Appendix I: Examples From Basse Beck's 'Up and Down the River' Column

• Author: Franklin L. Kury
• Pages: 137-140

137

Appendix I: Examples From

Basse Beck’s “Up and Down

the River” Column1

Basse Beck, “Of Time, The River, and Pure Water Fairplay,”

The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pennsylvania, December 30, 1965

is will be a rambling column. It is written to comfort and encourage the

citizens of Central Pennsylvania who are being conned into accepting the

belief that laws and court deci sions agai nst the public interest and welfa re are

immutable and not subject to change for the common good.

It is induced by thoughts which came to mind after reading a sparkling

column written by Vermont Royster, editor of the Wall Street Journal who

quotes the philosopher omas Aquinas who observed that laws not serv ing

the common weal could be changed.

It is particularly applicable to the people of Central Pennsylvania now

undergoing misery in their attempts to solve the problem of clean water due

to conicting laws and lega l interpretations of the same. It oers a ray of

hope. Way back in the Middle Ages Saint Aquinas wrote:

Nothing can be abs olutely unchan geable in things that are subject to cha nge,

and therefore human law ca nnot be altogether unchangeable.

For those who rst endeavoured to disc over something usef ul for the human

community, not being able by themselves to ta ke everyt hing into consid-

eration, set up certain i nstitutions which were decient in ma ny ways; and

these were changed by sub sequent lawgivers who made institutions that mig ht

prove less frequently decient in respect of the c ommon weal.

In Pennsylvania the time has clearly come to correct the deciencies in

the Clean Stream Law. Loopholes granting specia l privileges to the mining

interests are destroying public rights to pure water and deva luating property

prices along our streams. ere was a time when mine acid dumping into

these streams could be held to be economically justiable in a young and

growing country. at time is long past. Correction is overdue.

1. Beck wrote about sixty columns over the course of six years, and two are reproduced below.