Thursday, February 28, 1963

Paradox In Tax-Cutting Program

TTie Roliing Stone

Federal income tax reductions effective this is taking more money out of paychecks for its own year or early in 1964 will remain a matter of con- use, rather than less. By the end of the year, with-jecture until Congress makes up its mind on pro- out action by Congress on the matter of income tax posals before it. - ' ^ reductions, Uncle Sam wdll have siphoned off an

Higher federal tax on paychecks of most e^ra $2 billion from employees and employers in Americans has been a fact since the beginning of the form of higher social security taxes.

January when the social security tax rate went up.

So while Congress, the administration, economic leaders and average citizens discuss what should be done about income taxes, practically every working person is seeing more of his paycheck this year drained off by federal taxes than was the case last year. In all, the social security rate increase will drain off some ^2 billion more from payrolls this year than it did in 1962.

Most attention in Washington, superficially at least, is being given the questi(^s of income tax reductions with tax reforms and income tax reduc-J^tions without tax reforms. At the crass roots level, however, there appears considerably more concern

Minnesota Illustrates Value Of That One Vote

What difference wUl my one vote make?

There were probably thousands of Minnesotans who rationalized that way last November and neglected to go to the polls on election day. As it has turned out, their votes could have made considerable difference in the gubernatorial election in Their state.

Latest figures show an unofficial 12 votes, out

over the question of tax reductions with spending . . ^aies snuvv an unuixicmi vuues, uu.

reductions or tax reductions without compensating' f mdlion c^t m November separate the two cutbacks in federal soendinir leading candidates in the disputed results. It may

u 1 1. , be another month before the three district court

There seems to be alinost umversay a^eement questionable ballots.

on only one point: federal income taxes should be \vf,atever the official outcome between tlje two

reduced. When It comes to the method of achiecing candidates, however, it is evident that only a

this goal the differences of opinion are shap and ^ ji^tiuguish between the winner

varied. The question then is not whether income , ,

taxes should be reduced, but whether members of

Congress can agree on how to effect a reduction and keep the nation and the government on sound economic ground.

The paradox of the situation is that while Congress tries to find an answer to the question, the government is doing exactlv the opposite of wha:

Whether it is in a community election where a few hundred votes are cast, or in a state election where there are more than a million votes, the ballot of each eligible voter is of utmost importance. Those who fail to exercise their privilege to participate in elections likewise fail to discharge their

all agree should be done. The federal government responsibility as citizens to join in the election of

public officials.

Why A Pinch In

! digh way F unds?

By WILLIAM A. SHIRES

ing.

RALEIGH Legislative notebook:

Legislators looking askance at a proposed $200 million highway bond issue are asking first of all why the highway fund is in such a pinch.

Highway officials believe they could get by with increased state appropriations of approximately $25 milliHi a year on a sustaining basis thats $50 million for the biennium.

They agree, however, that vthey could program and spend twice this amount In the next four years and have a good part of a projected 15-year long range highway plan out of the way.

This cannot be done without

Now. with the federal highway allotment formula fixed and reverting to its fixed ratio, the funds from this source are expected to level off.

DIVERSIONS - The Advisory Budget Commission was as sympathetic as possible in facing the expected shortage of state highway money.

It didnt go quite as far as the Highway Commission wanted in the matter of ending diversions of highw'ay revenue^ but what it did recommend was a significant $12 mill on step.

It has asked the legislature to:

1 eliminate the diversion of gasoline and oil inspection fees to the General Fund, retaining

No citizen who stays away from the polls on election day can be sure how important his vote might have been until the votes are counted. Then py UATKICIA MOORE

it is too late for him to participate in the election. *-

What happened in Minnesota last November F is a classic example of ho wimportant a few votes can be even when more than one and a half million voters go to the polls. It should impress upon citizens of every state, every community, the importance of participating in elections.

Crazylike A Fox

Franauilizers In Order

Frustration Anc.

FossiDie

ever

_ By JAMES .MARLOW WASHINGTON <AP - If birdwatchers will now fix their attention on that wise old cwl, Premier Khrushchev, they may see him try to feather his nest.

The Russians could probably embarrass Secretary of State

Or Khrushchev may wish to keep his troops in Cuba un-"=

til he compels the United States as the price for their re--moVal not to peimit an invasion of Cuba, direct or otherwise.

money in the highway fund-Rusk.> who said Tuesday

and under the present highway revenue outlook the program will experience a $25 million-a-year delay.

FUNDS This, according to highway commission officials, is true despite an anticipated seven per cent Increase in highway fund revenues in the coming biennium.

There are several reasons why.

One Is that there is no highway fund surplus to begin with, and none to be used as a cushion for programming h i g h-way projects on a federal-state matching basis.

Secondly and even more important is an expected decrease In federal highway money that will be available to North Carolina.

HIGHWAYS Highway fund financing depends largely upon federal aid and matching funds.

The federal aid money is a lai'ge part of the total available. and the states highway fund budget has to be geared to take maximum advantage of federal matching funds.

Indications are that there will be considerably less federal highway money available to the state during the 1963-65 biennium either as aid or matelh Ing funds.

In the past biennium weve been getting some excess federal money under a stepped-up federal highway program. le highway official explained. This mwiey w^as pumped directly into the states highway budget-

for support of the state highway department and department of motor vehicles.

2 End highway fund diversions, to the prisons department for prison labor wnlch is tioi actually used. In the past and at present, the highway fund pays a fixed amount to prisons for prison labor whether this number of convicts is used or not. In effect it amounts to a subsidy from the highway fund to support the prisons system. This practice was held necessary when the prisons department was divorced from the highway system a few years ago. Now, however. it Is felt it can be partially ended because th -^'ntr's prison population is declining and prisons costs are going down.

FURTHER - The $12 million available by cutting off diversions and the seven per cent anticipated Increase in state highway revenues is so m e help.

All of the $12 million from former diversions and a proportionate share of the increased revenue will go toward the states secondary highway needs. Officials believe this will enable a 29 per cent increase in secondary road construction the percentage about what the construction total would be with-(Hit the additional money, and not above the present program.

It is being argued, however, that'this still is not enough by that elusive $25 million a year.

The Daily Reflector

INCORPORATED

Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday Established 1882 DAVID JULIAN WHICHARD, Publisher

Entered at Post Office, OreenvlUe, N. C.. as second class mail matter.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Carrier (In Towns) ^ Week

By Carrier (Motor Routes) Week

30c

35<

BY MAIL, Payable In Advance

Greenville Post Office, Pitt County. Robersonville, Vanceboro, Washington and Chocowinlty.

Three Months ........................ I 3.76

7.00

13.00

Six Months ...........................

One Year .............................

North Carolina (other than listed above)

Three Months ........ ......

Six Months ..............1 ..........

One Year ........ rv . .......

-- Plus 3% N. C. Sales Tax All Other Outside North Carolina

Three Months .......... I 4J9

Six Months ................... 8.00

One Year ...... 15M

$ 4J00 7JB0 14M

MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to use for publication all news dispatches credited to It or not otherwise credited to this paper and also the local news published herein. All rights o publication of special dispatches here ar^ also reserved. F

Member Atidlt Bureau of Circulation.

All advertising copy must be i%celved at least one day before publication date.

r

a So.iet presence in Cuba cannot be accepted. If they asked him a simple question: What arc you going to do about it?

At this time in the frustrated i^merica.T government it is unlike! anyone has a firm or even clear idea how to force the Soviet troops^ out of Cuba or persuade Khrushchev to teike them out.

He has promised to withdraw some of the 17.000 men President Kenr.edv says are on the island. But it's doubtful Khi $ .shchev will pull them all oiu. They serve several purposes, one now and maybe others later.

Now So long a.s theyre on the island they discourage an anti-Castro invasion either by Cuban refugees, backed by the United States, or directly by American forces. An attack on Cuba would be an attack on them. It could mean war.

Later The longer their presence frustrates Americans, the more Khrushchev may hope to make a deal: to remove them if ihe - United States , will do thie . same with some of its forces which are frustrating the Russians somewhere else.

Berlin is an example, although that would he a big price for the United States to pay after all its promises to defend the city.

For five years Khrushchev has been demanding the Allies remove their forces from Berlin which is 100 miles inside Communist East Gei-many and is one of the biggest Soviet bafflements in the cold war.

If Khrushchev pulled his troops out of Cuba because of a deal on Berlin or somewhere else It would mean leaving Fidel Castro fairly defenseless against invasion.

But it might be worth it to the Russians, particularly in the case of Berlin, since the East German Communists are far more important to Russia than the far-off Communists of Castro, a comparative handful.

Since Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara has said the Soviet troops in Cuba are not a direct menance now to this country, and Castro certainly isnt, no invasion could be ju-stified in world opinion.

This is "particularly so since Khrushchev can argue:

It has occurred to us that we might write to President Kennedy about the physical fitness of East Carolina College male students, what with all this talk about 50-mile hiking.

Our particular letter would go something like this:

Dear President Kennedy, We are writing to inform you that the physical stamina of the boys at East Carolina College is such that they dont need 50-mile hikes to prove their physical fitness.

- 1Any boys who can lift a car, turn it around, with two medium sized women inside, dont need any hiking to make them stronger at least not in our estimation.

However, if tranquilizer pills are readily available, we know two women who could use them.

^ That would be about the text

of the letter.

There seems to be something about the snow that transform some people from their nice, everyday selves into other forms of humanity. It sort of makes some people act wild.

The ice and snow were a beautiful spectacle on Tuesday night, but something of a hazard to drive in. In order to keep from driving down a steep Incline at the college, following a night class, we had turned our car around and were proceeding one block down to reach the level streets. However, It seems we got on snowball row.

Those maintaining "snowball row saw fit to bodily lift the car. with us In it, and turn it around.

It was a great event. For

them.

After dragging several stu

dents for a block, we turned and reached the hill. We had no brakes and we slid. Fortunately, the car turned and we missed the embankment and the trees. Of course, we couldnt see too much of this, as the boys had carefully packed snow on the windshield.

They had hammered on the car with their fists and tried to open the doors, which were locked.

Finally. 25 minutes and a few more skids later^ w-e arrived (three blocks by the short way).

Somehow the Incident dulled our own excitement about the snow.

1, His troops in Cuba are not invaders. Theyre there by .invitation of Castro, who, whether anyone likes it or not, is the boss of Cuba.

2 The United States can hardly feel outraged by Soviet troops in Cuba when it has military forces around the edges of Russia and Khi-ushchev has never attempted any invasion to get rid of them.

When bafflement short - circuits the ego it can start a fire. The American ego, since the United States Is the giant 6f the Western Hemisphere, is gigantic.

But this ego has been short-circuited by American bafflement over how to get both Castra-.and... the Soviets put of Cuba. As a re.sult, some Americans are now on fire and calling for action.

No action is in sight. The next move wiU probably come from Khrushchev. He may already have made some proposition to Kennedy.

Other Editors Saying... On Job Security

We wondered had we gone down the embankment ~ if $he group would have helped us or continued their pastime of rolling girls in the snow.

If theres a moral Involved, we got it.

Ooinions

Quote

Some peoples finances are in such a mess youd think they were getting advice from the government. Changing Times.

Too many innocent and uu-involved bystanders are being crushed in the conflicts be-tweed management and unions. ^ The Columbus (Ga.) Enqdirer.

yoMr ART FUND fights

y> Heart Attack ^Heart Defects ^ Stroke ^ High Blood Pressure

The Tulsa (Okla.) Tribune

The railway clerks union has threatened to strike the Southern Pacific railroad on the grounds that new automation techniques have destroyed too many of their jobs. The other brotherhoods are, naturally, backing the clerks and the company is resisting and so we may have another gigantic walkout.

In the broad view, if industry is to overcome the steady increase in hourly labor wages it is going to have to either generate more business or become more efficient. Where the added business isnt in sight automation is the only out. But the broad view^ isnt enough. The man who has spent his living at a trade is a human being. He has a housee. kids, mortgagees and responsibilities. When a machine takes over his job he is faced not by a theory but by the chilling fact of joblessness. He would be less than human if he didnt fight back.

- Here, it seems to us, is where both labor and management are going to have to use a lot of common sense. Any attempt by labor to forbid an employer from introducing the efficiencies necessary to the survival of his business is going to be self-defeating. Financially feeble businesses dont expand and dead businesses dont pay any wages. On the other hand, too many employers have overlooked the human problem of the man who has learned to dread the new process or the better machine.

Therefore, the principle of employment security is a valid (Hie. This, of course, cannot mean freezing into a sinecure the lazy

or unreliable employe. But it should mean that the loyal employe should have special consideration where his job is automated even if, temporarily, he becomes an unnecessary cost to his company. There is, in the first place, attrition. People die and retire and move away. In major industries this attrition. People die and retire and move away. In major industries this attrition rate runs around ten per cent a year. It should not take too long for a labor force to be reduced to a reasonable number consistent with automated innovations.

Of course, if a man has done a manual job that is eliminated he cannot be a valuable employe as l(Mig as he is only capable of that manual job. You have to retrain him, and to do that he has to be retrainable. This is a sticky Point, for un-retrainabiUty is a fighting word, yet it takes more brain - power to ' handle an electronic console than .to merely put blanks in a stamping machine. As a general rule, however, employes can be upgraded with proper instruction. And this instruction is a moral responsibility of management.

A lot of labor turmoil would vanish overnight if the fear of technological unemployment disappeared. The individual worker is not opposed to new methods if his employment isn't threatened. And Industry may find that it is not cmly more human, but in the long run cheaper, to remove this fear, even If it means a temporary period of paying wages where wages might be eliminated. Time will cure the problem.

in

As the years pass it is increasingly difficuit for the typical citizen who calls himself a Communist to make a choice against the welfare of his own country when the party line requires It.Christian Science Monitor.

The day when the Negro

is bearing his full sliare of his government will come when the Negro is permitted to hold the best Job he is capable of holding. That day will mean as much lo white citizens as it will to Negro citizens. For the day when all citizens are paying their full shares of their government will mean smaller shares for all to pay. The Raleigh Times.

Weightlessness may provide a kick, but we like our

cookie crumbs on our plate, not in our hair; our coffee spilled in fits saucer, not on our ears; and these old whiskers gurgling down the drain rather than getting in our eyes. Oak Ridge (Tenn.) Oak Ridger.

Stout arguments are being put up by the theorists who want government to keep spending itself into prosperity. How can they answer the argument that whats good for the government must of course be good for the individual? Galesburg (111,) Register- Mail.

By JOHN CHAMBERLAIN Copyright, 1963, King FeaturPS Syndicate, Inc.

Whether there will be,a, new labor crisis in steel this coming Spring is a question. But as the leaders of the United Steri-workers union mull over their chances for wringing new coii-cessUms from the steel com-panlee, 4heymusL be reflecting on a (lueer Irony: Roger Blough. who was a scorned and derided figure last year when ha was forced to back down on the matter of a price rise, now looms up as a farsighted man. He has made It tough for the steel union to make out a plausible case for any hefty increases In wages or benefits for 1963.

Even Mr. Blotigehs conservative friends were guilty of kicking him a year ago after President Kennedy had told him off. They talked pityingly about his blunder in pubUc relations, his poor sense of timing. Roger Blah of . S.'Putty -was the phrase that William Buckley's conaervative National Review pinned on him for alleged pusillanimity in failing to stand up in the face (rf Kennedys withering blast.

tt seemed to cross nobodys mind during the furore and hullabaloo that maybe Mr. Bbugh. in esUdJllshing, the point that the steel industry needed profits in order to keep its plant up to snuff, was putting his company an(l his tndustrj' in a good bargaining position for fu-true crises in labor relations. My own impression of Roger Blough. gained from past Journalistic encounters with him. is that he is a cutic, a phony hick In the description which Arthur Krock once applied to a writer who pretended to a wide-eyed innocence in order to lure people Into boastful confession. Not so long ago I went to see Mr. Blough on an assignment: I was supposed to find out what the United States Steel Corporation was doing to combat the workings of Parkin.sons Law of bureaucratic empire building as it applied to ambitious department heads in the steel business. I got no good answers to my questions for the very good reasons that Mr. Blough had no intention of admitting that there was any departmental featherbedding in U, S. Steel to counteract. Mr. Blough was a shrewd man, all right: before the Interview was over he was trying to interest me in a story about the Inedul* tics of Minnesota State isjt law as it applied to the mining of Iron ore on the Mesabi Range.

Since Mr. Blough knows his own industry, he c(xild not have been really sanguine last April that a price rise could have been made to stick for very long. No business that is operating a good deal short of capacity will refuse to shade its prices In order to attract customers.

When machinery is standing idle, the statedor administeredprice is one thing, and the actual price at the moment of dealing is another. Mr. Blough is Just as much awars this rule of competition as any man alive.

So the scheduled steel prices w(Hild probably have been broken even if President Kennedy had- kept a civU tongue in Ws bead. Nevertheless, the gesture on the part of . S. Steel, Bethlehem and other companies was worth the making. In the first place. It succeeded in calling wide attenti(Hi to the fact that industry must find some valid method of flnanclngt he modernization of decrepit manufacturing facilities. Once he had turned thumbs down on higher steel prices, President Kennedy could hardly refuse to listen to the corporations' plea for a more lenient depreciation policy, and some ultimate relief from the 52 percent tax on corporate profits.

Beyond this, Mr. Blough accomplished antrther thing: he put the United Steelworkers union in a bad position to ask for a big wage Increase thb year or next. Should the Kennedy Administration seem about to sanction a general ~wage Increase in steel for 1963 or 1964, It would certainly be assailed with loud cries of favoritism. Wen Kennedy refused to countenance a rise in steel prices, he based his decision (Hi a general stand against inflation. He can hardly shift his ground this year without risking the charge

(Continued on page seven)

^ Decision Dampens Special Sales

By ELMER ROESSNER

Strength For 'I'oaay

By EARL L. DOUGLASS

KEEP ON BELIEVING

Why have many people today ceased to believe in miracles?

One reason, of course, Is the fact that scientific investigation, research, and analysis have come in to explain many mysteries and to achieve many beneficent purposes. Some people especially have ceased to think miracles possible in the realm of physical health because of the great strides made In recent generations* by medical science.

Then there are some who believe that the blbUcal miracles were simply signs and that when the necessity of these signs ceased, miracles ceased also. These hold that the miracles of Jesus were meant to establish in mens minds a sense of his divine origin and nature. Now that Jesus has ascended into heaven such miracles are no longer needed, nor do they oc

cur.

All such rea.soning would appear lo be incorrect when we examine our own experience and inquire into the experience of others. Scientific advancement, especially the achievements of medical science, constitute unprecedented blessings, but there are some areas In life which the I technique of science cannot touch. There are recoveries from disease and injury which one can attribute to nothing else but the Inter-position of a Power above anything man knows.

If mii acles are not occurring today we can be pretty sure they never did occur. On the other hand, if the biblical miracles occurred as the Bible says they did, there is no reas(m in the world to believe that they came abruptly and definitely to a close.

Believe in miracles. They still continue to exist.

Anniversary sales and other special store - wide events may have been dampened by the Supreme Courts decision week in the Giant Food chain case. Even Christmas catalogs may be effected.

The court declined to review a Federal Trade Commission ruling that Giant chain violated the Robinson-Patman act in accepting trade allowances from suppliers for an anniversary sale.

knowing whether suppliers did or did not proportlonallze payt ments in conformity with the law.

The FTC ruled that this was an unfair practice, since the suppliers did not give proportionate allowances to other customers. Giant, in reply, said that it had no way of knowing whether suppliers gave other customers the same allowances.

COURT UPHOLDS GOVERNMENT . However, a U. S. Court of Appeals held that Giant had knowingly induced and received payments that other customers did not. This Giant denied, saying it has ab|plutely po way of

When the case went to the Supreme Court. Giant said it simply could not know whether it was getting a more far vorable treatment than other cusUnners. The court evidently thought otherwise; It simply refused to hear the appeal, which settles things in a negative sort of way.

Meanwhile, wholesalers and distributors wUl keep the implications of the decision in mind. When a food chain or a department atore puta the grip on them for some advertising money to wboop up the ninth or ninetieth anniversary of a good retailer, the wholesalers and distributors can say, Wed like to throw a thousand in your promotional pool, but you know what the Supreme Court said. If we throw c(^ In the fountain, you may he cited. Thata the way the pickle squirts.

sists from suppliers, many merchants may be unable to celebrate their own birthdays.

Suppliers may not look too unkindly on the courts decision. Many have been painfully squeezed by retailers demands for promotional allowances. And when they say theyre sorry when they turn down a department stores request for a big cash participation in Its 49th anniversary sale, they may really be glad.

The decision may also tend to speed the end of giving any advertising allowances to local retailers.

swap trade secrets with a competitor.

Perhaps thats what the FTC Is driving for.

10 MORE STATES CONSIDERING UNIFORM CREDIT LAWS

While the proposed Federal law contioling consumer instalment credit seems to have little chance, 10 state legislatures are c(Hisldering the uniform consumer credit law this year, Commerce Clearing House reports. Eighteen states have already ad(g>ted the law. It simpUfles interstate credit sales.

Su-

re-

WHENCE FUNDS?

Therefore without financial as-

As many Interpret the preme Court decision, the . taller as well as the distrlbu tor now becomes responsible for knowing whether competitors got a comparable break.

It may be deduced that if Ma-cys is granted a 10 per cent advertising allowance ior a new brand of toothpaste. It must call Gimbels to make sure that competitor is getting the same break.

Both stores, I guess, would ra-thr drop the toothpa^ than to

NEW CIGARETTE BRANDS MAY BOOM PLASTICS Modem Packaging magazine points out that Philip Morriss testing of two new brands of cigarettes, the Saratoga and the Paxton, in plastic packs may have booming effects on the plastics industry. The pa^, it says, cost leas than standard paper packmgtng. If all dgaratte makera awttch to plastic, it will create a new maitet tor 890 minion pounds of polystjrrene a year.

f

_A-