Throwback Thursday: New low for the Review and tractors for Cuba | THE BAINBRIDGE BLAB

Published 12:35 pm Thursday, June 16, 2016

It’s Throwback Thursday, and time to split the covers of a dusty volume of Bainbridge Reviews to see what was making headlines oh so many years ago.

Today, we peek inside the Wednesday, June 14, 1961 edition.

Front Page

Where, When Build Next Fire Hall?

When and where to build the next branch fire station was the informal subject of discussion at the Fire Commission meeting on Thursday night.

With Commissioner Emanuel Olson in Tokyo, Japan, for the international Rotary convention, Commissioners Lou Frohning and R. Irwin Hansen limited formal business to a minimum and talked — without attempting to reach a conclusion — on future additions to the fire station network.

They formally accepted deliver of a new fire truck from Western States, Inc., Cornelius, Ore., firm, but still held up payment pending arrival of optional equipment which had been ordered. The truck, berthed at the Bucklin Hill headquarters, now is “in service.”

New Low?

Here’s 2-Section 8-Page Paper

Maybe The Review strikes a new low in American journalism this week. But when you are caught with your paper down, what else can you do?

At any event, advertising volume in this issue called for an eight-page paper. But there wasn’t an eight-page roll in the house; more is on order but it takes the mill at Port Angeles several weeks to fill its orders,.

There were some four-page rolls of newsprint on hand. Four and four still make eight. So here you are … a two-section eight-page paper.

Oh, quit your complaining. Go ahead and read it.

Page 3

The Open Forum

Editor, The Review:

Earlier this year, I suggested The Review needed more meaningful articles. Mr. Woodward conceived and began the “Thoughts of an Island” column. I care little about the success or failure of this column, but I am concerned about the content of the paper and the role it might play in Island thinking.

I suppose my discontent stems from my expectations as to what such a newspaper as ours can and ought to be doing. Certainly I am aware of the thorough job it does in regard to the “mechanics” of living on the Island. But knowing something of Islanders, I am quite certain they have other thoughts which are worth sharing with the larger community. Yet they are content to let this larger community be a reduction rather than a multiplication of individual life. They do not see that this invigoration returns eventually to themselves.

This disinterest signifies the weakness that grips our culture these days. We never cease to extoll ourselves as defenders of freedom, etc., when in truth such statements are inappropriate. Were we to call ourselves the RESPONSIBLE society, not only would we insure our free traditions, but we would incline ourselves to the kind of action that alone can generate deep conviction about our way of life.

I can see that Walt Woodward’s devotion to this paper is responsible; it’s much more than a business to him. Unless we underscore these intangible considerations as well, we fail each other and contribute to the sort of loveless world most of us fuss about. I should be more specific about the kind of articles I mean, but on the other hand, I do not want to suggest limitations. Almost anything can be transformed from mere notation to a statement of discovery, inspiration, and purpose. Let Islanders ask themselves what is significant to them and worth sharing with the community.

JAMES F. ARNOLD

Ferncliff

Page Five

GOP Divided On Cuba, Ferry Run

In divided votes, the executive committee of the Kitsap County Republican Central Committee last week condemned tractors for Cuba and demanded Gov. Albert D. Rosellini explain his stand on the Bremerton ferry service.

Both Wilbur Nystrom, Bainbridge Island, and W.J. Collings, Silverdale, opposed the resolution criticizing the proposal to trade tractors for imprisoned Cuban revels.[sic]

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