Monday, January 24, 1966

The Longer Tenure Looks Logical

A Policeman's Life Is A Lonely One

When the President proposed a four-year term for members of the House of Representatives, we came close to cheering.

This, we thought, was the least controversial of any project he could set before the Congress. It would cost no money out of the forthcomjSig budget, it was something that had been discussed off and on for many years, the voter could even hope to realize a little profit*' in the form of more capable lawmaking by his representatives.

Well, you can't win them all. It turns out this most innocuous of proposals in the late State of the Union address has its share of complaints, too.

Of course in these days and times its the mode to be critical of anything proposed, endorsed or performed by LBJ. Some writers and speakers are making a pretty good thing out of it; primarily, we suppose, because its easier to knock than to indulge in constructive thinking or acting.

Anyway, it was a surprise to read that some

imp.loyment In

State Soaring

By WILLIAM A. SHIRES EMPLOYED ~ More people are working at jobs in North. Carolina than at any time in history. Employment rolls are climbing at an unprecedented rate.

At the same time that the state is experiencing an influx of new workers and their families from out of state to fill thousands of new jobs, more North Carolinians also are finding employment.

Unemployment in the state was lower last year than any time during the past 19 years.

Employment Security Commission officials say the employment picture has been so good during 1964 and 1965 that North Carolina employers supporting unemployment insurance will save $5.5 million this yearbecause of a lower tax schedule.

ESC officials said employment in the state has exceeded two million workers for the first time. They peg the rate of increasing employment at from $OfiOO to 35,000 new workers each year.

CONCERN Meanwhile, there is a pending development in Washington which is causing major concern among state officials a bill which would require rewriting and dnistic changes in state unemployment insurance laws.

Ibis is the bill which Sen. B. Everett Jordan said last week would cost North Carolina employers between $50 and $60 million a year.

ESC diairman Henry E. Kendall testified before the House Ways and Means committee in opposition to this bin last year. It is also opposed by Gov. Dan K. Moore, Jordan and others.

Their reasons basically are these: They feel it is unnecessary and costly, that its administration would be cumbersome, and that North Carolinas present system, one of

the best i nthe nation, is working well. They fear the effect upon industrial growth.

EFFECT ESC officials say that if the proposed federal unemployment insurance legislation is enacted it would double the number of employers in North Carolina required to pay federal-state unemployment insurance taxes.

This figure at present is about 37,500 employers.

In addition to doubling the number of employers required to pay into tiie program, it would double the amount of wages and salaries subject to the tax.

Also it would bring certain farm workers under the unemployment insurance tax 1 a w for the first time.

JOBS The monthly report of State Labor Commissioner Frank Crane issued last weekend says non-farm employment reached a record high in the state during December reaching 1,466,900 jobs.

This was up 14,700 from the previous month and was 66,-400 higher than December, 1964.

Factory employment dipped slightly from November, down 1,000 to an even 600,000. Non-manufacturing jobs, however, totaled 866,900 and were up 15,700 from November.

Big gainer among employment categories was retail trade which reported 14,300 more jobs for Christmas merchandising. Crane also noted an unusual rise of 800 in the construction industry, a gain of 1,000mostly in post oL ficesin federal government jobs, and an advance of 1,300 in textile mill products.

Factory average hourly earning were iro two cents to $1.88 and weekly earnings wer up 84 cents to $78.96, Crane said.

HILL The state legislator who pushed for increasing the state minimum wage from 85 cents to $1 an hour in the 1965 General Assembly has announced for re-election.

R^. J. Henry Ifill Jr. of Catawba County announced that he would seek a fifth term in the House. In h i s statement of candidacy, Hill said seniority will never again have tiie importance that it will have during the (Continued On Page 5)

Democratic party people are antagonistic to the plan for longer tenures for Congressmen.

As indicated in an earlier paragraph, the plan is not new; and the arguments for a longer term are the same our fathers heard . . . except that today they are even more pressing.

The complexities of lawmaking are growing by leaps and bounds. We would hazard a guess that a freshman in the House requires at least a year just to learn the ropes.

And before he has had an opportunity to display his own abilities in a strange arena his at-tention and time and work is distracted by the pressing need to win re-election. In terms of returns to the taxpayers who is footing the bill, under present arrangements the newly-elected Congressman can offer little in his first term; and is only getting into the swing of things the second time around.

Rep. Emanuel Cellar (N.Y.) claims the short term keeps a Congressman in closer touch with his constituents. It may be true, to some extent. But we pay a price in inefficiencies and waste well worth avoiding.

In a four-year term a lawmaker has time to prove his value in serving the nation as a whole as well as reflecting the sentiments of his constituents . . . probably to a far greater degree than in two consecutive two-year terms.

The carpers have only succeeded in solidifying our opinion.

Real Public Service By The Busiest People

It is often said in civic life that if you want a public service job done, call on the busiest people.

Once again the presentation of the Distinguished Service Award proves this adage.

The award was presented to Dr. J. Edwin Clement Thursday night at the Jaycees* annual Bosses Night.

Dr. Clement, an obstetrician, is a busy man in his professional life. Babies arrive at all hours of the day and night. Thus Dr. Clement, like any doctor, often finds himself working a full day time schedule only to be called out during the night.

Despite such an uncertain life, he has dedicated himself to public service since coming to Greenville six years ago.

He has worked with the Bloodmobile, his church, the Jaycees, American Cancer Society and the Boys Home Bowl Committee. He topped this off with election to the City Council last spring and being a member of Greenvilles council often seems a full time job within itself.

As a physician Dr. Clement serves the people of Greenville and Pitt County every day. But he has given even more of himself to his community. It is fitting indeed that he has been recognized as (jreenvilles outstanding young man.

Hungarian Reds Sound Warning

jxtra .

'ricome

Sought

By JOHN CHAMBERLAIN Copyright, 1966, King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Moonlighting has become a well-recognized fringe benefit of the American economy. Almost anywhere you look you see someone who has one job by day, yet find it profitableor merely necessary in an inflationary, high-tax age to supplement his income by doing something on the week-ends or at night.

But in addition to all this there is sunlighting.** A General Electric executive used the word the other day to describe people over 65 who continue to work even though they are ^ supposedly retired on pensions or on social security.

By ART BUCHWALD

The Daily Reflector

INCORPORATED

DAVID JULIAN WHICHARD, Chairman of The Board

Published Evary Afternoon Except Sunday Established 1882 JOHN S. WHICHARD-DAVID J. VlfHICHARD Publishers Entw^ed at Port Office, OreenviUe, N. C.

?a wooBd elass tnafl xoa4m.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Carrier (In Towns) Week 30c

By Carrier (Motor Routes) Week 35c

By MAIL, Payable In Advance

OreenviUe Port Office, Pitt Ckxinty, Robersonvilie. VancelMrOb Washington and Cboocrwlnity.

Three Months ............................ 8.76

Six Months ............................ 700

Ona Yaar ................................6U.OO

North Carolina (other than listed above)

Three Months ............................ 4-00

Six Months ......................... 7J0

One Year ............. $14.00

Plus 8% N. O. Sales Tax AU Other Outside North Carolina

Three Months ............ 4M

Six Months ....... *......... 8 00

One Year ............................. 816 00 .

BflMBER ASSOaATBD PBEM

The Associated Press it excluslreljr entitled to use for publl-WitioD all news dispatehes cradlted to it or not otherwlsa flredlted to this paper and also the local news publish^ Nnwln. All rights of publications of special dispatches bera re alMi reserved.

Saving 2-Party System

By HANS BENEDICT VIENNA, Austria (AP) Hungarys ruling Communist party has embarked on a broad propaganda campaign to drive home the idea that every citizen must make personal sacrifices to help the government with its planned economic refornnus.

The idea, as explained by government and party leaders, is that people living in the cities should pay more money for certain basic foodstuffs so that the collective farmers who produce them could earn more and gain higher living standards.

The government has a c k-nowledged that the measure has aroused widespread public criticism.

According to Western reports which reached here this week from Budapest, workers at the huge steel mills of Csepel were said to have staged a demonstration Jan. 9 in protest against the price hikes.

The reportsdenied by the government as completely unfounded and pure fabricationsaid about 160 Csepel workers had been arrested. Another report from other sources said 100 persons were believed to have been apprehended elsewhere in Hungary.

Previously the government had announced the arrest of 12 people on charges of anti-state sedition. It was not known whether these arrests

were in any connection with the alleged protest actions.

In an obvious effort to offset the impact of such increases as 50 per cent for beef, 30 per cent for pork and higher fuel costs to become effective Feb. 1, the regime has raised wages, salaries and old-age pensions.

Communist party chief Janos Kadar recently blasted certain elements for creating tension.

We openly declare that we seek to improve the situation of our farmers by bringing their living standards nearer to the level of the city population. Superficial statements according to which we are solving our problems at the expense of the city population are aimed at panic-monger-ing, Kadar said.

Antistate sedition is a major crime punishable by up to eight years imprisonment. The term applies to quite a number of offenses, including unauthorized public gatherings and spreading anti-Communt propaganda.

The Hungarian government has acquired a reputation for being more liberal-minded and lenient than other East European regimes. Disclosure of the arrest of 12 persons on antistate sedition charges may have been intended to serve as a warning to those certain elements party chief Kadar was talking about

I was just about to write off the two-party system in the United States when I tuned in Johnny Carson last Monday night Instead of Mr. Carson, it was announced that the Republican party was going to answer President Johnsons State of the Union message. At last, I thought to myself, the Republicans were going to start fighting back at the Great Society, and it was about time.

My wife came Into the bedroom and said, Whats Sen. Dirksen doing on the Johnny Carson show?

He isnt on the Johnny Carson show. Hes answering President Johnsons State of the Union speech.

At 11:30 in the evening?' she asked.

Its prime time if youre a night watchman, I replied. Hush, here comes the attack.

Sen. Dirksen started reading his speech. He described the Viet Nam war in detail and then he said that the President should, continue the policy of seeking peace while at the same time preparing to continue the war or intensify it.

When Is he going to start attacking the Administration? my wife wanted to know.

Hold on, hes just getting warmed up, I said.

Let the peace efforts con-tinue, Mr. Driksen said. Who can object to any honorable effort to secure peace where young blood is involved? Let the military effort continue. It demonstrates our determination to keep our word. Let it be intensified, if necessary, as sound military judgment dictates.

There you are, I said. That should take care of President Johnson. Now lets see what Ck)ngressman Ford has to say.

Congressman Ford came on the screen and called for an increase in jobs, output without inflation, equality for all citizens, and an improvement in the government and its services.

It sounds like a Great Society to me, my wife said.

Thats how much you know about the two-party system, I said.

The Minority Leaders demanded a strengthening of the war on poverty, a re

form of the executive branch of the government, and price stability. He also sale, that the only way to achieve a halt in inflation was to curb Federal spending.

I thought you said there was going to be some f i r e-works, my wife said.

They dont want to hit the President too hard, I said, or he wont give them any fountain pens this year. -Id love to see him in a debate with Ed Sullivan, my wife said.

Hush, hes coming out for agriculture.

ART

BUCHWALD

Other Editors Saying

Politics And PR

Strength For Today

Ifember Audit Bureau of Ctrcnlatioii.

AO dvertlauit copy mart ba received at least two days afore pubUcatloa data.

By EARL L. DOUGLASS HUMAN KNOWLEDGE

How much do we know? Actually, very little. We have five physical senses and with these we adapt ourselves to life on this planet and thus learn through the channel of what we might call experience.

We have brains, but what limited organs they are even in the case of the most highly endowed. Medical science has during the last century or two performed unprecedented service to mankind, yet only a small percentage of questions in the field of medicine has been answered. The scientists are a marvelous group of people, yet how little they know about the nature of the universe. Our great universities are manned by scholars, and every year they send forth graduates to serve amid tiie

worlds busy affairs. Yet even the people with great strings of letters after their names know very little about the actual nature of the world in which they live and the des-~ tiny toward which humanity appears to be heading.

What are we to do about this? First of all, we need to push as hard as possible into the realm of the unknown. Every new bit of kiiowledge fills our arsenals with ammunition and our granaries with good grain. We shall probably never learn all there is to know. But what difference does that make? The first thing we need to know is that we know very little. Then we need to orient our lives to that fact, get our heads down, and start pushing.

There is only one way for a sensible person to go, and that's up.

(Christian Science Monitor)

Lobbying, having long since shed its air of much disres-pectability, is now generally recognized as performing a variety of services which promote the democratic process. Most lobbyists have long ago learned that abuse of their privilege is bad public relations and self-defeating.

In recent years political lobbying has been taking on more and more of a professional tone. Specifically, lobbyists (and politicians) have been turning to professional public relations firms to mount their campaigns. Frequently, the goal of the public relations firm is to create an image, and thus a climate of opinion, favorable to its client or to some political program sponsored by its client.

Whitaker & Bi specializing In politicaL^b-lic relations, received $i 000 for its successful campaign to defeat the compulsory health insurance program advanced by the Truman administration. This firm has now launched a nationwide grass-rots campaign In sup

port of the Dirksen amendment on legislative reapportionment.

A political managem e n t firm, Spencer-Roberts & Associates, has managed campaigns of such diverse Republican candidates as John Rous-selot, Nelson RockefeHer, and Sen. Thomas H. Kuchel. Presently it is working for Ronal(^ Reagan.

Public relations of this sort is, of course, entirely legitimate. It is roughly analogous to a manufacturer hiring a firm to promote his product by creating a favorable image in the public mind.

But there is a difference. Selling major public policy decisions is not quite the same as selling toothpaste or breakfast cereal. A bit more is at stake. (Consequently, the people should be made even more aware of massive and systematic campaigns to influence them on matters of national concern which they must decide as citizens.

This is the business of the press. Publicity can at least help to protect the sanctity of the voice and vote of a democratic people.

The man who scores with a sharp tongue runs the risk of cutting his own throat. Wall Street Journal. '

Mr. Ford said that the Republicans were for a free and prosperous agriculture and encouraged a health market economy. He also called for a bi-partisan U.S. World Study and Goordinating Commission.

Well, that should take the wind out of the Presidents sails, my wife said.

Hold on. Hes not finished, I replied.

Congressman ended by saying, We will not sacrifice the ideals that make us Republicans. We will never sacrifice the sacred right and the sacred value to our country of loyal dissent.

Well, I said to my wife, it looks like the two-party system has been saved.

My wife agreed. The President may not have liked the speeches, but Ill bet he listened.

Opinions In. Brie::

Mental Health has become such an issue that people go nuts in pursuit of it. Salt Lake Tribune.

Then theres the visitor who keeps saying I must be going and doesn't.

Between moonlighting and sunlighting, the Gross National Product must be getting a real sizeable boost. Some of this activity has a slighly disreputable aspect, for there must be a considerable number of people over 65 who earn money in excess of the amount of wages legally permitted to anyone drawing social security checks. But it all goes to create wealth and helps make the U. S. economy the^ continuing wonder of the world.

Between moonlighting and sunlighting, the Gross National Product must be getting a real sizeable boost. Some of this activity has a slightly disreputable aspect, for there must be a considerable number of people over 65 who earn money in excess of the amount of wages legally permitted to anyone drawing social security checks. But it all goes to create wealth and helps make the U. S. economy the continuing wonder of tiie world

The ingenuity shown by scores of average people' when it is necessary for them to increase their incomes is the principal reason why this columnist remains dry-eyed when our politicians carry on about poverty. Moonlighting or sunlighting, the opportunities are there even in this age of supposed monopoly. Take, for example, Mr. X, who works for a big manufacturer of aircraft engines in East Hartford, (k>n-necticut. With only a high school education behind him, this man could hardly expect to compete for a top job with qualified college-degree engineers. But in his spare time, and with his spare cash, he proceeded to build for himself a trailer park accommodating twenty-five trailers. He put in the drains and the septic system and did the asphalt paving, himself. With money earned from this small trailer park, he picked up a bigger trailer site in the neighboring state of Rhode Island, where he is now constructing facilities for 200 trailers. His net worth is over $100,000.

An isolated instance? Well another employee of the same aircraft engine manufacturing company has a thriving spare time business repairing watches for a department store. This is moonlighting now, but both the trailer park tycoon and the watch repairer will be in a position to s u n-light when they have reached the pensioner age.

The doctors in my home town make good incomes out of their medical practice.

(Clontinued On Page 5)

Higher Food Prices Coming Up

By SAM DAWSON AP Business News Analyst NEW YORK (AP) - A jump in the price of farm products and wholesale foods warns the family shopper to look for stiU higher food prices at the supermarkets in coming weeks.

Tight supplies in some textiles, along with higher wage scales, forecasts more expensive clothing on the way.

Service costs, from subway fares to medical care, may rise once more.

Upward pressure on prices of industrial materials already is spreading into semi-finished products. The end pi^duct, consumer goods, is the next logical

target. withholding for income tax pay-

Helping the trend is the up- ments. ward thrust of labor costs. Some of the factors helping to These are bom both of higher ^old down prices in the last two wage scales automatically going or three years are disappearing, into effect this year in line wihh Productivity grew faster than old contracts, and of an appar- labor costs for a time. That is, ent slowdown in the rate of new plant and equipment let growth of productivity. more units of goods to be turned

Many economists now are out for the same number of man predicting that 1966 will see la- hqprs, even if hourly wage bor costs rise as fast or faster scales were rising. Now, labor than last year, while productivi- costs are rising faster than a ty growth will be at a slower year ago, while productivity is pace. If so, the pressure for still increasing, but more slowly higher prices ou many goods than earlier in the 196()s. could dismay many families Another price stabilizer has grappling with smaller take- been competition born of excess home pay because of higher So- productive capacity. This is fast cial Security taxea and larger disappearing. Soma thortages

are rejwrted, some time lags I deliveries. The hope here is thi the big spurt In business spenc ing for expansion just gettin under way will reverse th trend although In some case this will be many months in th future.

And Fortune magazines ecoi omists noting that productivit seems to be slowing down whil wage costs seem to be edgin up, predict that if this contii ues through much of 1966 ther could be a rise in Industrii prices for productivity reasoc alone. They warn that the wa In Viet Nam will make the pric environment in 1966 a lot diffei cnt from what it was last year.