Pflday, April 25. 1969

Not Compatible With Public Role

We hold to the idea that North Carolina ahould not allow unionization of its employees with direct collective bargaining.

It ia our opinion that collective bargaining and atrikcs by public employees are not compatible with the positions they hold. Citizen, who accept public jobs should recognize that, no matter what the position is. they have accepted a public trust Thus they have a responsibility to see that the services they render are continued uninterrupted.

At the same time, however, the state has a responsibility to see that all public employees are adequately paid and that grievances are heard and acted upon when there is justification.

Often the demands of unhappy maids and maintenance workers at universities and colleges seem unjustifiable to the general public. However, a careful reading of the demands shows that they are often based on small wrong* to the workers, which should have been handled before they became irritants.

We think it is time that North Carolina set up adequate machinery in its government whereby any state employee can bring his grievances to a fairminded official without fear of reprisals. This would mean the appointment of a state official whose primary duty would he to study employee grievances and make recommendations for changes.

Auto Insurance 'i^ate-Makina

By STACIE BTEEIE Reflector Raleigb Bureau RALEIGH - Outside of taxes, mrthing affects a greater Bumber of North Carolin-eans more than automobie liability insurance State gov^ernment hears a constant rumble of grumbling jfrom the public which feels that insurance premiums cost too much. This noise is a n 1 y drowTied out by the agonized shrieks from insurance companies who beseech the powers that be to allow rate increases because they're losing money and going broke.

the insurance men point to. inflation in general and in particular increasing costs of fixing automobiles and people.

Medical costs, the public as well as the insurance companies know, have rken tremendously in juft the last few years.

Auto repairs are going up. Labor, one independent appraiser notes, has risen from to $8 per hour in the past two years. The cost of parts has also zoomed.

People in the automobile business say the nse in t h e cost of labor can be attributed largely to the fact that fewer young men are becoming m^anics, so older m o rt experienced repairmen can as for and get any price they ask.

Insurance companies also point to the changes in North Carolina law whidi affect insurance rates. The legislature has recently increased the limits under the minimum responsibility law from $5,000-$10,000 to $10,000 - $20,000.

It is also speculated that the recently enacted worth of a wife law will change the insurance picture because it will affect the whole scope of evidence permitted to be introduced in many kinds of wrongful death case.

The rising number of automobile accidents linked to these increased costs are cited however as the primary factors necessitating rate increases, by insurance companies.

Meanwhile, some fact o r s have been introduced in the design and production of automobiles which could eventually lead to fewer deaths on the road, thus fewer death claims to insurance companie.'^

Improvements in road design are also being mad? to cut down on traffic hazards.

Other changes which are essential to making the highways as safe as poi^sible have, little chance of passing the General .Assembly, howe ver the legislature is notablv reluctant to approve highway safety measures if it would mean taking away anyones right to drive. Safety experts feel that getting some of the worst drivers off the road w'ould cut down immeasurably on the number of deaths on the highways.

Despite the obvious factors of increased costs and more accidents, the public has begun to question the more basic fundamentals of the rate making game.

Under the present'law, the State Insurance Commissioner, must base his decisions about rate increases on t h e ratio between income form premiums and the sum paid out in insurance claims.

Some are beginning p o i nt out that proceeds from premiums is not the only income the insurance compan i e s have. Insurance compan i e s realize profits from Invesfing, the premium money. Perhaps a change in the methods of setting rates to include COTsider-ation of an insurance company's total profits would be beneficial to the public.

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As we envision it, th^ officer would not bargain collectively with employee group.s or unions. Instead he would hear intiividual grievances. We believe such an office would do much to improve morale among state employee- at all levels.

Congress Should Heed Governors Message

Congress should heed the me.sage which North Carolinas young governor Bob Scott brought to a House committee Thursday.

He said that a proposed ban on cigarette advertising could lead to an economic crisis of unthinkable proportions in the Tar Heel state.

Such a ban w'ould sharply curtail tobacco income, he stated. I urge this committee to prevent the setting of a very dangerous precedent and to refrain from infringing unnecessarily on freedom of choice in the market place.

As the governor pointed out, there are. many other products where a rase could he made for banning advertising because they are potentially harmful.

Some Congre.<ismen are wildly swinging the hatchet at any and every thing related to tobacco. They seem to care little concerning the economic consequences of such actions. In fact one would suspect that there are some people who see curtailment of tobacco program.s and advertising as a punitive matter aimed at those who have made their livings from tobacco.

Congress should study carefully the actions being urged upon it. We are confident that if the entire matt>er is studied through Congress will not take action. w^hirh wuil bring economic chaos to a number of states, including North Carolina.

Lver Wonder

iec

55^ Sure, !Vow and Cnot the Big Folk o Both Faiths Live ' Tgether in Love? By th Way, YOU Dont Belong

to That OTHER Bloomin Churchy Dye?

AkT BUCHWALD

Is You?

The Understandina Pro::

Bv Hal Bovie

NEW YORK fAP)- Does the world bug you?

.Are you so perplexed and upset by the chaos around you that you sometimes wonder whether youre in your right mind"

Well, why not find out for

yourself whether its the world that is balmy or you that is batty? It isnt difficult to do. To find out how normal or abnormal you are, simply take pencil and piece following questions of paper and answer the following questions;

If you were at the track and found that a certain race was fixed, would you take advantage of the situation by betting on the horse that was bound to win?

WTien attending a cocktail party at a neighbors house, w'ould you like to sneak a kiss from your hosts wife if she only had less character and alsow as younger and prettier?

Naw and then when you wake up in the morning do you have analmost irrestible impulse to pull the sheet over your face and stay in bed all day?

Are you convinced that had luck dogs you and that if you bought 9,999 tickets out of a 10,000 - ticket church raffle, the other fellow would take the prize?

Did you used to have the feeling that somebody was

following you hut now feel that it couldnt be just one person it mcst be five or

SIX?

As the years roll on, do ynu find that your shoelaces are breaking more often wh e n youre in a hurry and youre spilling more gravy on your neckties?

Does it annoy you to see two young lovers smooching on a park bench, although you know darned well it is none of your business?

When the boss says hello to you as you come into the offirp, do you then sit at your desk until noon wonder i n g morosely what in the deveil hes driving at**

Does it seem to you that everything you buy on time wears out or breaks down just before you pay the next to the last installment

When you trundle your shopping cart through a supermarket, do you have an uneasy feeling that half the women in the place, are conspiring to beat you to a place in the line at the check out counter?

If someone tries to got you into a conservation about the U. S. foreign policy, does a gathering numbness start in your big toe and creep steadily up your body to your ears?

Are you talking to yourself more nowadays -- and enjoying it less?

Well, that's the test Now to the score. If you answered no to all these questions, youre in trouble You probably are. being followed by several people men in white carrying a strait-jackel.

But if you said yes to each question, you can relax. Your mind is in normal as life can permit it to be.

Your problem is that you are simply getting old and tired and cranky and falling apart just like every-bodv else.

One of the things that impress people about the student demonstrations is the strong stand that some members of the faculty are taking on the issues.

I was on the campus of Northamnesty University and ran into a professor who was trying to stop his nose from bleeding. His clothes were

torn up and he was walking with a pronounced limp.

What happened, Professor? I asked, as I helped him search for his glasses.

The militant students just took over my office and threw me down the stairs.

Why, thats terrible, I said.

From my point of view it

Other Editors Say ike A Dormouse

is, but I think we have to look at it from their point of view. Why did they throw me down the stairs? Where have we, as faculty, failed them? Are you going to pres* charges?

On the contrary. If I pres-

ART

BUCUWALD

(Christian Science Monitor)

Have you ever seen a squirrel or a dormouse in a circular running cage? Ihey run and run, but the harder they go, the faster the cage whirls and they are always at it5 lowest point, never able to climb the side. No? Well, never mind, you can see a type of squirrel or dormouse closer at hand. We mean ynu. the average wage-earner in the United States,

According to a wage study just released in New York City, wage raises given workers in that citys .major industries between 1965 and 1968 w'erc wiped out by the effect of higher taxes and inflation. In short, notwithstanding a fairly sizable jump in each workers gross income, his purchasing power in 1958 was no higher than it had been three years earlier. Just like the dormouse. And what is true of the rest of the countrys.

True, most of Americas workers are not, by almost any other lands standards, poverty-stricken. Thus to stand still at a fairly high level of prosperity is not the same as the problem which afflicts those who, during the same three-year period, wer

unable, to move out of true poverty.

Yet the squirrel-cage analogy is a new one for America, above all in times of swimming national wealth. The whole American economic outlook is underpinned by the belief that, the longer a man works, the higher his earnings should go and that this rise in gross income .*;hould also result in a net improvKnent. It is hard to accept the fact that raises, sometimes generous, do no more than permit a man to run in place.

It would be helpful if the facts turned up by the N e w ^nrk City study were given widest publicity around the country. This might well have the healthy effect of making people the more concerned over what inflation is and what it does to them. For America is gripped by a paradox. On the one hand, people put inflation near the top of things which worry them when speaking with public opinion pollsters. Yet, on the other hand, there is no real public drive demanding that inflation be curbed-now and decisively. Maybe if more persons thought of themselves as squirrels or dormice, it would help.

sed charges, I would only be playing into the hands of the repressive forces outside the university who would like nothing better than to see the students arrested for assault. But they did assualt you** Yes. I have to admit I was surprised about that. But there was one hearten i n g note. As they threw me down the stairs, one of the students yeUed, It isnt you, Profesr sor. It's the system.

That must have made you feel better.

As I was tumbling down, the thought did occur to me that at least there was nothing personal in it.

Say, Professor, isnt that the philosophy building going up in flames?

I believe it is. Now, why did thy have to go and set fire to the philosophy building?

I was going to ask you that.

I'm not quite sure, because I haven't seen any of the students since they threw me down the stairs. My guess is that it probably has to do with something the administration and the students are at odds about.

But thats a terrible thing (Contnued On Page S)

Getting

Worse

By JOHN CUNNirF NEW YORK (AP) In 192S 1 man walked into a start in Berlin and asked about the price of a certain pair of shoes. He was quoted a figure of 3V4 million marks. It was 9:30 a.m.

Inquiring again at noon the man found the merchant now asking seven million marks. Being reluctant to pay such a price he waited a half an hour, and then the price waa 14 million marks.

Nothing of the sari is likely to happen in the United States, nor again for that matter in any well-developed nation. But it does show in magnified form the disaster of inflation, which turns cash to trash.

American purchasing power also is eroding, although st one of the slowest rates in the world. Brazil, for examols, has had 30 per cent annual osion of its money for a decade cln t United States the rate li 3 per cent or less.

Inflation nevertheless has had a serious cumulative effect in the United States and its getting worse. Tlie present rise in the (mnsumer price ind is the greatest since the Korean War, A family man with two children had to earn $14,282 in 1968 to equal the purchasing power of $5,000 in 1939. Now, a year after the National Industrial Conference Board studied tht situation, it probably takes closer to $14,500.

Where did the purchasing power go? Why should more than $14,000 now buy what lest than $5,000 bought in 1939? The NICB came up with this answer: Inflation took $7,258, and higher taxes another $2,083.

These two big factors in tiit decline of purchasing power really arent in the same category, for taxes are presumed to be returned to the taxpayer in the form of services. But inflation is like evaporation.

Rising like an, overheated thermc-netcr, the index of consumer prices is now approaching 126, based on prices of 1957 to 1959 equalling 100. Economic heat of that sort means lota of evaporation.

In the three years which ended at the very start of this year the consumer price index rose 11.4 per cent, but that doesnt tell the entire story. Hospital charges per day, for example, rose 52 per cent.

In fact, the First National City Bank notes in a study ot consumer prices, In varying degrees, inflation is affecting us from the cradle to the grave. Documenting the sweeping statement, it shows that from December 1965 to the beginning of this year, obstetriciU fees rose 21 per cent, baby sitter services 22, legal fees for wills 14, and funerals 10 per cent.

House prices varied greatly from area to area in the lame three years but ownerships costs generally rose 17 per cent. Restaurant meals increosed by the same percentage, movie admissions by 27, physician fees 21, fishing rods IS per cent.

Quotes

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed. Henry Ford.

And in the end, through the long ages ef our quest for

light, it will be found that truth is still mightier than the sword.Gen. Douglas Mac-Arthur.

Strength For Today Inflotion InflQt6S GNP FigUFGS

BIG QUESTION MARKS

We wonder sometimes about the significance of the age thremgh which we are passing. Scientifically it is mth 0 u t precedent. W? know so much more than did our ancestors that we wonder how' the next generation or two of pupils and students is going to get the learning of their day into their minds and into the project of solving the problems of lift great and small.

Yet, whi wie come down to it. how much do we realty know? Gravitation is a force that conditions our every action and the action of every object on the planet, yet what do we know of gravitation? The thing we call life is mysterious. A person has it as he walks down the street, but a bump from an automobile or the missing of too many heart beats, and this th i n g called life ceases to exist

Evidently we know very little about the nature of forces which touch our liv e s every day. Our planet is a thing of infinitessimal significance. Even among the other planets wdiich make up our solar system the planet Earth does not stand out with any preeminence. Here we are taking a joy ride on the ouUide of a sphere, a million 01 which could be placed within the sun if the sun were hollow. All this wonder surrounds our insignificant plan-net. What about the other planets? What about the bil-li(ms ujx>n billions of bodies in mir galaxy?

Just as it is not necessary to have large sums of money in order to be happy, so it is no necessary for us to have large blocks of knowledge stored away in our minds in order to live a happy and significant life.

Earl L. Douglass

By ELMER ROESvSNER

The headlines said the gross national product increased $16 billion at annual rates in the first quarter of this year, bringing the annual ra> up to $94.3 billion dollars.

That seems great: m 0 re

food, more goods, -more everything for all.

But its not as great as it seems, if you read the Department of Commerces detailed explanation.

The increase was a rise of 1.7 per cent over the last 1968 quarter. But j per cent of the rise was due to inflation, Commerce reported. So the real gain in goods and services was 0.7 per cent, or $6.6 billion.

Consumer Spending Increases

The biggest portion of total economic activity is onsum-er spending, which rose $11.6 billion in file first quarter, again at annual rates T n i s was twice the reat of increase in the last quarter of

1968, Commerce calculated, and also about double the $6.2 billion rise in disposable income, after - tax incoms in the last 1968 quarter, again at annual rates.

Sounds loverly, w'ot? B u t Commerce figures also s, h ow that consumers cut personal savings by $5.6 billion at annual rates in the first quarter of this year. Consumers saved

5.8 per cent of their .disposable income, compared wjth

6.8 per cent in the previous quarter.

In short, consumers made * real gain of $6.6 billion m goods and services, but they had to cut savings $5.5 billion to pay for them.

Thus the net gain in goods and services in the first quarter was $I billion at annual rates, which figures out to almost n()thing per perswi when adjusted f(ir file population increase.

Thus, with continuing inflation, we have to run like the

White Queen just to "itay in the same place.

N. Y. Stock Exchange May Slow Mergers

The action of the New York Exchange in refusing to list new debt security issues by General Host Corp. and

wum

BOESSNEIi

NVT (!:o. in connection with recent mergers attempts may do mcri to slow down the rush to merge than all the jawbone campaigns in Washington.

The exchange merely said that it doubted that the earn-

ihp of the two conglomerates would be sufficient, in total, to cover the interest on the securities.

Regardless of the vaiclity of the exchanges judgment, its action will cause many other corporations to reconsider

their acquisition campaigni.

Many companies pUnn i n g mergers issue new securities, often debentures, to fina nee their acquisitions. This mek-fs the U. S- Treasury pay part of the costs of fise requisition, since interest

paid on securities is tgz deductible.

The SBKhmge, in effeet, has warned them that tbf y must make sure that the nings of both' the aequRbif and acquired eompames mdst be large enough to pay tjis interest charge on tiie Sfw securities, as well as on etb obligations. If not, the exchange may not list them, afcd without listing one immpatiy cannot acquire the other. i