fairbanks, I still maintain
it would be 'unBritish' to join anything called the
• '
COMMON market!"
Wmmmimmmmmmmmmmmmmmgmmi
mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Jimmy The Greek Picks Muskie Over Nixon
Jimmy the Greek Snyder, the Los
Richard Nixon in 1960: Eight years later, because of his uncanny accuracy, to politicians and political reports from
Vegas oddsmaker, is giving odds that Jimmy not only gave five to one odds give us the political odds exclusively newspapers across the country. A
Senator Ed Muskie not only will win the that Nixon would become President but until theNovember, 1972,election. Other certain amount of black magic also goes
Democratic presidential nomination but picked Spifo Agnew as the vice- news outlets have enlisted such eminent ' into Jimmy's forecastingWill defeat President Nixon in the presidential favorite two days before he pollsters as George Gallup, Louis Harris
Here are the odds-:
general election.
got the surprise nomination.
and Oliver Quayle to assist them in the
Who will win ' the Democratic
Sportsmen and politicos alike swear
Last year, Jimmy selected the right Great American Guessing Game. But presidential nomination?—Sen. E d '
by Jimmy the "Greek, whose odds are favorites in 34 of 35 senatorial and we put our money on Jimmy the Greek. Muskie, 1-2; Sen. Hubert Humphrey, 9accepted as scripture in betting circles gubernatorial elections. He missed only
—Presidential Odds—
5; Sen. Henry JacksOri, 254; Sen. Ted
across the country.
his home state of Nevada,-where he
Nixon arid Muskie are strong favorites Kennedy, 50-1= Sen George McGovern,
He has" never called a presidential failed to predict Governor Mike in Jimmy's book to win the presidential 200-1; Sen. Fred Harris, 200-1; Eugene
election wrong since the Truman-Dewey O'Callaghan's upset victory. "I was too nominations. As he sees it, there's only McCarthy, 200-1; Mayor Sam Yorty, 500upset in 1948. He even picked John ' close to it," says the Greek ruefully.
1; Ralph Nader, 500-1. The chances that
one chance in five that Nixon won't run,
Kennedy to win a close victory over
We have now signed up Jimniy, one chance in two that Muskie won't be a dark horse, not mentioned here, might
win the nomination are 50 to 1.
*
the Democratic nominee.
Who would be Muskie's running
If the economy is still faltering and the
Chinese negotiations are fouled up, mate?—Sen. Henry Jackson, 1-1; Sen.
T h e Sower
Jimmy acknowledges that Nixon might Harold Hughes, 4-1; Sen. Birch Bayh, 5retire rather than risk defeat. Muskie 1; Sen George McGovern, 204; Sen.
might also stumble before next August Fred Harris, 20-1; Sen. Ted Kennedy, 201; da*k horse, 10-1.
and lose the Democratic nomination.
Who would be Humphrey's running
The next most likely nominees, by
Jimmy's odds, are Gov. Ronald Reagan mate?—Sen. Ted Kennedy; 2-1; Sen.
Henry Jackson, 8-1; Sen. Harold
and Sen. Hubert Humphrey.
In the 19.72 general election, Jimmy Hughes, 12-1; Sen. Birch Bayh, 154;
Sen. George McGovern, 40-1; Sen. Fred
lists Muskie a 7 to 5 favorite over Nixon,
rates Humphrey • and Nixon even. If Harris, 40-1, dark horse, 504.
Who will win the Republican
Reagan should be the Republican
nominee, Jimmy gives both Muskie (3 to p r e s i d e n t i a l n o m i n a t i o n ? — P r e s .
Richard Nixon, 5-1; Gov. Ronald'
1) and Humphrey (2V2 to 1) the edge.
Reagan, 9-2; Gov. Nelson Rockefeller,
The possible entry of Eugene
204; Mayor John Lindsay, 20-1; Sen.
McCarthy as a fourth party candidate
Mark Hatfield,, 100-1; Sen. Charles
'
would alter the odds. In this event,
Percy, 1004; Rep. Pete McCloskey, 500- *
Jimmy would rate Muskie and Nixon
1; dark horse, 50-1.
even and the President a 7 to 4 favorite
over Humphrey. But even With
Who will be Nixon's running mate?—
McCarthy in the race, Jimmy still would
Spiro
Agnew,
1-1;.
Treasury
pick Muskie (5 to 2) and Humphrey (2 to
Sec. John Connally, 3-1; dark horse, 3-1.
1) to defeat Reagan.
From time to time, -as the odds
change, we will publish Jimmy the
The odds against George Wallace
being elected to the White House, 'Greek's latest calculations exclusively
in this column.
Jimmy, calculates, would be 500 to 1.
—Hughes' Losses—
Muskie's most likely running mate, as
Ever since the mysterious departure
Jimmy rates the prospects, would be
of billionaire Howard Hughes from
Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson. But if
Nevada, his hotel-gambling empire has
Humphrey should get the presidential
been running into the fed.
nomination, Jimmy considers Sen. Ted
The new managers have been losing
Kennedy a strong vice presidential
money so heavily that Nevada's GOv.
favorite. Vice President Agnew is given
Mike O'Callaghan is alarmed over the
an even chance to remain on the Nixon
impact on the economy of his state.
»'
ticket in 1972.
He is moving towards a showdown
—Jimmy's Methods—
with Hughes' managers over their
Jimmy the Greek, born Demerrious
stewardship. He hasn't decided exactly
Synodinos and reared in the pre-war
what action to take but may go so far as
gambling town of Steubenville, Ohio,
to appoint a conservator to run the
calculates the odds with painstaking
Hughes operations.
precision. He consults professional
WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR.
England's Success In Porno Prosecution
An obscenity prosecution is front page
news in London, where a few days ago a
jury found ten to one against three
defendants, all of them in their twenties,
for putting out an issue of a magazine
(Oz Number 28) which the jury agreed
was in violation of the obscenities
statutes.
The case was interesting from several
points of view. For one, the maaazine
was written and, one gathers, the cartoons drawn, all by schoolchildren —for
school children. The editors had
discreetly inserted ads in other issues of
the mag. inviting young pornographic
talent (under 18) to contribute to issue
number 28.
When the thing appeared, it occured to
the prosecutor, whose actions against
obscene publications have been erratic
over the past few years, that here was a
case that had to be prosecuted, or else
there was risk that the House of Commons would be finally aroused. Even so,
the outcome was in doubt, such are the
pressures for permissiveness, and the
trial took an astounding (by English
standards) '27 days.
Several inferences are to be drawn.
1. The notion that freely circulating
pornography is something that can be
kept from the hands of children is one of I
those liberal abstractions which are
nicely shafted by Oz—28. We find here,
among the very young kids, not only
quite extraordinary conversance with
the discipline, but a considerable
precocity in handling it.
2. A leading opponent of free pornography in the House of Commons is a
young M. P., John Selwyn Gummer, who
tackles the subject with zest, and informs us that the successful prosecution.
will have the effect of keeping the
pornographic m e r c h a n d i s e r s halfhandicapped. And that, he says, is about
the way the House of Commons wants it.
One extreme—the Danish extreme—is
total permissiveness, a Times Square
situation. The other is total repression.
In between you have, he says,
something like the London situation,
where you can find the stuff it you want
it, but where because tons of it are
regularly dumped into the British
Channel, and every now and then you
have a successful prosecution, the
printers aren't-quite ready to go into
high gear, and it has not become a massproduced business.
If the House of Commons should move
against it ruthlessly;.the speculation is
that you have the wrong kind of
backlash. On the general subject, Lord
Macaulay, himself rather straightlaced,
wrote in reference to the bawdiness of
Restoration Comedy. It was the result,
he said, of a long period of British
Puritanism.
."...A government which, not content
with repressing the scandalous excesses, demands from its subjects
fervent and austere piety, will soon
discover that, while attempting to
render an impossible service to the
cause of virtue, it has in fact only
promoted vice."
3. The British attitude is wonderfully
pragmatic and, in a way,' utterly
unAmerican. Our position is: it goes, or
it doesn't go. If Oz—28 is pornographic,
then half the pay lode of Manhattan
newsstands is pornographic, to say the
least.
But, in London, the effect of the
successful prosecution is other than to
affront the logical sensibilities of the
theorists. Everybody knows that there is
worse stuff lying around, and yet many
welcome a successful prosecution, the
effect, of which will b e to keep the por :
nographers in a state- of perpetual in-
security-Thatisn't the fuleof law, biitit
is, in a subtle and fascinating way, the
English way of doing things.
4. In interesting contrast with our own
procedures, the time between indictment and prosecution was relatively
short. The 27-day trial which resulted in
the finding of guilty, s a w the pornographers instantly remanded to jail,
notwithstanding the •usual displays of
slogans and placards with which the
imperturbable agents of British justice
were menaced.
One thinks, by contrast, of Mr. Ralph
Ginzburg, who was found guilty in 1963
androams about,free and querulous, —
noisy testimony not only to the immunity of the practice of pornography,
but to the impotence of the law: a
piquant combination.In fact, the quality of the debate on the
subject is behind that in America, which
has benefited in this year alone through
Professor Walter Berns' "Pornography
vs Democracy: the Case for Cen- •
sorship" in Public Interest's Winter
issue; and Irving Kfistol's piece in the
New York Times Sunday Magazine,
"The Case for Censorship," of March,
197l. Worth teading in any language.
ART BUCHWALD
One Corporation's
Many large corporations, aware that
the consumer has a great fear of being
treated as just another number on a
computer, have tried to personalize
their operations.
A friend of mine recently received a
letter from his credit card company
which said, "After receiving complaints
that our customers have no one to write
to personally, we are happy to inform
you that Mrs. Fred Barkle has been
assigned to your account and if you have
any problems or questions please write
or call him a t the following telephone
number.
"We hope by appointing Mr. Barkle as
your liason with our company we are
proving to. you that, we really" care.
There is no substitute for talking to a
real live human being when you have a
problem, arid our Mr. Barkle is ready to
serve you at your convenience. Sincerely."
A few weeks later my friend, let's call
him Parsons, had a problem. He was
being billed for a plane-flight,he did not
take.
He immediately picked up the phone
and called Mr. Barkle. "Hi, Mr. Barkle
—this is Dave Parsons here. It seems
you fellows made .a little mistake with
my bill and charged m e for a plane ride I
didn't take. Could you straighten it
out?"
"Of course, Dave," Mr. Barkle said.
"Just give me the information and I'll
take care of it."
"Well, that's really nice of you, Fred,
and I want you to know, how much I
• appreciate the fact that I have someone
to "talk to at your company."
"That's why I'm here, Dave. And you
call me any time now—you hear?"
A couple of. weeks, went by and Parsons received another bill from the
credit card company written in stronger
language.
He immediately called his friend
Barkle.
"Say, Fred, this is Dave Parsons. In
spite of the fact that you said you wOuid
take care of the matter, I just received
another bill aoout my plane ticket."
" I have no idea what you're talking
about, Mr. Parsons."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'd better fill you in,"
and then Parsons proceeded to tell
Barkle the whole story again.
"Well, I'll be happy to look into the
matter, Mr. Parsons."
"What, happened when you looked
into the m a t t e r b e f o r e ? " Parsons,
wanted to know.
" I never looked into the matter."
"I spoke to you two weeks ago about
it."
"You never spoke to me; What day did
you call?"
"Wednesday."
,
"Ah, that explains it. You spoke to the
Mr. Fred Barkle who is on duty Wednesday. " I ' m the F r e d Barkle who
works on Friday."
"You mean there's more thaii one
Fred Barkle in your •-organization?"
"There is no Fred Barkle in our
organization. It's just a name we use so
our customers have someone to call."- •
"Well, is there any chance of speaking
to the Fred Barkle I spoke to the last
some hint as to when you'll be on duty
again?"
'"Oh, I couldn't do that. We're all
supposed to be able to handle your
problems."
"If I called Fred Barkle on Friday
again would I be able to get you?"
"It's very unlikely. The company
switches us around every -week s6 we
"But what happens if I get a third don't get too friendly with the
• Fred Barkle? Couldn't you give me customers."
time?" .
"I wouldn't know which one that was.
But I assure you, Mr. Parsons, I can
take care of the matter for you."
'.'Suppose I have trouble again. How
do I call you?"
"Just call the number you have and
ask for Fred Barkle."
New Hollywood: Producers
Don't Chew Cigars Today
HOLLYWOOD— What is a producer?
What does he do?
The - answer to those often-asked
questions are different now than they
would have been 10 years ago. In the old
Hollywood, a producer was strickly a
businessman—cigar-chewing,. girlchasing, tough-talking. And what he did
was to put deals together.
He was out strictly to make a buck;
and he figured his public responsibility
was fulfilled when he gave a check to the
Community Chest drive.
t h e r e are still a few of them around,
but they're dying out, like the bald
eagle. Nobody is shedding any tears.
The new producer, generally, is still
business-oriented. He has to be, because
he's in a profit-making enterprise. But
he is a man who would prefer to be a
writer or director, and got -into
producing when he couldn't cut it in
those other fields.
Hence, he is sympathetic to artistic
considerations.-He wants to make a good
movie and most of therh, given the
choice, would rather have an artistic
than a .commercial triumph. Most of
them, today, have the good sense to'hire
writers and directors and then let them
have their head-.
Which brings us to Herb Gardner, a
writer who has good things to say about
the two producers he's worked for.
Gardner wrote "Who is H a r r y
Kellerman And Why Is He Saying Those
Terrible Things About Me." It's a
Cinema Center Films production, and
CCF's head man is Gordon Stulberg.
,_