Wednesday, March 4, 1964

Nothing Gained By More Red Ink

Thia week pay checks will be a little fatter,' not because most peple are making more money, but because the government is taking less out of what each person is making.

What effect this will have on the business of the nation, the experts have pretty well figured out on paper. But what effect it is going to have on the individual-family, and the indvidual business in the community, most families and business are waiting to see. Whether the tax reduction does what is expected to the national economy is going to depend to a great extent on whether the individual familv .uses the extra few bucks a week it will have in the way the experts think it will.

It is a matter of concern, however, that even before the first paychecks reflecting the tax reduction are handed out, some members of Congress are saying that the government should go slow on re-d.ucing federal expenditures until it is assured that the tax cut is going to help the economy.

Whether the tax reduction causes the nations economy to spurt like many have said it would is a question that will not be answered for months yet .... maybe a year or more. But there can be no

Xey Question: !Elnough Money?

By WILLIAM A. SHIRES

KERRrMILLS A key quesUon now remaining about puttliv the Kerr>MUl8 medical assistance to the aged (MAA) program Into effect hi North Carolina la whether $6.5 million Is enough money.

Doubt about whether this particular part of the federal aid program, never attempted In the state, would be Implemented at all appeals to have been removed.

But the extent of the p r o-gram and whether It will be workable remains a buml n g question.

Officials are predicting that the State Board of Public Welfare will act at its next meeting to initiate the additional program and set up a new category of needy recipients 65 years and older not on welfare rolls.

PRODDING - This will be a reversal of an earlier board decision not to set up the new category and. Instead, to use the additional money voted by the legislature to expand medical and dental care benefits under existing welfare p r o-grams.

The reversal comes about under prodding. The earl 1 fe r decision resulted In sting 1 n g criticism, charges of stalling, charges that it was motivated by "political reasons, and a charge that board was ignoring the intent of the legislature.

Atty. Gen. T. Wade Bruton, In an advisory opinion requested by Welfare Commissioner R. Eugene Brown, said the board had no choice but to put the plan into effect.

BrowTi says plans for implementing the program are being prepared. A medical services director to head the program. Russell Chambers, has been hired and Brown believes It can be put into effect by July 1.

MONEY Now the question Is Whether the MAA program will work with the funds available.

The chairman of the State Board of Public Welfare. Howard E. Manning, says its a mistake to assume that all of the estimated $6.5 million is available for the new program.

And, says Manning, what is available wont be a drop in the bucket. He predicts that Implementing the proposed far-reaching program with insufficient funds will result in untold difficulties and disappointment.

State Sen. John R. Jordan Jr. of Raleigh, who was the principal sponsor of legislation for Implementing the program, says he believes the available funds will "certainly be adequate for at least one year. Jordan adds that cost estimat

es for the program were furnished by state welfare officials. Brown and otlMr welfare officials say they dont know where the cost estimates originated.

ALLOT Brown and Manning have indicated they will do the best they can with whats available.

But, says Manning. all of the money will not go Into the new program. The legislature provided that the Board of Public Welfare should decide how to allocate the appr(X>ria-ticms to take maximum advantage of federal matching funds. It gave the board wide discretion In deciding how much to put into existing welfare programs and, until Brutons opinion, appeared to give the board authority to use it all in expanding ejdstlng programs.

Welfare officials say the matter of allocating funds wisely is a task requlr 1 n g piuch careful study. They do not want to be hasty. <

INADEQUATE For one thing, these officials point out, the matching' fund ratio under the MAA program is 75 per cent federal and 12H per cent each from state and local governments. Use of the funds for existing welfare programs brings federal matching at the rate of 80 per cent.

There is no Indication as yet how much the State Board of Public Welfare will decide to use In the new program. But Manning makes It clear he doesnt think there will be enough to meet the need.

Mannings position Is being supported by Kerr-MlUs critics who say this program is proving Inadequate and are pressuring for Its replacement by a federal medicare program the King-Anderson bill financed by increased soc 1 a 1 security taxes.

On the other hand, medicare opponents believe Kerr-Mllls Is workable and that, given a chance, can be proved successful In helping meet the needs of the medically Indigent 65 and older without medicare.

LIMITED Manning contends that the General Assembly of 1963 "gave the board a job to do without enough money to do It.

He says the new category of recipients, restricted to those persons 65 and older, would cover approximately 185,000 people In North Carolina If the eligibility standard Is $1.200 or less a year the standard set by most states which have Imolemented the program.

Paying all the medical and dental costs provided for under the program for this many people "just cant be done with the funds alloted, Manning says. "I hope they dont get their hopes up.

question that the soundness of the nation's economy will be improved by the reduction of the tax burden on individuals and businesses. The nations economy will be put on an even sounder basis if at the same time every effort is made to see that the federal government operates in the most efficient and economical manner possible.

There is nothing to be gained if the reduction in the tax rate merely .piles up a new startling amount of red ink on federal books at the end of the fiscal year. By delaying efforts to reduce federal expenditures at the same time revenues are coming down, the benefits that may be realized by the tax reduction are jeopardized rather than enhanced.

Now that Congress has had the courage to enact the largest income tax reduction measure in history it should not shrink from the task of doing what must be done to scale down federal expenditures.

Jury Should Never Be A Rubber Stamp Group

Normally it is the responsibility of a jury, not the judge, to determine the guilt or innocence of one accused of a violation of the law. If the judge disagrees with the decision of the jury, he not only has the right, but also perhaps the responsibility to say 80.

But this right and responsibility to express his disagreement with a jurys decision does not include license for the judge to level charges that the jury has not acted in good faith unless he stands ready to substantiate his charges.

In Edgecombe County Judge Joseph W. Parker toqnge lashed a jury for returning a verdict of not guilty in the case of a man charged with manslaughter in a traffic accident. He scorned the jurors for not finding the defendent guilty as charged in the case, 'You are just as guilty'of that crime because you condoned it. . . you are more guilty than he is, Judge Parker told the jury.

If the jury heard the evidence is good faith and rendered its decision accordingly, it has discharged its responsibility to the court, to the state and to its citizens.

No jury, thank God, Is required under our system of justice to pronounce a person guilty just because the judge says so. The jury's obligation to render a fair verdict based on the evidence applies equally to the judge, the prosecution and the defense.

If the jury is to be a mere rubber stamp to do the bidding of the presiding judge, it has ceased to serve the cause of justice in our judicial system.

Camnaians Can

V.'e'.s i!;i Lcjit.g Ftlsrtds And Allies

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WHERE THE ARE.'

Strong

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We know the government 1 cutting taxes, but lets dont get carried away.

Utilities Director Leonard Bloxam reports that the sewage disposal plant crew started up the filter one day last week. What should come up on the drum hut a dollar bill.

One of the operators fished the bill out, washed it off and promptly spent it.

Either the banks are making so much money that they are flushing it down trie drain, or else somebody Is tipping up for the good service, Bloxam declared.

At aijy rate the boys at the plant are eagerly aw^alti n g

further contributions.

Picture, If you will, several hundred police officers gathering as they did for the Pitt Peace Officers Association meeting here last week.

As- the meeting breaks up someone exclaimed, "The judges hat has been stolen. Cant you just see several hundred hands fingering pistol handles and several hund red eyes looking over everybody else suspiciously?

At any rate Judge Elbert Peeles hat wasnt stolen, as it turned out. It had just been moved by somebody.

Heres more on that trend to women pipe smokers.

John Biggs reports that two ladies came In the other day and wanted to purchase pipe tobacco. They had pipes specially designed for ladies, complete with a jewel in the end.

They bought the tobacco but, even at Johns urging, they wouldnt light up in the store.

3e Quiet, Too

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By JAMES MARLOW

WASHINGTON (AP) This 1964 campaign year will have the usual chatter but may wind up ho-hum, lacking the tension and drama of r e c e n t presidential contests.

In three of the past four elections the issues and problems which gave the voters passionate concern seem muted so far this year.

For Instance; war. Communist aggressions, McC a r t h y-ism, worry about internal security, the question of taking a new direction into a new era, and more heat about and by the candidates than has been shown yet in 1964.

Since President Johnson has the Inside track for the Democrats nomination, theres no excitement about their convention next summer. This could change if he puUs some boners. but theres nothing like that in sight.

Although the Repuhillcan nomination Is wide open, the two men working for it hardest apparently havent built major fires: New Yorks Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and Arizonas Sen. Barry Gold water.

The two who may have the best chance for the prize dont even admit theyre candidates. although they do a lot of talking: former Vice P r e s i-dent Richard M. Nixon and Pennsylvanias Gov. William W. Scranton.

If Nixon is the man, the little element of mystery which gives a campaign zest before it starts wont apply. He laid do^^'n his campaign man n e r s and methods in 1960.

Scranton, for a man being mentioned, shows a strange indifference. Last month he said a candidate for president to be effective must be "real stirred about the Issues. He says he is not stirred up enough now.

It wasnt like this in what former President Harry S. Tinmen might now consider the good old days of 1948 vrhen to practically everyones s u r-prise. but not hLs, he beat New' York's Gov. Thomas E. Dewey.

In that year the countrys jitters about the Communists-ln-govemment issue was only

part of the national anxiety. Eai-lier Truman had blocked the Communist pressure on Greece and Turkey.

But in 1948 tension climbed like a thermometer In a boiler room; the Communists had grabbed Czechoslovakia just before the campaign began and during the campaign Truman was trying to smash the aggressive Soviet blockade of of Berlin with an airlift.

Even that was otily part of the voters concern. They had to ask themselves: Was this to be the end of an era that began 16 years before with Roosevelt? Was It time for a change? The voters decided no.

Their mood was far different in 1952 when Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower beat Adlai E. Stevenson, governor of Illinois. By then the country was tom apart over McCarthyism, communism in this country, and the war against communism In Korea.

Stevenson gave the campaign dignity and intellectual agility far above most campaigns in history. He held interest. But by then the voters really wanted a change and chose the less articulate Eis-enhow'er.

When Stevenson ran against Eisenhower in 1959 he never had a chance. By then, under Eisenhower, the country had reciaptured its sanity and stability, Both McCarthyism and the Korean war were over.

The duel between Nixon and Sen. John F. Kennedy gave the 1960 campaign spice, particularly the television debates. Interest was high, so high the voters were almost equally divided between them, as Kennedys hairline win showed.

But nothing like any of those campaigns Is in sight for 1964. at least not yet.

Other Editors Saying-. Couldn't Happen At UNO

Wherever the big computers are installed, the signs Invariably follow.

Thus, Henry Howard, college new's bureau director, tells us there Is a sign on the math departments new IBM data processing system.

It reads; "Im fairly intelligent myself, but I have a lot of stupid help.

(The Raleigh Times)

Unless the matter was carefully concealed, not a single building collapsed at Duke University over the weekend, and not a single Duke student or professor defected to the Communists. Yet, a Communist spoke on the Duke campus over the weekend.

What is more, this Communist was actually from the Russian embassy in Washing ton. And he spoke on the Sov let concept of peaceful co-existence.

On the sam program with him was Secretary of C o m-merce Luther H. Hodges and other people who can safely be classified as completely patriotic and hundred percent American. Their presence with him on this Duke prog ram should pretty well indicate their feeling as to whether it is all right to have a Communist speak on a university campus.

This same Communist, or any other Communist, couldnt speak on the Carolina campus 12 miles from Duke. We have on our statute books a law which prohibits that. Yet, any Carolina student or profess o r who wanted to do so could have gone the 12 miles to Duke,

The theory of this law seems to be that no public property should be used as a forum by Communists. In actual working, law is simply trying to deny university communists the privilege of hearing, presumably (HI the theory that they cannot be trusted to understand what they hear. The theory, whether intended or not. Is that Duke students are perfectly able to detect and reject Communist propaganda.

but that Carolina students arent capable of doing so.

In actual practice, this futile attempt to throttle Communism could well backfire. For, this is saying to the young people of North Carolina that there Is something so mysterious about Communi.sm that young North Carolinians simply cant be trusted to hear about. That Is like pouring kerosene on a lighted fire, for nothing makes any subj e c t dear to the hearts of young people as an attempt to keep it from them.

The result could well be that our law Is making something attractive out of Communism. Yet, there is nothing at all attractive about Communism, and there is so much about it that it evil and cheap and dangerous. Any North Carolina college student ccHild see that for himself by just a moderately attentive hearing of a Conmiunist talk.

So, this speech - gag law is simply a thing of fear of things which arent there. And It is terrible to try to bring up our young people in a world in which fear is a deciding factor.

Young people shouldnt be taught to live by fear. They should be taught to live by honest Inquiry, by honest seeking after the truth, by honestly living by the things they find to be true In such unrestricted seeking.

A man who lives by fear and under fear can never know how It is to live by faith and by hope and by belief in the American system. And a man who does live by fp-ith and by hope and by true bllef in the American system need never know fear.

Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Suggs daughter, Sally, age 7, was having a birthday party and she wanted to Invite a little friend who we will call Jane Doe.

She didnt know where to call her friend so. with the help of her parents, she picked out a likely Doe family in the phone book and called.

A little girl answered.

Will you come to my birthday party? Sally asked.

The little girl on the other end replied that she would be happy to. She was supplied with the address and the time and she duly showed up. complete with birthday gift.

The only problem was she wasnt the right Jane Doe.

"Do you still want me to stay? she asked. Everyone assured her that they did and a good time was had by all.

What happened to the original Jane Doe? She simply was lost in the shuffle.

ODinions

n Brief

"The state has long suffer ed from lack of East-West transportation. Development of state ports at Morehead City and Wilmington affects the economy of the entire state, and there are expanding business and industrial re-latlon.ships between Tar Heel ports, the Piedmont and the manufacturing and grain centers of the Midwest.Greensboro Daily News.

What is practicable must often control what Is pure Theory, and the habits of the governed determine In a great degree what is practicable. Thomas Jefferson.

By ALVIN TAYLOR

Notes Gn A Liqhter Side

lest in

Offino

By JOHN CHAMBERLAIN

Copyrigitt, 1964, King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Before this years political campaigning is thrcRigh, the uses of a loyal oi8;>ositi(Hi aro bound to be tested as never before in our history. And it is at least a reasonable specula-ti(Hi that the Republicans, by prodding President Lyndon Johnson to action on fore 1 g n policy, will lose the election in the course of saving the country and their own souls.

* Barry Goldwater had a presentiment of the probable future when he warned New Hampshire voters the other day that Lyndon oJtmson might try a "grandstand play In for-en affairs. Undoubtedly Oold-water was thinking back to the fate of his old colleague. Senator Capehart of Indiana, in 1962. Capehart had g(Hie all out on the question of (Hir failure to assert the American position on the Soviet arming ot Castros Cuba. For weeks the Administration derided Capehart for playing at military generalship. But shortly before the elefction, John F. Kennedy dramatically outgeneraled capehart and left him limping to the polls on "me-too crutches.

No politician, of course, can ever feel happy with a merely moral victory. But for Americans as Americans, the prospect could be far, from calamitous. Already, Washington, one gets hints that Republican criticism of the Administration is paying off by compelling Johnson to take careful thought abput foreign poUcy. And this thought, while It could be expressed in action at a "grandstand moment, must, given Johnsons character, combine "can-do realism with the opportunism that Barry G o 1 d-water and the rest of the Republicans both deride and dread.

Those who know Johnson have all along assured us that the man is incapable of a Munich. I have never taken him for an appeaser myself. But, like any profoundly politic a 1 personage, Johnson Is perfectly capable of letting an issue "go over until an election problem is solved. Without being an appeaser, Johnson obviously hoped before the Guantanamo and Panama crises to stall off consideration of foreign problems until a peace and prosperity campaign had carrietl him triumphantly into office on his own.

Events have robbed the Pre.v ident of his trust that the Communists would leave him alone until after next November. And the Republicans have naturally leaped to the attack. It was only human nature for Johnson to grumble about "bellyach-ers. for no one likes to be deprived of the chance for a royal progression to victory. But the Presidents reaction to the Guantanamo "te.stlng was just vigorous enough to take the sting out of some of Goldwa-ters and Nixons speeches.

And on the subject of Vietnam, enough Democrats followed the lead of Senator Tom Dodd of Connecticut to make it apparent that Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield was not speaking for the party when he mentioned the possibility of "neutralization in South east Asia.

For a while it looked as if the Johnson Admlnlstrat 1 o n might be willing to think about carrying the war against the Communist threat In South-east A.sla into North Vietnam Itself. This was the "toughest suggestion since Richard Nixon. then Vice President, advocated U.S. Intervention to help the French hold North Vietnam at Dienblenphu some ten years ago. It would Involve attacking an enemys "privileged sanctuary, a conception which has been left out of our gentlemanly theory of fighting non-gentlemen ever since Harry Truman, in the one big blot on an admirable career, removed General MacArthur from his command in Korea.

That Lyndon Johnson may b coming around to a "republican way of thinking may be a cause for ironical laughter among sophisticates. But thf (Continued On Page 5)

Quote

"It is nonsense to conclude that If money is spent, the automatic result will be more educated people. This ignores the facts of human nature and the varying distribution of gifts. San Mateo (Calif.) Times.

Will It Reduce Unemployment?

Strength For Today

By EARL L. DOVGI..ASS LADDER TO HEAVEN

The Patriarch Jacob is one of the most important persons in the Bible. He staited out somew'hat of a rascal. He deceived his brother Esau and persuaded him to sell his..birth-right for a meas of pottage.

At last he had to flee his brothers wrath, but during one night of his flight he had a dream. He saw a ladder extending ,from earth to heaven with angels ascending and descending evidently carrying mens petitions to God and bringing back Gods answers to men. It was that dream which above every other factor in his life changed Jacob from a mean, selfish, supplanting person to the great patri-^ch for whom the whole race oT^sfel was named. Far Gog[

gave Jacob a new name, namely Israel, and throughout the centuries the Jewish people have been proud to bear that name.

The story we find in t h e Bible (Genesis 28:10-18 > is evidently meant to teach us three things. The first is that God is in the world. The second is that He has a kindly feeling for sinners as mean as Jacob or any of us living in this twentieth centur>'. The third is that there is definite communication between earth and heaven, heaven and earth. Angels go up and angels come down.

Believe this and you will find it to be true. You will have the ladder-experienc in your life, as Jacob had it in his life, and you will say as he did. "Surely God is in this

Dlace.

By ELMER ROESSNER

The big question about the income tax cut is; Will it reduce unemployment?

There has been no urgent need to increase sales or income. Those factors have been improving nicely. Some of the improvement has been in anticipation of the increased consumer spending power promised by the tax cut, but even without that promise, genersd business prospects have been good.

The one mushy spot in the economy has been unemployment.

The coalition that been urging an income tax cut and what a strange group of bedfellows that was! has been advancing the argument that the real reason for the cut was the necessity of doing something about unemployment.

HEDGING PLANTED

But, as the bill neared passage, there was considerable hedging. Some advocates of the cut began to say that aid to unemplojmient would be a secondary effect and. that while the cut would helo swell nma-

perity, the reductlcHi in unemployment was uncertain.

As a matter of fact, the tax cut wUl reduce unemployment. There have already been starts. AT&T, for example, said It would use its tax savings to finance its largest construction program ever. The general increase in capital spend 1 n g, shown by several surv e y s, is a reflection of the Ion g-range planning by corporations who were sure that the tax cut wouW go through and go through without any cut In the lovely depletion allowances to oil and mining corporations.

How many new Jobs this capital spending will create is still a matter of conjecture. Perhaps the new jobs will be not much more than the number of men entering the labor force. But there will be some improvement, even if not enough. NOT NECESSARY

But outside of the need to create more jobs, the tax cut was not needed. The economy was roUtng along, except for unemployment, at a higher level than it ever has.

Heres the evidence:

Corporations cash dividends In January were $1.1 billion, up 8 per cent over January. 19(53.

Housing starts in January were 10,500, compared with 83.300 in January, 1963.

Orders for durable goods rose 8 per cent in January over December.

Personal Income In January was $2.7 billion (at seasonally adjusted annual rates) more than in December.

Auto production has been running around 10 per cent above a year ago.

Demand for steel rose in January and the trend continued into February.

The gross national product In the last quarter of 1963 roe $11.5 billion, the largest increase for the year. The GNP for the full year was $30 billion more than in 1962,

In short, the United States was tooling along at the highest speed In history when the . proponents of the tax cut declared that what,was needed was the high test gas of a tax cut.

Who are the proponents? They are the corporations who would like to keep a little more

money for their stockholders, the little people who find the tax burden oppressive, the investors who would like little sweeter dividends, the m e r-chants who would like to see shoppers buy a little more, the credit granters who hope the lure of a tax cut will persuade more people to go into debt, the individuals who feel that they are at the peak of their careers and would like to make as much as they can and, last but not least, those who want to see the Democrats returned to office in November.

The opponents? There are a few beside me: the pensioners and annuitants who see their resources threatened by Infla-ticHi, and the squares who think people should pay their debts.

There Is another vast number who are opposed but who arenl saying anything because they are infants or because they are not yet bom. Those are the ones who will someday inherit the debt and the deficit that will swell it.

We have given the unborn a way to escape this debt: pass it on to generations still to be bom.