Saturday* December 28* 1963

V

After Christmas, Th Bill Collector

More Than A Gesture Of Savings

As President Johnson pushes a Kennedy-designed legislative program in Congress, he is also finding time to place emphasis on new Johnson innovations being rapidly introduced in administrative operations of the federal government.

Sertainly the most obvious and eye-catching of these new innovations is the emphasis President Johnson is placing on economy measures in federal operations. One of his first actions was to ask heads of agencies and departments to submit recommendations on reducing their proposed spending for the current budget year. Subsequently there have been specific moves to reduce spending in a few places.

Now the new President is moving to trim federal payrolls, a move that is certain to cause re-percusions from federal employes, and in Congress.

If the President's initial moves toward greater economy in government were discounted as political talk, it is evident now that President Johnson is determined to effect more efficient federal operations. It is also evident that he is willing to take calculated political risks in formulating policies that will bring about greater operating efficiency and greater economy in government functions.

The order to close more than a score of military bases in the United States car hardly help but make the new President less popular in those communities and states most seriously affected by the move. The

Some Hope Over

?roxy Voting

By WILLIAM A. SHIRES

PROXIES The executive committee of the State Democratic Party comes to grips a^ain next month with the worrisome questicm of proxy voting.

It will be asked to try again to settle the matter to every-oneB satisfaction scmething that has proved difficult to do in the past. Now, however, there Is fresh optimism that it can be done.

It will be asked to restore the proxy vote under certain restrictions and condi 11 o n s. This is a solution worked out and proposed by a recently-named special sUidy committee headed by Burice County Democratic chairman Robert Byrd el M(^anton.

ABOLISHED Two years ago. after many complaints and a lengthy controversy, the executive committee voted to scrap Its old custom <rf uni-estricted proxy voting.

It did away entirely with voting by proxy in the all-powerful executive committee. This meant that in order to vote on a party matter before the c(Mnmittc a member had to be in the hall and answer to the roll call.

Abolishing the proxy vote came about because ckT complaints tbat unrestricted proxy voUng had the effect oi concentrating power in hands of a few. There were complaints that the practice resulted in scrambling for proxy signatures. in pressure, bickering and dissension.

There were charges oi power grabs by those who held and voted large blocs oi proxies.

QUESTION Party leaders decided too that the practice of proxy voting and squabbling In executive cmmnlttee ranks was hurting tii state party and probably putting a squeeze ( stimulation of interest in party affairs.

Abolishing the proxy, how-irver, raised new questicxts and brought on new cmnplaints.

There was question as to whether abcdishing proxy voting was fair to those (xnnmlt-tee members who Uve long distances from Raleigh and who are unable to i^nd every meeting of tiie executive ccrni-mittee.

I have had more calls on this than anything else, Byrd said. Crew invited all party oi-ficials, candidates and interested members to submit their ideas and suggestions to Byrds committee. Byrd said most oi the response to him personally concerned the proxy vote.

He said abolishing the proxy had stirred up ill-feeling and criticism from executive committee members who live in the far western and far eastern parts of the state. He reported a consensus oi ideas seemed to be in favor of some alternate system to replace unres^ tricted proxy voting.

The committee approached the recommended solution along these lines. It would allow any executive committee members to designate an alternate from his county to cast his vote. There would be no crossing of county lines.

CHANGES - This change, if ad(H7ted, would permit a members vote to be cast by an alternate provided the alternate is from the same county as the. absent member.

Bjnxl and other cwnmlttee members described the plan as a workable way to allow an absent member to vote and at the same time safeguard against voting of large blocs of proxies by a few committee members.

Another recommendations for the executive committee meeting Jan. 15 will be to enlarge the executive committee from its present 206 members by adding the respective county chairmen in each of the states 100 counties. The committee felt this would have the effect of broadening the base of the partys activities across the state and achieve a better woric-ing relationj^p with county (ftganizations.

OTHER The committee will recwnmend a new timetable for the state partys precinct meetings and county conventions leading up to the state conventicms held in May. The change would allow more time between the precinct and county meetings and the state con-ventiMi.

SOLUTION Bjrrds committee appi^ted by new state chairman W. Lunsford Crew sat down a few days before Christmas and hammered out recommended changes to the party plan oi organlzatlii Proxy voting was at the top cf the list.

It will recommend addition oi Uie president of the Democratic Womens Club in each cwmty to the county executive committee as a voting member, a more designed to stimulate more Interest among women.

It will also ask that the county executive committee vote held by a county YDC organization be shared with any other young Democratic organization In that county.

The Daily Reflectcr

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order to heads of departments and agencies of the government that they are to reduce their payrolls, and that they will have personnel ceilings whicn are not to be exceeded without the President's explicit approval," pulls tighter the strings on the political patronage bag.

I Regardless of the political implications, the moves by President Johnson to put government operations on a more busines-like basis deserve the commendation of all the taxpayers of the nation. For years there has been talk from many sources of need for such action, ,but until President Johnson began his current program, there had been little progreM in transforming the talk into action.

With Each Day The

Tragedies Set Record

There are still a few more days left in 1963, and with each one. North Carolina is setting a new and higher record for the number of highway fatalities in one 12 month period.

The figures, even before the year-end, serve as a grim reminder that North Carolina needs to take firmer action than it so far has done in its effort to reduce the highway death toll in the state. There are, of course, more vehicles on the highway of the state this year than was the case in 1962. There will be even more vehicles on the highways next year. There will be more passenger miles traveled, and unless there is mor ethan the normal emphasis placed on highway safety, there will be more people killed and injured on the highways of the state next year than even in this new record year of 1963.

Perhaps the most discouraging factor about the highway problem is the prevalent attitude that nothing really can be done about it. There seems to prevail the attitude that no matter what steps are taken the toll will continue to rise.

One thing is certain: The toll will continue to move upward rapidly unless North Carolina takes positive advanced steps to cope with the situation. There is the probability, however, that with additional emphasis on every phase of highway safety, with greater attention to the problem on the part of officials and the public, the highways of the state can be made safer next year than they have been this year. ^

At least the people of the state can put forth a concentrated effort in the next few days to make the final hours of 1963 much safer on North Carolinas highways than they have been for the first 362 days of the year.

By ART BUCHWALD

Aaain Time For

1

7hose Car Taos

By J. W. DAVIS

WASHINGTON (AP) - About the time you get Christm a s paid for, it will be time for another annual expense automobile tags.

This Is an item that has been going up generally, with more and more cities and towns getting into the act along with the states.

The top charges run as high as $72.95, In Oklahoma, and $69.35, in Minnesota.

A mass of information has been gathered about car tags by the American Automobile Association and the National Geographic Society.

For one thing, there seems to be a trend toward making the tags good for more than one year. Nineteen states now issue stickers or tabs instead of requiring an annual replacement of plates.

Also, more states each year are using reflective plates. These cost a little extra to make, how much depending (xa how many years they are supposed to last.

The average cost of manufacturing tags runs about 15 to 30 cents. Nearly all are made by prison labor. The size is now a standard 12 by 6 Inches, after many years of variety.

Various states like to use the tags to advertise their special qualities or attractions. Only infrequently is there any objection from car owners, but it was reported recently that one citizen threatened to go to court to prevent New York from advertising its world fair on his 1964 plates.

Registration of autos began In 1901. In New York State. The need was obvious to help Identify a car that was stolen or involved In an accident. At the beginning the revenue didnt amount to much $1 a car.

There has always been a special appeal In low numbers, these usually being reserved for top state officials. Peculiar combinations also arc popular A Wisconsin man named Ole Lee managed to get plates numbered 337-370 which he put on upside down, tp spell his

name. Mickey Mantle, whose baseball uniform carries the number 7, got plates with the number 77-77777. Heavyweight boxer Rocky Marclnao once had the letters KO.

By paying an extra fee Connecticut car owners have been allowed to get special combinations of four letters. Two teen-aged friends had Jaloppies that sported rock and roll. A man named Krout was happy with tags reading sour.

Opinions "n Brief

Imagine the result if the new Post Office machine got stuck on your name and ZIP number for Just an hour. The amount of Junk mail reaching our mailbox is bad enough now. But 17,000 pieces at one time. Whew! Milwaukee Journal.

Tending fire is for the patient man. It fosters deep thoughts and a contentment with the basic things in life, The Ottawa Journal.

The unanimous response of Virginias conservative hierarchy of the *gag law* proposal must shock the North Carolina thought-controllers who think they hung a parliamentary moon last summer. Greensboro Daily News.

The yearning for world peace is virtually imiversal. Yet there is a question. It is this: Should world peace

come, what would be the effect on the economy? Defense spending, now at the $55 billion a year mark, is responsible for a vast amount of industrial production and employment. A long list of communities and aresis largely live on It. Sowould peace, ironically, plunge us into a de-perssion Industrial News Review.

Strength For Today

BY EARL L. DOUGLASS

SEQUENCE IS IMPORTANT

A modem writer has expressed the following opini(m: You would consider it sacrilege of the lowest form if, hi place of the cross, you found on the altar of your church a bottle of perfume, a package of cigarettes, a bottle of whiskey, and a pair of tickets to the latest Broadway play. You would rise up in wrath and denunciation of the agnosti*: who had the gall to put them there: and yet, I say to you, that these and other trivial things have supplanted the cross on the private altars of many Christian

hearts.

I He mSfU have added many

other things to his listnot things that are necessarily evil In themselves, but things that displace better things. For let us be well as.sured that most of the world' evil con

sists not In violence, dishonesty, impurity and hatred, but rather in little things having not a great deal of moral significance one way or the other but which becwne definite factors of evil when placed before better things.

Think it over in your own life. If you feel yourself to be below par normally and we all so feel and are what is it that makes you so? You are probably conducting your busines shonesUy, you are faith-* ful to your spouse, or If unmarried living a decent life. You are not going the limit on the bottle. You are not peddling malicious gossip.

What then Is the matter with you and me? One .great thing is that we are putting first in our lives things that should be .second, fifth, eleventh or nineteenth.

Be careful about sequence. It mattere greatly.

Fhe Best Stories Of 63

Every year it has been our pleasure to present the best news stories of the year. They are not necessarily the best-known stories of the year in fact, most of them have been ignored by the press, and it is for this reason that we print them here.

The first one has to do with a man named Bobby Breaker, who lived on Capitol Hill and was a confidant of every important Senator and Congress

man in Washington. Bobby made $19,000 a year and was the key figure in the legislative branch of the government and everyone was afraid to move without his approval.

One day a group of men came to him and said. Bobby, why are yw breaking your neck for $19,000 a year? Why dont you join us In a vending machine venture and make some big money?

Bobby said he would think about it and then someone came

to him and said, Were opening a motel in Maryland and would like to cut you in cwi It because we % like you. Bobby said he would think about it.

Finally someone said. How would you like to be in the Insurance business? We could make you a rich man. Other people came to Bobby and offered him deals in Haiti and in Las Vegas and in California, and in each case Bobby said he would think about it.

At last Bobby went to his superior and said, "Sir, I have a chance of making a lot of money while Im up here In the Senate, Should I do it?

His superior said, Bobby, from what youve told me, I think people are trying.to use you.

Thats what I thought, he said.

The people he contacted were naturally disappointed, but they all said they admired him for his stand.

At first there were Just rumors, then she locked her husband out of the house, and then she appeared publicly with Mr. Curtain In many of Londons more Intimate cabarets.

There was an immediate reaction to what Miss Whaler had done and friends came to her and begged her to break off with the handsome actor.

So Bobby called everywie up and said he wasnt interested in their deals and that he could get by on his $19,900 a year.

TWnk of the scandal, they said. Youre married and hes married.

Other Editors Saying.. The Pressures Rise

But I love him. she said.

But what about the press? they cried.

I hadnt thought about that, Miss Whaler admitted. So Miss Whaler called a press conference and said it was all a mistake and she didnt realize Mr. Curtain was a mar-

(Christian Science Monitor)

There Is a tightening in the hitherto slack presidential race in the United States as the year ends. It comes immediately from a series of events. On the Democratic side the Presidents vigorous attack on his new Job has given him high initial poimlarity in the polls. On the Republican side attention focuses most directly om Ambassador Lodge, whose supporters are opening offices for a draft movement, and on Governor Scranton who is the least known of the major possibilites. Unless the governor is better known quickly, he will not have that beginning of popular support and that momentum which a modem convention seems to require.

Behind these events, however, is the pressure of the process of selection itself. The conventions are barely more than a half year away. The change of presidents has thrown the political scene into confusion. More to the point it has shifted the political center of gravity from both sides closer toward the center.

There is some reason for thinking that this shift is not altogether fair to Senator Gold-water and his supporters. The leading commentators and analysts of press, radio, and TV incline to be internationalist and liberal and had developed a considerable opposition to the Goldwater brand of more belligerently conservative and nationalist policies. They seized on the collapse of the Goldwater southern strategy

to erase him from the blackboard with almost indecent haste.

This may well, wid probably does, reflect a new situation and a consequent swing in public opinion but it will certainly not ease the frustration which the Senators zealous followers will feel. They have not been worsted in a fair fight but by unfortunate events from their point of view and by unfriendly hands twisting the wea-thervane.

ried man. She apologized for her behavior and asked the public to forgive her. The newspapers were so disappointed they never mentioned her name again. She received $500 for her next film.

President Charles de Gaulle announced at a press conference that he was unhappy with the NATO alliance and planned to make his own atom bomb. When the Americans heard this, they protested and asked him to reconsider.

Nor will the liberal wing of the Democratic Party feel much consolation, though it has a good chance of naming a vice presidential candidate.

In any event, the new pull toward the political center is a fact and it becomes imperative to know more about Governor ScrantOTi. Where all the other possible candidates have handicaps of (Hie political sort or another, Mrs. Scrantons only visible handicap is not being known one that Is correctable.

In the interest of the best race and the most effectice choice of candidates on 'gth sides, he owes it to his contemporaries and to the situation in which the country finds itself to step forward, however authentic his personal reluctance could be. A few more weeks of delay and the field available to his party may be narrowed unnecessarily and beyond the point of repair. Mr. Lodge Is, after all, fairly well known and his supporters are in motion and his name is well launched.

He said he would. The next day he announced that the Americans were right and it would be a mistake for France to

have its own deterrent. So he gave orders to disband the program. I want to go down in history. he told Roscoe Drummond. as a reasonable man.

Acceot

Elizabeth Whaler, who received $1 million for playing Queen Victoria in a remake of The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, fell in love with her leading man, Richard Curtain.

A group of Southern Senators announced they would filibuster any attempts to get a civil rights bill through the 88th Congress. Delegates from the National AssoclaticHi for the Advancement of Colored People visited them and pointed out that their stand was detrimental to the best Interests of the country. The Southern Senators listened politely and then their spokesman said, The I'lAACP has presented strong argument in favor of civil rights and we have changed our minds on the question. Its lucky we spoke to them first, before we made fools of ourselves. We certainly owe it to the country to support this bill."

By JOHN CHAMBERLAIN

Copyright, 1963, King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Johnny, at the age of llve-and-three-quartere years, is Santa daus in his kindergarten pageant. He wears a cos-- tume, complete with beard. He and his cylaasmates delight in a stnmg performance.

At a subsequent skating club pageant lor the kids, an adutt in Santa Claus costume swings out over the ice with a sack-' ful of presents, ccxitributed by the children themselves to be thrown into a potluck grab-bM:. The adult Santa passes for the real thing, a Jolly old gentleman who has Just blown in with his reindeer from ths> North Pole. The kindergarten kids who have been parl^ ta the deceptiHi of Johnnys costume at school do not quesUcHi the authenticity oi the grown-, up Santa on skates.

Its just like children, yott say, to keep the two Santas separated, in two different parts of the mind. A child oi 5 can shuttle without question between a state of belief and non - belief. We adults, of course, are far more wise. Ws would compare the two Santa Claus beards, and decide on the basis of the evidence that neither Jolly old gentleman Is real.

On secOTid thought, however. are we adults any more discerning tiian the 5-year-olds? Dont we constantly shuttle between states of belief and non - belief, too, in cases that ought to be Just as transpai> ent as the fake beards on Santa Causes?

Take Mayor Willie Brandt of West Berlin, for example. He has had more experience with Communist duplicity than most people in the western world. Yet he conducted negotiations with the East Germans to let West Berliners make Christmas visits to their relatives <hi the other side of the Berlin Wall with an assurance, or at least a hope, that the East German Communist government would refrain frran exploiting any signed agreement politically. The Communl s t s promptly double - crossed Willi Brandt, claiming that the agreement implied a West Berlin recognition of the legitimacy of the East German government.

WUli Brandt, In other words, forgot for the moment to compare the beards of the^ two Santa Clauses. He, above all men, should have known that both beards were fake.

We westerners In general are very much Uke W1111 Brandt or like the 5-year-old kindergarten kids. At every sign of a thaw In the Cold War we rush to the conclusion . that Khrushchev Is hence - forward going to be amenable to reason. A state of reason in politics, of course. Implies a willingness to make real compromises. But when did Khrushchev ever make a compromise of any importance?

Needing help from tiie West in the shape of foodstuffs, has he made any offer to trade out the Berlin Wall? His pal Tito allows Yugoslav citizens to take Jobs in West Germany, but are Hungarians, Poles and Czechs permitted to Join the Yugoslavs In seeking gainful employment on the free world side of the Iron Curtain? Dictator Kadar, in Hungary, speaks of a "relaxation <rf controls in his particular Soviet satellite. But does his promised amnesty ever cover a significant case? How about those innocent Hungarian children who were Jailed for taking their parent side In the revolution that was suppressed so brutally seven years ago?

We westerners like to think that Khrushchevs differences with Mao Tse-tung will lead the Russian Soviets to take' a much gentler line when it comes to supporting revolutionary Communists in places like Cuba, Venezuela, and Brazil. But the Russians stUl pour in the supplies needed to help' Castro in his belUgerant activities. For example, Russian-built trawlers still run gims from Cuba to trigger - hppy Venezuelan Communists.

No, indeed, we adult westerners no longer believe In Santa daus, no matter where he turns up. We know afl the beards are fake. But the mytii we do accept are fully as transparent as a man decked (Continued on Pago 6)

Automation Prospects Ignorec.

By ELMER ROESSNER

There is an old saying in bridge circles that thousands of men are walking the streets of London tonight because they failed to draw trumps. And there are thousands of men walking the streets of New York tonight because they failed to estimate the possibilities of automation.

Many years ago union leaders began the organization of elevator operators and related workers in New York City. It was easy. Most of the workers were underpaid members of minority groups. They were eager to sign with an organization that offered both .statu.s and higher pay.

The initial clashes with management were rough. The union men stood firm. People with homes and offices on top floors insisted that building owners settle and workers won substantial wage Increases.

TURNING POINT But the building service unions, like so many others, did

not reckon with automatlcm.

The automatic elevator is here. Its expensive, especially when it replaces a manually operated lift. But when elevator operators wages reach a certain dollars-per-hour mark, the cost of changing over Is cheaper than paying operators.

Thousands of office and apartment buildings have changed from manual to automatic elevators. Practically all new buildings are being constructed with automatic elevators.

Not everyone is happy about the change. Many people, cornered in automatic elevators, have been robbed; some women have been assaulted. People have been trapped by breakdowns. But even these Incidents have not slowed the shift to automatic elevation In New York. Automation plus liability insurance is usually cheaper than operators wages AN EXAMPLE

This is a dramatic example of how hUtia vago* bdo auto

mation, There are only a few physical jobs in the United States that cannot be automated. And each of these Jobs will surely be automated when wages reach the point at which automation will be cheaper than men.

And so, more than 30,000 men are walking the streets of New York tonight, not because they forgot to draw trumps, but because they insisted on wages so high that automation was cheaper.

answer to the problem.

U.S. TRAVELERS ABROAD ADDED TO GOLD DRAIN More than eight million Ai, erican travelers spent nearly $2.5 billi(H3 in foreign countrtef last year, according to a Mo-" Graw-Hill study. Whll* this was partly offset by forelgii .travelers spending to the UR., there was a net outflow $1.4 billion, which could drain Americas gold holdings by that much.

TAX CUT AI>ONE NO PANACEA, SAYS STEELS WORTHINGTON

Steep and progressive income and corporatl(Hi taxes are restricting economic and business growth and creating unemployment, Leslie . Worthington, pre-sldent of . S. Steel, declared, adding:

It requires no great command of mathematics, however, to see ju.st as clearly that tax reduction without appropriate reduction in government expenditures will provide no

YES. BUT WHOS ON FIRST?

The Intematicxial Xtewnat Service summarizes Reveoue Ruling 63-260:

Section 355 of the Code cannot be made to apply to a transaction In which an Immediately preceding contribution to capital by the dlstrt-. butor corporations shareholder is made solely to attempt to qunllfy the transaction as a non taxable distribution under that sectint*

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