FACE FOimTHE DAILY REFLECTOR. GREENVILLE, N. C

Wednesday, February 17, I960

Wednesday, February 17, 1960

Probing In Dpth

A United Effort Paved The Way

Enactment of federal legislation to help stabilize tobacco support prices is a measure that is sure to improve the position of Ameritjan leaf in world markets and be of benefit to flue-cured tobacco growers.

The new bill on tobacco support prices has been passed by the House and Senate and now awaits the signature of the President which is almost assured in spite of the fact he vetoed a similar piece of legislation last year. This year the legislation, supported by the tobacco industry as a whole, has gained at least the lukewarm approval of Agriculture Secretary Benson and apparently the approval of the President as well.

Passage of this new legislation is a tribute to the united effort put forth by the tobacco industry from the growers to the exporters. It will mean more realistic price supports for tobacco based on the farmers* cost of operations; and it will tend to slow the upward movement of support prices that has put American tobacco out of the price reach of more and more foreign purchasers.

The new price support program for tobacco should enable American growers to regain some of the export business they have lost,^ in recent years. It will enable American tobacco farmers to compete more effectively in the world market with foreign producers of similar tobacco. In the long run it should create a greater demand for U. S. tobacco and be re

flected in increased,production in the tobacco areas of the United States.

In addition to its effect upon the export of U. S. tobacco, the new price support program may well in-crease domestic consumption of tobacco in the United States, and this too will enhance the position of tobacco producing regions.

For several years the tobacco industry has recognized the handicap that was nlaced upon it by the unrealistic old price support formula which tended to push tobacco price supports higher as the supports for other commodities were lowered. It took considerable time for the industry to effect a united front for the new price support program. It took even, more time for the industry to convince Congress and the administration that the new proposals were sound and in the be.st interest of the industry and the nation.

Approval of this new support program by Congress and the administration removes a major obstacle which threatened the entire tobacco industry. The fact that the industry has been able to solve one of its major problems by a united effort of all seginents of the industry should encourage a similar united approach to .other problems which the industry as a whole still faces.

Rural Civil Defense

New Procedure is Not simple Affair

As To Platform

By LYNN NISBET

PLATFORMOne of the most important items on the agenda of the Democratic State committee when it meeU here Friday afternoon. March 4, will be the selection of the twelve members of the Platform and Resolutions committee which will prepare the party platform to be presented to the full State Convention in May.

This will be the first time the platform committee has . been named before the date of the convention when its members were chosen in ccmgressional district caucuses. The 12 members so chosen generally have gotten together about noon and been handed a text of a platform, kept top secret from everybody until that time, with expectation that the committee would approve it. submit it to the convention which would .adopt It That procedure resulted in the work of one man secretely picked by the State Chairman, preparing the document that went out under the guise of the deliberate c(nposite (H>inion of the Democratic party.

The revised Plan of Organisation calling for selection and publicizing of the platform c(mi-mlttee more than two months ,ahead of convention time assures a chance of every Democrat to make suggestions. The revised plan, however, has one big gap. It simply provides for the executive committee to elect one member, from each congressional dis-tiicjt for the platform group. As so<m as the selections are made, the State Chairman is to designate one member as chairman and one as secretary, and there is procedure for giving notice of meetings. The big omission is DO reference to the way in which names proposed for the platf(Hin group shall be presented to the full executive meeting. Several State officials and party leaders have received inquiries about that. In absence of precedent or nile the procedure suggested is'this:

CAUCUS Each congfes-sional district has 18 members on the State executive committeenine men and nine women. In addition to these 216 district members, officers of the committee, members of the national committee, the YDC president and members of the YDC national committee are ex-officio voting membersfor a total of 224.

The suggestion is that the district members get together In Raleigh earlier in the day Friday .and hold a caucus at which a nominee for the district will be selected. Nobody has authority to call such a caucus, but it should not be too difficult to get 18 people together. If not 18 people, at least 18 votes. Although proxies have been accepted and voted for many years the Plan of Organization rec-ognlea their legality for the first time.

Only other stated business

of the State committee will be to fix dates for precinct meeting and county conventions, and time and place for the State coiv vention. There may be some vacancies to fill in the committee membership, some eulogies for departed Democrats and if time permits some oratory about the virtues of the party.

LONG CHANCE There is a long-shot chance that somebody who does not like the Plan of Organization as revised two years ago may seek to change it. The Plan provides for its own amendment in rather casual fashlOTi. It says: The State Democratic Executive Committee shall, by a majority vote of the full committee, have power to amend this plan of organization. No requirement for advance notice of proposed amendments. The committee could, but is unlikely to, repeal the provision for naming the platform committee ahead of the convention and go back to the old plan of secret individual authorship of the platform.

HEROES Hats off and cheers and recommendation for hero medals for two special groups of people for their functioning during the weekend snow storm. And maybe a bit of sympathy for the pathetic plight of the folks who have come to depend so largely upon the electric switch they are completely lost when it doesnt respond to the thumb.

First on the hero list: The rugged men who made up the repair crews for electric power and telephone lines, who worked 18 to 24 hours at a stretch to restore as quickly as possible the vitalizing current that keeps modern civilization alive.

Second on the list, but not far from top: The mother of several small children, living in a home equipped with all push-button conveniences, but without facilities when the pushed button didnt produce, who retained her sanity and a semblance of domestic tranquility in a house without light, without heat, without radio or TV, and with three or four-hungry kids who could not be fed a hot meal.

The past w'eekend snowstorm emphasized two things for the people in the Raleigh area. To considerable degree to people throughout the state. One Is the undue and unreasonable degree to which able bodied men and women depend upon a Uttle button on the wall to take care of all of their problems. The other is the limits to which the big utilities companies and the humans who make them big by reason of their loyal services will go to see that the little buttons respond when pressed.

Sure there was discomfort and inconvenience because of too great reliance on the button. But hereabouts there was no real tragedy because of the heroism 01 the folks whose business it is to see that the buttons respond to need.

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Rural Civil Defense, a topic on which farm organizations and agencies were briefed yesterday in Raleigh, is certainly as important as urban CD measures.

True, the dispersal of rural residents makes for a potential of fewer casualties in time of disaster than in heavily congested areas. Nor does the rural resident figuratively live under the hazardous conditions of having his home in theoretical Target areas.

These are advantages to be considered in the event of war; but while Civil Defense was conceived as a means of survival in war, it has also been proven to be of value during peacetime disaster.

One can conceive any number of instances in which organized civil defense could be of value to rural residents; such things as fire, fldod, epidemic, storm or even drought can all be best faced by an organized 'effort.

Still, the role of CD is primarily one of preparedness during war^ and today that includes for the civilian population both the means and knowledge of coping with nuclear explosions and resultant radioactive fallout.

As the State CD Director, Edward F. Griffin puts it. It is ironic that the greatest threat of nuclear weapons to rural residents is the one menace of these weapons from which we can defend ourselves. Radioactive fallout can cover thousands of square miles far from the actual explosion.

It is this fallout which mostly poses a danger to urban America. Not only the people must be protected from radioactivity, but their livestock, as well.

. We are all of us generally familiar with the general scope of fallout shelters for humans; but should a similar plan be required for the multitude of fowl and animals to be found on a typical farm, then we can conceive costly complications involving such a shelter ... as well as the protecting of feed and water supplies.

Too, some of the darker estimates as to fallout damage raise prospects of large areas of cropland heavily contaminated; and that is another condition that offers complications.

Rural Civil Defense is not, in our eyes, a simple matter. On the other hand, it is something which must be studied and acted upon without an undue loss of time. Generally speaking, activities in this field have been lagging.

Involved are points of individual responsibility and teamwork. There is also a matter of survival that may be at stake.

Problems Await New LeadershiD

By HENRY HOWARD

Now Called Smokehouse

By JAMES MARLOW WASHINGTON (AP) One thing we dont know about the present quiet relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union is whether its the result of an accident of history the personalities of two men at the right time.

President Etsnhower and Premier Nikita Khrushchev both came to power when relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, because of Korea, were at their lowest point since World War II.* President Truman and Joseph Stalin had been* the leaders during a period after World War II in which relationships between the two nations steadily got worse.

Truman, who met Stalin only once at the end of the European war, left office in 1953 just a few weeks before the old dictator died. By then both men had become harsh antagonists.

Eisenhower, succeeding Truman. was more restrained. Khrushchev, moving up steadily after Stalins death, sought to establish a new relationship with the West by denouncing Stalin.

Thus the air was cleared for a fresh start. Still, it probably never would have been possible except that the personalities of the two men had something in common.

Both talked peace and good will. Both have outgoing personalities, quick to laugh or grin. The bubbly Khrushchev is even more the outgoing type than' Eisenhower.

Its hard to imagine anything like the present period of clam, and hope that things may get better, if the sullen, suspicious, ^introverted Stalin had been the Soviet leader facing Eisehhow-er these past seven years.

It is quite possible the outspoken Truman, who believed in the stern fist, wouldnt have gotten along with Khrushchev who can snarl and threaten when he thinks its necessary.

No matter what the Soviets

People around Greenville generally agree we have a pretty good fire department around here.

It has a good record and Its firemen are cwistantly on their toes to prevent and extinguish fires. Besides the regular crew, there are a suhstantial number of volimteer firemen who loyally devote their services to the welfare and safety of the town and Its property.

With this background, heres a little experience that came to one of the local volunteer firefighters late yesterday afternoon.

According to our reports, this particular one was leisurely driving hmne from work when he spied white smoke billowing

from a tool shed In a neighbor's back yard. ..

Thinking quickly, he ran into his bouse, pulled the receiver from hook, and dialed the fire department. He reported what he had seen and then rushed out the door.

Across the street and to the neighbors house he ran. He banged cm the back door excitedly and exclaimed to the woman who answered, Lady, your tool shed Is on fire!

Oh, no, said the lady, Its not on fire. Were just smoking a few hams. But thank you anyway.

Peeling sort of numb, the volunteer fireman hurried back home to call off the firefighters trip. Too late.

The truck had already depart-

Other Editors Saying ... What Price Tranquility?

have said about American foreign policy and tactics since Eisenhower took office seven years ago they have been careful to avoid potshots at him.

Elsenhower doesnt take any needless digs at Khrushchev. If they had ever let personal hostility develop almost certainly there would have been no Khrushchev visit or a summit meeting arranged.

But Eisenhower is moving toward the end of his presidency, with less than a year to do. Khrushchev is no chicken any more. In a few years hell be off the scene.

Then what happens?

It isnt pleasant to think what may happen if a Soviet leader with the sour antagonism and violence of Stalin or the hardnoscd attitude of Molotov moves into Khrushchevs place. '

By the same token a President who let temper get the best of him might turn Khrushchev or his successor Into a buU.

Opinions In Brief

Notwithstanding the Involved explanation by the small loan company president, who lives in Elon College, it occurs to us that something is grossly wrong in a business which requires the payment of $40.51^ in assorted interest, fees, insurance and . service charges, in order to borrow $60 48 for a period of nine months. Greensboro Dally News.

(The Washington Post)

Well, theres a hot time about Milltown all right Perhapisin case you dont read the medical and pharmaceutical journals as carefully as you should we ought to remind you that Milltown is the trade name for meprobamate, one of these tran-quilizing drugs that you can get at almost any drugstore if you have a prescripticm frmn your family physician or psychiatrist. It is manufactured by Carter Products, Inc., which was also the manufacturer of Carters Little Liver Pills until it was recently enjoined from using this name on the ground that the pills really have no effect, one way or the other, on the action of the liver.

The objection to the Milltown pills, however, is not that they do not tranquilize but rather that they tranquilize you to the extent of not giving a whoop about how much you had to pay for your tranquility of spirit, that state of mind which has been so much commended by sages, and poets, including St. Paul. Lucretius, Epictetlus, Persius, Goldsmith, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Byron, not to mention Rabbi Joshua Llebman and the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale. What these writers had In mind, of course, was the self - tranquilization that that costs nothing beyond the effort of certain mental disciplines; but what has upset the Kefauver Committee and the Anti-Trust Division of the Department of Justice is the apparent high cost of tranquility by chemical shortcut. It seems that these meprobamate pills cost

less than a cent a piece in actual manufacture, whereas the retail druggist pays more than five times as much for 'them and then sells them for more than five times as much for them and then sells them for more than ten times as much to Ute tranquUity-seeking consumer.

It also seems that there is another meprobate pill, called for merchandising purposes Equanil, which, as far as the active Ingredient goes, is virtually the same as Miltown. In this case the meprobamate is bought from the Carter company which holdi the patent by the Wcyeth division of the American Home Products Corp. which then markets Equanil under its own label. What struck SenatOT Kefauver as decidely odd about this arrangement is that when these two drug concerns bid against each for Government businessas for example on a contract to supply tranquilizing pills to the Veterans Administration hospitals their bids are almost invariably Identical. At the same time Attorney General Rogers announced that he has insUtuted a civU suit against both drug concerns, charging them with conspiracy to monopolize the mild tranquilizer trade.

Sooner or later, no doubt, the public will be better informed about aU the rights and wrongs Involved in this litigation. Meanwhile, our advice is not to worry too much about them or certainly not to the point where you too, might need a dose or two of meprobamate at any price.

ed and was screaming Its way to the false alarm. Prom there, the process was itrictly routine. It wasnt the first wild goose chasenor the last, probably.

Somebody this morning the volujterf^lVeman, victim of his good'intentions, had suddenly Inherited the nickname Smokehouse.

Well, thats the way people will be sometime*. TheyTl adom other people who make honest mistakes with all sorU of elaborate nomenclatures.

This onell probaMy wear off with time, but lets hope it doesnt take this particular firemans alertness with it when It goes.

East Carolinas Opera Theater is going through final rehearsals for Its one-hour opera to bw*fHRBcntBiitlc this weekend. *

The cast has devoted many long hours of preparation to the production that will be free to the public both Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 3 oclock.

Written by Olan-Carlo Menot-tl. 'The Medium has a good plot and the BCC orchestra adds what no Opera Theater production has had previously. The story involves the supernatural and promts^ good entertainment for loeat epera-goers.

It might be time well-spent to drop around to McGinnis Auditorium either Saturday or Sunday and take in the Theators production. After all. what can you lose?

udges

Out Of

?olitics

By GEORGE E.' SOKOLSKY

COPYRIGHT, IfW, KING FEATURES SYNDICATE, INC.

The American Bar Association is pressing for more judges. It is requesting that vacancies be filled and that Congress meet the fact that In the . S. District Courts, there is a backlog of 66,000 civil caseS' and 8,500 criminal cases.

The president of the American Bar Associxtion, John D. Randall, said:

Quite bluntly, the result of neglect to provide for our judicial system is that the judiciary is unable to cope with the current caseload and cases must be delayed rather than tried. EffecUve justice is denied to many litigants.

Delayed justice can be and often is a miscarriage of justice. It deprives litlgmnts of the freedom to deal with their affairs; it continues the blot of the probabUity of impropriety those who would have been so-quitted and cleansed of the allegation of wrongdoing. Randall called for the appointment of 43 additional Federal judgea.

The need for this has been apparent for a long time. The delay is due to politics, smsil politics. Congress is Democrst-ic; the President is s Republican. The theory is that if the Democrats delay the creation of new judgeships, a Republican President will not be In a position to appoint RepubUcana. Senator Eastland and Representative Emanuel Celler are in control of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees and they can determine what is to be done about a bill for new judges. They have delayed action for a long and unressoD-able period. In fact, it is disgraceful that the Federal Courts are so undermanned in a time of government waste.

Randall said;

. . . Almost Invariably this delay works a financial hardship on at least one of the parties. Often witnesses die. disappear. or their recollections become hazy after the'passage of time. The result Is the denial of justice. . .

Those who have been litigants even in small matters know how true this is.

It would be sound administration of government for judicial appointments to be taken out of politics altogether. A Federal judge is appointed for life or good behavior. It ought not to make any difference whether the judge is a Republican or a Democrat, a Methodist or a Baptist, a Catholic or a Jewas long as he knows the law, has good character, if of a judicial temperament and is l((al this country.

Actually, there lyht to be a procedure in this country for judges to be elevated from a lower rank to higher judicial honors. Some, who are appointed are not of the aloofness from affairs which is required to assure impartiality. Some are so close to partisan politics that it is paychologkally impossible .for them to tear themselves away from former associations and former biases. On the other band, it is astonishing what great changes are wrought in some men by judicial hooors; they emerge to unexpected- -an. greatness and achieve distinction for scholarship for which they had heretofore not been recognized.

Randall has proposed that Congreas should consider legislar (Continued oo Page 5)

Strength For Today

By EARL L. DOUGLASS GIVE THEM THE BENEFIT

Have you ever thought how much you could help and support somebody by trusting him or her? This is not a plea for sentimentality. Neither is it the all out for anyone who stands suggestion that we should cast reality to the wind and go all out for anyone who stands ready to victimize us and make a fool out of us.

What we mean by trusting a person 'is simply thisgiving a person the beneftt of a doubt, assuming the *best to be true before all the facts are known, going along day by day in the conviction that practically all people will do the right thing if given the opportunity tq do so, and most Important of*all, being sure that anything ajs valuable as human personality demands

our respect.

Try to get into the habH of believing in people rather than disbelieving in them. Do not allow yourself to be deceived into thinking that you are an intellectual and a person of exceptional discernment and wisdom simply because you take everybody apart and lay the pieces out on the table. The supreme type of personality the type God undoubtedly loves is not the person who dissects and doubts but the person who regards his fellow men with respect and warm affection. who loves to think well of people, who trusts them and believes the best about them before all the facts are in.

The body can be killed one blow; the soul can be killed by someones cold refusal to trust a fellow man.

New Assault On Fringe Benefits

'Slnc.e the only way the Government can raise revenue is thorugh taxes, subsidies have got to be made up one way or another. Where everybody becomes a Paul to be paid by Uncle Sam. then everyone must also become a robbed Peter. Wall Street Journal.

By ELMER'ROESSNER

The Internal Revenue Service is making one more effort to put the bite on part of executive fringe benefits. These have flippantly been called fringes with the surrey on top. Inappropriate. Its often been a Cadillac on top.

The IRS demands that ^n income taxes filed this year, corporations must report the expense account allowance of up to 25 of the highest-paid corporate officers. Individual proprietorships will have to report on all partners expense allowances.

The purpose of all this Is to shrink one of the biggest Income loopholes in business.

Its no secret that many corporations. to attract or hold top executives, offer fancy expense accounts.

WHATS A PAY RISE?

A company would have difficulty in attracting a $30,000-a-year executive by offering him $7^,000, because most of the increase w'ould be eroded by taxes. But an expense account of

$10,000 or $15,000 might be more attractive to the executive, and less costly for the company.

Now the IRS has nothing to say what expenses a company may pay for. as long as long as the objectives are honest. A company might order an executive to walk down Main Street and hand out $100 bills to every person with blue eyes as a publicity stunt. The IRS would regard the outlay as a* business expense.

But If the executive stuffed most of the bills into his own pocket (hes blue-eyed, you know), the IRS would regard It as income to the executive and put, the tap on for taxes.

Similarly, the IRS cannot complain if the executive vice president is given $30,000 a year to entertain customersas long'as the $30,000 is spent for that purpose. But if the v.p. spends $20,000 on entertaining customer and $10,000 on amusing himself, the IRS calls that Income and wants its share.

CONFUSION AHEAD

So thats why the IRS Is de

manding reports on expense accounts this year. This may pick up a few cheats, and frighten a few executives away from cheating.*

But on the whole, it is likely to prove Ineffectual. Since executives and others have been fooling top management for years with tricky expense accounts, why cant the IRS be swindled as well?

The expense account gyp is generally regarded as the biggest fringe leak in business. But if the IRS succeeds in plugging It up (which it pro-ably wont), there will be many other ways of leaking tax-free Income to top executives. They can be given paid memberships in country clubs because the company says they will meet prospects there; they can be sent on winter trips, with wives as secretaries, to inspect the California and Florida branches; they can be sent to Paris, with wives as Interpreters, for conventions there; they can be given the use of com

pany Cadillac, with the fringe on company-paid chauffeurs uni-forms; they can get split dollar insurance; stock options; insurance, pension rights, warrants; weekends at the compkny presidents shooting lodge, and on and on and on.

In general, business can be counted on to be five years ahead of IRS and 10 years ahead of Congressional legislation plugging loopholes.

A* CASE NOT IN POINT Time out for an anecdote: A rising young executive asked for a salary increase a few years ago. The president persuaded him to drop the request in exchange for a $100-a-week expense account. Just turn in any voucher a little above or below that figure, and Ill see that its paid, the president said. There are no taxes on expenses, so its as good as a $2(X)-a week raise.

A short time later the corporation was sold. The new own-. ers insisted on itemization and the tax fret raist vanished.