Thursday, May 18, 1697

Weighing Annual Session Values

With good reason, perhaps the question of annual rather than biennial sessions of the General Assembly has been officially raised in Raleigh.

North Carolinas legislative affairs are getting more complicated year by year. The state is growing in population, the size and responsibilities of the state government continue to grow and become more complex. With these, the problem of balancing state operating costs with anticipated revenues over a two-year period becomes increasingly difficult. There are problems which only the legislature can solve that need attention more than every two years.

It is little wonder then, that there are renewed suggestions that the legislature convene each year rather than every other year.

Certainlj' the General Assembly should give

Poverty Areas 3oom

Lviaen

By WILLIAM A. SHIRES (Reflector Raleigh Bureau)

BOONE - Up beyond the Blue Ridge, in a land of scenic mountain beauty, deep covers and vallies, gushing streams and small quiet towns and settlements lies North Carolinas part of poverty stricken Appalachia.

T r u e or false? You don't have to buy an argument about this. Its already raging.

Four counties in particular Watauga, Avery, Mitchell and Yanvy-along the western back bone of the state suddenly have become a hotbed of contention and controversy in the nations war against proverty.

There is proverty here to be sure. But the region represented by an organization known as WAMY Community Action, Inc., an antiproverty group, certainly is a land of contrasts and of proud, indignant people.

Identified With Poverty In the headlines, this is a land of poor, struggling people buried in the backwoods.

WILLIAM

SHIRES

In the eyes of the rest of the state and nation, the area encompassed by the four countries has become identified with poverty, illteracy, isolation and lack of economic opportunity and hope.

To an extent this is true. But within a stones throw of so-called poverty and isolation one may find golf courses, resorts for the rich, fine snmmer homes, country clubs and exclusive developments including Swiss chalets, ski slopes and horseback trails. There are summer camps for children of the wealthy.

Region Is Proud

The people of Watauga, Avery, Mitchell and Yancey are proud and prideful. They have reason to be. The slopes of thoir hillsides are righ, green and fertile, shady with cabbages, vegetables or blooming In laurel and rhododendron.

Their mountain springs are clear, sparkling and gushing with pure water.

They grow Christmas trees, holly,* spruce, shrubbery and English boxwood. Housewives grow and sell bedding plants, and youngsters and oldsters gather galax leaves and herbs for the drug market. Appalachia's soil grows a greater variety of plants than any in North America. The slopes produce yellow poplar, walnut maple oak for the furinture market and for flaming mountain colors in the Fall. But these are the old industries of the hills.

Much Is New

There is much that is new and exciting in the Watauga,

Avery, Mitchell arid Yancey hills new resorts for the tourists, new developments for those who want summer homes and facilities in the mountain country; more golf courses, more gardens, more trails for horseback riding, more developed and managed trout streams, fishing lake acreage: more motels and bigger and better hotels, more restaurantsand more industry.

There is a growing educational center at Boone, built around Appalachian State College, and there are technical centers, private schools, Lees-McRae College at Banner Elk, adult education classes in half a dozen towns.

There are crafts centers in such places as the Toe River Community center and down on Blevins Creek, north of Avery Countys seat at New-land, N. C., where the people make rag dolls, carved statues, walkingsticks, whistles, pipes, vases, plaques and knickernacks of all kinds.

These are mostly old, established and marginal industries for mountain people to supplement a meager income. But the fact is they are growing as the area becomes more accessible and more visited by the summer crop of t urists.

And tourists do come, each each year in ever-increasing numbers to this center of the center of the Appalachian highlands. In a way, the ^

WAMY, Inc., area is Scotland in America and it is illustrated by the gathering of lustrated by the gathering of Scot-ancestried folk who corne to Grandfather Mountain in Avery and Watauga each summer.

seriou.s con.'^idoration ICBe proposal of Sen. Whitehurst of Craven before submitting to voters of the state a constitutional amendment to change the biennial sessions. While the decision to change would ultimately be made by the voters, there should be a sound recommendation from those who deal first hand with legislative problems before the matter is submitted to the people.

On the surface it might appear that the sessions would be sharply curtailed if they were convened each year. It is likely, however, that annual sessions would mean the General Assembly would actually be in )?ession a greater number of days every two years than it is now. There is little doubt that annual sessions of the General Assembly would be considerably more costly to taxpayers of the state than the bien;iial sessions.

What would the state do with its present system of adopting budgets on a biennial basis? If the legislature met every ,vear, it would be unrealistic to deal with a two-year budget. On the other hand, if the legislature were required to go through its lengthy budget considerations everj' year rather than every two years, legislators and those responsible for slate agency operations would not get one budget approved before it would be time to begin working on another. ,

Certainly there are a number of valid arguments for annual sessions of the General Assembly in North Carolina. At the same time there are many reasons which point to the conclusion that the biennial sessions as long and as difficult as they seem to be are still the best answer to North Carolinas legislative needs.

It would bo a serious mistake for the legislators to submit a constitutional amendment to voters of the state without first satisfying themselves that annual legislative sessions are esential to the well being of the state and its people.

j-Jush...

lil Vietnamese, dont you cry ...

So Far, Little Of Note In '67

WASHINGTON (AP) - This is going to be a hard year to remember, unless something happens before the end of it.

The war has been pretty much like last year's war: it has got steadily worse slowly. And Congress has been busy dawdling instead of doing. It's been talking.

President Johnson has been photographed shaking hands, or walking to the press, or w'alking to a plane. But he said extraordinarily little for a President in wartime, particularly with the war being critized so much.

And there hasnt been one truly colorful or distracting character in government or politics.

There has been no one to compare with the attention a Barry Goldwater or a Sen, Joseph McCarthy got, in fervor or hostility. And eye-catchers liked President John F. Kennedy or Secretary of State John Foster Dulles have been long gone.

True, Sen. Robert Kennedy has kept himself in the public mind on skis, or shooting the rapids or criticizing the war but he has quieted down a bit and polls show his public appeal has diminished.

Two Republican governors, California's Roland Reagan

and Michigan's George Rom-ey have been sashaying around but the attention theyve received so far has probably been more curiosity about what makes them tick than anything else.

The days of presidentialcon-gressional uproar went out with President Harry S. Truman. Johnson never did business that way anyway. His technique is head-to-head talks pushing and compromise, ute.

But this year theres little evidence he did much of that or anything with Congress which has been foot-dragging like many Congresses of the when they didnt have a president on their back every min-unt.

Unless Congress comes to life in these next few months, (Continued On Page 5)

By JAMES KILPATRICK

Why All The Hysteria?

Nebraskas Senator Roman Hruska performed a notable public service last week in his calm and reasoned statement on the Federal constitutional convention now in the budding stage. His rem arks provided an impressive contrast to the hysterics of Marylands Senator Joseph Tyd-ings, who has come down with the fainting fits at the awful

thought of the people exercising their sovereign power.

Article V of the U. S. Constitution, as many persons recently have discovered, contains a clear and explicit prO vision. Upon the applications of two - thirds of the States, acting through their legislatures, the Congress shall call a convention for proposing amendments.

Other Editors Saying Corrective Legislation

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For Todqy

By EARL L. DOUGLASS

AS WE GIVE WE GET

Centuries ago, an advisor to the King of France recommended to his royal patron that he create an iron cage in which the captive could neither lie down nor stand up and that he use this for the punishment of political prisoners. The cage was made. Some years later, however, this courtier fell into disfavor with the king, and for fourteen years he was imprisoned in the instrument of torture he had devised for others.

With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again, said Jsqsf This is a universal law. \Ve get for ourselves what we give to others. The universe is put together in such a way that those who plan evil fur their fellows experience a terrific kickback. God sees to it that in the end the evil we plan for others comes back to plague us.

But there is another side to the picture. While it is true that evil brings retribution, it is also true that virtue brings reward. Many people sneer at this and point out the cass where justice is violated and virtue abused. But the world being full of sinful men, intent on opposing the will of God, it happens that injustice often temporarily triumphs, and those who have done the right thing have to wait until in his vast eternity the righteous Judge of all the world vindicates them and gives them their dues.

As the courtier had to live in the instrument of torture he devised, so we iiave to live in the kind of world we have made for ourselves. I.et us therefore be careful as we fashion this world day by day.

Fhis Date-

40 Years Ago Today

By FOY H. DUNCAN May 18, 1927 Levine Plans Discharge Of Airship Pilot

NEW YORK, May 18 -Squalls in the trans-Atlantic flight circles, heretofore confined to the weather today reached a point that indicates change in the crew of the Reliance plane Columbia . . . Charles A, Levine, chairman of the Columbia Aircraft Corporation which owns the plane, endeavored to obtain a navigator to supplant Lloyd Bertaud, air mail pilot, with whom he had been in dispute several days . . . Determined not to lose chance to make the flight, Bertaud as a last resort, has offered to purchase the plane from its owners

J. H. Rose Loses Coupe in Raleigh

Wlille accompanying his wife to Raleigh to board the train for Alabama yesterday, J. H. Rose, superintendent of the Greenville schools, had the misfortune to have his Ford coupe stolen from him. He left the car parked in front of the home of his sister in Hayes Barton. It disappeared, and until now nothing has been heard of its whereabouts.

(Richmond News Leader)

The nations economy has become so integrated that labor - industry clashes increasingly affect the public interest. Sensing this, Congress has in the works a number of bills to improve the machinery for handling crippling strikes.

Labor has traveled far from the industrial pigpens of the past century. Todays fat pay checks are erasing old distinctions between the working class and the middle class, between blue - collar and white - collar workers. Easy credit has allowed workers to buy such things as sports cars, boats and summer homes. Labor lacks only status, and now it covets that, too.

Last year, according No Forbes, 4,200 strikes of varying magnitude occurred in the U. S. Among them were strikes by government and welfare workers, lo n g-shoremen, taxi drivers, gravediggers, airplane mechani c s, newspaper unions, tugb oat crewmen and Playboy bunnies. Even more strikes are anticipated thfs year: In the first three months of 1967, the number of strikes totaled 1,195 the highest first quarter figure ever. Truckers, bus drivers and rubber workers already have struck, and auto

mobile and copper wor k e r strikes probably will shut down plants in the fall. Moreover, Congress has delayed a threatened strike of railroad workers for a second time. If that strike occurs, the government estimates unemployment soon would rise to 15 per cent and defense shipments to Vietnam would be cut in half.

Unions have contrib u t e d materially to the welfare of Americas labor. But however necessary they may be, unions should not wield the power to bludgeon the nations economy, and hence the nations people, into accepting t h e ir demands. Congress now is considering various remedial Compulsory arbitration, labor courts, strengthened fact-finding boards, sympathy - strike bans, a repaired Taft - Hartley law and curt - appointed receivers to run a plant or industry threatened by a strike.

Labor and industry frequently trudge to Washington for solutions to their problems, as happened in the 1963 railroad dispute, the airline strike in 1965 and now with the railroads again. Congress may do something more sensible this year by delicately enacting corrective legislation fair to both sides.

That word, shall, cannot be misunderstood. In the same imperative sense, it appears at least 155 times in the body of the originol Constitution. The founding fathers had their ambiguous moments, but they drew a fine line between shall and may. Here the plain commandment is that when a certain requirement is met, the Congress shall call. The requirement is that two - thirds of the States shall have applied, through their legislatures, for a conventiin. There are 50 States. Two-thirds of 50 is 34. By a new and definitive count, 32 Slates now have made such application. Senator Hruska expects two more to apply within the next few weeks.

The question will then be squarely presented, to a body of men sworn to uphold the Constitution, whether they will in fact uphold the Constitution. Senator Hruska may be in error when he argues that the congressional duty imposed by Article V is essentially ministerial, and not legislative, for an act or ixsulution setting up a constitutional convention would have to create some machinery never before devised. Even so, it cannot be assumed that the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, contains an unenforceable commandment. If Senator Tydings is shocked by the prospect of a convention, he ought to ponder the far more shocking thought that Congress would place its will above the Constitution.

The proposed convention would be summoned primarily for the purpose of submitting an amendment to modify the Supreme Courts absolutist mandate for the composition of State legislatures. The idea lo amend the Constitution so as to permit the people within each State, if t h e y (Continued On Page 5)

Czechs

Show

Strain

By ROWLAND EVANS and

ROBERT NOVAK

PRAGUEAt noon in a downtown Prague cate, one o the brilliant young periornuis of the Czech theater talked quietly of the ariisi,'s sen., oi alienation from the -uling apparatus of this Comm.nust stntCi

We all feel bitter anger, at the kind of life that is lived here. Suddenly he stopped, after a moment he resumed:

I can say no more. You mu-t remember that this is not a free country. I could be in trouble.

The poignant moment reflected the ambivalent strains in Czechoslovakia today. It is a sign of considerable progress in this country, once the most slavishly stalinist of the Satel* lites, that direct political criticism can be made in a public cafe. Yet, as the young artist indicated, this remains at least a semi-police state where a Czech can expect a visit from a policeman after an unauthorized visit with a foreign visitor.

Moreover, it waa typical that the criticism of the regime should be voiced not by politicians, an economist, or a sociologist but by a creative artist. Czechoslovakia is experiencing a cultura upsurge with strong elements of political dissenta movement that : is today the strongest liberalizing force in all Eastern Europe (with the usual exception of Yupgoslavia).

Here are the seeds of revolution, but a peculiarly Czech revolution lacking blood or banner. Disdaning heroics, Czechs say their national characteristics are best exemplified in the novel, The Good Soldier Schweil, whose hero feigns stupidity and incompetence but through indirection defeats the system. Pragues cultural rebels stab at the regime through indirection, profess no interest in politics whatsoever, and thus survive.

This is by no means the only ferment in Czechoslovv a k i a. Some students of this country believe the Slovakian drive for national autonomy is the key liberalizing factor. An embryonic parliamentarianism is developing as committees of the National Assembly, no longer a Soviet-style rubber stamp, mend government bills. And most obviou.sly revisionist is is the new' economic program which went into effect Jan. 1.

On paper the program introduces capitalist cures to revive the stagnant Czech cco-omy: the concept that an enterprise must show a profit, tilting production to market and functional unemployment, incentive pay for managers, higher pay for professionals than workers.

(Continued On Page 5)

.^ublic

'-orum

To The Editor:

We do appreciate the space given in the Public Forum for the recognition of those who had a part in the 1967 Sidewalk Show.

A correction, please. In the third paragraph these lines were emitted:

W*e thank Tran Gordley for his screen print posters* which made conversation pieces in eastern North Carolina.

Thank you,

Hariet Roseveari

?ost-War Tax Cut An Illusion

Birth Annuoncement Born to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Allen Cox, a son, Tuesday, May 17th.

Miss Rockwell Arrived -At College

Miss Ethel Thcoadora Rockwell of Chapel Hill, who is coaching the three qne-act plays to be given by the Senior Normal class of the college this week, returned Sunday to direct the final rehearsal and preparations.

Mrs. Wade Holmes and little daughter, MarV Klizabelh, are visiting relatives in Wilmington.

Miss Dcanie Boone Hasket lias returned from Rocky Point, where she has been teaching.

By ELMER ROESSNER

The promise of an income tax cut after the end of the war in Vietnam may be illusory. In fact, if the war ends suddenly there may be a choice of:

A sharp rise in income taxes or,

.A sharp increase in inflation.

In fact, the rate of inflation may accelerate almost immediately.

During World War II, Henry A. Wallace, once a member of Franklin D. Roosevelts Cabinet and later a candidate for President himself, kept warning the people that the end of the war would bring on a catastrophic recession. -Millionx ot returning fighting men and millions of defense plant workers would be out of work, he predicted.

Boom, Not Bust

Instead, the country went

into one of the greatest booms in history. Wallace, who was reputed to be able to calculate the number of beans in a g^ass jar, had not been able to calculate the fact that there was a tremendous shortage of consumer goods because of war restrictions, and that t h ^ r e was a huge demand for American food, goods and machinery in devastated Europe.

However, the situation at the end of the Vietnam war will be vastly different. There will be no shortages of consumer goods. As of today, there is a huge surplus. Auto sales are slow and inventories of other goods are high.

Western European nations have surpluses too, and clouds of recession hang over inu>sl countries. Southeast Asia, (J course, will require vast amounts of goods, industrial machinery and other supplies, but it will have to be on a

gift basis, because there is little purchasing power. Postwar Plans What will happen when the war ends is that the government will must launch enormous projects to provide jobs for returning servicemen and disemployed defense plant workers.

ELMER

ROESSNER

This unemployment will not be sudden. Police action will slow the return of GIs and the need to replace expended material will make -shutdowns

gradual. Nevertheless the problem will be gigantic.

President Johnson and a Democratic Congress may expect to make the Great Society even greater and, if the Republicans are in by that time, we can expect plans lor a Grand Old Society.

There will be billions spent lo end poverty, increase education, beautify the countryside, end air and water pollution, cure the common cold, eradicate trichinosis and so on.

This will increase government spending, possibly above the levels of spending for the Vietnam war. This m o ii e y i'ant be raised by luweiing taxes, although a leinporajy cut in taxes might stimulate consumer and business spending. It is more likely that taxes wilUbe held at present levels or increased.