Friday, January 31, 1969

But Do The People Share Views?

Tiiere- is sericius doubt whether the apparent prevailing scnirment among legislators for increased tax levies this year is a reflection of the grass rojbts feeling around the state.

At thiwS stage there is the possibility that the seepiing sentiment among legislators in favor of fax increases may fade later as the General Assem-hly cj3mes to grips with financial planning for the next two years.

In recent years most Americans have resisted with greater vigor efforts to increase taxes to match increased government spending at every level. Most polls indicate a hardening line on the part of citizens toward levying higher taxes. Here in North Carolina the strong resistance to higher taxes has been reflected in the larger number of bond pro

posals of various kinds that have been rejected in local elections.

, The fact that new tax talk has given emphasis to' providing additional revenues for local governments has generated little enthusiasm outside the circle of those immdiately involved in local government. The same attitude which prevails toward higher federal taxes carries over when talk shifts to increasing state and local taxes.

Those closest to the state government, like those closest to local governments, are most aware of the pressing needs for additional revenues. They recognize that if the additional services are to be provided, if higher cost of government operations are to be met without decreasing services, more funds are needed.

It remains to be seen whether this relatively small group of North Carolinians is able to bring the people of the state to a recognition of the genuine need for additional taxes for support of state and local governments.

Blueprint For

I'Cey Legislation a Time For Patience

In Paris Negotiations

By WILLIAM A SHIRES Rflcctor Raleigh Bureau

RALEIGH - One of the more important and far-reaching documents upon which some key 1969 legislation is being based is the report of the Local Government Study

Commission.

This, in effect, Is a 99-page blueprint for fulfilling promises to do something for local governmenis iri North Carotina and at ttre same time streamline and tidy up the legislative process itself.

In addition, there is good bit of interesting history behind how this all came about.

The report, endorsed by Gov. Bob Scott, contains a package of proposals aimed at strengthening local governments, permitting more home rule and establishing greater local fiscal stability.

Makc^ A Start

It stops short of recommending everything that local governments wanted and asked during hearings by the blue-ribbon study commission.

Presumably, however, there will be additional prioposals certainly a floek of bills Id open new and additional sources of revenue for local government purposes.

The co-<^airman of the Study Commission, Sen. Jack H! White of Cleveland and Rep. Sam Johnson of Wake, said they felt the recommendations arc, at least, a solid base.

We will want to add on and build on as we go along, said White, who will be chairman of the Senate Local Government committee.

But to begin with, 1 'hink we have made a good start. Planning Recommended

The study recommends establishing a division ot si a t e and regional planning embracing the present Stata Plan

ning Task Force and certain other present and proposed state functions and services.

This would be in line with the governor's statement that only through a partnership with the state can local governments provide the services that its citizens demand. Scott said he would assign high priority to building an effective working paitner-ship.

Home Rule' Proposed

WTiite and Johnson feel that enactment of the study commissions recommendations would reduce very sharply the amount of local legislation handled by each session of the General Assembly.

For example, local governments would be empowered to initiate by resolutions, public Iiearing and referendum the make-up and term of their respective governing body, to set salaries and fees of local officials and determine the manner of election. Counties would be empowered to enact ordinances. Local legislation on debt matters would be prohibited in the General Assembly. All local exemptions i* om permissive general laws would be repealed.

Locals Bills

Already in the present session, there are bills redraw school boundaries in the city of Lenoir, to change the method of electing school board members in Anson County, also in Onslow County, to increase the si^e of the city council of Mt. Holly from four to five members; to transfer authority to issue pistol permits in Haywood County fn m the clerk of superior court to the sheriff; to amend the charter of the city of Lenoir to fix the organization meeting of the city council; to change ward boundaries in Gastonia.

There is a bill on annexation law exemptions in Burke County, and another Burke County bill to increase the lo c a 1 alcoholism reserve fund. A Forsvth County bill would change the local peace olfi-cers association set-up.

Other local bills come in daily. Hundreds are introduced, considered and ^nerally passed routinely during each legislation session.

Home rule would change this to a great extent, although no one expects the legislature to hand over full, autonomous control.

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No one who follows the day-to-day Vietnam talks at the Paris conference can be very encouraged that a quick settlement of the prolonged conflict will come.

It seems more likely that there will be many long sessions of what could seem to be fruitless debate; for it is obvious that many great differences mustl^e settled to clear the way for peace.

If this seems a discouraging outlook, we must remember that finally at long last talks are under-wly and as long as they are there is at least some hope for improvement.

It is also possible that while the negotiations are going on there will be less inclination on both sides to bring on further escalation of the war. It may even be that the pace of the war will gradually slow to a virtual end.

Now is a time for great patience on the part of the American people. Peace talks are underway and that might be the most important occurance in the years since the war began.

Generation Gap Beyond Norma.

Spac

By HAL BOYLE

NEW YORK (AP) - Curbstone comments of a Pave ment Plato;

Youre not in step with the times today unless you have a furrowed brown from worrying about the so - called generation gap.

This is one of those wrap-up sociological terms, such as

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which have become so common in our society lately, phrases which bloom madly in cocktail party conversations for a few months or perhaps years, then die out.

Perhaps, however, before both these currently popular phrases go out of style and depart into the limbo of language, we should hold a meaningful dialogue on the generation gap. Just what is that gap? It refers to the deepening gulfocps. theres another one of i h o se cozy intellectual terms between Americas young and its middle - aged.

One might dismiss this gap tolerantly as a mere matter of a difference in age, and iet it go at that. After all, girls and women, separated by 25 years, dont usually go to pajama parties together; men separated by 25 years dont usually play handball or tennis together.

Youth naturally tends to flock with youth, those in their middle years with others in their middle years.

But the present generation gap goes beyond the normal gap which historically has separated all previous generations from one another. The gap is deeper, wider, and reflects a bitter emotional estrangement more than a mere difference in age.

Every generation is something of a mystery to the one that it follows and the one that it precedes. But customarily the estrangement is the result of friendly 'misunderstandings and there are areas of reconciliation and avenues that lead to mutual acceptance.

The danger of the present appear to be fewer touching points of agreement than existed in the past. Todays youth seems to regard the middle - aged not as misunderstanding friends but as actual or potential enemies, relics of an outwcwn social system who seek not to help them but to crush them. Their now-trite slogan eloquently voices this suspicion: Dont trust anybody over 30.

This slogan is peculiarly annoying to a modern father. He doesnt feel he is inviting his aon or daughter to dwell in a rusting rut but to a better way of life he himself did not know when young. He is bewildered by the epudiation of his own values by his own children.

Scarred by a great depression and a great world war, he graduated from school or college into a world that had no job waiting for him and appeared to be indifferent to (Continued On Page 5)

Strength For Today

THE WRESTLING MATCH

There is an interesting story in the thirty-second chapter of Genesis about a wrest ling match that the Patriarch Jacob had on one occasion with a man, or probably an angel. Jacob had been unjust and dishonest in his dealings witli his brother Esau, and Esau had sworn that he would kill Jacob. A confrontation of the brothers was about to i a k e place. Jacob was laturally terrified. He had been in the wrong and he knew it. Esau was certainly not conspicuous for any moral qualities, but he showed himself superior to Jacob in that after his anger had cooled against his designing brother, Jacob, Esau was ready to forgive and forget.

Thi.s wrestling match takes place more often than we are perhaps willing to admit It is .sometimes referred to today

as wrestling with ones conscience. The name Jacob was cMinected in the Hebrew language with the word heel, and according to our modem use of that word to designate a thoroughly unworthy person Jacob met the apecifications in every particular.

But Jacob was a man who could grow, and Esau was not. Jacob wrestled with his conscience and cried out to his unseen as.sailant, I will not let thee go except thoq bless me. The first blessing you will get, announced the angel, is a change of name. You have been called Jacob (the heel). Now you will be called Israel, a prince, in whose life God rules.

The wrestling match and subsequent victory will occur if we allow it to be th,it way.

Earl L. Oougla.ss

AKT BUCHWALD

ilxDosure On Television

WASHINGTON - I went to President Nixwis first press conference Monday morning. A Presidents first press conference is as important to the press as it is to the President The entire country is watching to see if the White House correspondents are up to questioning their leader.

About 500 of us were crouched at the West Wing starting line 30 minutes before the conference began. At the signal from the Secret Service, we made the outdoor dash for the White House portico. Running and jogging are not permitted, but the pace is fast. The reason for speed is that there are only 300 seats in the East Room, and if youre not quick enough, a woman reporter

will beat you to a seat.

The idea of covering a televised presidential press conference is to get on TV, so your family as well as your bosses back home will see you. The best way to do this is to ask a question, preferably a long one, so the camera will stay on you, instead of the President.

The next best thing to asking a question is to sit behind some<Hie whom you are sure will ask one.

During President Kennedys Administration 1 always tried to get a seat behind May Craig. It was a sure way of getting on TV. Unfortunately other reporters knew this, too, and there was always a fight for seats behind where May Craig placed herself.

Other Editors Say Heartbreak Heaven

(Tulfia Tribune)

President Kennedy Is said to have grumbled that its easier to be elected president than it is for a president to have his orders carried out. His disenchantment with the State Department bureaucracy led him to create his little state deoart-ment in the White House.

President Johnson knows how President Kennedy felt. Mr. Johnson used tbs weight of his office to put the heat on private industry to hold the line on prices and wages and ordered federal agencies to do likewise.

His blasts at the auto Industry probably had a lot to do with holding down price increases on 1969 models. But while he was winning on that

front, the United States Department of Labor was setting minimum wages on four federal housing projects in Washingtcm at rates significantly higher than those being paid on comparable private residential projects in the area. The difference, according to the General Accounting Office, cost taxpayers 1.4 million dollars.

As Richard Nixon will learn, it matters little how loudly a president shouts his orders. By the time they reverberate through the bureaucracy, they are whispers.

What is needed is a presidential expediter in every government agency a fellow with the lungs of a Marine drill instructor, the stubbornness of a mule, and a kick to match it.

In the Johnson Administra-ticm we all used to gravitate behind Sarah McGlendon, who writes for a string of Texas newspapers. Unfortunately, It

ART

BUCaiWALD

was too early in the Nixon Administration to know whom to sit behind, though after this first press contorence the smart money is now on Clark Mollenhoff of the Cowles newspapers.

The ground rule for ask i ng questions at a White House press conference is to jump up from your chair and hope the President will recognize you. That is why its so important to have a seat If youre already standing, the President doesnt know whether you want to ask a question OF whether you were just unlucky not to get a chair.

The only thing standees can do is crouch while the President is speaking and then straighten up when hes ready to take a question and shout Mr. President But it rarely works in the East Room.

Since the President of the United States cannot bestow knighthood on reporters the next best thing is for him to recognize a newspaper reporter by name. This is comparable to Queen Elizabeth giving someone the Order of the Garter. If the President not only recognizes someone by name, but refers to iomc-(Ontinned Ob Page I)

.runds

Worry

By JOHN CNNIFF NEW YORK (AP) - At the ery height of its success, having sent three men around the moon,. the aerospace industry today feels less than triumphant Walking on air for tlia moment perhaps, but con-eemed about the next step.

The worries arise from sum# down to earth appraisals of the industrys imiiKNiiate future, which some aerospace officials fSel is dreary, not just from the corpOTste point of view, but for the men and towns dependent m the program.

The majOT problem is money, which because of budget cuts and the priority of social ills ever space exploration is far less than is believed ieeded te continue at a moderately strong pace.

As a result, these officials say, todays spectacular space triumphs are really yesterdays accomplishments, for in terms of men, money and activity, this enormous industry reached its apogee two or three years ago.

From a peak employment of more than 400,000 in every itate, the toduslry is now shrinking to one-half that figure. Less than tiiree years ago 200 universities and 20,000 companies were involved. The figure is much lower now.

President Lyndon R. Johnson asked for |3.9 billion in the 1970 fiscal year budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, about the same as last year but $2 billion less than a few years ago. Space of ficials say it isnt enough.

Dr. George Mueller, assoHate administrator of NASA feels it is the kind of budget that will take NASA out of manned space flight in three years from now. Mueller spoke this week to tiit New York Society of Security Analysts, whose main interest it in learning about investment opportunities. This being so, he centered his remarks on the economic consequences of the space program.

In terms of domestic impact, he said, the returma range from national pride to better paints. He went on to detail a remarkable number of fallout benefits from the space program.

Here are some, lelected at Faster and more efficient electronic computers. The computer complex that handled the Mercury flights performed one million calculations a minute. Todays Apollo system handles 50 times that many50 million a minute... Development of the technology of perfection. There were five million parts in the Apollo-Satum vehicle that flew to the moon, Mueller said. If 5,000 of them failed the reliat|Uty percentage still would have been 99.9. Only 8 parts failed.

Aid to the belince of payments program by developing products that are sold to foreign companies and governments.

Upgrading of education and scientific capabilities. A new mix of professional and scientific disciplines. This program has forced cooperation between engineers and medical doctors, chemists and astronomers, oceanographers and geologists...

New products for industry. Technllogical innovations. More than innovations have been attributed to the program, including new alloys, miniaturized components, medical equipment, inorganic paints, flexible pipes...

Environmental controls. Weather satellites, for example, and other satellites that can detect forest fires, mineral deposits, crop diseases and so on.

^hdeDendent Store Gredit Cards

By ELMER ROESSNER Many small retailers are unhappy about bank cr e d i t card plans, so many that the National Retail Merchants A.s-sociation is developing a new credit card plan for independent stores.

Smaller department and specialty stores find these faults with bank card pbns;

They dissinate customer loyalty, A customer who has traded at one store for years may be tempted to shop ..11 over town once she gets a bank credit card.

Stores lose control or mailing lists. The stuffers ihat accompany stores m o n t hly bills sell a lot of goods. Stores also lose the advantage of special sales credit customers.

Stores Lose Oedit Flexibility Bank credit card rules are necessarily firm, making it difficult for stores to to i 1 or credit to customers. Many stores have customers who

pay their bill* quarterly as dividend checks come in. Many stores will carry old customers over periods of financial stringency which bank plans cannot do.

Bank cards tempt small stores customers to drift to larger stores, but seldom tempt customers from larger stores to the smaller ones.

Stoves with bank credit must advertlBe credit to keep sales up, giving the banks a free ride in their advertising.

Stores must pay about 3 per cent of sales for bank card credit, which some regard as high.

Soreji Want Gredit

Another reason f resentment of bank card plans is that many stores find it difficult to get bank credit, or must pay premium rates if they do. Small store leans are small; banks much prefer larger loans to hig h e r-rated borrowers.

The NRMA plan hopes to accelerate the cash flow to stores in its plan, thereby reducing the need for borrowing. It also envisions a personalized charge plate for each store, and with hi 11 s carrying the name of the

OKSSNEB

store.

The NRMA also hopes to keep costs below bank rates.

However, even the management of small stores concede that bank credit cards are here to stay and even if the NRMA plan proves lucce s s-

ful, many stores will also have to join bank card plans as well.

1968 Per Capita Income Estimated at $3,412

The Department of C o m-merce calculates that total personal income for the full year of 1968 was $685.8 billion, which figures out to $3,412 for each man, woman ;md child, or $13,648 for a family of four.

Hope you got yours.

The biggest chunk was In salaries and wages, $463.5 billion. Other la^r inconie came to $26.1 billion; proprietors income, $47.8 billion; rental income of persons, $21 billion; dividends, $24.6 b i 1-lion; personal interest, $52.1 1 pillion; Social Security payment* and veterans benefits, $58.$ billion. From this there was $22.9 billion deducted for Social Security and uncalculated billions and millions of dollars in federal, state and local taxes.