Thufsday, May 4, 1967

Pitts Legislators Should Resist

-BUT CAN HIS COUNTRY?

With an eye out for another easy buck from the taxpayers wallet to bolster the county treasury, Pitt County Commissioners have given their endorsement to the proposal which would permit local governments to levy an additional one per cent sales tax for their own use.

We trust Pitt Countys representatives in the I^egislature will have the good judgement not to vote for any such measure, in spite of the declaration by the Board of Commissioners.

Pitt County, like most other local governments in North Carolina has sufficient resources in its present taxing power to provide all the revenues the county reasonably needs for its operations. All the commissioners have to do is exercise the au-thority they now have to levy taxes within the present structure.

There are sufficient inequities in property valuations alone in Pitt County to provide far more revenue than the county could use. if the commissioners would only move to do away with those inequities in the present ad valorem structure.

May Affec Governers Race

By having permissive legislation through which local governments may levy sales taxes of their own, towns and counties could open a huge new windfall of tax revenues. At the same time it would give North Carolina a crazy-quilt of local sales taxes which w'ould be levied here, not levied there, according to local referendums.

It would mean local governments could pick up hundreds of thousands of extra tax dollars while allowing the inequities in their ad valorem tax structure to increase rather than being corrected. On top of the present state-wdde sales tax, it would impose another burden on practically every item purchased w'ithin the jurisdiction of the particular local government.

It wmuld be a serious mistake for the state and for its local governments, in our judgement, to allows the latter to move into the sales tax field to seek additional revenues. The pressure from city and county governing board? for passage of the measure proposed by Gov. Moore will increase in the coming Weeks, but we trust the legislators will resist the pressure to enact this unwise tax measure.

Dirksen Won' et LBJ Down

By WILLIAM A. SHIRES Reflector Raleigh Bureau RALEIGH An immediate political repercussion of the defeat of East Carolina College's bid for university status may well change the course of next year's race for lieutenant governor.

There is talk that the East now hopes to unite solidly behind a pro - ECC candidate for the states No. 2 office. Such a candidate conceivably could spring from the ranks of those senators on the short end of last week's 27 - 22 roll call vote on the univer-lity status question.

Certainly it appears the possibility of this political development Is increasing, backed by arguments that it would be wiser and better for the East to follow this direction to gain advantage for 1969 than to try and perhaps fail to elect a pro - ECC governor.

WILLIAM

SHIRES

Strategy Being Discussed

In either case, a sectional fight would be sure to develop in the Democratic primary campaigns a year from now.

Those suggesting a bad for the state's No. 2 office feel this would be preferable from the Easts standpoint for several reasons.

First, the East is bound by tradition and deep loyalty to the Democratic party and wants to remain so. Bidding for the governorship on t h e ECC issue probably would fplit the party in the East.

On the other hand, they feel that backing a sectional candidate for lieutenant gover nor could hold the party together and unite it in the East.

Secondly, they feel that on the basis of the present political situation their chances to win a sectional - based fight for the governorship would be slim, certainly less than those for winning the

lieutenant governorship.

An Excellent Qiance Actually, Eastern politic a 1 strategists believe their chances to win second place on the state ticket next year would be excellent.

They base this on the already emerging s^te political picture for next year and the depth of the Easts feeling and determination about the ECC issue.

They reason that a pro-ECC candidate for lieutenant governor would have solid, unified support in 40 of the state's counties located east of Raleigh where the ECC-un-iversity status fires burn hotly.

Meanwhile, it Is expected that the .statewide field for the lieutenant governorship next year will be crowded with five or six, possibly even more candidates. The East's strategy would be divide and conquer.

Most In Piedmont

Most of the possible candidates for lieutenant governor identified before the ECC showdown in the State Senate are from midstate and Piedmont counties.

They include former State Sen. Irwin Belk of Charlotte, 1965 House Speaker II. P. (Pat) Taylor Jr. of Wodesboro, State Sen. Voit Gilmore of Southern Pines, 1963 House Speaker H. Clifton Blue of Aberdeen and others.

If these and perhaps others run, the East could put up a single strong c a n d idate against the field.

Talk Is Disconcerting This sort of strategy, simple in its concept, is disconcerting to supporters of those already considering the race next year.

But it is not necessarily discouraging to the extent that any of the probable candidates would change their plans and choose not to run. The Easts strategy to spreadeag-le the field would backfire if its candidate failed to win a first primary victory and had to go into a runoff.

Eaists Men Also, several possiblities for the statewide field from t h e East have been mention e d earlier too.

(Continued On Page 5)

By JAMES MARLOW

WASHINGTON (AP) -The 71 - year - old senator with the u n k e p t hair and a doomsday voice that makes Dr. Martin Luther King sound like a jolly comedian wanted to be an actor and went into politics. He has done very well at both.

He doesnt just make fun. He draws pictures, like the time he went after the antipoverty program of his friend and former social companion, President Johnson.

The senator, Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois, the Senates Republican leader, said he had heard 700 young men wanted to be trained under the antipoverty program to operate a diaper service.

Thats really getting to the bottom of things, he said. Im tempted to say its time for a change.

He went on Red Skeltons CBS television show to plug his best - selling record album, Gallant Men, and got into a prearranged argument with Skelton on why a chicken crossed the road.

Dirksen insisted on knowing w'hether it was a free enterprise chicken or a government - supported chicken.

Tie has banged and pecked and sometimes ruined a Johnson program as he did the administrations chni rights bill in 1966 but he has giv-

This Date-' 40 Years Ago Today

By FOV H. DUNCAN'

May 4, 1927 Two Sermons Delivered At Revival Here

Many eager people gathered early in the Presbyterian Church last evening for the eight o'clock service in the series of revival services being preached this week by the Rev. R. G. McLee, D. D. of Chattham, Va.....

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Ralfigh Architect Chosen By College Building Committee

Announcement was made last night the building committee of the Eaist Car olina Teachers College had selected John R. Berryman of Raleigh as architect to provide plans in the $400,000 building program made possible at the last session of the legislature. . . .

To Attend Bar Association Former Judge Albion Dunn left this morning. Colonel Harry Skinner, Colonel F. G. James, Mr. and Mrs. J. B; James, Mrs. A. M. Moseley, Mrs. George Cooper and Miss Ada James will leave tomorrow for Pinehurst to attend the North Carolina Bar Association.

im

Cotton Queews

Wniterville Misses Lucy Bet Albott, Yevonne Brown McGlowhorn.

Stokes Misses Evelyn Robertson, Elizabeth Paige.

Greenville Misses Frances Harvey, Mary James Lipscomb, Catherine Utley, Ruth Horne, Jean Hodges, Mary Council Horne, Jane Rowlett, Margaret Bostic, Helene Burnette. Francis Morton, Huldah Nobles, Jane Shuff, Eloise Garrett, Jane Forbes, Ruth Lupcr, Martha Ellen, Ann Elbert' Ourrett, Jane Hall, Catherine Davenport, Emmie Lou Scales, Mary Dorcus Harding, Martha Jane Gates, Irma Cobb Dunn, Pilizabcth C'nppedge,' Fannie ('oopcr, Alice l^et* Blow. Mabel (.ileiin Best, Martha Rrooka Carter.

cn Johnson 100 per cent support on the war in Vietnam, or practically 100 per cent.

Twice, he left a sick bed In the Walter Reed Army Hospital to fight for Johnson. He did it last March, when his support was crucial, to back the President just tefore the final vote on the consular treaty which Johnson wanted.

The Senate approved. He did it again this week when, not fully recovered from pneumonia, he barged into a meeting of the Senates R^ublican Policy Committee, which seemed ready to tee off on Johnsons conduct of the war.

When he got through, most of the Republican senators meekly agreed on giving the President wholehearted support. Dirksen has attack e d war protesters and ridiculed the draft - card burners as a bunch of publicity seekers.

He has a simple rule Never pound the desk too hard, you may hurt yourself which freely translated seems to mean Dont take yourself too seriously.

Once he stared at a new bust of himself in his office. The bust stared back. Superb, Dirksen said. The bust said nothing.

He has blamed the administration for the rising cost of corn flakes. He presented a live turkey to the White House with the prediction the ax would fall on Johnsons spending.

T^ast year he led a successful combination of Republicans and Southern Democrats in killing a proposal both Johnson and organized labor wanted. It would have stopped states from barring the union shop.

He tried but failed to get the Senate to approve a constitutional amendment which, if ever adopted, would have undone the Supreme Courts ban on certain prayers in public schools.

But every time there has been an international crisis Dirksen has been on hand to announce you can't let a president down when there is a war on.

Strength For Toda'7

By EARL I.. DOUGLASS CHEER UP, YOUTH!

But who how envies youth? Not I. And tliat this should be so is the most terrible indictment of the human race, and of the once civili zed world, The writer of these words is Edna Ferber. S h e feels that youth has such a terrific prospect to confront that we of middle age should thank God that the prospect is not ours.

But there is another side to the picture. Life is only as hopeless as we make it. It is true that war hangs as a terrible shadow over the life of this generation, but even this dark cloud will pass. Civilization is not going to be wiped out; people have grown too wise to allow that. The insane fools who are trying to lead the world to destruction are going to be stopped before they acl;iieve their dastradly ends.

Cheer up, youth; there is just as much to live for now as there has ever been. The good old days never rea]ly existed. Opportunity still beckons youth, and the moral challenge to high endeavor, is as great as it has ever been.

Let us not envy youth, because such envy is futile. We cannot turn back the rolling years, but we can glory in the fad that the future opens up for youtli today with as niucli pioniisr as ^< r.

By JAMES KILPATRICK

udges Are Too Safe ?

A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor prompts a few observations on one of the most serious ailments of American government today. The article was by H o ward James. It was the first in a series that deals with the abominable state of criminal jurisprudence across the United States.

This Is a subject that cries out for remorseless exposure, but It is a curious thing: A press that fearlessly attacks incompetence in the executive and legislative branches of our government Is strangely unwilling to take on the judges. There are reasons for this, but they are poor reasons. Ir more newspapers would do the constructive job at home that

the Monitor has done for the countrys trial courts as a whole, some urgently needed reforms might be put Into motion.

James, a crack court reporter, simply traveled from city to city and sat unobtrusively in courtrooms. In Louisville, he found a judge reading the comic strips and doing a crossword puzzle as a trial proceeded before him. In Manhattan, he encountered a choleric judge who shouted at counsel and abused witnesse?. In Miami, he Interviewed a judge who confessed tiiat he wasnt paying much attention to the evidence before he sentenced two defendants to a year In jail.

In one city after another,

Other Editors Saying A Stitch In Time,

(Greensboro Daily News)

Tlie Rockefeller boys, according to a legend that warms American hearts, got along in adolescence on allowances of 10 cents a week, parceled out by old John D, in the hope that frugality would, in later years, be their guide. Whether it worked out that way may have been disputed by their CPAs, but the image of penn^pinching as a key to the accumu 1 a t i o n of great wealth was stamped for all time.

Now, from the gentleman who probably considers t h e Rockefellers candidates for an OEO subsidy, comes further evidence of the virtues of par-.<iimony. J. Paul (Tetty, that jet - age Croesus, has written a piece for a British motoring magazine in which he outlines, in great detail, his formula for efficient, low - cost operation of the Getty family chariots ( a brace of Cadillacs).

The key to the Getty method Is Tender Loving Care. Tne pampered car Is the happy car, and the economical car to boot. Even without accident repairs, Mr. Getty reports, motoring must always be extravagant if a driver accelerates furiously, brakes dramat-

tc.

Ically and corners hard.

More important than an even hand at the wheel, however, is an attentive eye for the vehicles physical well -being. A single faulty spark plug (cost 70 cents), causing misfiring in one cylinder, can add $36.40 to the fuel bill for an average motorists annual mileage if 7,400. Subtract 70 cents for the cost of a new spark plug from the cost of keeping the defective one, and vou get an annual saving of $35.70.

One dirty engine filter can cost $16.80 a year, and broken piston rings another $5. If tire pressure is off by five pounds ij, will reduce tire life, and cost $8.40 a year.

But if you fix all these problems you can save a total of 69.90 a year. Put it in Ihe bank and watch it grow, grow, grow!

'The only problem is, according to Mr. (^tty, that no cost - conscious motorist can afford to be without a chauffeur . . .a chauffeurs fussiness over servicing and polishing insures long life for the car and maximum second -hand value. AU chauffeurs willing to work for 69.90 a year please report to work at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

James observed trial judges who were lazy, inattentive, inexperienced, and incapacitated. He found hacks, time-servers, incompetents, and tyrants. To be sure, he found some able judges too, men of dignity and learning and compassion, but this was his shocking conclusion: Perhaps half of the countrys 5,000 trial judges for one reason or another are unfit to serve on the bench.

The terrible verdict would find prompt confirmation, one suspects, if the question ever were put to police reporters, city editors, and trial lawyers across the land. By reason of their long tenure and their awesome powers, our judges ought to be men of surpassing character, restraint and wisdom. Lamentably, they are not. And everyone knows It who sees them in action.

Why does the condition exist* A dozen explanation? spring to mind. Whether trial judges are elected or appointed, they ordinarily come to the bench through a political process. In itself, this might be both unavoidable and unobjectionable; there is nothing inherently evil in politics. Rut applied to the judiciary, the process produces judges who know the right people but who may not know the right law.

A second explanation lies In the security of the bench. In theory, trial judges are chosen for limited terms of six or eight years, or whatever; in practice, they ordinarily serve forever. And for every judge who grows and ripens on the bench, there is another who sadly goes to seedwho gets bored, restless, autocratic.

The meager salaries paid to judges are another factor. Fhe system is all wrong that pays the highest salaries at the appellate level and the lowest in police court. It ought to be just the reverse, for the bottom - rung trial judge is the only judge that most citizens ever will encounter. The justice he dispenses Is t h e most important of all; It is the standard by which the ordinary layman appraises the ^ (Continued On Page I)

By JOHN CUNNEFF

NEW YORK (AP) - The mounting debt of America t households, which shows no sign of leveUng off, is bringing with It growing concern that a lot of people might be getting in over their heads.

A foolproof criterion for estimating when a family is over-committed has never been devised. It is only when repayments are delinquent that proof is provided. And most people still are repaying tlieir debts on schedule. i

The concern comes from the speed with which this debt is being added to. It has accumulated largely since World War II but the rate of additions to it have accelerated in the past few years. It is now nearly $400 billion.

This means, In effect, that the old Puritan ethic that equated debt with sin is about dead. It means also that Americans have learned to live with the haunting memory of the Great Depression. And It means that many Americans have adjusted to a life they cannot afford oa their present incomes.

A good argument can be made for saying this debt isnt nearly as bad as it sounds. In aa expanding economy, with incomes rising and new and better jobs opening up, households may be able to carry more debt.

In addition, the sharp rise ia holdings of life insurance, Social ^Security, unemployment compensation, health iiwurance and pensions has relieved many families of obligations that onct had to be met with savings.

All this debt has not been frivolously assumed, either. Most of it has gone for homes, automobiles, television sets and heavy appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators.

Nevertheless, a study by the Naonal Industrial Conference Board, a nonprofit educational and research organization, calls attention to the potential damage that could result if incomes should fall instead of rise.

The necessity of paying off this debt may be increasingly undermining economic stability during downturns In the economy, the board said. Debt means a commitment of future earnings. When these earnings are less than expected trouble ensues.

A downturn first Umlts the variety of choice in purchases. Money Is committed; it cannot be used for discretionary buying. It is as If it were never owned by the individual who must pay the bills.

If current income fails to meet obligations, a secondary source must be used. Generally, this means the household savings of cash, bonds and perhapi stock.

But, to pay off all household debt, about 80 per cent of all household savings would have to be used. Little would be left. Fortunately, all debt never falls due at once but Is, instead, spread over a period of time.

Quotes

A New York group wants to organize a union of government welfare recipients. How would they strike? Quit doing nothing? Refuse to cash their welfare checks? Columbia (S.C.) Record.

Moscow and Peking are not debating whether to bury tho U.S. Theyre just quarrelling about how to do It.Indianapolis (Ind.) Star.

Can You Fire 'Joe' Because-?

By ELMER ROESSNER

Your reporter was once Involved, as a witness only, in a union grievance case. A union was appealing the discharge of a member for having been drunk. 'The unions case was simple: If the man had not been warned that his drinking interfered with his work, then it was unfair to fire him as a first offender. If he had been warned, then the employer surely knew the man drank and therefore had condoned his weakness.

The argument failed, however, and the firing stood.

In a similar case, a union man, sent on an assignment, got bourboned and did not return. He was fired and t h e union, under its contract, took the case to arbitration. The arbitrator ruled that the employer was justified in firing the jnin hut that, because it liaii not wai iicfriiiin writing

against drinking during working hours, it must pay h I m more than $5,000 in severance

Strange, Mysteriou^Land

This area of labor - management relation has few charted longitudes and latitudes. Precedents are being set every day, only to be upset the next.

BLMER

ROESSNER

Commerce Clearing House, with dog and gun, has ventured into this area and has come up with a number of cas-c.s. Here are the cases, and the decision? follow. Try to

guess the answers before reading the decisions.

Case I; A company fired a man, a former convict, because he stabbed his wife. The discharge went to arbitration.

Case II: An employee robbed a bank, though not on company time, and failed to report to work for months. He was fired.

Case III: A suspended employee waited for his foreman at the letters home and shellacked him. He was fired, and the case was appealed.

Case IV: Another employee met his foreman in a tavern and announced he was not going to work because he had already called in sick. The foreman said the company would like to know that, and a fight followed. The company fired the man who was not too sick to fight and he appealed to arbitration.

The Hand of Arbitration

Here were the decisions:

Case I; *1116 firing was up-lield, not because the m a a stabbed his wife, but because the union contract made the company responsible for the health and safety of its employees.

Case II: The bank robber was ordered returned to his job because the crime did not adversely affect his employment and, besides, other evidence indicted he was mentally 1.

Case III: The firing of the battling worker was upheld as a means of warning other workers that they were net free to hit supervisors.

Case rV: 'The battling worker was partially forgiven because the arbitrator said the foreman should have exercised more descretion^ and because hehad a lO^year satisfactory work record. However, a six - months suspenshin wai authorized.