Thursday, Decembar tl, 1967

America Lost An Australian Friend

Also DEVALUATED!

The United States has lost a friend with the apparent untimely death of Australian Prime Minister Harold E. Holt.

The prime minister, who disappeared while skin diving, has supported American policies often even in the face of some opposition among his own countrymen.

Holts support of the U. S. efforts in Vietnam took the form of some 6,000 Austrialian fighting men committed to the war, alongside American soldiers. He had the perception to recognize that a communist threat to southeast Asia was also a direct threat to Austrialia.

The prime minister enjoyed excellent relations with President Johnson. This is dramatized by the fact that the president flew to Melbourne to pay his respects at memorial services for the prime minister.

As President Johnson said on hearing the sad news, He And the people for whom he spoke were

Squeeze Is On Sixed Incomes

By WILLIAM A. SHIRES Reflector Raleigh Bureau RALEIgH - Circling t h e square:

Soon now almost all the Christmas stockings will be filled, at least for those who dared to hang them this year. The seasonal buying binge perhaps the biggest in dollar volume on record will be over but another will be beginning.

This is the way the business experts, the economists and analysts see todays merchandising and shipping trends and upward spiral in volume, a slight increase in profits and a bigger and bigger bite from taxes, overhead and o t n e r costs.

Quite bluntly, the Bureau of Advertising of the American Newspaper Publishers Assn. says in its Dec. 15 retail memo that inflation is at least partially responsible for Increased dollar sales during this Christmas shopping season.

Prices have trended upward in the past yor and customers have exhibited a tendency to trade up to bet-

WrXIAM

SHIRES

ter quality merchandise. But higher operating costs will tend to keep profits from keeping pace with the increas-d sales.

Credit A Factor Somewhat easier availability of credit despite higher interest rates also is cited as a factor in increased retail sales volume.

How healthy this will be for the overall economy remains to be seen. Almost all sources however report that increased credit oorptminoa I efforts by stores and bank credit plans has been a definite factor.

Credit Industry View The problems presented by inflation, higher costs and in

creased credit financing are viewed differently in various segments of the economy.

A report by the consum e r finance industry itself, the National Consumer Finance Association, says consumer spending for durable goods and services has been rising more rapidly than personal income.

And it is in this area that it expects the effects of increase in federal income taxes to bf felt most sharply.

Greatest reduction in expenditures would likely occur in purchases of such durable goods as television sets, autos and accessories, jewelry, porting equipment, home furnishings and appliances.

Large reductions could also be expected in consum e r expenditures for toilet preparations, foreign travel, big h er education, drugs, medical services and housing, the report says.

Probably little if any decrease would occur in consumer spending on non credit and non - credit card things such as food, clothing, tobacco and alcoholic beverages, according to the consum e r finance report.

Stockii^s Filled Many predictions such as that of the consumer finance industry add up to this: The economy is heated. Personal income is high but a greater percentage is being spent for color television sets, new cars, furniture, jewelry and the like, and more and more on installment plans. This expenditure is rising more rapidly than personal income, creating pressure for wage and salary increases and other sources of income.

Increases in hourly and weekly paychecks have been granted in many key industries. A sizable increase has been approved for fedcr a 1 employes along with already-voted tax and postal rate increases and the still pending request for a federal incwnc tax surcharge.

Altogether this presents an ever - tightening squeeze on the lower and fixed income people. And this perhaps is the group which has been forced by inflation to turn to more credit buying in the past year. _

always dependable and unshakeable. Those blessings of his example cannot be removed. They are as eternal as the sea that has taken this good and gallant champion away.

Harold Holt was a s3mibol of the fine relations that have existed between the United States and Australia for so many years. If America had more such friends, its world problems would be greatly diminished.

We Urge You To Take Extra Care On Roads

At this holiday season thousands of families will pile into their automobiles for the trip a few miles or several hundred miles to spend the days of Christmas with relatives.

Highways will be more crowded than normal as additional vehicles move toward their destinations. And traffic hazards, bad enough at best, will increase with the increase in highway travel during the holidays.

For those of our readers who happily look forward to a trip during the next several days, we add our word of caution. Drive with extra care. Watch your own driving habits with more than the usual amount of caution and keep an especially careful watch for the faults of the other driver. Avoid that split-second of laxness behind the wheel which could mean the difference between a safe, happy holiday and tragedy.

i reasury Variec.

By JAMES KILPATRICK

in

;i^oles

But Whose Ox Is Gored?

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By JOSEPH R. COYNE WASHINGTON (AP)-Which federal department aids the man and promotes livestock elderly, helps the lumberman and promotes livestock productionall at the same time?

Its the Treasury Department and it does these and other jobs throt^ tax relief and tax incentives. (Xficials dont particulaiiy relish the task and would like to give it up to experts in these fields.

They relish less the long list of bills awaiting Congress, return n^xt year which would provide a variety of tax credits ranging from underground transmission lines to antipollution devices and higher education.

And they have a strwig ally in Chairman Wilbur D. AfiUs, DArk., of the House Ways and Means Committee, who contends a tax incentive is nothing more than back-door spending and a failure to face up to a direct-S5)cnding program.

Mills said approval of any of the tax credit measures now before his committee would only whet appetites for a legion of other possible credits.

His opposition, together with that of the Treasury Department, will probably mean the death of tax-credit bills standing on their own. They could be attached as rides to othr legislation, however.

Money saved through a tax credit. Mills said, must be made up by the rest of the nations taxpayers and increases the deficit just as much as direct spending because it lowers the Treasurys tax revenues.

The Treasury has no overall estimate of the tax lose from credits and other incentives but the special exemption for sick pay paid to workers costs 1100 million yearly alone. Other forms of tax relief run into the billions.

President Jenson could ask for an overhaul of some tax incentives when he submits hs promised tax-revision bill to (Congress next yoar.

Stanley S. Surrey, a former Harvard University professor and now assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy, has placed his department on record against tax incentives to solve the nations social ills.

He and other 'Treasurey of-ficals, like Mills, prefer tiie direct apjHroach.

The immediate leap to the tax solution serves only to stultify thinking about these social problems, Surrey has said. And once the leap is made theres no chanpe to explore details of a program each year as Congress would do if direct federal spending were involved.

Surrey also contends tax relief closes the door to the study of alternative solutions to the many problems facing the nation.

The longer a man coven the government beat, running like a fire dog after the follies of mankind, the more one cwKiludcs that the first rule for the understan^ng of human conduct lies in the fable of the ox that was gored. The key question is always: Whose ox?

These ruminations are prompted by a conference a few days ago on the problems of State governments and what should be done about them; but the law of the ox applies across the board. This is not to impute hypocrisy to the whole of mankind, though goodness knows the whole of mankind is full of it. A softer word is human nature. Its blinding spell is everywhere.

The law of the ox is working with particular precision these days in the field of civil rights. It was only a few years ago that civil libertarians were making the heavens ring with their denunciations of the invidious

knights of the Ku Klux Klan. lhe Southern noblemen were thwarting Negroes in their rightful freedom of expression; and this was terrible. Sure enough, it was.

Today the situation is reversed. In one city after another, leader* of the black power structure, playing the role of Wack-face Klansmen, are putting on pressure to see that Alabamas former Governor Wallace is prevented from speaking. Are the civil libertarians perturbed? By and large, they are not. The question is: Whose ox?

The same thing is true of the great debate on Vietnam. The chief complaint of those who passionately oppose the freedom of expression is denied them. And how do they manifest th^ir grievance? By denying freedom of expression to others. These are the same people who 15 years ago were cursing Joe McCarthy. Joe wasnt in their league.

So it was with this con-

Other Editors Saying Against The Law

Strength For Today

By EARL L. DOUGLASS CoBceniiiig Angels

Tfiere are multitudes of people in the world who scoff at the reality of angels. If they believe in angels at all, they think of them simply as inhabitants of the heavenly realm, and thats that.

But all through the Bible we find angels appe^ing to individuals, guiding them, strengthening them, reviving them. The patriarchs of ancient Israel were constantly being led by angels. The angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary announcing the approaching birth of (^ist. After our Lords temptation, angels ministered to him and revived him from the rigors of that ordeal Jesus was sustained by angels in the Garden of (^thsemane. Angels sp(^e to the women who approached the tomb oh the first

Easter morning.

By what reasoning do we say then that angels are only a figment of the pious imagination? If they do not exist, then the Bible bears a lot of false testimony, and this we do not believe. If they existed at one time in world history, is it not reasonable to suppose that they exist now?

The idea of the guardian angel is spiritually sound and valid. Unseen companions walk at our side as we journey through life. They stand at the babys crib. They hover over us in hours of great decision. Diey strengthen us in trouble and swrow. They furnish us a delightful, although unseen, fellowship.

We can reject them and their kindly offices, and many do. But those who do art ill-advised and unwise.

Angels are real.

(The Wilson Times i

Governor Moore is begin-ing early to inform government workers of the new North Carolina law which forbids state employes from politicking on state time. He held three conferences last week on the subject.

As he points out, the law is explicit, for it forbids state employes from using their position to coerce any other employe to support any candidate, issue or party. This is the fair way to conduct a campaign. In speaking at the series of the three state management conferences he told officials: The law is very clear and ycu should familiarize yourself with its particulars.

He also asked the officials to call to the attention of employes under your jurisdiction the law, enacted at my request, concerning political activity by state personnel. Then the governor went

on to sayi that the law, in brief states that no state employe can engage in political activity while on duty, use his position or state property in behalf of any candidate, issue or party.

The governor stated the state management conferences for the purposes of bringing top echelon government officials together to discuss good government practices and to exchange ideas which could be developed for the good of the state.

The Governor is doing his part in his efforts toward fairness. He has said he will take no part in the campaign. And the law forbids state employes to use their influence on state time.

If the governor is successful in keeping state amployes out of i>olitics he will have worked a miracle. He is doing all in his power, for he advocated the law and arkcd the General Assembly to pas.s it, which it did.

ference on the ills of State governments. These were state people at the session Governor Evans of Washington, Governor Volpe of Massachusetts, a task force of the U.S. Chamber of (Commerce. They were perfectly sincere; and perfectly human.

These gentlemen were very much down on centralization of power; they were opposed to the in^)ositi(Mi of wform requirements on the States; they believed in government close to the people. They were critical <rf excessive concentration of authority in the Federal executive brarRh. And they resented the Federa-al governments domination of revenue sources. How would they remedy tiicse ills?

Well, for one thing, they would strengthen State governments by permitting the States to impose uniform re-quirements upon tiie cities and counties. They would propose that Governors be elected for terms of at least four years, with no limitations upon a number of terms. TTiey would whittle down the Federal income tax in order to levy State income taxes all their own.

Whose ox? If one goes to a conference of Mayors or cly managers, it is the same story. TTie common theme is resentment not only of power from Washington Ixit of power from the State capitals also. The professionals at the local level want to make their cities larger and their elected councils smaller. They want local income taxes, in the form of payroll taxes, in order to streiyhten local finance. The grand exhortation is for government close to the peoplebut not so close, mind you, that the people have any effective say.

In tiie end, one can only bow to the widsom of tiie founding fathers. They created a rough structure of government, and deliberately left it rough.

Quote

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth command us, we are poor indeed. Edmund Burke.

Shaky ! Romne Y Staff

By ROWLAND EVANS and ROBERT NOVAK

WASHINGTON - F. Clit-ton White, the brilliant tactician who designed Barry Goldwaters nomination in 19-64, quietly slipped into Lansing, Mich., recently to be offered a key spot in Governnr George Romneys jaaipa.gn organizationan offer that climaxed months of wooinjj.

White didnt exactly sa> no. He explained that ne had ue-cided not to work any candidate right now and, instead, would devote his energies to defeating Lyndon B. Johnson next November. It wa.s, in short, a polite refusal.

White would have been an invigorating shot of adrenalin for the listless Romney campaign. But more sigiii-cant is the fact that Romney, whose organzation has been in being for a year now, is still searching for a campaign director at this iate date. Indeed, three monihs before the New Hampshire primary election campaign staff is in a state bordering on chaos.

The failure to find new blood such as White is a!I the more critical because of the departure actual and prospectiveof high-level staffers, to wit:

Dr. Walter De Vries, Kum-neys idea man and spee li writer dating back to the Governors firt campaign m 1962, has resigned effective Dec. 31. De Vriess avowed reason for leaving is his desire to keep his family in Lansing rather than move them with the Romney-for-President operation to Washington. But if the highly capable E>c Vries had not been downgraded in the Romney organization, a solution less precipitous than resignation might have been found.

William Murphy, executivs secretary to former Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania who joined the Romney staff early this year, has been eased out He will soon join the staff! of Senator Jams Pearson of Kansas.

Robert J. (Jack) McIntosh, a former Michigan Congressman and key Romney lieutenant since 1964, also is bebg eased out, though his final departure is not absolutely certain. Originally slated to be Romncys national campaign manager. McIntosh has been progressively downgraded to the role of (^ngressional liaison.

Dr. William Prendergast. a veteran, highly respected Republican researcher who joined the Romney staff early this year, has been the trr-get of internal criticism in in Lansing and could be the next candidate for departure.

This leaves a trio in charge of the campaign: Leonard Hall, the old pro from Oyster Bay, N. Y., who is campaign manager; Richard Van Dusen, the shrewd Detroit lawyer who is Romneys closest political adviser; ani Travis (fross, the skilled political technician hired pveral months ago as Romney s press secretary.

But dwarfing these nominal leaders in real authority is the shadowy figure i>f Max Fisher, a Detroit millionaire who handles Romney campaign financing. That financing is now so meager that Fisher has become de facto campaign manager, deciding which activities have first call on scarce funds.

There is grumbling in Lansing that Fishers decisions (Continued On Page S)

On The Other Side Of The Cans

Forty Years Ago

By FOY H. DUNCAN Dec. 21, 1927 School Carol | Concert Gives The Christmas concert given by four hundred children of the Greenville schools Tuesday evening, Dec. 20, in the College Auditorium, was one of the best programs ever presented by the public schools. The program was presented under tiie efficient direction of Miss Lotta Vae-i zey, supervisor of the public fdbool music, sply assisted the teacbirf of the various grades. It was witnessed by a very large and responsive au-

dience....The concert opened with an impressive processional Sixty high school Glee Clubs entered with lighted candles while one hundred elementary children from the stage sang, Oh Come All Ye Faithful.... The toy orchestra composed of children from second and third grades of the West Greenville School trained by Miss Pickren was greatly appreciate and enjoyed by all. Little Miss Lillian Abee made a perfect director.... The Cantique De Noel was beautifully sung,by Miss Bessie Brown during the Manger Tableau.

By ELMER ROESSNER Any retailer who has not read the story on shoplifting by Chris Welles in the Dec. 5 issue of Life may profit by reading it immediately. It describes more than 50 methods of shoplifting and pilferage. Many of the countrys million shoplifters read Life, perhaps after swiping a copy, and some may get new ideas for boosting, as the copi call it.

Some merchants will learn about methods they were not familiar with; others will know of tricks not exposed in Life. But for all it may be a refresher course, a course the shoplifters are taking too.

There is another side to the shoftlifting story Life did not relate.

Defensive Strategy One of my agents, who was once a darn^ good reporter, gained the confidence of the manager of a suburban super

market and asked him how he counteracted the onslaught of shoplifters. The chain for which he worked made frequent stock audits and managers were held responsible for shortages.

The manager said that just outside his office he had erected a display of canned goods

ELMER

ROESSNER

with spaces in each row of cans. Through the spaces tiic manager could look down each aisle and he spent time each day watching customers.

Whnever he spotted a customer slipping a can of an

chovies, a jar of macadamia nuts or whatever in a purse or pocket, he would approach the customer politely and ask him or her to step into his office.

There he would say, We have been watching you steal goods in this store for some time. Right now, you have a can of anchovies in your pocket.

We estimate you have taken about $50 worth of goods, or perhaps more. Do you want to pay for those goods or shall we let the police handle it?

In Fear, They Pay

Because most of his customers werciwell to do and because an arrest would ruin them socially, they invariably paid.

1 The manager had another get - even device. His store stocked two lines of canned goods. For example, it carried one brand of peas at 23

cents and another at 25 cents. At the check - out counters, the checkers were instructed to punch the higher amount regardless of brand. Few people complained.

The managers worst problem, he said, was with truckers who delivered goods. A trucker would put six cartons of coffee on the loading platform. The manager would sign for them and go for a hand-truck and when he returned there would often be only five cartons.

Vigilance was his only defense. If he complained, the truckers would strike.

The manager used his collections from shoplifters to make up any shortages in stock. M^en be had a few hundred dollars left over, he would Invite each employee to take home $10 or $20 worth of food.

' Im a sort of Robin Hood, hc| said.