Thursday, October 19, 1961

Far-Fetched To Blame The Congress

A Thought for Newspaper Week dPGE 4 BV OR NBMlEi -

Is is far-fetchjBd indeed for Secretary of the Treasr nry Douglas Dillon to seek to blame Congress for th^ three-quarter billion deficit in U.S. Postal operations during the current fiscal year.

Perhaps the administration has rationalized the post office fiscal situation to the point it can conscientiously blame Congress for the deUcit, but we seriously doubt the administration will be able to convince the American people the postal deficit is primarily because of the lamentable failure of the Congress to increase postal rates.

In recent years postal rates have been increased several times, and in each case the pressure of deficit operations of the Post Office Department was cited as the need for the increase. But after the increases produced considerably more revenue for the Post Office Department, the deficits each year continued.

This year when the administration put forth the bid for another increase in postal rates, Congress balked.

Mixed Up On Story Details

By LYNN NISBET NEWSBOY TAX Governor Sanford and come of hie close acsociatec have not gotten their atorlec together on the newsboy sales tax. The Governor wrote a Winston-Salem father of two newsboys who had protested the way the tax Is collected, that he had nothing to do with enactment of that particular tax. that representatives of the newspapers helped a legislative committee write the MU, and that he intends to ask its repeal at the next session. The act requires every newsboy te register as a retail merchant, make out Intricate tax forms, and pay to the Senate a 3 per cent on sales of more than 1,000 papers a week.

CONTRAST That is In striking contrast with the explanation given by Sen. John Jordan of Wake, introducer of the blU. Your reporter had written a story about the hill and the act. pointing out that It was introducted two days before the General Assembly adjourned, three days after the Governor had left the state for Hawaii, and was enacted Into law on the last day of the session. Senator Jordan resented the implication that he had put something over on the Gov-tmor. In his letter to me, Jordan aays:

**. . .The blU was thoroughly discussed with Governor Sanford on the night prior to his departure by one of the leading newspaper publishers In the state, as weU as one of the leading editors. TMs discussion took place in the Governors office, which I believe was the night immediately preceding the day on which the bill was introduced.. . .The bUl. as introduced. and on the day it was Introduced, had the specific approval of Mr. Hugh Cannon, Assistant to the Governor; Judge William Copeland, the Governors legislative aide, and Revenue Commissioner William Johnson.

ERROR The Governor 1 completely mistaken in his tatement that newspaper representatives helped a legislative committee write it (the bUl). UHe fact is a committee representing the N. C- Press Association had been working with legislative committees through the session. A bill was agreed upon taxing over-counter sales and maU subscriptions, but not making tax coUectors out of teen-age carrier boys. The newspaper people went home about the ame time Governor Sanford left for HawaiiFriday, June 16.

On Tuesday, June 20, when this newsboy tax bill hit without warning, Graham Jones, Governor Sanfords press secretary, called Ashley Putrell, president of the N. C. Press Association. advised him the bill had been introduced and asked what would be newspaper reaction. He was told that the newspapers were standing on

commitments made for a tax on counter sales and mall subscriptions, and would continue to oppose ringing in newsboys as unpaid tax collectors for the State.

At the time Governor Sanford was on the Pacic Ocean en-route to the National Governors Conference In Hawaii. His office said he might be' called about this bill, but the newspaper folks heard no more about that proposed call. Neither publishers nor newsboys were given a chance to be heard on the proposed tax. The bill had a hurricane speed trip.

Introduced about noon Tuesday, June 20, it went to the Senate calendar committee and got a favorable report. Next day on the floor of the senate it was amended to fix a limit of 1,000 Instead of the original 700 newspapers per week for tax-free newsboy delivery. The bill as amended passed the Senate Wednesday, went over to the House, got through the calendar committee and all its necessary readings that afternoon.

BIG LITTLE This newsboy sales tax deal will yield very little revenue to the State. Many people think the admin-Lstratlon and auditing Involved will cost more than the revenue obtained. From that point of view it is little. The implications, however, of requiring teen-age newsboys to register as retail merchants and requiring their fathers to assume legal responsibility for financial obligations to the State, made it a big issue. There are more serious matters here, however, than a few cents taxes and who is responsible to see that these pennies get into the State treasury.

Governor Sanford over his signature has said he had nothing to do with this tax being * imposed. Senator Jordan over his signature has said the bill was thoroughly discussed with Governor Sanford and that in absence of the Governor the bill had specific approval of Hugh Cannon, assistant to the Governor; Judge William Copeland, the Governors legislative aide, and Revenue Commissioner William Johnson.

One fltf those statements is bound to be untrue, and somebody is out on a limb. It is situations like this that emphasize the need for permanent minutes of legislative committee action. And that the people of North Carolina have now is choice of whether to believe Governor Sanford or to believe Senator John Jordanand there is no official record to support either.

The one thing that doej seem certain is that the newsboy*sales tax will be repealed by the next Legislature, whether or not the Governor asks for Its repeal. Another almost equal certainty Ls that the folks known to have sponsored this scheme cannot hope for support from the newspapers In any race for public office.

The Daily Reflector

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- Rather than glibly placing the blame for postal deficits on Congress, perhaps the administration should look to the Post Office Department for at least a share of the blame. Congress, after all, didnt run up the postal,bill a significant amount in spite of all the mail distributed by members of Congress. Congress didnt create the deficit in the Post Office, it merely declined administration demands that it cover up the deficit by increasing postal rates.

On the basis of past experience, it is highly que^ tionable whether Congress coiild wipe out the deficit in the Post Office Department even if 'it provided every increase postal authorities asked for. Even though postal rates have been increased by Congress in the past, the Post Office Department has managed to spend sufficient additional money to wind up in the red anyway.

If the administration wants to get the Post Office Department out <)f the,red, it should put more pressure on that department to operate more economicjally and more nearly within its means, rather than pointing an accusing finger at Congress because it declined to raise postal .rates.

Obvious Grand Finale To Propaganda Effort

The super bomb the Soviets propose to explode the last of this month is obviously the finale to a gigantic propaganda campaign as well as a nuclear testing program.

Admittedly the 50-megaton bomb is considerably larger than any nuclear weapon the United States has tested. The very fact that the Soviets has a bomb of such magnitude will impress many people around the world. It will serve^as another weapon of intimidation just because of its size.

There is, howeyer, .another side of the coin. The fact that the bomb is 5,000 times more powerful than the bomb which devastatecl Hiroshima does not spread its destructive force anywhere near the distance implied by the additional power. American scientists have been quick to point out that the destruction by such an explosion would not be considerably more than that of smaller nuclear devices the Unite(l States has exploded in the past. From the practical standpoint of actual use as a weapon, they point out, the smaller devices would have a broatier application and could be used collectively to bring about greater destruction than a huge bomb of the 50-megaton variety.

Some consideration must also be given to the adverse world reaction which might result if fallout from the huge Soviet bomb drifts across other nations. Already there have been statements indicating resentment among neutral nations to the atmospheric contamination caused by the series of Soviet tests. This last big explosion could intensify such resentment.

This, presumably the last of the current series of Soviet nuclear te.sts, points up the fact that the tests have been of propaganda as well as of scientific importance to the Soviets. Like other feats of Russian scientists, the final big splash is to be played for all the propaganda the communists can make of it.

New Argumen Of Retreatism

By HENRY HOWARD

Countdown On Telephone

Remember the telephone pranks of the teenagers? How they select your number, dial It and hav 'some witty little something to say when you answer?

By now there must be thousands of telephone gags teenagers can use on you when theyre just looking for something to do.

Yesterday we heard a new one. At least it was new to us. It shows the far-reaching effects of the space age. Who would ever think space age technology would influence telephone pranks?

The particular prank was a repeating one to the victim. The plight was that of a Jefferson City, Mo., doctor whose phone number was 5-4321.

According: to a report we had, teenagers in Jefferson City discovered his number and had been calling constantly.

They would inquire: What

number is this, please? The doctors receptionist would reply: This is 5-4321.

The kids would shout back: Blast off.

We were discussing the other day the formation of new words in the dear old English language.

At least one in the discussion was violently opposed to what he said was absolute murder of English.

The one example he cited that he said really gauled him to death was one he'found painted in a roadside signboard in letters at least four feet high. It was a play on the word estimate and its meaning. What resulted, he said, was Guesstimate. He shuddered when he uttered It.

He objected to other new words (?) that are enjoying common and c<nisistent usage. One such was another composition of two good wordsthe coming together of fantastic

and fabulous** for the popular fantabulous. The contraction of motor hotel into the universally-accepted motel was not too bad.

Thus the discussion continued. New word forms, particularly those like **Gues8tlmate.^' tt was decided, ar* completely twrlble.

(On the other hand, the persona who develop such groupings of letters are seeking to gain attention for something. Mission accomplished!)

One new one, though, that didnt make the discussion was a promotional gimmick we received through the mails recently. To a grand old word like October it could have easily been called atrocious in our discussion.

The North Carolina organization for promotln of the sale cf eggs had dubbed the month were now going through as the time to promote the egg industry.

We just wondered how our friend who so violently objected to guesstimate would take to EGGtober.

By GEORGE E. SOKOLSKY

Copyright, 1961, King Features Syndicate, Inc.

The News Office of Columbia University has Issued a mimeograph a^ut an article by a sociologist, Professor Amltal Et-zionl, which is another argument for retreatism. This disease, retreatism. is a moral degeneration which destroys a nation from within.

Prom the mimeograph. Dr. Etzionis thesis is based upon the Irrationality of man. In a word, if man were a rational creature, he would never respond emotionally to the stimuli of public disturbances.

He would always react with sound Judgement. For Instance, Dr. Etzlonl says:

. . .a defeat-crazed leader Hitler in his burning bunker, a dictator about to lose the last remnant of his semi-global empiremight still unleash the Doomsday Bomb.

Why drag In Hitler? Why not say a crazed Imitator of Napoleon. Khrushchev, for instance, might set forth to destroy all the world, including himself.

Thus far, nobody has appeared who is that crazy. Khrushchev is presently engaged blowing up bombs like a child fires off firecrackers on the Fourth of July, but he does his firing in remote places lest he damage his own country-

It would make more sense, if Khrushchevs nonsense becomes too troublesome, to blow him up than to retreat. There is no advantage in a retreat because the enemy will make life unliv-able anyhow.

Dr. Etzlonl maintains::

Most of my colleagues who are experts on these matters assert that the bombs we now have can wipe out civilization on one continent. 1 not the entire globe. (Herman) Kahn, though, Insists that It will Uke ten more years to build the Doomsday Machine. . .

So what Is the answer? Shall we retreat before a mad enemy? Shall we surrender to him? Shall We five up our national existence? What would he have us do? It would seem to me that the alternative to meeting the enemy is to capitulate to him. In a word, here we have an argument for total retreatismIt 1 better to be Red than (lead.

As, Dr: Ettlonl lives In fear of a war by accident, the sanest thing to do is to commit suicide.

An accident may occur any

where, at any ..time: anybody might go crazy and blow up the world. If every night, before we go to bed, we have to think of that, we might just as well blow ourselves up now and not wait for the enemy to do it. Cowards often do commit suicide because they have no other solution for their problems. We witnessed examples of that during the 1929 panic when men who were down to their last million Jumped out of windows. The men. who did not commit suicide, survived the depression and are now sitting around worrying about what the inflation will do to their remaining asaseis. w

Wrlte.v the learned profe.ssor:

. . .revenge-allowanca is an effective safeguard if we view life through the rationalistic, cool, blue glasses of a games-theoristnot. however, when we view It through a flickering radar screen propped up against a wall of suspicion.

But how can we look through rationalistic, cool, blue glasses If we are frightened out of our wits? For it is Khrushchevs technique to scare us out of our wits: he is engaged in a campaign of terror. And there are those in this country who Join him in the advocacy of terror. Their idea is to scare us into retreating before Khrushchevs threats. Professor Etzlonl says:

The spread of nuclear arms is the surest road via many small disasters, several middling ones, or one big one -> to Doomsday.

But we might die before. Doomsday comes and thus wo shall live out our lives without fear. Of course, a sociologist is Ukel., to be pessimistic because he deals with a science which attempts to understand society.

But it Is undoubtedly history, psychology and philosophy which help one to understand society. And out of that understanding . usually comes faith or pessimism' which Is the response of man to society. A society without faith In Itself and its institutions is close to death. What retreatism offers us is a formula for death by suicide.

It is interesting to note that the professors who developed and produced nuclear fission and fusion are so scared by what they have done that the only solution they can find for their alchemy Is to retreat before a wicked and mad enemy. Yet to-retreat Is suicide, not only national but Individual suicide. Hitler. at any rate, waited to be defeated before he hit uhon that sluUon.

Other Editors Saying

Can A Company Move? Opinions

In Brief

(The Charlotte News)

Though it might be tremendously blessed by a pinch of Solomons wisdom, the National Labor Relations Board seenis little dismayed by the complexity of the cases before it. After reversing itself and legitimatizing the agency shop in the right-to-work state of Indiana, the board has now reversed an NLRB examiner and given a Ware Shoals, S. C., firm this pretty choice;

The firm can re-open In Philadelphia the operation it moved to Ware Shoals or it can offer to move to Ware ShoaLs its former Philadelphia workers, displacing in the process as many as necessary of its new South Carolina workers.

The NLRB decision is based on a findipg that the firm used the threat of moving its operation as an unfair bargaining technique. The firm was union in Philadelphia and is non-union in South Carolina.,

For all we know, this firm may be a prize indu-strlal catch for Ware ShoaLs or it may be a firm of the sort that the South Ls becoming wary of enticing. It may be making a genuine contribution to South Carolina or it may be paying unduly low wages and returning unduly high profits to its owners.

That the South has lived to regret luring some of the latter

type of industries Is pretty welT established. There Is no great value in industry per se. North Carolinas Conservation and Development Department is -putting needed emphasis on appealing to "the best types of industrythose which plan to settle here to stay and which prefer a climate of good government and fiscal integrity to promotional gimmicks or come-ons.

We simply know nothing about the Ware Shoals firm, but it is a matter of wonder that a government board should have the power to limit the freedom of movement of a business enterprise. Unions, after all, have considerable power in their own right; the country found it desirable. in fact, to enact some limitations in the Landrum-Grif-fin act. Supposedly, they have the power to bankrupt a firm that cannot escape by movement.

An agency .empowered to prevent or penalize such movement takes a great deal upon 'itself, particularly in a case where the import of the facts Is disputed between the agency and the person charged with examining Into the facts. It attitude, at the least, ought to be Judicial but since the NLRBs attitude seems to change from election to election, it gives the impression of being highly political.

Researchers who are always coming up with some astonishing facts now say that redheads have a right to their traditional hot temperssimply because they are more sensitive to pain than other people. vThe Sanford Herald.

Ritua. Of The Office'

By HAL BOYLE NEW YORK (AP)One of the great rituals of American life Is the business conference.

The conferences are usually held behind dosed doors to give them an air of secrecy. That is a great diame.

They should be thrown open and tickets sold to the public. For the average business conference has better acting and far more drama than an off-Broad-way production.

In some offices they hold conferences weekly some even have them dally. In pthers the boss merely calls them whever he is lone^ and feels like bawling out the staff.

If you have ever attended one of these offloe matinees, you probably remember some of these typical characters: Statistical SydHe shows up with an armful of charts to prove his points. Halfway through his presentation, he discovers he has hung the charts upside down. This makes no real difference to Syd. His figures read the same forward, backward, upside down, or sideways.

Bulldozer Bert What this firm needs is some real down-to-earth aggressive thinking! Ho cries, thumping the table Every-body nods. Theyre all in favor of aggressive thinking, whatever that is. They are also In favor of motherhood and the federal highway program.

Mumbo-Jumbo Jack He once read a book on psychology and never quite recovered. Its about time wo paid more attention to our socio-economic public Image and reconstructed our corporate contour psychicwise, he sals. Everybody nods profoundly again. Why not? Why argue with a nut you cant even understand.

Gbert the Gambler *So were losing money on tiddlywinks, he argues. "Lets dlver-siftr. Why not starting making bowling balls? Item for item, theres a lot bigger proftt potential in bowling balls than tiddlywinks.

Procrastinating Phil When his turn c<wnes he looks mys-t1ous and says. I pass for now. Im working on something I thinir will solve all our iH^b-lems, but I havent got It in final form. Phil has used this same line so many times he is beginning to beUeve it himselj.

Whereas WilburThe company lawyer never makes a suggestion himself. He is there for only one purposeto arise and announce why the suggestions anyone else in the firm makes are legally Impossible, plus being against public policy.

Doodling DanThe bosss nephew sits and silently draws picture of iwretty girls on the pad bcfo-e him. His plans are all made. As soon as he Inherits the business, he intends to fire everybody and sell the firm to its biggest competitor.

Sylvester the Spouter The sales manager Is a master of glowing, push button prose. While our figures are down a mite this month, he says cheerily, all signs Indicate that next month will see a record. All signs point to a record all right a record loss.

Omnipotent Oliver*This confab got us exactly nowhere, sats the boss, winding it all up. The next time I call you boys in, youd better show up with some real Ideasor there'll be some new faces at this conference table.

The session is over. The executives march out, firm confidence showing in every face. Industry marches on!

Strength For Today

By EARL L. DOUGLASS THE PERSPECTIVE OF HAPPINESS

One of the moving experiences expressed so unforgettably by the great British poet William Wordsworth concerned a simple walk on the moor which he took one morning. Despite the radiance of the day and the beauty of the surrounding countryside, he fell into a black mood of despair, foreseeing poverty and distress for himself, and an unpromising future as a poet. Presently he met a man at least half a century older than himself, bent with age. feebly stirring up the waters of a small pool with his bare feet. Upon the poets Inquiring, the old man explained that he made his living by gathering blood-sucking

leeches and selling them to physicians. But what chiefly impressed Wordsworth was the mans cheerfulness, confidence, and Independent spirit, despite of his age and poverty. In a flash, Wordsworth realized how foolish and ill-founded his own despair was;

I could have laughed my-aelf to scorn to find

In that decrepit man so firm a mind.

So much of our happiness is merely a matter of perspective. We complain and grieve because we do not have what we think we want, while all the time we are the possessors of so much richness that we do not even take time to notice. Let us stop to consider all we have, and give thanks, and be happy.

Forced Into Faster Write-Offs

By ELMER ROESSNER The action of the Kennedy Administration in granting faster write-offs of the. cost of machinery may have been timed to convince business that the Administration is not anti-business. It tends to offset the anti-business implications of President Kennedys tough request that the steel industry not raise prices.

But regardless of reasons for the timing, the action itself was mandatory to stave off serious economic troubles.

The Administration reduced the period over which textile machinery could be depreciated for lax purposes, and it promised to make similar reductions in other industries.

In the past, the textile Industry could depreciate most machinery only over 25 yeara. Now it can amortiae its Investment in. 15 years in most cases and to 12 years in a few others. NO CHOICE This action In the textUe Industry was imperative. Although the textile Industry Is not (e of the higher paid ilelds In the United States, employees still get many times the wages paid in Japan, India and other coun.>

tries. Despite the somewhat doubtful efficiency of American textile machines, foreign nations have been underselling American factories not only in world markets but right here in the United States.

The Kennedy Administration had succeeded in reversing the outward flow of gold from the United States, but in the past few weeks the drain has resumed. This made it even more urgent to generate at least a promise of tax relief for American industries buffeted by foreign competition.

Because of the general upward trend of wages in textiles engineers have been busy designing labor-saving machinery. A recent display of textil* machinery clearly Indicated that machinery manufacturera were breaking through with new la-bor-savUig concepts.

But most manufacturers said they did not have the funds to buy the new machinery. The slow write-off on present equipment had not permitted them to accumulate sufficient replacer, ment funds.

In announcing the accelerated depreciation allowance. Under

secretary of the Treasury Henry H. Fowler conceded that the depreciation allowances authorized for Federal Income tax deductions In this country are probably among the most limited in the world.

This corroborates a point often made here: that American

manufacturera are at great tax desadvantagea in competing with German. Japanese and other industrial nations.

LOBBYING OKAYED

It was Mr. Fowler who announced that other Industries would receive similar tax relief.

Two daya before he made thia* announcement, The Internal Revenue Service iMued a ruling which appears to lift the bara against some lobbying. In Rev. Rul 61-177, it announced:

A corporation organized and operated primarily for the pur-*pose of promoting a common business interest smd bettering the business conditions of one or more lines of business, which otherwise meets the tests for exemption under section 501 (c) J6) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. is exempt under that section u a business league

even though its sole activity is directed to the influencing of legislation which is germane to such common business interest.

This appears to give a green light to business leagues, chambers of commerce,and boards of trade to raise money to pressure both Congress and the 'Treasury for tax relief. It, and the present tough depreciation schedules. will probably prompt the organization of scores of ''business leagues* to generate such pressures.

For full text of the ruling ^d the explanation, send 20 &nts to the Superintendent of Documents. Washington, D. C for Internal Revenue Bulletin No. 1961-41.

BREWERS SPEND |1 A BARREL TO ADVERTISE . THEIR BREWS The annual study by Advertising Age shows that in 1960, the 22 leading American brewers spent an average of $149 a barrel and 7J oents a case to advertise their wares last year. Sales rose from 504 milUon bar^ rels In 1959 to 694 million bao rels in 1060. ^