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THE DAILY REFI.ECTOR, GREENVILLE. N. C.

Thursday, December >,^1959

Thursday, December 3, 1959

Do Us Both A Favor

Must We Lag In Production, Too?

'/ 'J-'

Ailsertion by retiring secretary of defense Neil H. McElroy that the United States will lag behind the Soviet Union in intercontinental mis>ilea for three more years is a matter which should concern top government and military officials as well as other citizens of this country.

This lag in the defenses of our nation poses a t\yo-fold problem. How to catch up with the Soviet Union in this particular phase of military weapons, and how to prevent a similar lag on our part in some other weapons categories.

It is significant that the secretary of defense asserted that at the moment the United States and the Soviet Union have about the same numbera small numberof intercontinental missiles, but Soviet production in the next fe\? years will surpass that of the United States. That in itself is a major concession to be made by a nation which has a major portion of its strength from its ability to produce in quantity the things it needs for both war and peace. Is the announcement to be interpreted to mean that w'e are allowing ourselves to be relegated to a secondary position in our ability to produce as well as in our ability to develop new weapons?

Government and military officials of the United States must, for the sake of the future safety of the nation, carefully evaluate the circumstances which have resulted in the predicted three-year lag behind the Soviet Union in the development and production of missiles. If the cause or causes lor this lag can he pinpointed, it is probable that such a situation can be prevented in the future. If the causes are qot found, and solutions are not provided, we may well find ourselves continuing to lag behind the other major w'orld power in the development and production of i>ew defense w^eapons. Such a situation w'ould in a very real sense place the position of this nation and that of the free world in jeopardy.

Bridging the gap in missiles with other weapons

'Demo's Dinner Date Changec,

By LYNN NISBET

JJ DINNER Discovered conflict of dates with other evenus nd difficulty in obtaining a desired speaker for January 30 has made it necessary to change the time of the 1960 Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. This big annual money-raising and political-planning affair for the Democratic party was scheduled to be held at the Sir Walter Hotel on January 30. Probable new date will be the following Saturday, February 6. The date will be nailed down within a few days, depending upon availability of a speaker. Tentative announcement ha.s been the speaker will be a member of the United States Senate who is not a candidate for President. Failing that and since there are no Democratic cabinet members, an outstanding Governor will be sought.

The date for the dinner has lost its historic significance and Is adjusted on basis of convenience. There are several hLs-torically appropriate dates January 8. the battle of New Orleans; March 15. Jacksons bu-thday, or April 13. Jeffersons birthday Traditionally the dinner is held on a Saturday night, and IS the big annual Democratic affair, exceeded in party significance only by the biennial state convention.

PRESTONE Ralph Moody, assistant attorney general, says the State will attack chiefly the non-signer clause in the Fair Trade Act when it intervenes in the case brought by Union Carbide Company against John 1. Davis, a Winston-Salem dealer. for selling Prestone antifreeze for less than the company established fair trade pnce. It is the hope of the Attorney General to have the whole act declared unconstitutional, but main effort will be to outlaw the provision that if one dealer sicns a fair trade agreement that binds every other dealer in the itate to maintain the,same price.

GASOLINE Moody says the approach with respect to Presione will be different from that planr.fd against oil companies befora they abandoned fair trade under fire of Attorney General Malcolm Seawell. It is impossible to identify brands of gasoline, and the purchaser had no way of knowing exactly what he was getting.

Prestonc is packaged under a trademarked label, and can be easily identified. The manufacturer admittedly has a property

right in that trademark and is justified in trying to protect it. On the other hand. Moody says when a dealer buys outright and pays for the product instead of handling it as a commission salesman, the manufacturer should have no right to fix the price except by agreement with each individual dealer. Moody concedes that Prestone is the type of product originally contemplated for protection" under the Fair Trade Act.

ORIGIN The Federal act was born out of the depression, sponsored chiefly by reputable druggists and manufacturers of pharmaceutical supplies to combat the inroads of cutrate" drug stores. The original act did not have the non-signer clause, and sponsors had difficulty getting enough cooperation to make the plan effective. So the later bill provided that if just one dealer signed a fair trade agreement that would bind all dealers. The Federal act was applicable only in states which had similar statutes. Eighteen Stales now have abandoned or repealed the non-signer provision. The Attorney General hopes that if the courts do not throw out the act as unconstitutional the next General Assembly will reiieal it in its entirety, and if not that, certainly the non-signer phase.

ANTI-TRUST - The Federal acts exempted fair trade agreements from the general antitrust laws, much as big labor unions had been exempted by earlier statutes. Abuse of the privileges is giving rise to popular demand that the exemptions be eliminated, both for labor unions and manufacturers of trademarked products.

When labor unions were given authority to make blanket contracts ctnenng employer-em-ployee relations throughout an entire industry, business firms found themselves hamstrung by requirement for individual dealing. Fair trade laws were intended to remove that dks-crimination. Both manufacturers and labor have abused the concessions. in opinion of Attorney General Malcolm Seawell and his staff.

The present attack on fair trade practices is consistent with the prosecution for conspiracy of the Henderson textile strikers. The goose and the gander are being given the same kind of feed.

The Daily Reflector

INCORPORATED

Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday Established 1882 DAVID JULIAN WHICHAHD, Publisher entered at Pott Office. QreenvUle, N. Cm u second clus matter.

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is something which must be done by the United States, and of equal importance, 'v\e must exercise every effort to see that a similar gap does not occur in the future where the balance of military strength between the United States and the Soviet Union is concerned.

Polio Statistics Are Reminder Of A Need

Statistics on polio in North Carolina during 1959 should prompt those who have not taken advantage of the polio vaccine to reconsider their attitude toward the vaccine before another year passes.

So far this year 277 cases of polio have been reported in the stale compared with only 69 cases for the entire year of 1958. Of the total number of cases thi.'i year 232 were paralytic, and of the 232 paralytic victims only 32 had received the prescribed three shots of vaccine.

The polio vaccine has been available for several year.s now, affording ample time for the public to take advantage of this means of immunizing themselves from the disease. Moreover, phy.sicians, health depart-

The polio vaccine has been available for several year.s now. affording ample time for the public to take advantage ol this means of immunizing themselves from the disease. Moreover, physicians, health .departments and state officials have placed emphasis on the importance of the vaccine and h|ave continually urged Tar Heels to take the vaccine. Earlier this year the state legislature reemphasized its importance to public health by requiring that all children entering public schools of the state receive the vaccine.

Ill spite of all this, 200 of the 232 paralytic polio victims .so fiir recorded in North Carolina this year had not received as many as three shots of the vaccine.

If the dreaded polio is to be stamped out as a menace to public health in this state, it is essential that the public cooperate by taking the polio vaccine. The fact that a vaccine to prevent the disease is available is of little consequence unless people take the vaccine.

The states cxperidice wdth the disease this year should serve as a warning to those who have not yet completed their series of immunization shots against the disease.

Pageant Site Swap Could Be Good Thing

Although t!ie Roanoke Island Historical Association ignored at its recent meeting the suggestion that the outdoor dramas The Lost Colony and Horne In The West swap sites for a couple of sessions, the idea is one that should not be forgotten entirely by the association.

If the financial picture of the dramas continues to darken, it may w'ell be that the sponsoring organizations may give consideration to the swap another 3'ear.

There can be little doubt that both dramas would draw more paying customers for at least a year or two by swaping sites, and that fact could well provide an answer to the financial problems faced by the productions. The declining attendance figures for 1959, together with the (>perating loss of $8,000 shown by the report on The Lost Colony suggests that in time something must be done to increase the income of the drama if it is tv) continue. And certainly the drama should be continued in North Carolina even if its site is temporarily changed.

jeavina Behin

Pleau

DO VOUR. CKRl<>T/AA^

/aaiuhG

EARLY/

[cN aught Syndicate.

B.v HENRY HOWARD

Big, Day For Parades

Tomorrow, parade-minded Pitt County folks will likel.v be treated to about as much Santa Claus parade as a body can take in at once.

A trio of them, all staggered at different hours so everybody can see them all, are on tap in the county.

Grifton leads the w'ay tomorrow afternoon at 2:30. Carrying the festivities on through the aaylight hours, Greenvilles parade takes over at 4:15. Farm-villes Santa Claus train applies ihe nightcap, after a brief recess for supper, as it gets underway at 7:30.

Its a good thing the parades are scheduled for different hours. That way Santa Claus can make the scene at each.

A basketball referee confided

in me recently:

He declared that hed had about as close a call as he could remember during the fast 'and furious action of a recent high school basketball game near here. It would have been the heigtit 0 embarrassment, he said.

Hed just tossed the ball to a player out of bounds to put it in play again. Naturally, hed just tooted the whistle loudly and was in the process of changing directions quickly. This thing happened as he was verbally indicating who was to have ball possession.

Whatd you do," I asked, "give the ball to the wrong team."

"Nope." he said quite decide-ly.

"Well, then," said I, "what was so terribly embarrassing? He painstakingly explained that as hed allowed the whistle to fall from his mouth and had opened his mouth wide to shout instructions concerning ball possession, hed nearly dropped his upper plate!

Embarrassing? That aint the word for it!

Other Editors Saying An Old Bromide

A Missile Laa

WASHINGTON, (AP) As one of his last acts in office, Secretary of Defense Neil H. McElroy conceded the Soviets will be ahead of this country in missiles for another three years.

Since the Democrats have hammered at the Eisenhower admini-istration for montliscomplaining that it lacked a sense of urgency in meeting the Soviet niLssile challengenext months opening of Congress should be a fiery one.

McElroy made his statement Tuesday shortly before leaving office to go back into private business and just a few hours after Premier Nikita Khrushchev boasted in Hungary the USSR now has enough nuclear rockets to flatten all its foes.

But McEli'oy made these two points:

1. As of today, he said, the Soviet Union and the United States have about the same number of long-range missiles and the number Is quite small on both sides.

Last July he estimated the Soviet Union had fewer than 10 intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the United States. He said then that overall the United States could more than match Soviet ICBM capabilities.

But only recently Khrushchev said one Soviet plant was turning out 2.50 missiles a year, which would be a lot more than the 10 McElroy said the Soviet Union had.

2. McElroy said the administration will ask Congress for money so that bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons can be maintained on an airborne

alert.

The money would go. he said, to buy additional engines for B.52 strategic bombers and to train Air Force crews sO that some degree of airborne alert can be ordered when the Joint Chiefs of Staff conclude the Soviet Union has a substantial ICBM lead.

The B52 is a Jet bomber capable of making 650 miles an hour and with a range of over 6,000 miles without refueling. Soviet jet fighters which would try to mtercep'. the bombers can do up to 900 miles an hour.

This country Ls going in for B.52 model jet bombers wliich can fire the Hound Dog missile. This weapon, carrying a nuclear warhead, can be fired from the bomber at a target 500 miles ahead.

McElroy explained: If the

Soviets build the number of ICBMS they are capable of builds the number it now intends to, the Soviets will have more missile capability over most of a three-year period.

McElroy was defense secretary 26 months. Under his direction this country developed its first intercontinental ballLstic missile, the Atlas, and worked tow ard perfecting more advanced weapons,

But as time went on and the Soviets inflicted one embarrassment after another on this country in space development, plus their missile boasting, the Democrats protested the administration wasnt doing enough to keep up or get ahead.

Last winter McElroy finally said this country didnt plan trying to match the Soviet missile for missile.

(Greensboro Daily News)

We see by the papers that an N.C. State College farm expert has been taken in by an old bromide.

In a speech at SalLsbury Dr, George Hiatt, head of the animal husbandry department at State, says the press is responsible for the cranberry mess. By this he means the countrys newspapers have blown the cranberry crisis all out of proportion to its news value all in the interest of "selling new'spapers."

Let us straightway admit that newspaper editors are interested in selling newspapers; thats their business. But Dr. Hiatt should take another look if he thinks the cranberry crisis has been given undue attention.

The story did not originate with the press. It originated with the Food and Drug Arminis-Iration and Arthur . Fleming, secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. The newspapers would have been irresponsible and dLsciiminatory if they had deliberately downgraded Secretary Flemming'5 warning.

They evaluated it, regardle.ss of scientific corroborations a.s front-pagenot back-pagehews.

As a matter of fact, that is what it was. Their coverage has thrown public attention on an area too long dark: The

divided authority between the Agriculture Department, which certifies and encourages certain types of sprays and in.seclicides for farm use. and the Food and Drug AdminUtration, which must then come along and evalu

ate their potential harm to crops and people w'ho consume them.

Dr. Hiatt would do well to investigate some of the alarming reports now sifting out of Washington about the danger of insecticides to certain crops. Last year, for example. Agriculture Department agents sprayed large areas of Alabama and Georgia from the air with dield-lin and heptachlor in a drive to kill off the imported fire ant. This month the Food and Drug Administration reported that heptachlor forms a dangerous derivative on crops treated with it, and severely restricted its use.

Maybe it is true, as Dr. Hiatt claims, that the amount of certain chemicals being used is so small as to have no effect on human beings who consume the products. That remains to be seen.

The point we are making is this: The press did not pull the Flemming announcement out of thin air. He is a responsible public official. If anybody needs to be castigated in this case, it is not the newspapers, which served to inform the public, but the government officials who made the news.

We do not expect government officials to blame the substance of Dr. Hiatts statement on the newspapers simply because they reported what he told the Salisbury Kiwanis Club.

The press makes errors aplenty without being saddled again with this old bromide.

Youngsters out at Elmhurst School here will soon benefit from a beautiful, new library.

Its a part of the new four-classroom addition to the modern plant.. Classes In the new classrooms began last Monday and, according to City Supt. J.H. Rose, the library will be ready for use about the first of the year.

Conditions have been so crowded out there that the hallways have been used for library facilities during past school terms. The new library has a large leading area with plentiful book cases and a pair of glassed-in conference and research rooms.

The Elmhurst PTA has been getting outstanding results from a drive to supplement the schools book supply. We understand the goal of one book per family" has nearly been reached.

Alert and interested parents and teachers have made certain therell be plenty of books on the shelves that aren't even completed yet.

Ooinions

Desert '-ox No

Hero

By HAL BOYLE

NEW YORK (API-Field Marshal Erwin Rommel of Germany w^as Britains favorifi enemy perhaps America's tooin War II.

But after a lO-year study, author Cornelius Ryan has concluded the Allies were a bit over-kindly in their estimates of the

dashing Nazi armor genius.

"Rommel has been sometime.s portrayed as a high-minded military idealist who played war a.s a big exciting game," said Ryan, author of an account of the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

"The truth is he was a Hitler favorite bitterly resented by the career officers of the regular German army.

"Actually, Rommel was a very ambitious man willing to trample on anybody to get ahead. He was an utter politician. He was a fine tactician, but he simply didnt have the depth of training to handle the defense of Europe against the invasion."

His study convinced Ryan that Field Mtrshal von Rund-stedt, who nicknamed Rommel "Marshal Bubi"the baby marshal was the superior sold-. ier.

He feels that the Allied beachhead would have been- in direr perilperhaps even thrown into the seaif Von Rundstedt had been allowed to carry out his plans for a massive counterattack on the third day of the landings, instead of attacking piecemeal on DDay itself, as Rommel ordered.

But both sides bungled their own intelligent reports badly, and says Ryan: "Plans were tossed out the window on that day, and in the final irretrievable moment when the soldiers met face to face, history voted for the Allied guy."

It is impossible to get a completely clear view of what goes on in a major battle. But Ryan gives as clear a picture as we ever will get of what actually happened in those first few mighty hours as an Allied armada of 5,000 ships bearing 200,000 troops hit the Normandy coast.

in

"People work harder and harder so they can get more and more that they will have le.ss and less time to enjoy." Memphis Press-Scimitar.

"Regretfully, if all the Fair Trade companies desert the sinking ship, seawell with no further cause of action will forego a court test that might have ruled invalid the North Carolina law that permits price-fixing, not only on gasoline products but on any retail item. Charlotte Observer.

"Because it is always the consumer who suffers whenever prices are fixedlegally or illegally w-e deplore laws that tend to reduce competition or protect Inefficient producers. Charleston (S.C.) News and Courier,

Strength For To(day

By EARL L. DOUGLASS STAND BY WITH THE BASKETS

A snake charmer on the streets of a city in India was surrounded by the customary crowd of curious and fascinated people. After his performance he picked up his snakes and put them back in the baskets; but. as he was about to leave, someone reminded him that he had mL'^s-ed a reptile or two. Then after diligent search, one was found coiled beneath a nearby bush and another was lying beneath a bolt of cloth.

We thought when peace was declared that we had put all the venomous reptiles back into their baskets. We had. it is true, succeeded in forcing the huge serpent known as armed conflict into a place of afe keepingfor the time being at least. But what we failed to realize was that there were other serpents still at large. Suspicion was still slithering through the counsel rooms of state departments. Desire for rule was still coiled in a dark corner, waiting to sink its fangs into society w'hen famine and desperation had weakened populations. When strikes suddenly hit our own economy, we were startled to find that there were a lot of snakes which were not back in their baskets.

We need constantly to be awake to our danger. There will always be venomous influences lying in wait to inflicti njury on a weakened humanity. But government exists for the purpose of protecting society against such persons and influences. AL the snakes are not yet back in their baskets. But lets gett hem there as quickly as possible.

Tocklino The CoDitol Goins Tax

OPERATION

*'A DOZEN DOES IT

By ELMER ROESSNER

Current hearings of the House Ways and Means Committee will tackle the capital gains tax problem and ah, friends, there's a problem to confuse all problems!

The committee will surely be told that the capital galn.5 tax should be abolished since it is a capital levy, which is repulsive in a democracy. And it will surely be told that capital gains should be taxed at full Income tax rates (Instead of half) because the rich, with the aid of lawyers and tax sharks, have ways to convert ordinary income into capital gains.

There might even bo someone speaking out again.-^-t one of the worst inequities of the law: that of levying a capital gain tax on owners who sell their home at actual losse.s,

HOW HOMEOWNERS ARE HIT

Sellers l homes are taxed on o-called gains that are really not gain at all. They are flgmeiit.s of inflation.

Example: Mr. X bought a

hou.se for $10.(M)() in 1940 when a dollar was worth appruxunately

$1. And If it was worth $1 then, it is worth 46'2 cents today.

Today Mr. Xs capital, as represented by his house, is actually less than it was. The house is almost 20 years older, it^,lacks modern design and many new features, extensive repairs may soon be necessary, it has a lesser life expectancy.

It is, In terms of 1940 dollars, worth $7,000. But in terms of 1959 dollars, it is worth about ^5,000.

If he sella for that price, he gets back less purchasing power than he put in. Thats fall', bccau.se he has had the use of ilir house for 19 years.

But in getting back l.ss. he has to pay a tax on GAIN. He would htv to pay a capital gains tax on $5,000 profit, which Uisl Isnt real,

SOME AMELIORATION Ciigreis gave iuine recognition to this uiifaline s when it amended tax law* so that the so-called "alner In this .situation could !*& by lusing money t 'w home within cer-

But If Mr. X Is retiring and wants to spend the rest of his life living in a trailer, or following the sun in motels, he pays. He pays a tax on a profit that never washe pays a tax on a loss, in fact.

Whether Congress will do anything about this situation largely rests with the House Ways and Means Committee, which will recommend changesor perhaps a stem-to-stern overhaul of our mish-mash of tax laws.

Citizens who have ideas on tax laws might do well to write to their own Congre.ssmen now, in advance of the January reconvening. Or they can write to Congressman Wilbur D, Mills iD., Ark.i. chairmin of the House Ways an(3 Mttns Committee.

Mr. Mills wrote a masterful re.sume of the ways in which the government of the United States of Amtrica is cheating its citizens to get money to squander in Life magazine of November 23. 19.59. Cheating can't be an exaggeration, for the cover title was Our Taxes: A Mess and a

Gyp." and If they arc a gyp. your (jjvn Uncle Sam is picking^ your pockets.

Mr. MUls article is worth reading by every American taxpayer. The magazine is available In most libraries and dentists offices.

Reading leaves two impressions:

Mr. Mills is material for the Presidency. But before being considered, he should be doused with sorghum and feathers because. as Congressman and as chairman of the Way.s and Means Committee, he has so far failed to keep our government from cheating us.' GREETING CARD INDUSTRY COMES OF AGE

How far Americans have gone in letting Georbe do It when it comes to sending greetings to fiieiuLs Ls evidenced by the fact that a greeting card trade magazine will appar next April It will be published by Mackay Publishing Corp.. New' York, and will circulate among retailers of greeting* cards, manufacturers aud suppliers.